Lead Belly - 'Cotton Fields'

[SaraAppletonwastheQWERTYmail]

I first sang this song on my bus going to high school. It was before CCR since I’m now 81. I had no idea it was Lead Belly until today. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

[TheBrunohusker]

I’m just picturing this being sung by a bunch of hobos and sharecroppers around a fire who can’t stick it to the man but can share that pain and even the few joys they had.

[johnvandersteur]

Bob Dylan says in his Nobel prize lecture that when he was 18, and right after Buddy Holly died (who was his role model), someone gave him this record. He said, "It changed my life right there and then, transported me into a world I had never known, it was as if an explosion went off. Like I had been walking in darkness and all of a sudden it had been illuminated. As if someone had laid hands on me. I must have played that record a hundred times."

[paulgaier]

My mom sang this to us when we were kids growing up in the 60s. She was from Texarkana. RIP, Mom.

[jamesentenman]

What a fantastic early Blues song. Thank you, Lead Belly, .

[philveness]

He is so good… blues meets folk
And so influential- thank you Hugh leadbetter.

[nancymitchell]

We would not even have as much awesome music in this world if it weren't for the legendary talent from this man and many more from his time!

[kooter]

Just an FYI for those not familiar with this part of the country-- if you are anywhere in Louisiana the very closest you can be to Texarkana is about 30 miles.

[laoyanese_guy]

I'm here because this song in Mexico is known as 'cuando era jovencito' by Ramon Ayala

I'm glad I heard the similarities and found the original sound

[pxwktcc]

Lead Belly originally did Cotton Fields years before it was a hit song in early 1963 on mainstream AM radio stations.

[borislazic]

The greatest blues singer and its saddest eyes.

[bubsd]

[Verse 1]
When I was a little baby
My mother would rock me in the cradle
In them old, old cotton fields at home
When I was a little baby
My mother would rock me in the cradle
In them old, old cotton fields at home

[Chorus]
Oh, when them cotton balls get rotten
You couldn't pick very much cotton
In them old cotton fields at home
It was down in Louisiana
Just a mile from Texarkana
In them old, old cotton fields at home

[Verse 2]
It may sound a little funny
But, you didn't make very much money
In them old cotton fields at home
It may sound a little funny
But, you didn't make very much money
In them old cotton fields at home

[Chorus]
Oh, when them cotton balls get rotten
You couldn't pick very much cotton
In them old cotton fields at home
It was down in Louisiana
Just a mile from Texarkana
In them old cotton fields at home

[Verse 3]
I was over in Arkansas
People ask me, "What you come here for?"
In them old cotton fields at home
I was over in Arkansas
People ask me, "What you come here for?"
In them old, old cotton fields at home

[Chorus]
Oh, when those cotton balls get rotten
You can't pick very much cotton
In them old cotton fields at home
It was down in Louisiana
Just a mile from Texarkana
In them old cotton fields at home

Oh, when those cotton balls get rotten
You can't pick very much cotton
In them old, old cotton fields at home
It was down in Louisiana
Just a mile from Texarkana
In them old, old cotton fields at home

[jhankline]

This is where rock n roll originated. If it wasnt for the blues . then there wouldnt be music

[felipemaldonado]

How could anyone dislike this song? Amazing! 😀😀😀

[sjmuffler]

"I think it was a day or two after that that his plane went down. And somebody – somebody I’d never seen before – handed me a Leadbelly record with the song “Cottonfields” on it. And that record changed my life right then and there. Transported me into a world I’d never known. It was like an explosion went off. Like I’d been walking in darkness and all of the sudden the darkness was illuminated. It was like somebody laid hands on me. I must have played that record a hundred times." - Bob Dylan

[katehansen]

My dad used to sing this song to me. Didn't know the name, or that Lead Belly recorded it.

[lindathiessen]

Amazing music. So good and real, right from the heart. ❤ He was a talented musician.

[AnthonyDavid]

I am so pleased to hear the original after so many years. I used to listen to a later version of the song on the radio when I was a kid.

[dil]

I always come back here to listen to this very good song
a big hug from Brazil

[becky]

some of the greatest FOLK MUSIC ever!!