Leadbelly video

Ifilm has the only known video of Leadbelly performing. (via Salon).

He performes three songs he calls work songs: "Pick a Bale of Cotton" "The Grey Goose" (Which isn't really a worksong) and "Take This Hammer." The last is my favorite kind of worksong, a tell-the-boss-to-fuck-off song. This one is right up there with Superchunk "Slack Motherfucker" and the Minutemen "This Ain't No Picnic"

"Take this hammer (ha!)
Bring it to the captain (ha!)
Tell him I'm gone (ha!)
Tell him I'm gone. (ha!)"

The opening credits roll over a version of "In the Pines" that I hadn't heard before. I have three recordings of Leadbelly doing "In the Pines" and I thought that was all there were.