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Watch Lead Belly The Man Who Invented Rock Roll on Dailymotion (2021).
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00:17:15When he was in prison in Texas in the 1920s, he did a song for Governor Pat Neff.
00:17:37He was an opportunist.
00:17:40When will a prisoner get the ear of the governor?
00:17:45Because he couldn't just say, I want to tell you my story, and somebody would listen to it.
00:17:50So he used the moment through a song, and it worked.
00:17:58Pat Neff was a man who said, I'll never give a man a pardon while I'm governor.
00:18:02And in fact, the last thing that he did on the last day of his governorship was Pat Neff signed
00:18:07a pardon for Leadbelly.
00:18:09Leadbelly literally sang his way out of two penitentiaries.
00:18:13I suppose nobody else in all history ever did that for.
00:18:17And he was very proud of this achievement.
00:18:19And he felt about himself that there were literally no limits to him.
00:18:24Leadbelly was really a survivor.
00:18:25He survived by picking cotton because he had to.
00:18:28That was the thing he knew.
00:18:28He didn't have that much formal education.
00:18:30But he always kept the music there, and that was the thing that kept his soul clean.
00:18:35When they would go down there on Phantom Street or whatever they had, they would have some money in their
00:18:42pockets.
00:18:42Because I've seen them with the money in their pocket.
00:18:44And they would do whatever they had to do.
00:18:47I don't know how much to give the women or if they gave them anything.
00:18:51I don't know.
00:18:55So that went on for a long time until it just got out of hand where the chef couldn't do
00:19:00nothing with them.
00:19:01Just every time he'd come to Sweetport, he would get into some kind of trouble.
00:19:06The best we could piece together, Leadbelly was in town.
00:19:09He perhaps had something to drink.
00:19:12Apparently cut a white man on the arm with a knife.
00:19:14And wham, he ends up in Angola.
00:19:16My father and I met Leadbelly in the Angola Penitentiary in 1933.
00:19:21We came there looking for the roots of American black song, and we certainly found them with Leadbelly.
00:19:28I'll never forget.
00:19:29He approached us at a dead run with his big green 12-string guitar in his hand.
00:19:34They actually reenacted this scene for the March of Time.
00:19:37The March of Time!
00:19:38Leadbelly didn't ever want to see that piece of movie again.
00:19:42But it had him in prison stripes and saying,
00:19:45Yasser, Mr. Lomax.
00:19:46To Louisiana State Penitentiary goes John A. Lomax,
00:19:49Library of Congress curator, collector of American folk songs.
00:19:58Just once more, Leadbelly.
00:20:17That's fine, Leadbelly.
00:20:19That's fine, Leadbelly.
00:20:20You're a fine songster.
00:20:21I've never heard so many good Negro songs.
00:20:24Thank you, sir, boss.
00:20:26I sure hope you'll send Governor O'Carlin a record of that song I made up about him,
00:20:30because I believe he'll turn me loose.
00:20:32Leadbelly, I don't know this Governor.
00:20:34You mustn't expect too much of me.
00:20:36Well, Governor Patton Hill from Texas, he turned me loose when he heard the song that I made up about
00:20:40him.
00:20:40So you're in the Texas Penitentiary too, Leadbelly?
00:20:43Yeah, I saw it 35 years of murder, but it wasn't my fault.
00:20:47A man is trying to cut my head off.
00:20:49That's a mighty bad lead, Leadbelly.
00:20:51I believe Governor O'Carlin, if you just sent him a record of that song, I believe he'll turn me
00:20:56loose.
00:20:57Leadbelly?
00:20:58I'll try it.
00:20:59Thank you, sir, boss.
00:21:00Thank you, sir.
00:21:01Thank you.
00:21:02He was naturally dying to get out of the place he was in, and he recorded for us his appeal
00:21:07for pardon to Governor O'Carlin.
00:21:10And in this song, he said, Governor Allen, if I had you where you have me, I'd wake up in
00:21:15the morning and set you free.
00:21:17We took the song to the governor's mansion on one hot August day, left it with his board clerk, and
00:21:24suddenly, magically, a few months later, Leadbelly was out of the pen.
00:21:29Lomax loved to tell the story about he, you know, I got Leadbelly out of jail, and there's just mountains
00:21:38of evidence that that didn't happen.
00:21:40Leadbelly was already scheduled for release.
00:21:43The story goes that John Lomax promised to take it to the governor the next day.
00:21:50How he had access to the governor, I don't know.
00:21:52But he did go to the governor's office.
00:21:55He gave it to the secretary and then propagated that idea that perhaps the governor listened to it and pardoned
00:22:04Leadbelly.
00:22:04Of course, we know that's not true.
00:22:06Leadbelly was released on Good Time or whatever you call that.
00:22:12But that's the story.
00:22:15Lomax didn't really have anything to do with it, per se, but they didn't tell him they didn't.
