NRR Project: 'Goodnight, Irene" (1932)

 

NRR Project: ‘Goodnight, Irene’

Music and lyrics by unknown

Performed by Lead Belly

Recorded 1933

This sweet, plaintive song is an American classic – but it didn’t become a hit until the man who made its definite version was dead.

Huddie William Ledbetter, aka Lead Belly, had a difficult life, full of criminal behavior. He spent many years in prison, and in fact was “discovered” by folklorist John Lomax in 1933 while serving time in Louisiana’s Angola Penitentiary. He was an encyclopedia of songs – blues, folk tunes, gospel songs, children’s game songs . . . something for every kind of function, as was normal at the time for a versatile traveling musician.

Lomax recorded him, and pursued a pardon for “the singing convict” from the governor, which was obtained. Lead Belly then began 16 years of touring, recording, and performing, finding the greatest interest from those into folk music. Two years after his death, the folk group the Weavers had a massive hit with their cover of “Goodnight, Irene.”

The song is a gentle lament in three-quarter time. “I asked your mother for you/She told me that you was too young/I wish dear Lord I’d never seen your face/I’m sorry you were ever born,” says the first verse. Despite the vehemence of the feeling expressed, the singer goes back on his thoughts immediately and sadly declares, “Goodnight, Irene/I’ll see you in my dreams.”

It is difficult to define the origin of the song. Christopher Lornell, in his excellent explanatory essay, does an amazing amount of detective work in tracing the song back to its origins. Lead Belly got the song from his uncle. Where did he get it from? There is evidence that the song was originally a Victorian parlor song, the words and structure of which mutated over the decades, until the song finally assumed its most familiar shape. (The same melody graces the gospel song “If It Had Not Been for Jesus,” recorded in 1930 by Blind Willie Johnson.)

Lead Belly produced a large body of work in a short time, leaving a number of memoriaable songs, such as “Midnight Special,” “Cotton Fields,” and “In the Pines.” Artists such as Bob Dylan, George Harrison, And Van Morrison have cited him as an influence. He had the touch.

The National Recording Registry Project tracks one writer’s expedition through all the recordings in the National Recording Registry in chronological order. Next up: Stormy Weather.