Music's Most Iconic Murderer (Leadbelly)

in the world of music hoodie ledbetter otherwise known as lead belly is a well-known icon whose innovative style changed the way that certain artists play the blues and folk music by the time he died he was known as the king of the 12-string guitar which was a nickname he actually gave to himself at the beginning but by the time his career was over everybody was calling him that he not only left behind a vast discography of compelling music but his life story is arguably more interesting than his musical endeavors from prison breaks to murder to a treasure trove of compelling art this man's life truly had it all and that's what we're going to be having a look at today this is the insane life of lead belly but before we get into that a big thank you to raycon for sponsoring this episode of morbid musicians obviously we talk a lot about music on this channel and when you're listening to this music you're going to want to have the best earbuds possible raycon's new everyday earbuds are a great choice they have an improved look and feel and they used optimized gel tips that help them fit in your ears perfectly they offer 8 hours of straight play time and they have a 32 hour battery life as someone who used to use wireless headphones that i'd have to charge every day having a battery that lasts this long is an absolute game changer on top of that they have a built-in mic so you can take calls with the click of one button they also won't break the bank they start at half the price of similar brands and on top of that you can get up to percent off your first purchase by using the link in my description or going to buy raycon dot com forward slash deburk that's by raycon dot com forward slash d burke and if you're not happy with your purchase they have a 45 day happiness guarantee so you can return them no charge thanks again to raycon for sponsoring this episode now let's get into the video it's hard to tell when lead belly was actually born because there is discrepancies between the recorded senses and the information provided by people close to him but the most popular answer is january 20th 1888. either way it was the late 1800s and his parents sally brown and wesley ledbetter raised him in mooring sport louisiana according to the blues encyclopedia led belly had an okay upbringing but still dropped out of school at 12 years old at this point his family was in texas and soon after this he was living next to his parents in bowie county with his wife aletha henderson at this stage hoodie had already been introduced to music through his uncle tyrell who at first gave him an accordion but later was credited with also introducing him to the guitar and teaching him the basics however the renowned ability he would later achieve did not come from his uncle but instead came from a sort of cocktail of musically defining moments the timeline here is a little messy and there are some holes in what really happened but regardless of how patchy the story is the result was the same so to start off in his early career lead belly often performed at a place called saint paul's bottoms which was a notorious red light district in louisiana that introduced a lead belly to saloons brothels and dance halls playing an array of different music that would help leadbelly have an open mind when it came to his sound secondly lead belly started playing with an artist known as blind lemon jefferson in texas who helped him improve his skill set on the guitar jefferson was an intricate player who didn't follow the conventional norms of blues and it's entirely possible that his unique style rubbed off on lead belly when they played together finally and most importantly at some point in the early 1900s lead belly began to use a 12-string guitar instead of the traditional six-string guitar this allegedly came from lead belly witnessing a mexican musician using the instrument and since then it became his forte this would become a staple of lead belly's music the area he played in the teacher he had and the 12-string guitar he used were all formative parts of lead belly's earlier musical endeavors and it's clear that he was not only becoming a well-rounded unique musician but that he was ready to take it seriously so much so that in his early 20s he left his home and his family he had at least two children at this stage and was still married to aletha henderson but even with all of that he only seemed to truly care about traveling around america with his music in the early 1910s he lined the railroad tracks picked cotton and played his music to whoever would listen around the southwest of america this lifestyle seemed to have been working he was described as a very hard worker and his music was clearly getting better so led belly seemed to be heading in the right direction but in the mid-1910s something pretty bizarre happened that changed the course of lead belly's life in 1915 lead belly was arrested for possessing a pistol and assault in texas and was subsequently sent to work with the harrison county chain gang for 30 days this did not last long however because after only a couple of days with the chain gang he escaped from custody allegedly outrunning the officer's dogs in the process after this he stayed in texas and used a fake name walter boyd which he used to find work in bowie county this pseudonym lasted for a few years but in december of 1917 he found himself in some serious trouble when he shot and killed one of his relatives will stafford over a woman it looked like lead belly would be spending the rest of his life in prison or at the very least he wouldn't be getting out for a few decades however he figured out a system that seemed to work in his