Leadbelly was released from prison twice – once after being convicted of murdering another man in an argument over a woman and once after being convicted of assaulting a white man – because he was able to gain favor with influential people for his singing and playing, which he was occasionally allowed to do behind prison walls. Leadbelly’s style displays the similarities between rural white and rural African American music in the American South in the early days of recorded music, before the commercial recording industry further differentiated markets for white music and black music – that is, before black music was cordoned off discretely under the labels of jazz, blues, and gospel.
You listen to this song, and the blues as a genre do not come to mind. This song was a traditional favorite of both white and black audiences, and if the kids know it today, they probably know it from the Nirvana version. One of the lasting appeals of the "old weird America" is found in this song, with its somewhat elliptical explorations of ambiguously framed psycho-sexual tensions verging on violence. That is, this song taps into an undercurrent of the American psyche. Freud might have had something to say about this song if he'd had the chance and the inclination.
You listen to this song, and the blues as a genre do not come to mind. This song was a traditional favorite of both white and black audiences, and if the kids know it today, they probably know it from the Nirvana version. One of the lasting appeals of the "old weird America" is found in this song, with its somewhat elliptical explorations of ambiguously framed psycho-sexual tensions verging on violence. That is, this song taps into an undercurrent of the American psyche. Freud might have had something to say about this song if he'd had the chance and the inclination.
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