Lead Belly - "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?" (also known as "Black Girl" and "In The Pines") lyrics, information, and comments

Edited by Azizi Powell

This post presents song lyrics and a sound file example of "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" (also known as "Black Girl" and "In The Pines" as sung by Lead Belly. This post also includes information & comments about this song from the Mudcat folk music forum and a comment from that sound file's viewer comment thread.

The content of this post is presented for folkloric, cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to the unknown composers of "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" ("Black Girl", "In The Pines"). Thanks also to the collectors of this song and thanks to Lead Belly for his renditions of this song. Thanks to the publisher of this sound file on YouTube and thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.

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SHOWCASE EXAMPLE: Lead Belly - Where Did You Sleep Last Night? (1944) (TRUE STEREO)



Boblyblitzbob, Uploaded on Feb 12, 2010

I used my forensic software to split the guitar from vocals in this classic recording. I then eq'd it and remixed the stems.
Probably one of the oldest songs in stereo.
-snip-
Here's a comment from this sound file's viewer comment thread*
Antonio Iglesias, 2014
"Huddie Ledbetter AKA Lead Belly: 1/20/1888

- In true songster fashion, this musician traveled throughout the United States with his iconic twelve-string guitar and expertly performed music in the genres of folk, gospel, and a number of blues styles (namely country and Delta). Though he often found himself incarcerated, he spent his time as a prisoner learning songs that he would perform throughout the rest of his life; on more than one occasion he even used his music as a means of early release. “Goodnight Irene”, “Black Betty”, and “In the Pines” (aka “Where Did You Sleep Last Night”) are just a few examples of his recordings that have gone on to influence artists from Peter Seeger and Creedence Clearwater Revival to Nirvana and Old Crow Medicine Show."

* WARNING: This sound file viewer comment thread contains a number of comments that include profanity and offensive language including a number of uses of the fully spelled out form of what is now commonly known as "the n word".

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LYRICS OF ONE VERSION OF "IN THE PINES" THAT LEAD BELLY SUNG

Black girl, black Girl, dont lie to me
Tell me where did you sleep last night?
In the pines, In the pines, Where the sun never shine
I shivered the whole night through.

Black girl, black girl, where will you go
Im going where the cold wind blows
In the pines, In the pines, Where the sun never shine
I will shiver the whole night through.

Black girl, black Girl, dont lie to me
Tell me where did you sleep last night?
In the pines, In the pines, Where the sun never shine
I shivered the whole night through.

My Husband was a Railroad man
Killed a mile and a half from here
His head, was found, In a drivers wheel
And his body hasn't never been found.

Black girl, black girl, where will you go
Im going where the cold wind blows
You called me to weep and you called me to moan
You called me to leave my home

Source: http://songmeanings.com/songs/view/3530822107858607935/

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INFORMATION & SELECTED COMMENTS ABOUT THIS SONG
From http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=1439

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: In the Pines (Joan Baez/Leadbelly?)
From: autoharpbob
Date: 02 Feb 10 - 10:01 AM

"Great version by Leadbelly, but the consensus seems to be the song predates him - like most around that time (Carter Family!) they were singing songs they already knew and claiming them for their own. Heard Sarah McQuaid do a haunting version of this recently."

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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: In the Pines (Joan Baez/Leadbelly?)
From: bobad
Date: 02 Feb 10 - 11:27 AM

"Leadbelly also sang it as "My girl, my girl......." "...
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: In the Pines (Joan Baez/Leadbelly?)

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From: GUEST,Doc John
Date: 02 Feb 10 - 12:06 PM

"Yes, bobad, he used to sing it that way sometimes and I heard he was none to keen to do so. White singers such as Cisco Houston used to sing 'My Girl' although Lonnie Donegan recorded it is 'Black Girl' again. Both superb versions. It's sometimes listed as both of these titles as well as 'Where Did You sleep Last Night?'

... The song always sounds like it's part of a longer one as is 'Who's Gonna Shoe Your Pretty Little Feet'"

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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: In the Pines (Joan Baez/Leadbelly?)
From: Goose Gander
Date: 03 Feb 10 - 03:57 PM

"More of a cluster of songs and floating verses than a song. Common to black and white singers in the American South in the early twentieth century. I would be very surprised if anyone could find an 'original' of this one."

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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: In the Pines (Joan Baez/Leadbelly?)
From: Q
Date: 03 Feb 10 - 06:00 PM

" "Black Girl" seems to be the earliest version collected; 1917 by Sharp; only one verse:

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."

According to Wikipedia, the "longest train" verses were added and recorded in 1925. In a 1970 thesis, some 160 permutations of the song appear."
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Here's the link to the Wikipedia page for this song: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Pines

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: In the Pines (Joan Baez/Leadbelly?)
From: Sarah McQuaid
Date: 05 Feb 10 - 10:05 AM

..."Also known as 'Black Girl' and 'Where Did You Sleep Last Night', this song is often credited to Huddie Ledbetter, a.k.a. Lead Belly (1888-1949), but in fact it dates back to at least the 1870s, and is probably Southern Appalachian in origin. Cecil Sharp collected it from a Miss Lizzie Abner in Oneida, Kentucky, on 18 August, 1917, under the name 'Black Girl' and comprising just four lines:

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

In Long Steel Rail: The Railroad in American Folksong (2000), Norm and David Cohen write:

Two years later, Newman I. White obtained four lines that a student of his had heard sung by a black railroad work gang in Buncombe County, North Carolina:

The longest train I ever saw
Was on the Seaboard Air Line,
The engin pas' at a ha' pas' one,
And the caboose went pas' at nine.

In 1921-22, Frank C. Brown obtained a long text from Parl Webb of Pineola, Avery County, North Carolina, that included both the "in the pines" couplet and the "longest train" couplet ... during the years 1921-22, Brown did obtain recordings of "In The Pines" – the earliest ones to be made"...
-snip-
This discussion threads also includes other lyrics to this song, including the lyrics of a version sung by Joan Baez.

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