My girl, my girl, don't lie to me. Tell me, where did yo

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American Music

• British Folk roots

2
Where Did You Sleep Last Night Nirvana

• My girl, my girl, don't lie to me Tell me, where
  did you sleep last night? In the pines, in the
  pines, where the sun don't ever shine I would
  shiver the whole night through.
• Her husband was a hard-working man Just about a
  mile from here His head was found in the
  driver's wheel But his body never was found.
• My girl, my girl, where will you go? I'm going
  where the cold wind blows In the pines, in the
  pines, where the sun don't ever shine I would
  shiver the whole night through. Nirvana, 1993

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Origins of Where did you Sleep last night?

• Nirvana/Cobain credit blues legend Huddie Lead
  Belly Ledbetter (1880S-1949) who recorded the
  song in 1944.
• LYRICS
• Black girl, black girl, don't lie to me
  Where did you stay last night? I stayed in the
  pines where the sun never shines And shivered
  when the cold wind blows.

4
Colorful Life

• 1918 Killed a man-sent to prison
• 1925 Wrote a song and was pardoned
• by governor of Texas
• 1930 sent to LA prison for fighting
• Discovered by Alan Lomax who was
• recording prison work songs.
• After singing a new ballad for the LA
• governor and at the request of Lomax,
• Lead Belly was again freed from prison.
• During the 50s, Lead Belly was an influential
  figure in the folk revival movement.
• During the 60s and much later, Lead Belly
  influenced countless Rock Musicians

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A Blues or a Ballad?

• Lead Belly did not compose this song?
• It is an old English Ballad
• Earliest printed version was four lines and a
  melody compiled by Cecil Sharp in Kentucky in
  1917.
• Another variant, was recorded in 1925 by a folk
  collector onto cylinder, a precursor of the
  phonograph.
• Origins of the song date back 1870s
• Over 160 known versions
• Joan Baez Pete Seeger, the country pioneers
  Dolly Parton, Bill Monroe and Chet Atkins, the
  rockers Sir Douglas Quintet and Duane Eddy, the
  pop vocalist Connie Francis and the jazz
  saxophonist Clifford Jordan.

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Complex origins of AmericanRock Music

• A song like Where Did You Sleep Last Night
  hints towards the role of Black/African American
  and White/European American origins.
• Ironic that Cobain (and many others rockers)
  emulated a black blues man who in turn was
  emulating a white Appalachian Hillbilly!
• Consider the role of Folklorist Alan Lomax who
  secured Lead Bellys release from Jail and
  recorded so many of his songs for future
  generations.

7
Woody Guthrie (1912-1967) bio

• Documented in 1940 by Alan Lomax
• Born in Indian Territory, Oklahoma
• Traveled as hobo during 1930s depression
  witnessing pressures and troubles of ordinary
  people Talkin Dust Bowl
• Style known as talkin Blues, developed by Led
  Belly but popularized by Woody
• Do Re Mi (treatment of Migrants from Texas)
• Ani DiFranco version
• This Land is Your Land (1940)
• Bruce Springsteen Version
• Response to Irving Berlins God Bless America
• Grand Coulee Dam (lyrics)
• The Bonneville Power Authority placed Woody on
  the Federal payroll for a month

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Folk Music Revival Late 1950s-1960s

• Name some Folk Revival musicians?
• Joan Baez, Peter Paul and Mary, Bob Dylan, Pete
  Seeger
• What was the inspiration for the folk revival?
  (What was the musical, political, and economic
  environment in the late 50s, early 60s?)
• Beat Poets (Counterculture movement of the 50s)
• Post-WWII conformity pressures
• McCarthyism
• Later fueled by British Invasion
• Labor movement of the 1950s, Civil Rights
  Movement of the 1960s

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Folk Music Revival
Kingston Trio 1957 The Merry Minuet (1953)
If I had a Hammer Lyrics Pete Seeger

• Peter, Paul and Mary
• (website)
• Puff the Magic Dragon
• Blowin in the Wind (vid)
• Leaving on a Jet Plane
• Dont Laugh at Me

Bio
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Folk Music Revival

• Joan Baez
• Born in 1941
• Her father was a physicist who refused to work
  for the war industries
• His influence led to Joans political activism
• In the 1950s, she lived in Boston where there
  was an up-and coming folk music scene
• Began folk career at the 1959 Newport Folk
  Festival
• Introduced Bob Dylan to the folk scene.

Joan Baez and Bob Dylan in 1963
Baezs cover of Dylans Blowin in the Wind
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Bob Dylan (b. Robert Zimmerman, 1941)

• Influenced by Guthrie (met in 1961)
• Distinctive voice
• Poetic and provocative lyrics
• Transformed musical and political worlds of 1960s
• First album (1962) contains
• Song to Woody, based on melody of Guthries song
  1913 Massacre
• Talkin New York, rooted in the Talkin Blues
  like Talking Fishing Blues

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Bob Dylan (cont)

• FreeWheelin Bob Dylan(1963)
• A Hard Rains A-Gonna Fall
• Example of early Dylan
• Acoustic guitar
• Similar musically and lyrically to folk ballad
• What social commentary is Dylan making?
• Lyrics
• The Times They Are a-Changin (1964)
• The Times They Are a-Changin
• Video (Folk Career)