Leadbelly, Where did you sleep last night?

That man is a legend. That video is a good sample of 'why'. Enjoyed that one Steve.....some great photos too.

Edit: Here's Nirvana unpluged, Giving due respect to Leadbelly in the intro, All members claiming he's their favorite performer and playing the same song as above. Pretty cool.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcXYz0gtJeM

Also mentioned is the story of how Cobain wants to buy Leadbellys Guitar for $500.000.

Plus.......Guild content!:love-struck:

Thanks Steve!

BTW, this video:

[video=youtube;qJNvuvaIQe8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&list=PL8787F4C6EC9 7EB9F&v=qJNvuvaIQe8[/video]


Got me hooked, definitely, in Huddie Ledbetter's music. Pick a Bale of Cotton, wow...

All the best,
B.

The video tag is the little film icon, boys! We don't need no stinkin' links!

Ok, I'll give the link a try. Steve's Chilli Dancer made me do it! It works!

Being a child of the '90s, I discovered Leadbelly because of Nirvana's admiration for him. Being a big Nirvana fan even to this day, I searched out Leadbelly after the Unplugged album. I'm really glad I did as my knowledge of music history has expanded since then. As a side note, the Nirvana Unplugged session consisted of mostly covers from lesser known bands…much to the chagrin of MTV.

Guild content: That Guild bass does not belong to Nirvana. I believe they were going to use an Ovation until the Guild, owned by either the venue or MTV, was brought to them. They pissed some higher ups off by joking that they were going to throw it and destroy it during the show like they regularly did. It survived and can also be seen on the Eric Clapton Unplugged Sessions.

Ridgemont said:

Guild content: That Guild bass does not belong to Nirvana. I believe they were going to use an Ovation until the Guild, owned by either the venue or MTV, was brought to them. They pissed some higher ups off by joking that they were going to throw it and destroy it during the show like they regularly did. It survived and can also be seen on the Eric Clapton Unplugged Sessions.

Click to expand...

Great additional info there Ridge. I had no idea about that stuff. Wonder who has that Bass now.

Pete Seeger's "12-String Guitar as Played by Leadbelly" is long out of print, but shows up on eBay and is worth studying. There's an accompanying record (later CD) which can also be found. "In the Pines" (originally "Black Girl") and "Down in New Orleans" are my favorite Leadbelly numbers. I can play the same notes he did, however, and not sound very good. Others make the effort with similar results. Usually if I want Leadbelly, I listen to the original.

A UK group, The Four Pennies, had a modicum of success with the song, recording it as "Black Girl" and taking it to Number 20 in the UK pop charts in 1964. Here's a clip of them lip synching it in the British musical revue film "Pop Gear":

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xdemd2_the-four-pennies-black-girl-top-gea_music

Very Cool GuildDawg.
Nice Guild content there too! :rugby: Is that an early D-40 he's playing?

Okay, so we should post as many covers as possible…especially if there is Guild content. Probably one of the simplest versions out there, here is Dave Van Ronk singing an almost a cappella version (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZG_p61cRArs). If you listen closely, you can hear the rich meaty strums of his F50R.

Hell, southernGuild, I didn't even notice to begin with. Probably because the video quality online is so poor. Now that you mention it, though, it looks like they might all be playing Guilds. They also play a second musical number "Juliet" earlier in the same film.

I'm not as good at sorting them on sight as some other members of our little group -- maybe we need to make some flash cards like we used to have in the Army for aircraft and armored vehicle identification.

Here's a UK print ad from 1964 (same year the film was released) identifying The Four Pennies as one of a list of artists who use Guild guitars:
http://www.vintageguitarandbass.com/adDetails/297