00:22:19But when Grandfather did write to the prison to find out what was the real reason for his release,
00:22:31that's what they said, that he had been released for Good Time.
00:22:34But maybe that wasn't true.
00:22:37Maybe they didn't want to admit that he could sing his way out of two prisons.
00:22:42We'll never know.
00:22:45But they recorded him, and Lomax was impressed with him and began to think about how he could use him.
00:22:55He sent Leadbelly a telegram saying, meet me at the Hotel Marshall.
00:23:00Bring driver's license, bring guitar.
00:23:03Yes, Mr. John Lomax is staying here.
00:23:05He's in room 109.
00:23:07Is that on the front floor?
00:23:09Yep.
00:23:10Hey, hold on a minute.
00:23:15Come on.
00:23:20Boss, here I is.
00:23:22Leadbelly.
00:23:23What are you doing here?
00:23:25No use of trying to run my way, boss.
00:23:27I've come here to be your man.
00:23:29I've got to work with you the rest of my life.
00:23:31You've got me out of that losing out of 10.
00:23:33You can't work for me.
00:23:35You're a mean boy.
00:23:37You killed a two-man.
00:23:38Please don't talk that way, boss.
00:23:41Have you got a pistol?
00:23:42No, sir, I've got a knife.
00:23:44Let me see it.
00:23:48What do you do with that thing?
00:23:50I'll use it on somebody that's brought to you, boss.
00:23:52Please, boss, take me with you.
00:23:54All right, my darling.
00:23:56I'll try you.
00:23:57Thank you, sir.
00:23:58Boss, thank you.
00:23:58I'll drive you all over the United States, and I'll sing all songs with you.
00:24:02You'll be my big boss, and I'll be your man.
00:24:04It's embarrassing to see that now.
00:24:08I'm your man.
00:24:09I'll be your man, and I'll use this knife to defend you, and so forth.
00:24:14And it's just shameful.
00:24:16You know, it really is.
00:24:17And I think the repetition of that kind of thing, you know, finally got through to Lead
00:24:23Belly that, you know, this was not the way it should be.
00:24:27Dr. Hughley never spoke to any man as master or in a subservient manner, first of all.
00:24:35That was not his, you know, posture.
00:24:39That was a script, so that was not him.
00:24:46And, you know, that was something he didn't like, but he was a man that had an obligation
00:24:54to help someone who had helped him, and he fulfilled it.
00:25:00One of the more interesting relationships between John Lomax and Lead Belly was the tour of prisons.
00:25:07Having Lead Belly there also, which is really, I imagine, really opened up the situation tremendously.
00:25:14He was on this trip as John's assistant.
00:25:17He set up the recording machine.
00:25:19He had his guitar with him and would often play songs to some of these guys to show them
00:25:25what kind of material they wanted to record.
00:25:28Here was someone who had been through that experience and who could walk into the room
00:25:34and bridge that gap between the white Southerner and the black prisoners
00:25:38in order to allow the Lomaxes to get the repertoire that they wanted.
00:25:43Because it's not an easy thing to walk in after sundown.
00:25:47These guys have been out all day and say, do you want to sing a few songs?
00:25:51Instead of explaining to the prisoners what it was we wanted,
00:25:55Lead Belly just got up and sang a few songs, and after that they knew.
00:25:59Lomax had the increasing notion that he could make Lead Belly a star.
00:26:04And, of course, Lead Belly thought that Lomax had gotten him out of jail,
00:26:08so he was willing to go do as much as he could and lug the luggage, drive the car, and
00:26:13so forth.
00:26:14I drove all through this country, Mr. Lomax and myself, and I never had run over a chicken.
00:26:19Never had run over nothing.
00:26:21Of course, I'm going to look down the way I'm going.
00:26:23You can talk to me all you want, but I ain't going to turn my head and look at you.
00:26:25You can talk, but I'm going to look right down the way I'm going.
00:26:28That's true.
00:26:29When I think about the relationship between John Lomax and Lead Belly,
00:26:34I think of the capacity of black people to use doors to actually leave where they are.
00:26:42And I thought that Lomax, in some way,
00:26:47understanding Lead Belly as a powerful, powerful artist also never quite let him out of jail.
00:26:56And that's a failing of Lomax, I think.
00:26:59Up north, he found other African Americans who said,
00:27:04you know, Lead Belly, you don't have to be Mr. Lomax's servant the rest of your life.
00:27:08I think Lomax assumed Lead Belly was going to be his servant for years to come.
00:27:14Lomax said, well, I did everything for that boy, this boy being 48 years old.
00:27:20Young Alan agreed with Lead Belly.
00:27:22He says, you've got a right to be your own man.
00:27:25And Alan helped him get some jobs in New York.
00:27:29John Lomax does take the Louisiana Negro convict to be his man.
