Talk:List of songs recorded by Lead Belly

Lead Belly's song titles

Lead Belly is probably one of the least likely folk singers to be able to construct a comprehensive list of song titles. It's clear to anyone listening to different takes and versions of his songs that not only are different recordings given titles rather arbitrarily, but also that he swapped verses - and even tunes - around between various unrelated songs. For instance there are at least two entirely different songs titled "Boll Weevil". On the other hand, a song sometimes referred to as "Out on the Western Plain" is given several variations of that title on different recordings, including "Cow Cow Yicky Yicky Yea"; nor are the verses always consistent from one recording to another. To a large extent, this "List of songs recorded by Lead Belly" is both misleading, and an exercise in futility.

Also for what it's worth, there is presently a footnote to "Sylvie", stating "Sylvie" was written by Ledbetter with "Paul Campbell", which according to attribution on the 1959 album Belafonte at Carnegie Hall was a collective pen name of The Weavers. This may be so; but The Weavers first formed as a group in 1948, while Lead Belly recorded the song at least as early as 1943. Perhaps the Almanac Singers were intended instead as a source. The other question is whether the Belafonte notes specifically attribute Lead Belly's version as having been co-written with The Weavers (or some of its members), or if this may be a leap of WP:OR. In any event, in his non-studio recordings such as the Smithsonian Folkways 4-disc set Lead Belly's Last Sessions he talks about the provenance of his songs, and nearly always credits having heard or learned the songs somewhere, rather than having "written" them himself. Undoubtedly he heard different versions of these traditional folk songs, and integrated them into his enormous repertory of literally hundreds of songs (including a number of specifically children's songs) with his own creative sense of musicality and the "fitness" of his verses. Milkunderwood (talk) 08:15, 9 May 2013 (UTC)

Mr. Hitler

The link for 'Mr. Hitler' redirects to Dad's army! Not sure how to fix this... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.42.225.108 (talk) 22:02, 14 June 2008 (UTC)

Long since fixed, years ago. Milkunderwood (talk) 08:16, 9 May 2013 (UTC)

Key

Several songs have (+) added after them, but there's no indication what the heck that's supposed to mean. Don't do that! 147.226.197.160 (talk) 07:19, 1 April 2023 (UTC)

You're right. I took them off. (Undo my edit with today's date if you want to put them back—but also add an explanation.) 2605:A601:AB56:CB00:649:C9C4:31C3:7BDA (talk) 18:41, 15 April 2023 (UTC)