favor he would sing to the prisoners and the guards and he also generally stayed under the radar and didn't violate any of the prison's rules he did find himself in a pretty serious situation when another prisoner stabbed him in the neck he almost killed the assailant in retaliation but both he and the attacker survived this attack left him with a nasty scar on his neck that he would cover up with the bandana in later years this actually became a staple of his aesthetic and the incident in question added to his already dangerous image but his image in prison was fairly clean and he used this to his advantage when he asked for his freedom by writing a song to pat morris neff the governor of texas at the time neff had strong principles and had actually stated that he had no intention to issue any pardons when he came into power but lead belly seemed to be the exception between the song his good behavior and the fact that he had served seven years of his sentence which was the minimum amount at the time governor neph decided to issue the pardon in 1925 and led belly was a free man this freedom lasted around 5 years and in this time lead belly essentially continued what he was already doing before picking up odd jobs that he could get and playing his music in his free time however if you haven't figured it out by now lead belly had a pretty abrasive personality and quite the temper he was also an alcoholic and this would lead him down a dangerous road that unfortunately ended up with him being back in prison in 1930. this time it was for attempted murder after he got into another fight his temper and alcoholism had yet again led him to prison and it wasn't looking like lead belly was headed down a road that would lead anywhere but fortunately for him he met somebody while he was in prison that would change his life forever the early 1930s saw the peak of the great depression in the united states unemployment was ridiculously high and around 20 percent of all americans were unemployed people were losing their jobs left right and center and one man who lost almost everything was john lomax not only did he lose his job at the bank that he worked at but his wife also passed away around the same time lomax went into a deep depression but was pulled out of it by his oldest son alan lomax who recommended that they tour america and search for folk songs something that john lomax used to do as a job their goal was to make an anthology of music that they found and they would go from town to town searching for underground artists specifically african american folk musicians who wouldn't normally be given a platform you can probably guess where this story is going one day while they were visiting a prison in louisiana they came across lead belly and were instantly impressed later they returned to the prison with some recording equipment and recorded hundreds of his songs this was most likely the first time he had ever been recorded somewhat properly which was baffling considering how talented he was and the fact that he was now in his 40s lomax was so impressed by him that he took a petition and a lead belly recording to the louisiana governor oscar k allen requesting that lead belly be released soon after this request was made lead belly actually was released but the governor and the prison claimed that this was simply because of good behavior and because of budget cuts however leadbelly hadn't even served his minimum sentence yet and both him and lomax believed that the recording they had sent the governor had worked and they were covering their tracks because this was the second time that ledbelly had successfully sung his way out of jail regardless of the reason lead belly was yet again a free man he was out of prison but everything was far from perfect it was the middle of the great depression and he was just released from prison it's safe to say that nobody was going to hire lead belly and because of this he asked john lomax for some kind of job lomax took him on as his driver and for three months they traveled around the states together searching for folk music this helped lead belly learn even more about the world of music and being with somebody as knowledgeable as john lomax was definitely beneficial to lead belly's music in december of 1934 led belly participated in a group sing at a college where lomax was doing a lecture there were members of the press that wrote sensationalist articles about the performing convict and the man who sung his way out of prison it wasn't the most flattering depiction of lead belly but it led to quite a bit of recognition and probably because of this surge of interest lomax agreed to become lead belly's manager through a friend he managed to get lead belly signed to arc records and in january of 1934 they recorded a handful of songs with him that would be the first lead belly recordings ever released they also did a short promotional tour that included interviews write-ups and articles about lead belly but unfortunately this didn't lead to any significant sales this may have been because the label didn't release any of his folk songs instead opting to only release the blues songs that he recorded even though the former would prove to become much more popular in the future another reason may have been the way they marketed him many articles focused on his crimes his race and pretty much anything controversial that they could get their hands on except for his actual music maybe if they allowed him to release the music he was better at making or if they simply marketed him as a musician his earlier work could have been more popular but alas this didn't happen this meant that he made very little money from his music but he did make some