00:27:32He takes him north to his home in Wilson, Connecticut,
00:27:35where Lead Belly's longtime sweetheart, Martha Plummer's,
00:27:38is brought up from the South for a jubilant wedding.
00:27:44Then, hailed by the Library of Congress's music division
00:27:47as its greatest folk song find in 25 years,
00:27:50Lead Belly's songs go into the archives of the great national institution,
00:27:54along with the original copy of the Declaration of Independence.
00:27:58Lead Belly, good night, good night, darling,
00:28:03good night, darling, I did to gain my dream.
00:28:11Lead Belly arrived in New York with his whole country background of music intact.
00:28:18He carried that sound right into his city performances,
00:28:22and he simply electrified his audiences.
00:28:26He had standing ovations everywhere we presented him.
00:28:30And suddenly, Lead Belly and the Lomaxes were national figures.
00:28:35These people are trained to go look for something that nobody's ever seen.
00:28:40And then when you find it, you go, look, look, look what I found.
00:28:44Lomax presented as a man who'd killed two men, been in jail.
00:28:52He was presented in 1935 as a murderer.
00:28:55You look at the newspaper headlines,
00:28:57Sweet Singer from the Swamplands, Murderer Comes to New York.
00:29:00And I know that was Lomax's idea.
00:29:03And it's just shameful.
00:29:06Those who were interested in him
00:29:08were also interested in the bad man image
00:29:11and played on the fact that here's someone who came out of prison
00:29:14who murdered someone.
00:29:15And we see this with other blues singers as well,
00:29:18that a mythology grows up around them.
00:29:20One indication that Lomax was out for himself, too,
00:29:24he wrote to his wife during that period.
00:29:26I can quote it almost exactly.
00:29:29Publicity proclaims me the most famous man in New York.
00:29:33And at the same time,
00:29:35Lomax was always fussing and fretting about newspaper reports
00:29:39and people getting in his way.
00:29:41And, you know, he shunned publicity and all that stuff.
00:29:44But he didn't, you know.
00:29:46He loved it.
00:29:47He was entirely willing to use Lead Belly
00:29:50for his own ends in that respect.
00:29:53The Life magazine article really upset a lot of people.
00:29:56It still upsets everybody.
00:29:59Especially the N-word is, you know,
00:30:01it's not something you use.
00:30:03Life magazine used to use those apathets.
00:30:06They were not a liberal magazine at all.
00:30:09Of course, that was the headline writers who wrote those things.
00:30:13That was acceptable in those days.
00:30:15And it was partly because of people like Josh White and Lead Belly
00:30:19and particularly Paul Robeson
00:30:21who campaigned to get those epithets out of the press
00:30:27and the public discourse.
00:30:29It's interesting, the relationship between John Lomax and Lead Belly at this time.
00:30:33Lead Belly finally got tired of, you know, lugging and floating.
00:30:37And that led to the ultimate demise of their relationship.
00:30:44They're both very old-fashioned, very proud, very temperamental.
00:30:51They both liked a little bit of the drink.
00:30:55They, my grandfather used to have to carry around a secret supply
00:30:59because his second wife wouldn't allow him to have any at all.
00:31:04She disapproved.
00:31:05She was a Methodist or something.
00:31:07A Dainey.
00:31:08And these...
00:31:10That's one of the ways that explains
00:31:13why their relationship didn't work out.
00:31:16They were just too much alike.
00:31:18They both felt, you know, had these very strong ideas
00:31:22about what was right and what was wrong
00:31:24and what was the correct way of doing things and so on.
00:31:27So in that way, they were very much alike,
00:31:30but it caused them to clash.
00:31:31It was in Buffalo that they had their first...
00:31:34the first serious encounter
00:31:37where Lomax was working in the library
00:31:40and Lead Belly came to him and wanted money.
00:31:45John had a habit of keeping the money and doling it out.
00:31:48Whatever he thought he needed.
00:31:51Well, he was going to buy some breakfast this morning.
00:31:54Here, here's $5.
00:31:56They thought if he had money,
00:31:58he would buy some whiskey and drink,
00:32:00and if he bought whiskey, they couldn't handle him then.
00:32:02So Lomax wouldn't give it to him.
00:32:05So Lead Belly pulled an eye for him.
00:32:07Oh, that morning, he and he and old man Lomax
00:32:10had a big fight.
00:32:12This got John's attention, to put it mildly.
00:32:17Because Lomax was a federal uniform and he had gone.
00:32:20So he decided at that point that the thing was over.
00:32:24I think there was some regret on both parts
00:32:26that it didn't work out
00:32:27because it was grand in some ways
00:32:29because of the publicity, tumultuous in others,
00:32:32but ended up in the rift
00:32:33that ultimately caused the separation of Lead Belly
00:32:38from John Lomax.
00:32:40And again, like, a lot of people try to make out
00:32:42that they had this really long relationship,
00:32:45but it wasn't.
00:32:46It was about six months.
00:32:47I mean, the whole thing.
