Shiver the whole night through
Thursday, October 8, 2009 at 7:25 PM In Lead Belly’s version of “Where Did You Sleep Last Night,” the lyrics are expressed with a soulful sorrow, conveying the sorrow of the song, especially when the narrator changes from the dead husband to the recent widow. The form of the song is alternating A/B stanzas, which transforms into three consecutive A stanzas when the widow narrates her husband’s fate, and returns to A/B after her narration is over. The expression changes only when the narration changes, and even then only subtly in terms of pitch. To differentiate A stanzas from B stanzas, Lead Belly uses a slight variation on length and a deeper note in the middle of the last line of B, while A deepens, although not to the same depth as B, all the way at the end of the line. A curious aspect of this song is the lack of a single melody- both the stanzas starting with “my girl” and those starting with “in the pines” have a memorable, get-stuck-in-your-head quality—perhaps because of the simplicity of the accompaniment and the similarity of the stanzas, both in terms of lyrics and accompaniment.
Reader Comments (5)
Sinclair – very thorough and acute observations about the form of “Where Did You Sleep Last Night?” The main thing to remember with this song, actually, it that it doesn’t really distinguish different sections; the melody is HIGHLY repetitive, to the point where a distinctive B section isn’t really even present. You could even call it an AA’ song with A’ being “in the pines, in the pines…” (don’t feel like you should’ve known this though, as I know we went over only songs with distinctive sections in lecture). I’m a bit a little unsure what you mean by “lack of a single melody;” maybe this is something you can explain further? I agree that the song’s simplicity does make it especially memorable, especially since it’s so haunting. I’d encourage you, if you choose to expand on this discussion in any essay, to consider how the song’s “soulful sorrow” connects it to authenticity. I’d encourage you also to compare this song to Bill Monroe’s version, especially considering the overall tone of each song (you’ve got Lead Belly’s pegged already – sad, simple, dark). Make a list of as many differences as you can, and then try to explain those differences in an essay (if you choose to). Don’t worry about being “right” -- we don’t expect you to do outside research (though you’re certainly welcome to), but just try to offer some reasons as to whether or not each song is authentic, and why they’re different.
I really enjoyed your paragraph because I had trouble figuring out what the stanzas were in the A and B way. For some reason though the song has a simple and memorable sound, I think that I was just over looking it. And now reading Sarah's response with maybe making it A and AA instead of A and then B I am sorta getting confused. Could you expand more if you have time? Thanks =)
Hikari Iwasaki claims that in Newton John’s version of “On the Banks of the Ohio”, the conventional power roles of men and women are switched in her cover of the song because she modifies the lyrics of the song to reflect a female perspective, and the woman is taking control and murdering her lover. In a sense, then, this song can be viewed almost as empowering. What do you think of this? Do you agree? Do you think that’s why it’s shocking? Do you think this sense of semi-empowerment keeps the song from feeling "creepy", like some students observed about the Kossoy Sisters? You can read Hikari’s post here: (http://benleedscarson.com/by-banks-in-pines/author/hikariiwasaki ). Also, do you think Olivia Newton John is MORE authentic because she is modifying the song to reflect her own personal experience (hypothetically)? Can you think of any other examples of women modifying lyrics to reflect a female perspective in a similar way (Youtube video?!)
(If this doesn’t seem relevant to your post, please think about it and make comments anyway, because it is relevant to the class! Also, make sure you’re commenting on other students’ posts, not necessarily just replying to me, your TA.)
So many different things to consider!
I did end up comparing the Monroe and Lead Belly recordings for the essay, but I decided to avoid comparing forms since I seemed to be a little muddled on it. As for the comment about the lack of a single melody, I have no other way to explain it but to use the notion of ringtones. You know how some songs, there's a specific part of the song that gets stuck in your head or used in commercials or used as a ridiculously popular ringtone? THis song lacks that, I think, unless you're using the Unplugged Nirvana version, where I'd probably point to the guitar solo. The melody, in most popular music, is the section repeated the most, usually the only repeated section, yes? However, this song has so much repetition that it's hard to distinguish what are lyrics and what is the melody, but perhaps that's just a silly idea I have.
Now that you mention it, the form as A AA makes way more sense than A B A, just 'cos there's so little differentiation, except for subtle note changes and length. Maybe that contributes to my theory that there's no single melody, because the form is the same, the memorable rhymth that gets stuck in your head can be put to any lyrics you can recall.
As much as I love the idea of female empowerment, I'm not sure murder is the right way to go about it. The creepy feeling I got from the Kossoy Sisters recording I also got from the male artists' recordings of "On The Banks Of The Ohio," just because the concept of murdering someone just because they refuse to love you or to marry you is creepy to me, a bizarre corruption of love into power. I think Newton John attempts to be more authentic to herself and her audience by modifying the lyrics, but in that, she ruins the authenticity of the song itself.
I was going to think of a brilliant example of women modifying lyrics to show a female perspective when I realized two things, I don't listen to any covers, and all of the artists I listen to are dead males. Yay me.
Sinclair
You had a very thorough analysis of the form of the song which I liked a lot. You could probably also talk about the accompianment in the song if that interests you at all. I also enjoyed your observation of the parts of the song that an audience finds catchy.