In The Pines: A Song History
"In the Pines" is an American folk song of unknown authorship, sung also as "Where Did You Sleep Last Night," "Black Girl" and "My Girl," and catalogued as Roud 3421.[1][2] Notes from Smithsonian Folkways describe it as an old song known among both Black and white singers, and date Cecil Sharp's Appalachian collecting of it to 1917.[3] Sharp's English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians prints it under the title "Black Girl."[1] It has no settled story: the Ballad Index calls its boundaries "very vague," since lengthy variants tend to be patchworks of verses that drift between songs, though a departed sweetheart, sometimes leaving on a train, is a common thread.[1] The Smithsonian notes treat its railroad character as a later layer, added through verses about a train and a beheading.[3] The folklorist Judith McCulloh made it the subject of a 1970 doctoral dissertation drawing on more than 150 texts of the song.[1][4]
Auguste Louis Lepère, Fontainebleau Forest: Cutting of Pines (La Forêt de Fontainebleau: Abatage des pins), wood engraving, 1890. A French forest, shown for its pines; it has no connection to the song.
The Discography of American Historical Recordings notes that Dock Walsh's Columbia record, made in Atlanta on April 17, 1926, with Walsh singing to his own banjo, is recognized as the song's first commercial recording.[5] Bill Monroe and His Blue Grass Boys recorded it for Bluebird in Atlanta on October 2, 1941,[6] and the Smithsonian notes credit that record with fixing the song in the bluegrass repertoire.[3] Monroe returned to it for Decca in Nashville on July 18, 1952, with Jimmy Martin on guitar and lead vocal.[7] Lead Belly sang it as "Black Girl (Where Did You Sleep Last Night)"; one of his recordings, possibly made in the summer of 1947, was issued by Folkways in 1950.[3]
Nirvana ended an MTV Unplugged special with the song, titled "Where Did You Sleep Last Night"; writing in November 1994, The New York Times said the band had recorded the program the previous fall.[8] The Smithsonian notes credit that performance with reaching listeners new to the song.[3] Judy House includes it in Jam Across America, a 178-page jam book for mountain dulcimer clubs, with songs chosen from the playlists of clubs around the country and arranged in DAD tuning.[9]
Sources
- The Traditional Ballad Index: "In the Pines".
- Mainly Norfolk: "In the Pines / My Girl".
- Smithsonian Folkways: "Lead Belly: The Smithsonian Folkways Collection" (booklet).
- WorldCat: "'In the Pines': The Melodic-Textual Identity of an American Lyric Folksong Cluster" (thesis, 1970).
- Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Columbia matrix W142031. In the pines / Dock Walsh".
- Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Victor matrix BS-071076. In the pines / Blue Grass Boys ; Bill Monroe".
- Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Decca matrix NA 2781. In the pines-2 / Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys".
- Rock's Backpages: Eric Weisbard, "A Simple Song That Lives Beyond Time: Leadbelly via Kurt Cobain" (The New York Times, November 13, 1994).
- Judy House: "Jam Across America".
- Image: Auguste Louis Lepère, Fontainebleau Forest: Cutting of Pines (La Forêt de Fontainebleau: Abatage des pins), wood engraving, 1890. The Cleveland Museum of Art.