money from his touring however this also came to an abrupt end in march of 1935 when john lomax decided that he could not work with lead belly anymore the reason was yet again his alcoholism he decided to give lead belly and his new wife martha promise some money to get home but he said that he would not pay the full amount he was owed for the shows because lead belly would waste it all on alcohol instead he stated that he would pay the money in installments lead belly was not happy about this at all and he successfully sued lomax for the amount that he was owed this lawsuit was also the death of their partnership it was alleged that things got very tense between the pair and it was clear that they weren't going to work together ever again lead belly actually did reach out one final time suggesting that they mend their differences but this didn't lead anywhere this was unfortunate because although there was some controversies about the way lomax managed lead belly they made a lot of progress with promotion shows and the actual recordings they may have got there by some unconventional means but lead belly was now more known than ever before which set him up to become the musician that he's remembered as it may have been a short period of time but this chapter is incredibly important in the story of lead belly and his partnership with john lomax changed everything [Music] in 1939 lead belly went to prison for a final time this is when the previously mentioned alan lomax john sun decided to help lead belly with his legal fees and later his music career allen had a show on cbs with director nicholas ray called back where i come from lead belly became a regular on this show which helped propel his name further new york's folk scene was also on the rise in the early 1940s and ledbelly along with a few others were at the forefront of this all of this led him to being signed with capital records in 1944 he moved to california and started to record and it's safe to say that production wise some of the best lead belly records ever recorded were done in this time frame from 1944 to 1948 he recorded songs like irene backwater blues and where did you sleep last night some of his singles were compiled to make the album midnight special which is not only now considered to be an iconic folk album but it's also very important because it's the last lead belly album that was released while he was still alive because soon after this he died so in theory 1949 was lead belly's most successful year he had his own radio show called folk songs of america which is pretty self-explanatory and he was continuing to do shows across america however his music had left the states and he actually had a fan base in europe he is widely considered to be the first american blues artist to establish a presence in europe and he took advantage of this by going on a european tour that started in france unfortunately this tour was cut short when he fell ill and had to return home shortly after he was diagnosed with als and he was dying however before he died he performed his final ever show at the university of texas in austin in honor of john lomax who died a year prior this was a very fitting way to bring things full circle and to say goodbye to the world of music on the 6th of december 1949 hoodie ledbetter passed away and it's safe to say that in his 61 years in this world leadbelly changed music forever there was only 25 days left of the 40s when lead belly died meaning he pretty much lived through all of it and it's safe to say that the 40s was leadbelly's most successful decade by far and it's actually a pretty amazing contrast when you look at the way his life went previously in the 20s he was serving a life sentence for literally killing one of his family members in the 30s he was in prison again and ended up suing his friend and mentor and in the 40s he was a married man with his own radio show a music career that literally took him to europe and he was one of the most recognizable faces of the american folk scene i'm not saying everything was perfect of course there was a little war that happened in the 40s that i'm sure was stressful for him and everybody around him but in comparison to his earlier life leadbelly had hit his stride and cemented his legacy his music would live on through the artist he influenced his impact on folk and blues music was undeniable but he transcended even that george harrison stated if there was no lead belly there would be no lonnie donegan if there was no lonnie dunigan there'd be no beetles therefore no lead belly no beetles as well as this bob dylan cited him as his main influence and most famously lead belly was kurt cobain's favorite artist which led to nirvana covering his rendition of where did you sleep last night on mtv unplugged this cover was immensely popular and it introduced a younger audience to the works of lead belly i could talk about his influence in the world of music for hours but this video is mostly just to serve as a jumping off point if you want to find out more about the impact that this man made just go looking for it and i guarantee that you will find it everywhere and that is it for this video thank you very much for watching and thank you to raycon yet again for sponsoring this video don't forget to check out the link in the description if you want to find out more about their everyday earbuds i'll leave a couple episodes here if you want to go check them out along with my second channel d burke i will see you soon as always until next time

Channel: Deburke321

Views: 447,453

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Id: ejGVj4UZIWI

Length: 16min 28sec (988 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 30 2021