Talk:Lead Belly/Archive 1

Lead Belly or Leadbelly?
Ok, for once and for all: is it Lead Belly or Leadbelly? -- Face 18:53, 15 June 2006 (UTC)
 * Who ever said it was "Lead Belly"? If they did I missed it. Leadbelly has about 6 times as many ghits. Leadbelly vs. Lead belly. Mak (talk)  18:58, 15 June 2006 (UTC)
 * Well, this article is named Leadbelly, the infobox lists him as Leadbelly, but the rest of the article calls him Lead Belly. Most people and AMG may call him Leadbelly, but his grave says Lead Belly. -- Face 19:26, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

He called himself Lead Belly. The Lead Belly Foundation insist on the name Lead Belly, not Leadbelly. As with all nicknames I suppose spelling is open to interpretation. 26-09-06. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.2.152.143 (talk • contribs) at 14:35, 26 September 2006 (UTC)
 * Ok, shouldn't we just call him "Lead Belly"? Even though most people call him "Leadbelly"? I will mail the Lead Belly foundation and ask their opinion about this. -- Face 12:09, 4 October 2006 (UTC)
 * Sorry for my slow reaction, but it seems that the e-mail adres (mailto:leadbellymusic@leadbelly.org) on the Lead Belly Foundation isn't reachable anymore. Still, I think it should be "Lead Belly", because of his grave and because the foundation calls him that way. Is there more evidence? -- Face 19:21, 19 October 2006 (UTC)
 * I don't know. "Leadbelly" is much more common, and used on the albums an whatnot. -- Cúchullain t/ c 22:02, 19 October 2006 (UTC)
 * According to the liner notes of the various Smithsonian/Folkways CDs, the proper spelling is "Lead Belly". The original Folkways releases also had this spelling, and all subsequent Smithsonian/Folkways CDs also feature this spelling. I don't personally think that an encyclopedia should boast an incorrect spelling for an article's title simply because of public perception (should an article on Marven Gardens be titled Marvin Gardens simply because of Monopoly boards?). With this in mind, shouldn't the article be retitled in recognition of this? -- Kevinloy 01:29, 26 October 2006 (UTC)
 * Looking at my albums, you're correct. We definitely should move it.--Cúchullain t/ c 19:45, 26 October 2006 (UTC)
 * I've moved the page and changed the spelling from "Leadbelly" to "Lead Belly" throughout (except in reference to the film title), as well as adding a passage about the debate. I don't have time to check for double redirects, though. Can somebody else handle at least part of that? (If so, thanks in advance) Kevinloy 17:57, 28 October 2006 (UTC)
 * Agree. I have gone through the listed songs and all redirects and changed what I can. That was some work. I hope it is worth it, cause I am still not entirely sure about this. The foundation insists on Lead Belly, and his grave calls him that. But isn't Elvis' grave misspelled too? Some of his records call him Lead Belly, but the majority says Leadbelly. But ofcourse, the majority isn't always right. -- Face 10:24, 29 October 2006 (UTC)
 * Thanks! As far as his name goes, if it were only on his grave, I would understand your concern. However, here is the compiler's note from one of the Smithsonian/Folkways CDs, which should (hopefully) put this to rest -- "Lead Belly's name has been frequently spelled Leadbelly over the years. We have spelled it Lead Belly at the request of the Ledbetter family. This is the way Lead Belly wanted it. Moses Asch spelled it that way on his earliest recordings of Lead Belly." -- Kevinloy 16:06, 29 October 2006 (UTC)
 * Okay, I think I've taken care of the rest of the redirects. I think this is definitely the appropriate title; despite it seeming less known on the internet (for now, anyway), "Lead Belly" is preferred by his estate as well as major releasers of his works, and apparently the artist himself. Either way, the spellings are only slight variations that aren't different enough to really matter. This is similar to Sacagawea/Sacajawea; until a few years ago the latter spelling was best known, though it is clearly an error, and now almost all authorities on her use the "g" spelling.--Cúchullain t/ c 07:36, 30 October 2006 (UTC)

