Lead Belly usually played a twelve-string guitar, but he also played the piano, mandolin, harmonica, violin, and windjammer (accordion). In some of his recordings, he sang while clapping his hands or stomping his foot.
Lead Belly’s songs covered a wide range of genres, including gospel music, blues, and folk music, as well as a number of topics, including women, liquor, prison life, racism, cowboys, work, sailors, cattle herding, and dancing. He also wrote songs about people in the news, such as Franklin D. Roosevelt, Adolf Hitler, Jean Harlow, Jack Johnson, the Scottsboro Boys and Howard Hughes. Lead Belly was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 and the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame in 2008.
Leadbelly is legend.
Now I’m wondering if Pearl Jam’s Yellow Ledbetter had anything to do with the man’s work. It’s the only other place I’ve heard the name.
Hard to tell from black and white, but he seems darker than what American blacks refer to as “yellow”. Am I reading too much into this?
Where Did You Sleep Last Night by Nirvana on MTV Unplugged was a Lead Belly song
If you listen to the album (not sure if it’s in the track itself or between the next song) Kurt talks about someone from the Leadbelly estate trying to sell him his guitar for ~$500k I think it was.
Also, protocol 2, pilot.
Oh wow today I learned.