00:32:48We were talking about doing a tribute to Lead Belly,
00:32:53and somebody says,
00:32:54well, we have to have Lomax there,
00:32:57and this was Alan.
00:32:59And I said, well, Lead Belly always have to be attached
00:33:02to the Lomaxes.
00:33:04The room went really quiet.
00:33:07Bring me a little water, Sylvie.
00:33:13Bring me a little water now.
00:33:17Bring me a little water, Sylvie.
00:33:22Every little once in a while.
00:33:27Every little once in a while.
00:33:30Bring me a little water, Sylvie.
00:33:34Bring me a little water now.
00:33:37Bring me a little water, Sylvie.
00:33:39Every little once in a while.
00:33:43Soon as she come running,
00:33:46she had a bucket in her hand.
00:33:49Oh, I will bring you water
00:33:53fast as I can.
00:33:58Can't you see me coming?
00:34:01Can't you see me now?
00:34:05Can't you see me coming?
00:34:09Every little once in a while.
00:34:12One day I was walking down the street in London,
00:34:16I saw a sign in the window.
00:34:17Bring me a little water, Sylvie.
00:34:19Words and Music by Lonnie Donegan.
00:34:22And I must say I was surprised.
00:34:24And when I went into the matter,
00:34:26I found out that Donegan had recorded
00:34:30and taken credit for a great many
00:34:32of Lead Belly's best songs,
00:34:34including the Rock Island line,
00:34:35Irene Goodnight, and others.
00:34:37Lonnie was a, when I got to know him,
00:34:41didn't turn out to be much of a crook.
00:34:44He was just a nice Irish kid
00:34:46who'd fallen in love with American folk music
00:34:48because he adored Lead Belly
00:34:50and he identified with him so much
00:34:52he just became the composer of his songs.
00:34:54And he developed a kind of music called skiffle music.
00:34:58And skiffle music in the 50s
00:35:00was the rage among young people
00:35:02all over Great Britain.
00:35:04A fellow named Lonnie Donegan
00:35:06became famous in England and elsewhere
00:35:10for taking a lot of Lead Belly's songs
00:35:13and playing them with a washed-up bass.
00:35:16Boom, boom, boom.
00:35:18You pull the stick back and you tighten the string,
00:35:20push it over here, it's looser.
00:35:22You can play a tune.
00:35:23Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
00:35:25Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom,
00:35:35boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom,
00:35:37boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom,
00:35:37boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom,
00:35:37boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom,
00:35:38boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom
00:35:52et ils ont des records de l'Amérique de l'Amérique
00:35:54et ils ont commencé à jouer ce qui s'appelle «Skiffle Music ».
00:35:57Le Dbelli, ses musiques m'ont fait très bien
00:36:00avec le «Skiffle Music » en Anglant,
00:36:01et un peu de ses trucs sont faits.
00:36:03Et le premier song qui s'est devenu la plus grande hit
00:36:06de toute la sciffle craze
00:36:07était un Le Dbelli qui s'est appelé «Roc Island Line ».
00:36:11Alors, ceci est une histoire de la Roc Island Line.
00:36:14La Roc Island Line, elle rente dans la Nouvelle-Orléans.
00:36:17Et juste au sein de la Nouvelle-Orléans,
00:36:18il y a une grande tournée.
00:36:20Et tous les trains, ils vont dans la tournée
00:36:22et ils ont de la tournée, ils ont de la tournée.
00:36:24Mais, bien sûr, si vous avez des choses sur la route,
00:36:27vous n'avez pas d'accord, vous n'avez pas d'avoir de la tournée.
00:36:29Et juste maintenant, nous voyons une train,
00:36:31elle est venue dans la line,
00:36:32et quand elle est venue dans la tournée,
00:36:34le driver, il a dit, il a dit,
00:36:36«I've got pigs, I've got horses,
00:36:39I've got cows, I've got sheep,
00:36:42I've got all the livestock,
00:36:44I've got all the livestock,
00:36:45I've got all the livestock.
00:36:47And the man say,
00:36:48«Well, you're all right, boy,
00:36:49just get on through,
00:36:50you don't have to pay me nothing.
00:36:52And the train go through.
00:36:53And when you go through the tournée,
00:36:55the train get up a little bit of steam
00:36:56and a little bit of speed.
00:36:58And when the driver think he's safely
00:36:59on the other side,
00:37:01he shout back down the line
00:37:02to the man, he said,
00:37:03I fooled you, I fooled you,
00:37:05I've got pig iron,
00:37:06I've got pig iron,
00:37:07I've got all the pig iron.
00:37:11Now tell you where I'm going, boy.
00:37:13Down the Rock Island line
00:37:14is a mighty good road.
00:37:15Rock Island line,
00:37:16you're old to ride it.
00:37:17The Rock Island line
00:37:18is a mighty good road.