"Where Did You Sleep Last Night"
I think "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" was originally written by Lead Belly. Can anyone else confirm or deny this?
 * Did you consider checking the article Where Did You Sleep Last Night? It addresses this question.
 * It is good form to sign your contributions, by concluding it with four tildes ~ . --  Geo Swan 23:37, 3 September 2005 (UTC)

When Nirvana covered this song on their Unplugged album, there is a sentiment shared by vocalist Kurt Cobain that he was in position to buy Lead Belly's guitar from David Geffen for USD 500k. Not sure if this gives credence to the original question above, but it is likely related.--69.171.161.143 (talk) 22:57, 20 July 2010 (UTC)

Date of Birth
The paragraph of date of birth should list his date of birth as the first sentance rather then the last. A reader wants to know the birth date before they want to know the debate (which the article says is now setteled).

The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives Lead Belly's DOB as January 21, 1885. I'm not sure if there is or can be an accepted DOB for him, but I usually look to this source for the "official line" on such matters.Makemi 06:16, 24 December 2005 (UTC)

the Lead Belly's WWII Draft Registration Card say birth date january 23 of 1889 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 190.202.195.161 (talk) 21:44, 13 February 2012 (UTC)

Date of Birth #2
I'm not sure why Wiki keeps listing Lead Belly's birthday as January 21, 1885, but according to the Lead Belly Foundation he was born on January 20, 1889. His tombstone says 1889, so 1885 is definitely wrong. See photo here: http://www.deltablues.net/lead3.jpg
 * Because the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians lists it as January 21, 1885, and I usually take the New Grove as authoritative. The fact is, probably Leadbelly didn't even know his own birthdate, so it wouldn't be surprising if his tombstone was wrong. I have no idea how to judge which is correct, since neither source gives its source for the birthdate, that I know of. Mak (talk)  00:36, 26 June 2006 (UTC)
 * One problem, though; leadbelly.lanl.gov/leadbelly.html and The Leadbelly Web list his birthdate as January 29, 1885, and others list it as the year 1888 or 1889. So apparently his birthdate is a matter of debate, not on the accuracy of your source. Like Mak said, Leadbelly himself probably didn't know when he was born. --Kschwerdt514 20:30, 11 July 2006 (UTC)

I can settle this, once and for all, beyond any shadow of a doubt. "Hudy" Ledbetter, son of Wes and Sallie Ledbetter, is listed in the 1900 census in Harrison County, Texas. That census lists Hudy Ledbetter as being born on January, 1888, and being twelve years old. The 1910 census has Hudy Ledbetter married to Aletha. His age is listed as 22 which is consistent with 1888. The census of 1930, which finds him as an inmate,lists him as 42 (1888). There is no reason to doubt three census takers. The myths that Huddie helped create in order to spice up the details of a life that required no spicing up because he lived quite a life, may have created confusion about his birthdate. Confusion in remembering one's age or in calculating one's age occurred more frequently before ID's and Driver's Licenses. What evidence do you know of that suggests other years? What evidence does anyone offer that Leadbelly didn't know his own birthday. Who actually has evidence of a birthday differing from the date Leadbelly gave on his World War II draft registration? I am Daviddaniel37 (Family Quest), genealogist in Los Angeles. User_talk:Daviddaniel37
 * Impressive geneological information about Lead Belly, but I think it falls under WP:NOR (no original research) because there is not an outside publication cited -- true, you are citing primary documents, but there is no easy way for the average person to find the census documents - see the NOR guidelines. I would suggest publishing the information in a journal and then it could be cited from Wikipedia. There is a lot of what you wrote, for instance about people not forgetting their birthdates, which sounds like opinions. Also, by the way, to sign comments you can use the 10th button in the edit menu, the one that looks like a signature. I also re-edited to make it clearer that the February date is his parents' wedding date, as someone else already misinterpreted that in an edit.--Larrybob 19:53, 15 June 2007 (UTC)

