Interpretation of Leadbelly’s Lyrics

 

Leadbelly was known as a talented “songster” who was able to sing various kinds of songs.

 

He did not only compose and arranged the blues but also traditional folk songs, field songs, ballads, ox and mule driver’s songs, and even children’s game songs.

 

Whether he wrote by himself or simply remembered these songs for himself is unknown, but it is clear that he was the first parson to bring them to the public. 

As is evident in his biography, his 12-string guitar playing and songwriting abilities helped him to be treated well: he was released from prisons and could find jobs through his musical abilities.

 

Most of songs in his repertoire undoubtedly reflected his life.

 

The following song named Pick a Bale of Cotton is one of the traditional songs that he learned in prison. In the song, he amusingly depicts the harsh working conditions of sharecroppers: 

 

Jump down, turn around to pick a bale of cotton
Jump down, turn around to pick a bale a day.
Jump down, turn around to pick a bale of cotton
Jump down, turn around to pick a bale a day.

Oh Lordy, pick a bale of cotton, Oh Lordy, pick a bale a day.
Oh Lordy, pick a bale of cotton, Oh Lordy, pick a bale a day.
Me and my gal can pick a bale of cotton,
Me and my gal can pick a bale a day.
(chorus)
Me and my wife can pick a bale of cotton,
Me and my wife can pick a bale a day.
(chorus)
Me and my friend can pick a bale of cotton,
Me and my friend can pick a bale a day.
(chorus)
Me and my papa can pick a bale of cotton,
Me and my papa can pick a bale a day.²⁸

 

 

According to an interview, he was picking cotton when he was around Dallas.

 

In fact, it is physically impossible for one person to pick a bale of cotton a day, so the song contains a lot of exaggeration and that makes this song more comical.

 

In this way, Leadbelly preferred to present African-Americans’ grief in his songs.

 

He also said on the interview that all African-Americans like blues because they were born with it. 

They don’t know what exactly is it, but when they lay down at night, and they cannot sleep. Leadbelly explained on the interview that’s because the blues got them.

 

In the following song named Good Morning Blues, the blues are personified. 

The song reveals that Leadbelly also had obsessive thoughts like other African-Americans: 

 

Well, good morning blues, blues how do you do

Well, good morning blues, blues how do you do

I’m doing all right well, good morning how are you

 

I couldn’t sleep last night, you know the blues walking ‘round my bed,

Oh, the blues walking ‘round my bed

I went to eat my breakfast, the blues was in my bread

(snip)

 

“Never has a white man had the blues, ‘cause nothin’ to worry about,” he said on another interview.

 

In this way, he presented anxious and obsessive thoughts that black people have.

 

One of the depressing things for African-Americans is when he feels betrayed by his loved one.

 

Like many blues man, Leadbelly also arranged songs about the life of loneliness.

 

As mentioned in Chapter Ⅱ, the blues developed out of the work song. 

Later, the work song transformed into the field holler. It was usually sung by one or two sharecroppers.

 

Thus, the idea of “isolation” is one of the important components of the country blues that was usually played by one or two musicians.

 

Leadbelly recorded a traditional American folk song named In the Pines several times in the 1940’s. 

The song tells listeners that the singer was forsaken by his lover (a black girl), and he is now living a lonely life. At peak moments of grief, he identifies his own life with a man who died in a devastating accident:

 

Black girl, black girl, don’t lie to me

Tell me where did you sleep last night?

In the pines, in the pines, where the sun never shine

I shivered the whole night through

 

Black girl, black girl, where will you go

I’m going where the cold wind blows

In the pines, in the pines, where the sun never shine

I will shiver the whole night through.

 

Her husband, was a hard working man

Just about a mile from here

His head was found in a driving wheel

But his body never was found

 

Black girl, black girl, don’t lie to me

Tell me where did you sleep last night?

In the pines, in the pines, where the sun never shine

I shivered the whole night through.

(snip)

 

In the worst case, isolation and sadness may lead to suicidal fantasies.

 

Leadbelly’s most famous song named Irene, commonly known as Goodnight, Irene, is about the singer’s troubled past love relationship with a woman named Irene.

 

In the last part of the song, he fantasizes about jumping into the river and drowning.

 

The song is an old folk song which could be originally performed Tin Pan Alley recital or a minstrel show.

 

He learned it from his uncle when he was a child and started performing it as early as 1909. 

 

He recorded the song first in 1934 for the Library of Congress:  

 

Irene, goodnight Irene, goodnight

Goodnight, Irene goodnight, Irene

I’ll get you in my dream

 

(spoken)

"This here song,was made about a man an' a women

Was walkin' along one Sunday evenin'.

Jus' befo' this girl an' man got to de house,

She said, 'You ask my mother for me, when you get home.'

The man tol' her, 'All right' . . .

An' he went back to de girl an' she say,

'What did mamma tell you?'

He looked at Irene – her name is Irene – an’ here what he said”

 

I ask your mother for you 

She told me you was too young

I wish to de Lawd I never seen your face

I’m sorry you ever was born

(snip)

 

Sometimes I live in the country

Sometimes I live in town

Sometimes I have a great notion

To jump in the river and drown

(snip)

 

He recorded the song several times, and it later became his theme song.

 

After his version was issued, the song was sung by many noted musicians such as Frank Sinatra, Jerry Lee Lewis, Jonny Cash, Nat King Cole, Little Richard and others.

 

Eventually, Leadbelly’s Library of Congress recording in 1936 received a Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 2002. His influence had not only been tremendous on the blues but also on folk and rock music.

 

Many iconic figures in the 1950s to 1960s American folk music revival got much inspiration from him.

 

Pete Seeger, who was a member of a folk group The Weavers, popularized Leadbelly’s 12-string guitar playing on the group’s cover version of Goodnight, Irene.

 

Woody Guthrie, a folk musician who also recorded for the Library of Congress, and Leadbelly were good friends.

 

By performing together in bars in New York City, they influenced each other.