00:37:19If you won't,
00:37:20provide the guys,
00:37:20provide the guys,
00:37:21like you're fine,
00:37:21you get the ticket,
00:37:22it's not a rock island line.
00:37:25And it was especially important
00:37:27in Liverpool,
00:37:30among the young working class people there,
00:37:32and they included the Beatles,
00:37:34and it was directly from
00:37:36the Lonnie Donegan skiffle music
00:37:39that the Beatles style came.
00:37:42So Lead Belly is regarded by them
00:37:45as their kind of great-grandfather.
00:37:47Of course, they took in Chuck Berry
00:37:49and a lot of others after that,
00:37:51but Lead Belly was the source.
00:37:53John Mayer's Blues Breakers,
00:37:55the Beatles, the Rolling Stones,
00:37:56they were all fans of skiffle music.
00:37:58So that influence of Lead Belly
00:37:59comes directly into England
00:38:01and directly into the British invasion.
00:38:03So when the Rolling Stones
00:38:05and many of the superstars
00:38:08in rock and roll played blues,
00:38:11which they had started playing anyway,
00:38:13that's when white America
00:38:15started to pay attention.
00:38:16People like the Beatles
00:38:17started off in the Rolling Stones
00:38:18and stuff playing skiffle music.
00:38:20You know, same as a lot of other musicians
00:38:21in this country started off as folkies,
00:38:23and moved on.
00:38:24Lead Belly, you know,
00:38:25the Weavers championed his music
00:38:27in the early 50s
00:38:28and got it out there,
00:38:29and a lot of people started picking it up.
00:38:30Early folk revival.
00:38:31Even going into the early 60s,
00:38:33there's even one of the Beach Boys records
00:38:34where they cover cotton fields.
00:38:36So a lot of different people knew that music.
00:38:38I don't know that any single artist
00:38:46or any single source
00:38:49fueled me as richly as did Lead Belly.
00:38:53Lead Belly kind of put me in focus,
00:38:57and I've never been out of focus since.
00:39:00The beginning of my career,
00:39:02there were a few records.
00:39:04after I'd gone to the Harry Belafonte
00:39:06and the Odetta
00:39:07and the beginning of Pete Seeger,
00:39:09and then we listened to Lead Belly.
00:39:11It was a very big deal,
00:39:13and what I remember is that
00:39:15I knew that I was way too white
00:39:17and way too young to do that music,
00:39:20but I was fascinated by it.
00:39:22Lead Belly played a very important part
00:39:25in the careers of people
00:39:27like Joan Baez and Bob Dylan.
00:39:30Dylan was a sponge,
00:39:31and it just went in there,
00:39:33and then it kind of transferred
00:39:35into what it was he did.
00:39:37But, I mean, if it could,
00:39:40if I could pick it up
00:39:42and get something from it
00:39:44as my little white self,
00:39:46you know, then Dylan is a, you know,
00:39:48a male with some kind of
00:39:52much broader sense of the blues
00:39:55and, you know, would, I'm sure,
00:39:59pick it up, and then it would be
00:40:00part of his repertoire
00:40:02and part of his life.
00:40:05The very first memory I have
00:40:08in my whole life
00:40:10is about two years old
00:40:12standing next to Lead Belly,
00:40:13and I've been wondering
00:40:17why somebody would remember that.
00:40:20What in somebody's heart or soul
00:40:24would place that image
00:40:27in somebody's life
00:40:30for, in my case, over 60 years?
00:40:34Something special about
00:40:35a person who can do that.
00:40:37Lead Belly became
00:40:39the very clear and precise voice
00:40:41that I wanted.
00:40:43He sang the songs
00:40:45of black America.
00:40:46He sang the songs
00:40:48of a black America
00:40:49that was in suffering.
00:40:51He sang occasionally of hope.
00:40:54And he certainly sang
00:40:55with great articulation
00:40:56the life of the prison experience.
00:41:01His black protest voice
00:41:03really, really appealed to me.
00:41:05And I was in a very
00:41:07protesting mood in those days.
00:41:10I was quite disappointed
00:41:11in America.
00:41:15very angry about what it was doing
00:41:16with its black citizens.
00:41:18A lot of these people thought,
00:41:19and Woody and this whole group
00:41:21thought that they fought World War II
00:41:23against fascism
00:41:24and it was going to change the world.
00:41:25And they came back
00:41:26to some of the same kind of
00:41:27Jim Crow kinds of things
00:41:28going on before.
00:41:29And they were all speaking up
00:41:30about it,
00:41:31and Lead Belly was one of them.
00:41:32Brownie McGee said to me once
00:41:35that Lead Belly was a race man.
00:41:38He absolutely understood
00:41:41what it was to be black
00:41:44in this country,
00:41:45and he kept his identity
00:41:48coming out of that space.
00:41:50Now listen what I'm outlining to you.
00:41:54Negroes fought in World War I and II.