Photos
It would be better to include a picture of Lead Belly in which he is holding a guitar. This, not the accordion, was his primary instrument. -- takthemud, 8:10, 29 Jan 2006 (UTC)
 * I wholeheartedly agree. Surely there is something in the public domain more appropriate? OldDaedalus 02:50, 22 February 2006 (UTC)
 * Just so you know, I have changed the picture of Lead Belly from the one of him holding his accordion to the one of him holding his guitar. --Kschwerdt514 20:26, 11 July 2006 (UTC)

O.K. Allen Pardon
This, like many aspects of Lead Belly's legend, is disputed; there is no evidence to prove that Allen ever listened to Leadbelly's song. The "pardon" was in fact in response to a petition for release on good behavior, as budgetary restraints due to the Depression were causing prisons to look for ways to cut costs. I'd be more than happy to rework it, but I won't have opportunity to do so for a few weeks. If someone else wanted to fix it up in the meantime, that'd sure be swell. :) OldDaedalus 08:44, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

Midnight Special
Im going to remove the part which says Leadbelly wrote Midnight Special, it cites a Lomax book which is probably just a load of bs, (especially considering the fact that Sam Collins commertially recorded the song in 1929, years before Leadbelly was even recorded by Lomax) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.151.44.47 (talk) 10:42, 9 February 2008 (UTC)
 * I thought pete seeger's Incompleat Folksinger book mentiones this song, Likely, if anything, it was a song built onto by leadbelly since several of the verses detail life in the texas prison. --Dannygutters (talk · contribs) 18:40, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia's article on "Midnight Special" says that it was transcribed by sociologist Howard Odum in 1905. It was recorded commercially in 1927. Leadbelly did not write the words or the tune; he appears to have learned it while in Sugarland Prison in Texas. His version, with its own verses and variations, is the one that is best known, however, and he can be said to have created it. Mballen (talk) 11:33, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

Russian Speakers
Does anyone speak russian? there's probably a lot of good info on the russian leadbelly page that could be translated. --Dannygutters (talk · contribs) 16:18, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

Australia Carr??
Was his step-sister really named Australia? That's an extraordinarily uncommon name, even in Australia, let alone the deep south of the USA in the 1880s, when Australia wasn't even a nation but a collection of separate British colonies. Is it just some idle vandalism? -- JackofOz (talk) 07:54, 20 May 2008 (UTC)
 * According to this, really her name. Hertz1888 (talk) 10:46, 20 May 2008 (UTC)
 * Well, I never. Thank you.  --  JackofOz (talk) 15:06, 20 May 2008 (UTC)
 * That passage highlights some of the difficulties of researching leadbelly (or any other black american blues musician from this era), when researching these books many of the key figures are overlooked, dead or uninterviewed. In fact the most recent bio they didn't even interview leadbelly's surviving family cousin in nashville(and executior of his estate). It's frustrating when you look at someone like Woody Guthrie, where he came from, where he was and what he was doing for most of his life. Thank goodness for Alan Lomax I guess. --Dannygutters (talk · contribs) 19:06, 20 May 2008 (UTC)
 * According to Wolf and Lornell's Life and Legend of Leadbelly, Australia was Lead Belly's adopted older sister. He was his parents adored only biological child, whom they had when they were in their thirties. They managed to save enough to purchase their own farm and to give Huddy a good, stable childhood and even his own pony, but tragically, they lost their land when they had to raise money for his legal expenses. That is the story, but it should also be remembered that many other black families were losing their land right and left on one pretext or another during this period. Just as black families succeeded in playing by the rules and pulling themselves up by their bootstraps in approved fashion, there was a veritable rush among whites on their lives and property. The law was quick to throw blacks into jail and tended to look the other way when it came to protecting their rights, including property rights. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.39.129.178 (talk) 17:58, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

I added a small fact about Pearl Jam "Yellow Ledbetter"
{I know people have conflicting stories about the song. Even Eddie Vedder himself changes the story behind the meaning quite often.

However it is believed that the original explanation should be used.

That song was written as a combination story about his friend that lost his brother in the first gulf war and received a "Yellow" letter in the mail talking about the death. Later on while walking with his "Alternative" looking friend, his friend went to salute and American Flag on someones front porch, while they were on it. But due to his "Alternative" look, the people mocked/looked at him with disapproval and prejudice.

