Huddie William Ledbetter (January 20, 1888 – December 6, 1949) was an iconic American folk and blues musician renowned for his powerful vocals, exceptional guitar skills, and the folk standards he popularized.
Huddie Ledbetter, best known as Lead Belly, spelled his name "Lead Belly" himself, despite many releases listing it as "Leadbelly". This spelling is also used on his tombstone and by the Lead Belly Foundation.
Lead Belly, a performing musician before the 1920s commercial boom for the blues, showcased his talent beyond the genre. Like many early blues players, he was equally known as a "Songster", a versatile musician capable of becoming a one-man show. While an effective multi-instrumentalist, his exceptional 12-string guitar playing was complemented by his powerful voice and ability to convey the essence of his songs, many of which were passed down orally.
Lead Belly’s unique combination of attributes made him a perfect fit for the early US folk scene. However, it was his connection to the pre-recording roots of folk tradition that truly solidified his place in history. He was an eight-year elder to Blind Lemon Jefferson, which placed him in the company of legendary musicians like Mississippi John Hurt, Son House, and Lightnin’ Hopkins. What set Lead Belly apart was that he wasn’t rediscovered after a brief period with record labels.
'Leadbelly' was released in 1970, on the Columbia Records label.
This album compiles Lead Belly's first commercial recordings, done in 1935, after he had sung himself out of a jail sentence for the second time in his life, or so the story goes… The term: "The stuff of legends" has never been more appropriate. Blues songs dominate completely, on these recordings, and there is a strong influence from Blind Lemon Jefferson, certainly not a bad thing in itself. The recordings were issued by the American Record Corporation the same year, but they didn’t sell well, as by this point Lead Belly’s style of blues was somewhat out of vogue.
If you asked Lead Belly, who wrote these songs, he would have told you, they were passed down to him. And yet, the folklore collecting brothers Alan and John Lomax whom never wrote a song in their entire lives, manage to get themselves listed as songwriters on many of the tracks [What…the…actual…fuck? - Ed].
This collection of songs may not have all of his well-known songs. If you know him from songs like "Pick a Bale of Cotton", "Where Did You Sleep Last Night," "Midnight Special," "Cotton Fields," "Boll Weevil," and "Goodnight, Irene," you may be disappointed to find out they're not here. And yet, as an album, it strikes me as his definitive work.
I remember when I was in the fourth grade [and Broadway was a prairie - Ed] at PS 8 in Brooklyn Heights. The song book we sang from had "Pick a Bale of Cotton" in it, which along with songs that were subtitled "Negro Spirituals" were my favorites, and little did I know at the time, would influence my future taste in music.
The freeload is a 24bit/48kHz vinyl rip of the original (Terre Haute pressing) 1970 release.
Also included in the freeload is
American Epic: The Best Of Lead Belly, was released in 2017 on the Third Man Records label. This has unprecedented sound quality, thanks to Nicholas Bergh's reverse engineering techniques. If you freeloaded my post: 'American Epic: The Best Of Mississippi John Hurt' from this past September, you know what I'm talking about.
The freeload is a 24bit/88.2kHz vinyl rip.
For both freeloads, tell what were some of your favorite songs that you sang in school as a "little kid"?
I loved Baby Elephant Walk (Don't remember a lot of singing on that one, but we walked around with elephant trunks). I suggested that to the music teacher in 4th grade but was told that song was for babies. No more Baby Elephant Walk. I also remember learning the Pledge of Allegiance in preschool and thinking how they were just sounds. What does Pledge of Allegiance mean to a 4-year old?
ReplyDeleteMy husband used to do the Elephant Walk, with his pockets turned inside out, and zipper down. I'll leave the rest to your imagination…
DeleteRemember some kids reciting the pledge, said "Invisible" instead of "Indivisible"?
DeleteSure - the word they knew versus an extra syllable? Of course they said invisible - because the meaning of the Pledge was never taught - only the sounds - not even words.
DeleteGood afternoon! We always used to sing the german version of Chris Andrew's "Pretty Belinda" with slightly altered lyrics, or Frank Farian's "Rocky" (1976). Of course, we also sang along to glam rock hits, which were very popular at the time, in our atrocious English. When I think back to that time (I was 12 or 13), it brings a smile to my face; it was a great time... Have a nice afternoon! Best regards, Mike
ReplyDeleteWhen I was little "Mairzy Doats" was big in my li'l world. When I was 7 or 8 (3rd grade) picked up "Allons à Lafayette" from one of the janitors who used to sing it all the time; given the hostility to all things Cajun at the time (kids who spoke Cajun french were sent to the principal's office for a whipping) , my parents were amused.
