brighter

Where did you sleep last night?! huh…where!?

No I’m kidding your not in trouble, but if you had that flicker of guilt…well who am I to judge.

“Where did you sleep last night?” is one of my favorite traditional American folk songs. Also known as “In the Pines” or “Black Girl”.

The identity of the author is unknown but it is said to date back to the 1870’s and originated in the Southern Appalachians. Nirvana re-popularized this song during their legendary MTV Unplugged acoustic performance in 1993, where they credited the song to Lead Belly, leading many people to incorrectly believe he wrote the song.

Although Lead Belly did not write this song, he does my favorite reinterpretation of it.

Click on the link to listen to it on you tube “Where Did You Sleep Last Night?”

Lead Belly sings this song in a bone chilling way. Although this folk song has been interpreted in a few different ways, I think the most obvious interpretation refers to the  implicit suggestion that “someones girl had done her partner wrong.”

Now the lyrics are not extremely descriptive, but the way Lead Belly sings this song gives me the goosebumps. I can imagine the bitter cold, the loneliness, and the dark places that his mind is probably going to about his girl.

“My girl, my girl, don’t lie to me
Tell me where did you sleep last night

In the pines, in the pines
Where the sun don’t ever shine
I would shiver the whole night through…”

It doesn’t matter if you have been done wrong or if you are the wrong doer, the song will affect you either way. It is the forlorn yet stern vocals and the weeping guitar that invokes a sense of guilt or sorrow.

Well give it a listen and tell me you don’t feel a chill up your spine? – A