As well as a song about Lead Belly and his life in general. That indicates the cause of the mixture of the two words in the title of the song.

You are welcome to include what you wish, but I just wanted to at least mention the fact on the main site. -The Cyndicate} —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.108.188.154 (talk) 14:06, 5 October 2008 (UTC)

The only film ever made of Lead Belly
On youtube I found a film by "Film Images", which itself claims to be the only film ever made of Lead Belly. Songs include: worldless version of "Where did you sleep last night?" "Pick a bale of cotton" "The Grey Goose" "Take this hammer"

Here's the url: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htMwu3hF8_E

Hope you guys add it to the URL list. (82.169.122.30 (talk) 03:55, 3 January 2009 (UTC)) Robin Timmers, Nijmegen, The Netherlands 3 Januari 2009


 * Thanks for the excellent recommendation. It's a great find and a great treasure — and already listed under "External links", as "Three songs".  Very easy to overlook.  Best wishes, Hertz1888 (talk) 04:09, 3 January 2009 (UTC)

Indifferences?
I changed Influenced by the sinking of the RMS Titanic in April 1912, he would go on to write the song "The Titanic", which noted the racial indifferences of the time. to "differences". Maikel (talk) 16:12, 3 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Thank you. "Indifferences" didn't fit at all. "Differences" is an improvement, but the meaning is vague. Wouldn't "inequalities" or "injustices" be more specific and appropriate? Hertz1888 (talk) 17:01, 3 June 2009 (UTC)

Lead Belly Blues Festival Web Site
Appears to be a spam site —Preceding unsigned comment added by Njaneardude (talk • contribs) 13:26, 6 August 2010 (UTC)

Leadbelly On TV?
My father told me that he saw Leadbelly perform on the DuMont Television Network on a television in a bar during the late-1940s. Do any of the kinescopes of Leadbelly still exist for the world to see? I once came across a Leadbelly CD with audio from the DuMont Television Network appearances at a bookstore, so I know the audio exists. Do the kinescopes still exist, too? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.54.79.13 (talk) 08:50, 29 June 2011 (UTC)

Murder?
'Twould be nice to see some info on his murder conviction added to the article. It sort of seems like a glaring omission. Evanh2008, Super Genius Who am I? You can talk to me... 01:16, 7 September 2011 (UTC)

Removal of Edenborn connection
I have just removed a short paragraph that claimed that William Edenborn befriended Lead Belly while the latter was at Angola and regularly visited him there. This is impossible, since Edenborn died on May 13, 1926, some four years before Lead Belly was sent to Angola. (See Edenborn's 'Wikipedia article.) The remembrance in a Winn Parish newspaper that was cited as the source is mistaken. Perhaps Edenborn could have visited Lead Belly elsewhere during one of his earlier imprisonments (where?, when?), but it wasn't at Angola during 1930-1934. LGMcM (talk) 01:02, 13 February 2012 (UTC)

The draft card is from WWI not WWII...
By simply doing the math with the dates on the draft card, and Leadbelly's own date of birth, you will realize that this draft card is from around 1915. Besides, when America entered WWII in 1941 he was 51-years-old, and nearing the end of his life... — Preceding unsigned comment added by Robvoll85 (talk • contribs) 01:51, 8 March 2012 (UTC)
 * No. Click on the card's image and you can read about the 1942 "old man's registration". The card gives his age as 53.  You do the math. Hertz1888 (talk) 04:51, 8 March 2012 (UTC)