00:41:57Some lose their lives,
00:41:58others lose their hands.
00:42:00Still is fighting for the United Nations.
00:42:03If the Negroes were good enough to fight,
00:42:06why can't we get little equal rights?
00:42:08For God made us all
00:42:10in a hymn we trust.
00:42:11Nobody in this world
00:42:12is better than us.
00:42:15I've been hearing you
00:42:15speaking about that old democracy,
00:42:17that diplomatic,
00:42:18that old hypocrisy.
00:42:20Think it's about time
00:42:21you should cut it out.
00:42:23The way the Negroes
00:42:24is treated down south.
00:42:26In my opinion,
00:42:28it's a rotten shame.
00:42:29I'd like to want to bring
00:42:30back slavery again.
00:42:32For God made us all
00:42:33in a hymn we trust.
00:42:34Nobody in this world
00:42:35is better than us.
00:42:37Nobody in this world
00:42:38is better than us.
00:42:39Nobody in this world
00:42:40is better than us.
00:42:44There are a few people
00:42:46who showed me
00:42:48that I could actually
00:42:50leave where I was
00:42:53and stay grounded.
00:42:57Lead Belly is one of those people.
00:43:00After black people
00:43:01were freed in the South,
00:43:04chain gangs were invented.
00:43:07And there is not many
00:43:08of the black family
00:43:09that have not had the experience
00:43:11of having some of their
00:43:13black men in prison.
00:43:16We know more about these prisons
00:43:18because of the songs
00:43:19that Lead Belly brought out of them
00:43:22because he too served his time
00:43:24in this American institution.
00:43:26In Africa, you sang all day
00:43:28while you worked.
00:43:29That's why they went to prisons.
00:43:31They had guys who were chopping
00:43:33and singing.
00:43:34It was a work song.
00:43:35Lead Belly was of that tradition,
00:43:37of the trumpet-like
00:43:39voiced work song leader.
00:43:41A voice that could inspire
00:43:43a gang of men
00:43:44so that when they began to sing,
00:43:46right after breakfast in the morning,
00:43:48they'd look up
00:43:49and it was dinner time already.
00:43:51A lot of the old songs
00:43:52you hear Lead Belly singing,
00:43:53he's actually punctuating
00:43:55with the sounds of the hammer.
00:43:57Take this hammer
00:43:59and carry it to the captain.
00:44:05Take this hammer
00:44:08and carry it to the captain.
00:44:14Take this hammer
00:44:16and carry it to the captain.
00:44:30If he asked you
00:44:34Was I laughing?
00:44:38If he asked you
00:44:42Was I laughing?
00:44:46If he asked you
00:44:49Was I laughing?
00:44:55You tell him I was crying
00:44:57You tell him I was crying
00:45:02I don't want no
00:45:05cornbread and molasses
00:45:08I don't want no
00:45:13cornbread and molasses
00:45:16I don't want no
00:45:20cornbread and molasses
00:45:25It hurts my pride
00:45:28It hurts my pride
00:45:33I thought it'd be fun
00:45:36to take an excursion
00:45:38and go visit Lead Belly.
00:45:41and so we took the tour bus
00:45:44and we were driving around
00:45:46these little places
00:45:48outside of Shreveport
00:45:50and came to this little church
00:45:52up on a little hill
00:45:54and sure enough
00:45:55there was one headstone
00:45:58that was bigger
00:45:59than all the rest
00:46:00and we thought
00:46:00maybe we found him
00:46:01and there was this
00:46:03wrought iron gate
00:46:04around him
00:46:05and one of my crew guys
00:46:07said hey
00:46:07they still got him
00:46:08locked up
00:46:08you know
00:46:10so we thought
00:46:11let's break him out
00:46:13so we opened up the gate
00:46:14got out the 12 string guitar
00:46:17and just sat there
00:46:18like I was just a little kid
00:46:20on his lap
00:46:20and just started playing
00:46:21some Lead Belly songs
00:46:27There's a whole lot of water
00:46:29between those two bridges
00:46:31of my life
00:46:32just this year
00:46:33and when I was a kid
00:46:35at two years old
00:46:36and you start thinking
00:46:37about the world
00:46:38that he came from
00:46:39this is a guy born
00:46:40right after the Civil War
00:46:43that's a long time ago
00:46:46and those reflections
00:46:48those things that he heard
00:46:50when he was a kid
00:46:51and growing up
00:46:52are in those songs
00:46:55this was the great intuition
00:46:57of the Lomaxes
00:46:58that they went around
00:46:59collecting these things
00:47:01not just the songs
00:47:02but in Lead Belly's case
00:47:03the people
00:47:05and brought them
00:47:06to New York
00:47:07where they met up
