Topic: Nirvana sings Leadbelly

[Malcolm_Pommie_Platt]

Came across this on youtube a while back, Nirvana doing the classic Leadbelly song "In the Pines", also known as "Where did you sleep last night".
An interesting, modern retake of an old song. Pretty raw & grungy but at the same time pretty cool with some nice guitar work by Kurt.
Just a heads up, if swearwords offend you, then skip the intro by Kurt, he drops the F-bomb.

[jphauser]

Thanks for posting this Malcolm.  I think it's a great version, but it may not be everybody's cup of tea.  Makes me wonder what other songs from the past Cobain may have recorded if he were still alive.

Years ago, I read an interesting article in the NY Times about the long and "complicated" history of the song.  I found it on the web (see the link below).  It includes a little background on how Cobain got into Leadbelly.  The second link is a letter to the editor which points out that the article omitted Josh White, "an important contributor to the song's endurance. "


http://www.nytimes.com/1994/11/13/arts/pop-music-a-simple-song-that-lives-beyond-time.html?pagewanted=1

http://www.nytimes.com/1994/11/27/arts/l-in-the-pines-josh-white-liked-it-too-928143.html 


Jim Hauser

[Malcolm_Pommie_Platt]

Thanks for the links Jim
It seems to be one of those songs that transcends musical genre & also transcends time. Still is enjoyable now as it was a hundred years ago.

[jphauser]

It seems to be one of those songs that transcends musical genre & also transcends time. Still is enjoyable now as it was a hundred years ago.

just like "John Henry" and "Stagolee."

[Johnm]

Hi all,
All three of the songs just mentioned and many more can be found in the Song Families section of Weeniepedia, with many versions of each song transcribed.
All best,
Johnm

[StoogeKebab]

If you look hard enough, you can find more older songs throughout their repertoire - as well as many an interview where they all mention fondness for Lead Belly - particularly in the unplugged interview, but with the surviving members recently in the last few months where they mentioned, once again, that he was the favourite of all of them.