What's in a name?
While we're on the subject of names, what sort of a name is Huddie? Or Hudy? His middle name is the straightforward William, so where does Huddie come from? Surely this is a pet name, a family name, something like that. If you named your child Harvard, or Homer, or Hustler, then it would be normal to call him casually Huddy, but not as a substantive first name surely? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Fairlightseven (talk • contribs) 21:27, 26 March 2010 (UTC)
 * I have wondered the same thing. And until this moment, I thought it was pronounced like the Paul Newman movie Hud. To achieve the desired pronunciation, it shouldn't have a double 'd'.
 * And, for the record, spelling Leadbelly "Lead Belly" still looks freakish. So we were expected to address him as Mr. Belly? Mr. Loaf, may I call you Meat? Varlaam (talk) 20:53, 17 May 2011 (UTC)
 * It is pronounced that way. Ledbetter introduces himself at the end of "Governor O.K. Allen," which can be found on Leadbelly ARC & Library of Congress Recordings Vol. 3 (1935). It's at about 2:30 of the track on CD. I don't much know nor care about editing wiki articles and seem constantly to ruffle someone's feathers in doing so; therefore, feel free to do so if you would like. However, his name is not pronounced "Hyew-dee," but "Huh-dee," at least according to a widely-available recording by the man himself.24.20.10.46 (talk) 18:09, 17 September 2012 (UTC)

Folkways Recordings
The article mentions some releases under the name "Lead Belly Legacy", from the '90s, but I have a couple of records called "Lead Belly's Legacy" volumes 3 and 4 from Folkways, copyrights 1951 and 1953, respectively, along with a booklet from Folkways (from 1954, included with a Pete Seeger record) listing six total Lead Belly records for sale. Anyone know anything about these and how we can incorporate them in the article? Cadwaladr (talk) 05:16, 15 September 2013 (UTC)

Source
This video is a spoken history of Lead Belly, with a lot of detail. Not sure of its provenance. 58.152.150.23 (talk) 17:42, 18 June 2014 (UTC)

Leadbelly's guitar tuning
dear wikipedia I performed Leadbelly's songs in UK folk clubs in the sixties. I used a Zemaitis 12-string (once borrowed by Hendrix for his famous acoustic blues clip from the film "The Experience".) Although I found Leadbelly used standard tuning, his pitch was typically a perfect fourth down. I had a flash of insight, and realised that he had used second strings on first string position, and so on. My problem was, how did he get the resulting bass B on sixth? I asked Cathedral Strings to make me a special low B string, which they did. That was when my playing began to sound like Leadbelly's. This tuning allowed me to string an octave string alongside the third (tuned to D an therefore not overstretched. This octave third is very obviously heard in Leadbelly's instrumental playing.

yours truly

David Ash (Dave Butcher at the time)

— Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.184.167.254 (talk) 18:16, 12 August 2015 (UTC)

Leadbelly's Birthday
I have tried to edit the birth date from January 20, 1888 to January 20, 1889. Hertz1888 has stated that it has been discussed but not verified to be anything other than 1888. I work for the Lead Belly Estate and I have tried to edit the page to reference the Official Website www.leadbelly.com to be a reference for the correct year of his birth. We have family documents as well as the headstone at his grave showing the correct year at 1889. Can there be a consensus to finally change the year to what is correct and followed by living members of Lead Belly's family who lived with him.

Yours truly, Huddie Ledbetter's family — Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.22.181.155 (talk) 03:27, 10 November 2015 (UTC)

External links modified
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Year of birth
Although some sources, including his grave marker mentioned here, give 1889, the most authoritative source in my view is Blues: A Regional Experience by Eagle and LeBlanc, which gives 1888. Ghmyrtle (talk) 21:09, 22 January 2018 (UTC)

Structural and content editing
Hello fellow Wikipedians, I will be taking on this article as part of an assignment for my editing class at University. I will be focusing on the page's organization and tightening the structure of the article and the sentences of said article. If there's anything more I can do, please reach out and let me know! It's a learning process so I appreciate all the help I can get from more seasoned editors. Emuetzel1 (talk) 23:03, 22 February 2018 (UTC)


 * Hello : This article definitely needs a lot of work. Most obvious is the lack of adequate inline citations to reliable sources – large sections of text are unreferenced and may be original research or otherwise unreliable.  The "Legacy" section (which was recently converted to a list) contains many names that are unimportant to understanding Lead Belly.  A discussion of which of his songs have had a lasting impact (with some noteworthy adaptations by other artists) would be much more useful.  There should be enough written about him to develop an encyclopedic article. Good luck! —Ojorojo (talk) 21:49, 2 March 2018 (UTC)