00:47:08with guys like my dad
00:47:10Woody and Lead Belly
00:47:12were musical cronies
00:47:13Lead Belly and Woody
00:47:16were the stars
00:47:16and they usually went on
00:47:18after we
00:47:18all of us
00:47:19had decided to go to bed
00:47:20and Woody would go home
00:47:22to Lead Belly
00:47:23and they'd sit up
00:47:23and play until morning
00:47:24basically they just loved
00:47:26to play together
00:47:26and Woody absolutely
00:47:28venerated Lead Belly
00:47:30Lead Belly had gone through
00:47:31an experience that very few
00:47:33other people had gone through
00:47:34and even survived
00:47:35and he came out
00:47:36of these penitentiaries
00:47:37of the South
00:47:37whole and laughing
00:47:39and joyous and confident
00:47:41and who couldn't admire
00:47:42a person like that
00:47:43and he had this incredible voice
00:47:45he had a musical fire
00:47:47that just didn't exist
00:47:49in other people
00:47:49and Woody learned
00:47:51from Lead Belly
00:47:52he kept using
00:47:54Irene Good Night
00:47:54how many times he used it
00:47:56to write a new song
00:47:57I don't know
00:47:57but many many times
00:47:58some of his best things
00:47:59were based on Lead Belly tunes
00:48:01I think they were
00:48:02of enormous help
00:48:03to each other
00:48:04because they were
00:48:05aside from Sonny and Brownie
00:48:07they were the only folk singers
00:48:09in the city at the time
00:48:10movie making was not common then
00:48:13no DVDs
00:48:16an artist said
00:48:18Lead Belly
00:48:18I've got a movie camera
00:48:19would you come to my house
00:48:21and we'll record
00:48:22some songs
00:48:24he actually recorded
00:48:25he played the songs first
00:48:26in a studio
00:48:28and he played the songs back
00:48:30and Lead Belly
00:48:31played along with the song
00:48:32and they weren't exactly
00:48:34in sync as they say
00:48:36however three years later
00:48:40a friend of mine
00:48:42heard about the existence
00:48:43of these films
00:48:44and I wrote out
00:48:45and said
00:48:45I have a moviola
00:48:48in my barn
00:48:50let me see
00:48:51if I can sync them up
00:48:52I spent three weeks
00:48:54and I went back and forth
00:48:57from a long shot
00:48:58to a close shot
00:49:01and managed to sync up
00:49:03three songs
00:49:04it's all kinds of
00:49:06Lead Belly recordings
00:49:07and some of the most
00:49:08interesting ones
00:49:09are the ones where
00:49:10they're trying to create
00:49:12this almost cinematic sound
00:49:15he had a way
00:49:16of making a motion picture
00:49:19out of every song
00:49:20he's introducing
00:49:21he's setting the stage
00:49:23for these songs
00:49:24he's not just singing
00:49:25he's not just performing
00:49:26he's telling you
00:49:27what happened
00:49:28now this is a gray goose
00:49:29down in my home
00:49:30people go to church
00:49:31on a Sunday
00:49:32a baptist church
00:49:33and I had a preacher
00:49:34which was the pastor
00:49:35of that church
00:49:35and instead of he
00:49:36going to church
00:49:37that Sunday
00:49:38he went out
00:49:38and tried to kill
00:49:39a gray goose
00:49:40and the goose
00:49:41is still laughing at
00:49:42one Sunday morning
00:49:44Lord, Lord, Lord
00:49:46the preacher went a-hunting
00:49:47Lord, Lord, Lord
00:49:49he carried along
00:49:50the shotgun
00:49:51Lord, Lord, Lord
00:49:53long come a gray goose
00:49:55Lord, Lord, Lord
00:49:56the gun went off a balloon
00:49:58Lord, Lord, Lord
00:50:00down come the gray goose
00:50:02Lord, Lord, Lord
00:50:03he was six weeks of falling
00:50:04Lord, Lord, Lord
00:50:06he was six weeks of hauling
00:50:08Lord, Lord, Lord
00:50:10and my wife
00:50:10and your wife
00:50:11Lord, Lord, Lord
00:50:13they gave a feather picking
00:50:16they were six weeks of picking
00:50:19then they put him on the fair boil
00:50:22he was six weeks of boiling
00:50:24Lord, Lord, Lord
00:50:26then they put him on the table
00:50:27Lord, Lord, Lord
00:50:29and the ball couldn't stick him
00:50:30Lord, Lord, Lord
00:50:32and the knife couldn't cut him
00:50:34Lord, Lord, Lord
00:50:35and the last time I see him
00:50:37Lord, Lord, Lord
00:50:38he was flying across
00:50:39the ocean
00:50:40Lord, Lord, Lord
00:50:42what had happened
00:50:43with Lead Belly
00:50:44is he'd been working
00:50:44with John and Alan Lomax
00:50:46and there was a parting
00:50:46of the ways
00:50:47and he was kind of
00:50:47around New York
00:50:48playing here and there
