Roots of Blues -- Lead Belly „On Monday"

„On Monday"
(H. Ledbetter)

Recorded:
1943
Lead Belly (vcl) (g), Sonny Terry (h)

Huddie William Ledbetter, (January, 1888 -- December 6, 1949) was an American folk and blues musician, notable for his clear and forceful singing, his virtuosity on the twelve string guitar, and the rich songbook of folk standards he introduced.
He is best known as Leadbelly or Lead Belly. Though many releases list him as "Leadbelly," he himself spelled it "Lead Belly." This is also the usage on his tombstone, as well as the Lead Belly Foundation.
Although he most commonly played the twelve string, he could also play the piano, mandolin, harmonica, violin, concertina, and accordion. In some of his recordings, such as in one of his versions of the folk ballad "John Hardy", he performs on the accordion instead of the guitar. In other recordings he just sings while clapping his hands or stomping his foot. The topics of Lead Belly's music covered a wide range of subjects, including gospel songs; blues songs about women, liquor and racism; and folk songs about cowboys, prison, work, sailors, cattle herding and dancing. He also wrote songs concerning the newsmakers of the day, such as President Franklin Roosevelt, Adolf Hitler, Jean Harlow, the Scottsboro Boys and multi-millionaire Howard Hughes. Fame in 1986.
The day of his birth has also been debated. The most common date given is January 20, but other sources suggest he was born on January 21 or 29. The only document we have that Ledbetter, himself, helped fill out is his World War II draft registration from 1942 where he gives his birth date as January 23, 1889
Lead Belly's boastful spirit and penchant for the occasional skirmish sometimes led him into trouble with the law, and in January 1918 he was thrown into prison for the second time, this time after killing one of his relatives, Will Stafford, in a fight. He was incarcerated in Sugar Land, Texas and it is there that he got the inspiration for the song Midnight Special. It is said that he was released two years into his 35-year sentence after writing a song appealing to Governor Pat Morris Neff for his freedom. Lead Belly had swayed Governor Neff by appealing to his strong religious values. That, in combination with good behavior (including entertaining by playing for the guards and fellow prisoners), was Lead Belly's ticket out of jail.
In 1930, Lead Belly was back in prison, this time in Louisiana for attempted homicide. It was there, three years later, that he was "discovered" by musicologists John and Alan Lomax, who were enchanted by his talent, passion and singularity as a performer, and recorded hundreds of his songs on portable recording equipment for the Library of Congress. The following year Lead Belly was once again pardoned, this time after a petition for his early release was taken to Louisiana Governor O.K. Allen by the Lomaxes. The petition was on the other side of a recording of one of his most popular songs, "Goodnight Irene". The state's prison records, however, show he was released due to

for more Information see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_Belly

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Blues
• Roots_of_Blues
• History_of_music

[zorbazig]

Please more tags, in order to make these masterpieces known by the great number !...

[MeetTheNewYOu]

he ought to sue Johnny Cash- he even lifted that train wheel rhythm ;)

[JackBootCharlie]

the public enemy and nwa and barrick obarma of his generation wearing best bib and tucker for the publicity shot

[pietzsche]

@KrashnyPloshad7 and it's awesome. He also does a great version of goodnight irene.

[radiopete]

From 1943 -- Sonny Terry's harmonica is the perfect compliment to Hudie's powerful voice. I LOVE THIS SONG!!!!

[jmoneysin]

some fact you have listed are not true, not by your own fault. Midnight special is an old song and can be traced back to Sam Collins 1927. It is most likely older than that version. You will find that lead belly did not do a lot of writing his own material.

[phenethylaminedreams]

The blues just sort of gets passed on. It's not 'ripping off'- the blues comes from time when there were no cheap recordings of music, and musicians played what people wanted to hear. Even today, folk and blues musicians pay tribute to the standards and record their own versions. It doesn't matter who wrote what- it's the blues.

[TheJesseHarmon]

Cash took a lot of songs and made them his own. "Frankie's Man, Johnny," and "Folsom Prison Blues," comes to mind.

[lunalaska]

Can anybody prove that Lead Belly wrote this song? I'm all for holding people accountable for blatant plagarism, but a lot of these songs in this era and in this style just got "passed on" from performer to performer without regard for who the author was. Why? Because nobody fucking knew who actually wrote the damn song. For all we know, Huddie could have "ripped this off" as much as Cash did but, of course, if nobody knows who wrote it then it's not really plagarism, is it?

[Juliasblues]

Love that Sonny Terry Harp !

[dropd26]

I hadn`t heard this until lately and this is SO close to I Got Stripes by Cash it`s Copyright Infringement worthy. I thought Led Zeppelin was the only band to lift old blues music so directly.

[tafflad1]

i havent heard this for probably 20 years,...love it,..must hunt out my old records,..cheers.