Leadbelly

Dear Readers,

One of my favorite musicians is Leadbelly.

I jam out to him a lot. And by “jam out” I mean sing along and move around really weirdly and intensely and meaningful-ly when I’m alone, or when I’m riding on my bicycle and I’m listening to him on my iPod. The way I move and sing/scream along when I’m on my bike might be dangerous. But it’s something that I just do. Maybe it’s a stress reliever. Or maybe I have to work my demons out by taking on the identity of Leadbelly for a while.

You see, I live a very comfortable life. I live in modern American suburbs. I don’t work very hard. Things are taken care of for me. I never have to defend myself or fight anybody… everything is safe and peachy, really. Of course I like these that way- predictable and safe. But at times I get these adventuresome streaks and I can’t stand being around people who want to chat about ordinary things, and I can’t stand being alone and quiet, so I have to take to the woods or take to the desert, and cause a big ruckus.

I don’t drink alcohol or do drugs, you see, so I listen to Leadbelly.

Leadbelly.

He’s so dark and powerful.

Leadbelly sure did pick a lot of cotton.

He spent time in prison for murdering someone, did you know that? No joke.

And he was guilty, too. He actually murdered someone. I’m not saying that’s cool. Murder is bad. Very bad. Don’t do it.

But, still, I’m just saying, people that murder people possess magnetism. People that murder people possess within themselves a dark power. They exude a dark charisma that non-murderers don’t have. Have you heard about how some women are drawn to murderers? Maybe it’s something similar.

Leadbelly sang children’s songs, too.

If Leadbelly was alive today, I don’t think we could relate to each other. We’re just really different people. I don’t think we would talk very much, because even though we could both speak English, he comes from a different world, so I wouldn’t really understand what he was talking about.

I would just politely ask him to play a few songs for me. And if he didn’t want to, I wouldn’t press the issue.

But I’d let Leadbelly stay in our house, in the hopes that he would soon get in the mood to play some songs for me. Because even though he murdered someone, he got better. Yeah, I wish Leadbelly was here right now, in one of our spare bedrooms.

Before I ever heard Leadbelly himself, I heard about Leadbelly on the Nirvana MTV Unplugged album. Kurt Cobain says between songs that Leadbelly is one of his favorite musicians, I think, and then the band covers, “Black Girl/ In the Pines/ Where Did You Sleep Last Night?” (That song sort of goes by three titles.) It’s a great cover- one of my favorites on that album, actually.

I also heard about Leadbelly from Bob Dylan in Song to Woody, one of the two songs written by Bob Dylan on his very first self-titled album. Bob Dylan sings: Here’s to Cisco and Sunny and Leadbelly too, and all the good people who traveled with you.”

And so Leadbelly became this legendary figure in my mind, someone who traveled around the country with folk and blues heroes and who really knew what was going on and who really had something important to say.

Anyway, I just found this video of Leadbelly, and, oh man, it’s awesome.

Enjoy.