00:50:49he had a radio show
00:50:50on WNYC radio
00:50:51but he didn't have
00:50:52a recording contract
00:50:53Moses Ash put out
00:50:54a record of children's songs
00:50:56by Lead Belly
00:50:56now Walter Winchell
00:50:58the gossip columnist
00:50:59got hold of this
00:51:00and said
00:51:00this company put out
00:51:01a record for kids
00:51:02by a murderer
00:51:03of course, you know
00:51:04no publicity
00:51:05is bad publicity
00:51:06right
00:51:06so consequently
00:51:07you got
00:51:07that record sold
00:51:09probably more than
00:51:09Moe had ever sold
00:51:10anything before
00:51:11and it became
00:51:11an iconic recording
00:51:12in this catalog
00:51:13I guess the first time
00:51:14I heard Lead Belly
00:51:15I was something like
00:51:18eight or nine years old
00:51:20as a student
00:51:21at the Little Red
00:51:22at Schoolhouse
00:51:22they marched us
00:51:23into the assembly
00:51:24and just blew my mind
00:51:27to be introduced
00:51:28to the music
00:51:28of Lead Belly
00:51:29well he loved
00:51:31their children
00:51:31very very much
00:51:32and he'd be going
00:51:33to a broadcasting station
00:51:35and the children
00:51:37would be downstairs
00:51:37waiting on him
00:51:38they sang along
00:51:39along with him
00:51:40ha ha this away
00:51:41ha ha that away
00:51:43ha ha this away
00:51:44then
00:51:45oh then
00:51:45ha ha this away
00:51:47ha ha that away
00:51:48ha ha this way
00:56:11If I was a catfish
00:56:20Yeah
00:56:56Yeah
01:00:26Ils étaient en train de chier, mais il était en train de chier,
01:00:29et ils se sont en train de chier, et tout le monde était en train de chier.
01:00:36Et c'était la dernière performance qu'il a fait,
01:00:41et je suis heureux qu'il a fait ça.
01:00:46Je ne savais pas de Médical Condition, même avant les adultes,
01:00:51mais j'étais en train de secréter.
01:00:54Et puis, ensuite, j'ai voulu dire, et j'ai voulu dire.
01:01:01J'ai demandé de jouer la guitare, parce que je savais que c'était quelque chose
01:01:07qu'il ne pouvait pas faire et que tout le monde voulait faire.
01:01:13Et il a toujours fait ça, quand j'ai demandé.
01:01:17Et c'était ma façon de laisser le cat out de bag.
01:01:21Alvin had come in, had got the guitar out of the back room, out of the case,
01:01:26et Hannity was sitting there like this, but his hand was cramped.
01:01:32He couldn't stretch them out, and he started crying.
01:01:35I said, uh, Alvin, come here.
01:01:38I said, you see him, he was crying now.
01:01:40He's crying because he can't play the song for you anymore.
01:01:43And that's the way we found out that he could not play the guitar.
01:01:47I just took the guitar out of his lap, and I looked at his hand,
01:01:49it was just like that.
01:01:52And he couldn't stretch them out.
01:01:54And that was, oh, that was some, that was some day.
01:02:00Um, sad day.
01:02:03And it was in December, uh, Alan Lomax dropped by my place and said,
01:02:09uh, Pete, uh, Leadbell is in the hospital.
01:02:12He thinks he's gonna die.
01:02:13And I said, oh, that's impossible.
01:02:15And he said, well, maybe you should go see him.
01:02:17And I said, well, I will, uh, maybe a couple of days.
01:02:21But I should have said, right that day I should have gone,
01:02:24because I never saw him again.
01:02:26Death is slow, but death is sure.
01:02:31Hallelujah, hallelujah.
01:02:33Death is slow, but death is sure.
01:02:36Hallelujah, hallelujah.
01:02:39Death is slow, but death is sure.
01:02:42When death comes, somebody must go.
01:02:45Then you must have that true religion.
01:02:48Hallelujah, hallelujah.
01:02:51Send for the doctor and the doctor come.
01:02:54Hallelujah, hallelujah.
01:02:57Send for the doctor and the doctor come.
01:03:00Hallelujah, hallelujah.
01:03:02Send for the doctor and the doctor come.
01:03:05Mother says, doctor, can you save my son?
01:03:08Then you must have that true religion.
01:03:11Hallelujah, hallelujah.
01:03:13Doctor left, he's looking mighty sad.
01:03:16Hallelujah, hallelujah.
01:03:19Doctor left, he's looking mighty sad.
01:03:21Hallelujah, hallelujah.
01:03:24Doctor left, he's looking mighty sad.
01:03:27Hardest kiss that I ever had.
01:03:29Then you must have that true religion.
01:03:32Hallelujah, hallelujah.
01:03:35Mother was sitting on her bedside crying.
01:03:37Hallelujah, hallelujah.
01:03:40Mother was sitting on her bedside crying.
01:03:42Hallelujah, hallelujah.