The Importance of Being Leadbelly
"Women and Liquor, that was his problem. My father got him to marry his girl, Martha, and that settled him for a while, a week or two. He called himself 'the twelve-string champion guitar player of the world,' and I guess he was. I never heard anybody who could play it better. He loved being the best. He wanted to stay the best as long as he was alive."He's just a name on a lot of lists: the fourth or fifth name on a list of influences, never first, and all too often not mentioned at all where appropriate. He's also an ex-convict, who was a sweet old man only while sober, which wasn't often enough. But by looking at the people he influenced, you can see that Huddie Ledbetter, Leadbelly, was redeemable no matter what he did aside from making music. The self-proclaimed "King of the Twelve-String Guitar" was more aptly the "Godfather of the Twelve-String Gui-tar," being inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 as an influence. He died poor and pitiful of a form of multiple sclerosis, and six months afterward his first hit song was a million-seller for another group. And every generation thereafter earned a new respect for a band that used one of
" My small collection of albums (A little more than 250 albums), including Nirvana's Unplugged In New York, Clapton's Unplugged, Pearl Jam's "Jeremy" single, some Leadbelly, and a lot of Hen-drix. If it's lights shined upon you, you were on the open side of the wall, the free side. Kurt Cobain, the frontman for the band, made a joke prior to starting the song about how he was recently propositioned Leadbelly's guitar for $200,000 and how his label's president/owner, David Geffin, wouldn't buy it for him. While Bob Dylan (no stranger to seeing his songs made famous by others) and several others have recorded the song in Alexander's style, contemporarily credited to Dave Van Ronk, the song that the Ani-mals made their fortune on was lyric-for-lyric more of a match to Leadbelly's version. " It was bizarre because Lonnie Donnegan played skiffle, which is a British version of what the hillbillies of America would play. In 1970, Leadbelly was paid homage to again for one of his angriest compositions when Credence Clearwater Revival covered "The Midnight Special" on their album, Willie and the Poor Boys. These guys were something of a hybrid of bubble gum pop - like the Monkees - and heavy metal - like Led Zeppelin. Pages 495-496Stambler, Irwin, Encyclopedia of Folk, Country, and Western Music. Admittedly, most of the songs were not writ-ten by Ledbetter, but had his own special guitar work behind it - enough to garner w writing credit for him-self and Lomax. In 1992, Eric Clapton, arguably one of the greatest guitar players of all time, covered "Alberta" on his 1992 set. And John Lomax was indeed quite a benefit for Leadbelly as far as credit is concerned. Ledbetter and Seeger knew each other from their political connec-tions, and often played together at rallies for assorted causes. Perhaps this came from the place itself, as Leadbelly spent some time playing on Fannin Street in New Orleans, and happened to catch an affliction from one of its ladies of ill repute.
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Acceptance Essays