ReplyDelete"poor old elijah, he never got a kiss,"
ReplyDelete"Running bear, loved little white girl,"
and, as i got a little older
"There she was, just a walkin down the street"
I remember a snippet of a song that we "learned" as a class, and then I had the option of listening to on the record player with headphones (which might be the first time I ever used them!); I got "into it" and started to sing the refrain out loud, to the great amusement of classmates who weren't on headphones!
ReplyDeleteOn reflection, I think the teacher was quite kind about my singing out -- it might well have been that 2/3 of the class were getting some additional reading instruction, while the 1/3 of us who didn't need it were given fun options. I was disruptive, but not maliciously so.
I found the song online:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8geU4_CpfI
My favorite songs as a kid were the ones we sang as a family, while on car trips to visit family and friends. Here's one, "The Golden Vanity" sung by Pete Seeger:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8geU4_CpfI
D in California
"Samba Lelê" is a very cool song!
DeleteI used to sing the classic French children's songs "Une souris verte" (A green mouse) and "Sur le Pont d'Avignon" (On the bridge of Avignon) with my mother. On family trips, we always sang "That's Amore"
I was pretty thrilled as a twelve-year-old to get to Avignon and see that there was a partial bridge across the Rhone River!
DeleteD in California
In school "This Old Man" & "Frere Jacques". We sang Beatles songs during walks. My mom used to sing "Twisted" to me as a lullaby when I was young. Thanks Babs
ReplyDeleteI love "Twisted" as a lullaby...our elderchild, who we just moved near to on the East Coast of the USA, apparently has long regaled friends here with tales of her ridiculously expansive bedtime routine--stories, books, songs, questions--including me playing/singing as lullabies Steven Fromholz's "Bears" (appropriate) , "Friend of the Devil" (semi-appropriate), and for reasons that elude all of us "Folsom Prison Blues," wherein I changed it to "shot him in the thigh" because somehow that made it better/more appropriate? Mind you, we also did the like of "Blue Shadows," "Baby Mine," and "You Are My Sunshine" (not uncomplicated in its own right). Wish I'd thought of "Twisted," which she came to love as a youngel (her mother's a Lambert, Hendricks & Ross fan)
DeleteGrowing up in the poor part of town in SoCal in the 60s, amidst Black neighbors (we are White), all we learned were southern black nursery rhymes, the names of which I couldn't tell you, but can still at least partially sing. When my kids were tykes, I had the job of putting them down for the night, so I'd sing the ABCs a lot; but that got boring after a while, so I started singing them backwards, in French, and behind the note so the first line wouldn't end with G, but some letter(s) after G. My now-16-year-olds still can do most of the French ones.
ReplyDeleteC in California
The only part I remember was ...and Bingo was his name-o, B-I-N-G-O...sung to the tune of Old MacDonald had a farm, I think.
ReplyDeleteLink
ReplyDeletehttps://workupload.com/file/5PNzPLkk4wx
thnx much!
DeleteEnjoy!
DeleteThe Mississippi John Hurt you requseted
https://workupload.com/file/5t7Rre8ekVz
At primary school at the end of the week we'd sing "Golden Slumbers". Probably in the version Ruth McCartney had that Paul wrote different music to. It was quite sophisticated, had rests that broke up the rhythm "I will Sing a Lulla by".
ReplyDeleteI was grounded for singing Ob-la-di Ob-la-da when I was about 8 as my parents thought I was swearing. As it goes I was into the Beatles from a very young age and 'She Loves You' was a particular favourite. I have vague memories of them singing it on Sunday Night At The Palladium. There were also a host of comedy songs around in the late fifties and early sixties and Charlie Drake's 'My Boomerang Won't Come Back' is one I recall.
ReplyDeleteAs for school, mine was a Church school so we were trapsed off to Church every Friday morning and I know I enjoyed singing a fair few of the hymns but not being religious I couldn't tell you which they were now without hearing them. I also have vague memories of BBC Schools Radio show once a week where for an hour we sang along to pre recorded folk songs and traditional standards but I again I can't remember much about although I think it was where I first heard the Skye Boat song'.
I always enjoyed singing "Sarasponda"
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/TloR8PmkjJU
"This Land is Your Land." It retrospect, it seems odd that a Mississippi town (at the time best known for the lynching of Vernon Dahmer and as the birthplace of child actor Eddie Hodges) would have songs by the socialist Woody Guthrie in the elementary school songbooks, but it did. Hattiesburg later styled itself as the "birthplace of rock'n'roll" based on a 1936 recording cut there by the Mississippi Jook Band ("Roosevelt Graves and Brother").
ReplyDelete