ESSAY for UNIT 1

A comparison to Leadbelly’s “Where Did You Sleep Last Night?” to Kurt Cobain’s rerecorded version in 1993 MTV Unplugged.

The song “Where Did You Sleep Last Night” was originally sang by Leadbelly back in the 1870’s and was later rerecorded by Kurt Cobain in the 1990’s, the same lyrics but a different melody. The song is described to have “great harmonies, very emotional, and the perfect song for simple people” (7). Leadbelly, a murderer and ex-prisoner, didn’t have very much success with the African audience but was liked by the white people. The white audience found that his lyrics were primitive, to keep it real and “rebel against commercial expectations” (2). His experience in prison provides a legitimate idea that all his songs came from his heart and soul thus eliminating the image that he’s fake. The song “Where Did You Sleep Last Night?” has become popular within the white community and described to be folklore that has been passed down from generation to generation because it’ something people believed was a song that open doors to artists to have a authentic image in the media. The song doesn’t make people want to swing but the storyline, its simplicity and authenticity, attracts the audience.

The song is about a girl who hides in the pines because it is dark and isolated. Her husband was just killed by train but his body was never found. The girl wants seclusion from the world because of her husband passing away, the pines alludes to her feeling inside. The pines, where the sun doesn’t shine, reveals her sadness and fear of what the world out there has for her, now that her husband is gone. The pines are not very comforting to her because the cold wind blows and she shivers. Audiences perceive this to be authentic because it was native to Leadbelly’s life. This is my perception of the song; the girl’s behavior is Leadbelly’s experience in prison. After Leadbelly murders the man, he goes to prison that parallels to the characteristics of the pines. Prisons are dark, secluded, the sun doesn’t shine, the cold walls/floor with a very think blanket, and Leadbelly shiver through the night. Leadbelly’s storyline captures the audience attention because at this time, there’s the need to hear an artist that represents authenticity. And John Lomax thought, what is more authentic than a person that has experienced the tragedies of life, a prisoner who sings about freedom with the advantage that Leadbelly’s mind has not been tainted by the expectations of recording industries to popularize music.

Leadbelly sang the song with a calm melody; it is enticing to an audience that wants to be comforted by the tragedies of life. Leadbelly asks the girl, “Tell me what happened down there?” The tone of the song is friendly and Leadbelly reaches out to girl without frightening her. But the lyrics of the song sounds impersonal because he says “black girl” instead of “my girl.” Leadbelly uses black girl because racism was very much prevalent in the 1800’s and the use of black girl might be a reference to the need of freedom for all black people enslaved by the white ruling class. Although the use of black girl perceives to be impersonal because it’s a broader idea of any girl, not “my girl,” in Leadbelly’s opinion, it sounds personal because of the race situation at the time. I feel that the calm melody doesn’t dramatize the storyline because there’s a balance in the song. The storyline stands by itself intense and exaggerating the melody to the same level of intensity as the storyline takes away the essence of the whole the story, a sad girl who is scared.

Very much influenced by Leadbelly’s authenticity, Kurt Cobain also felt the need to project a genuine image for his audience. Although he didn’t murder anyone or spend decades in a prison, he experienced an unpleasant childhood, suffered from drug use and health problems. Kurt Cobain felt the need to please his fans that believed he was the “real thing in the fake business” (5) and audiences are attracted to artists that portray the real conditions of their life. He wanted project a real image before he received all the fame, his authentic behavior and characteristic. Cobain reused Leadbelly’s “Where Did You Sleep Last Night?” because of its primitiveness. But Cobain changed all the chords from major to minor, slowed down the tempo, and changed very few words. The idea was to exaggerate the sadness of the girl and in a sense to make it more powerful. By forcing on the high notes to the song, Leadbelly’s original version becomes more obsess with the girl’s sadness towards the husband’s death and in a sense, when he screams the words at the end, it sounds scarier than it should be. And Cobain was consumed with the ideas about “death and grisly subjects” (7).

The change of chords gives the song more life to it instead of the mundane melody of Leadbelly’s version. Recreating the sound to make it a rock song modernizes the song to the current era. There is still a trace of Leadbelly’s idea of a calm atmosphere to the song and after singing all the verses, he repeats the “first sotto voce and raises his voice an octave” (8). To some people this might have been a major change that made the song much better than its original version. It becomes more emotional and heart felt and the use of my girl also says that the girl is someone close to him. Cobain accomplishes the authentic image through this and his other songs, but he died for the cause. I personally think both versions are great and reveals two different emotions, one being a very comforting and friendly idea and the other, overwhelmed with emotions (which is a good thing in Cobain’s version). But as far as being authentic to please the fans, I think people stop being real when they feel the need to please the fans. To some extent, artists stay true to themselves but once an artist experiences the fame and luxury of the media hype, that realness is altered, for popular musicians it’s inevitable not to change.