 * Hi : The Legacy section definitely needs work, I agree. The list within that section seems out of place and my professor suggested I put it into a separate article by itself and link to it from this page - do you have any thoughts on that? It's hard to determine where the line is between a notable artist and not, so it would be hard to take some artists off the page and leave others. Emuetzel1 (talk) 04:48, 3 March 2018 (UTC)


 * Maybe it could work as a List of cover versions-type article (the List of cover versions of Led Zeppelin songs is one of the better examples). However, LB recorded several adaptations of earlier folk- or traditional-tunes, so technically they are not "Lead Belly songs", which implies authorship, plus usually one cannot "cover" an adaptation.  (The List of songs recorded by Lead Belly doesn't show the songwriters and also needs a lot of work).  Otherwise, I don't believe a separate Legacy article, that focuses on artists who have recorded songs which LB also recorded or performed would meet WP notability guidelines.
 * LB's real legacy is probably his influence on the American folk music revival movement and those artists and his use of a twelve-string guitar. Most of the artists in the current Legacy section are independently notable, but not for recording LB songs. For example, ABBA recorded "Midnight Special" (an older song adapted by LB) as part of a medley, which was released as the B-side to a single. A Google book search didn't turn up any mention in bios or other music references. The fact that a recording exists is not sufficient and these types of entries can be removed.
 * —Ojorojo (talk) 17:28, 3 March 2018 (UTC)


 * I created a list article for those cover songs/artists based on the links that you sent me in the above comment - thank you so much for helping! I transferred everything from the list on this page over and filled in what I could based on the information given, but there is still a lot of empty spaces, so it definitely still needs a good amount of work; however, I feel that this separation cleans up this page's appearance quite a bit and maintains what this article's purpose actually is. Here is the new listed article for anyone interested: List of cover versions of Lead Belly songs - in the next couple of days I'll figure out a way to list this article under legacy so that others can easily find it when reading the article. Thank you again for your help !
 * —Emuetzel1 (talk) 04:49, 6 March 2018 (UTC)


 * Now the LB article can focus more on what is important about him. Lists require a lot of busy work.  Since the List of cover versions of Lead Belly songs concerns actual songs, I think at a minimum the song column should be complete.  There is no easy way – I can make some suggestions if you want or maybe some other editors will pitch in. —Ojorojo (talk) 16:00, 6 March 2018 (UTC)


 * I tried to go back through the history and see who added all these artists to the page - maybe they would know where they found their information, but I was unable to find any actual person who made those edits - most edits made on this post when it was young are from IP addresses rather than registered wiki users.—Emuetzel1 (talk) 16:24, 6 March 2018 (UTC)

Another edit I'm considering is revisiting the Biography section of this article and revising the organization so that it separates the ideas of Lead Belly's career versus his personal life - this is something I've seen done in other musician articles such as the Les Paul and the DJ AM articles; However, I realize this may be difficult since Lead Belly was inspired by his time in prison to write multiple songs. I'll be working on this over the next week or so, but if there are any ideas in regards to this new organization or criticisms toward it please let me know. —Emuetzel1 (talk) 20:30, 9 March 2018 (UTC)

Lead Belly crimes
Have the past editors on this page considered adding a separate section for the details of the crimes Lead Belly was accused of? It seems like the instances of homicide or attempted homicide are seen as unimportant in its current context while some readers may want more information as to how and why he may have done those things. Emuetzel1 (talk) 18:49, 26 February 2018 (UTC)


 * I feel like this article leans more toward the chronological side rather than the important information organization side - has any one attempted to reorganize this article like this before? For example, the "Prison Years" section could be split into each time he went to prison.
 * —Emuetzel1 (talk) 20:13, 7 March 2018 (UTC)


 * Just reorganized the article. I tried to set it up like some of the other musician articles I've seen where the information is formatted in a way that is categorized by interest rather than by chronological order. I did not delete any information, just moved things around. It probably needs to be cleaned up and made so that certain sentences appear that they're meant to be next to each other.
 * —Emuetzel1 (talk) 17:51, 19 March 2018 (UTC)

