In The Pines

Who was Leadbelly?

That was the central question that we were told to consider this week, about it's a question that's almost unanswerable because of how little of Leadbelly we can know and see beyond the surface. Leadbelly on stage was an amazing performer, but without doing further research, nobody (or certainly I never did) would know he was also a prisoner and murderer. There are obviously multiple sides to the same man, and all of these identities juxtaposed besides each other really reminds me how Leadbelly has experience the full gamut of human experience. I know Leadbelly dealt with a lot of failure in his lifetime, but also overwhelming success with his music and performances that made him a musical legend. His proliferous musical talents were accompanied by a deadly temper that made him gain notoriety over fame. I feel like the real Leadbelly is nothing like the role he played in the "Newsreel" story, where although Leadbelly was playing himself, everything he said sounded so scripted and forced it was almost comical. The real authentic man, the legend and the murderer, is comprised of so many different dimensions that we will never get a deep understanding of him as a whole, but I wonder if he knew himself that well at all by the end of his life.

In The Pines was one of my favorite song of this week, because of its resounding, eerie, and foreboding sound. The song tells of extremely dark subject matter as well: a girl who has done something she shouldn't have, and is running away in a dark forest from the consequences. It seems like somebody is pursuing this girl, waiting in the forest to find and confront her (but I sense murderous intents). In my piece, I pictured the image of a girl escaping her chaser in the darkness of a pine tree forest, and the thought of being in the girl's shoes alone makes me feel a flitter of terror inside. The song honestly gives me some shivers, especially after hearing Nirvana's grunge cover of it with all the instruments and Kurt Cobain's voice adding many new layers of depth to it. I'm glad that the recent covers have introduced this song to the newer generation, because every new cover gives it a different and extremely interesting sound to a classic original.