Leadbelly talking about the blues (1939)

Leadbelly and Allan Lomax 1939
Leadbelly talking about the blues then gives a driving Red Cross Store.

[jeremytheoneofdestiny]

A man in 1939 talking about his grandfather who was a slave that became free during the course of his life. Amazing how far back in time recorded interviews can take us.

[Shokarneda]

It's almost surreal listening to an interview 70 years ago

[Andrew-zopo]

2024 - listening to an interview from 85 years ago. Wow

[hydrogendiamond]

never heard lead belly talkin its good to hear this

[glenrichardson]

There’s more music in his general conversation than there is in most peoples’ music

[mhabatibrahim]

I love this man leadbelly cuz his songs touch me soo deep. Great artist that will never die. ❤️🌹

[sarahbedtelyon]

I used to have this whole interview on cassette tape- I think it was a Yale library recording. The future versions they cut out the interview and just had the music but it's such a shame. The interview is fantastic. Ledbelly just makes fun of the interviewer the entire time and he either doesn't notice or doesn't care. The man was an absolute genius and a stunning artist.

[sonjadietz]

Thank you Leadbelly RIP

[wybepieters]

Leadbelly.The library of congress recordins.A 3 record box.Recorded on a taperecorder.

[jamespolucha]

The old farm workers would sing to count and pass time in the fields or resting when they were done which was talking about hard times that’s the blues

[haloskater]

They need to stop cutting him off..they always do this

[LukeRissa]

I got the blues I know the darkness but the light and we all diffrent shades of same colour

[mhabatibrahim]

He sings the blues like no any other.. I say best have heard the blues.

[muddysludge]

A Brilliant Musician and a very clever Badass.

In December 1917, Ledbelly was arrested and charged with murder and was found guilty. Prison is where it seems he picked up the nickname Lead Belly. In early 1924, only a few years into a 20-year sentence, Lead Belly sang for Texas governor Pat Neff a song in which he asked for a pardon. A year later, Neff pardoned Lead Belly and he was a free man.
Only five years later, Lead Belly was involved in a stabbing incident that led to "assault with intent to murder" charges and another prison sentence. Budget issues caused by the Great Depression allowed him to apply for early release, which he did, and the sitting governor approved the application in 1934. (He also sang a song to this governor, pleading for release.)

[JenelleSimeon-Baynes]

Wow a year after my late grandfather was born in 1938.

[JenelleSimeon-Baynes]

This was 10 years before he passed away

[Flipdrivel]

"Give us your idea about where the blues really came from, not anything that anybody told you, but what you believe yourself, or what you heard"(!)
Good old Alan Lomax, never the finest of interviewers.

[jamescollins]

I learned a song from my aunt it was called Red Cross store blues.

It went something like:

I ain’t goin to, no Red Cross store, go ahead now talk to me a little bit.”

But I’m white. Maybe I dreamed it lol

[nathanielblak]

is this for real? coz i've never seen it and now, from nowhere, this shit comes.

[sciexp]

I can't get the name of the first blues song he said he listened to... He says that his uncle sung it at home all the time... Anyone got it? Thanks!!!