Citation "convicted of what?" removal
I removed the citation from this sentence: "Later, in January 1918, he was imprisoned[clarification needed] at the Imperial Farm (now Central Unit)[13] in Sugar Land, Texas, after killing one of his relatives, Will Stafford, in a fight over a woman.". I did this edit as the context of the sentence clearly indicates what Ledbetter was convicted of: "killing one of his relatives". I took the citation to mean what it asked. If the intent was the need of a source for the actual crime and imprisonment the citation was poorly worded. Feel free to revert if I have misunderstood the original intent for the citation. THX1136 (talk) 21:35, 10 May 2018 (UTC)

1888 or 1889 born?
On his grave you see 1889 born. Also the german Wiki says 1889! -- 92.206.85.87 (talk) 14:50, 8 March 2020 (UTC)
 * This has been discussed previously - see the archive for past discussions. Neither the German Wiki, nor his gravestone, are authoritative, and different sources which should be regarded as authoritative give different dates.  The well-researched and usually reliable Blues: A Regional Experience by Eagle and LeBlanc - which is cited in the opening sentence - here, gives January 23 (not 20), 1888, based on his age at the 1900 Census, and the date (not the year) on his 1942 draft registration card.  The Encyclopedia of the Blues here gives January 20, 1888.  Britannica gives January 21, 1885?  [sic].  The Lead Belly Foundation here states January 20, 1889. The Songwriters Hall of Fame states: "His birth date has been variously listed as January 20, 1889, January 21, 1885, or January 29, 1885."  This site states January 15, 1888.  Etc. etc. etc.  The article - either in the text, or in a footnote - should make clear that there is uncertainty over the precise date and year.  Ghmyrtle (talk) 15:57, 8 March 2020 (UTC)

Preferred spelling of "Lead Belly"
I've always understood that Huddie himself preferred "Lead Belly" to be spelled as two words rather than one (I'll have to locate my source for this), as reflected in the article title. Given that this information is accurate, would there be any objection to amending this appellation throughout the article to make spellings uniform? Key of Now (talk) 22:01, 10 February 2020 (UTC)
 * If there are any inconsistencies (I couldn't spot any) they should be changed to use the two-word name (or, formally, Ledbetter when appropriate).  Ghmyrtle (talk) 09:24, 9 March 2020 (UTC)

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Emuetzel1.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 02:20, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

"We're in the Same Boat, Brother"
In the Legacy section, starting with "Indian singer Bhupen Hazarika," "We're in the Same Boat, Brother" was incorrectly attributed to Lead Belly (who sung it, but did not write it) and titled "We are on the same boat brother," which is the way Bhupen Hazarika sung it, but not the actual title or original phrasing of the song. The citation I used is to a blog post I wrote, https://tothestory.blogspot.com/2016/07/were-in-same-boat-brother-and-if-you.html, that identifies the correct authorship and historical context of the song. I have not found any other source for this, except for a multi-page, eight-year-long discussion in The Mudcat Cafe, https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=8528, that would not be a useful source. Sandy Schuman (talk) 18:36, 8 February 2022 (UTC)

Main Photograph
Perhaps, if a suitable one can be found, a photograph of him with his famous guitar should be used rather than the current one of him with his concertia? He is the "King of the 12-String" after all. I know there are many to choose from, a select few even colorized. 2601:602:CD81:4A20:4179:8691:2AA7:1E7A (talk) 04:20, 27 March 2022 (UTC)

Technique
Despite what has been said about the difficulty of figuring out the difficulty of figuring out his tunings and chord shapes; it is done quite regularly by many, many guitarists who do excellent covers of his work; additionally there TWO videos (the TIME Newsreel, and another colorized video featuring him playing three of his more well-known pieces) featuring his playing which do a quite fair job of displaying his technique (E.G. alternating focus from his left to his right hand, etc.) In short, most of the chord shapes he plays are simple "cowboy" chords, just moved around the neck. Of course, none of this is meant to slight his playing; rather to simply clear up the probably unintended mystification of his technique, which has been sucessfully emulated many, many times over. 2601:602:CD81:4A20:4179:8691:2AA7:1E7A (talk) 04:26, 27 March 2022 (UTC)