{"id":759,"date":"2016-03-27T07:00:39","date_gmt":"2016-03-27T11:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/?p=759"},"modified":"2017-07-06T17:40:10","modified_gmt":"2017-07-06T21:40:10","slug":"hung-him-on-the-cross","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/hung-him-on-the-cross\/","title":{"rendered":"They Hung Him on the Cross (Lead Belly)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"They Hung Him on the Cross\" width=\"474\" height=\"267\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DmHAHzlKsYc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t remember the chronology clearly, but I think I first got Pete Seeger and Julius Lester&#8217;s instruction book<img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-760 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/12-string-as-played-by-leadbelly-232x300.jpg?resize=232%2C300\" alt=\"12-string as played by leadbelly\" width=\"232\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/12-string-as-played-by-leadbelly.jpg?resize=232%2C300&amp;ssl=1 232w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/12-string-as-played-by-leadbelly.jpg?w=250&amp;ssl=1 250w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 232px) 100vw, 232px\" \/> on how to play Lead Belly&#8217;s 12-string guitar style, and it was another few months or maybe even a year before I persuaded my mother to buy me a 12-string. Actually, it didn&#8217;t take much persuading, because she liked the sound of the octave bass strings even more than I did &#8212; or maybe I just had mixed feelings because of the struggle it took to play that particular guitar. It was a Yamaha, and it wasn&#8217;t terrible,\u00a0 but I&#8217;ve tended to feel clumsy playing most 12-strings, and that one was no exception. I managed to get Lead Belly&#8217;s stuff sounding pretty good, but never could make anything else sound like much more than jangling mush.<\/p>\n<p>Back when I was twelve, though, playing Lead Belly&#8217;s guitar style was an incredible thrill &#8212; it was a big, solid, macho sound, and I&#8217;m guessing it overwhelmed my singing, or with luck maybe even drowned it out entirely&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Be that as it may, this was one of the songs I learned from that book, and I can say with absolute assurance that I never would have learned it otherwise, what with being a Jew and an atheist, and the fact that it just never appealed to me much as a song. But it was one of the first guitar arrangements I learned that actually sounded like something I had on a record, especially when played on a 12-string. I haven&#8217;t owned a 12-string since getting rid of that Yamaha sometime in my late teens or twenties, but whenever I happen to get one in my hands I tend to play this, and still get a thrill from sounding like Lead Belly &#8212; though the next thing that always happens is I try to play a Willie McTell piece and get frustrated.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-761\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/crucifixion2-189x300.jpg?resize=189%2C300\" alt=\"20.12\" width=\"189\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/crucifixion2.jpg?resize=189%2C300&amp;ssl=1 189w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/crucifixion2.jpg?w=230&amp;ssl=1 230w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 189px) 100vw, 189px\" \/>Incidentally &#8212; very incidentally &#8212; my father, who was a biologist, used to enjoy going through museums of European painting and noting how the new scientific consciousness of the late Renaissance led to a shift from painting crucifixion scenes with Christ&#8217;s wound on the right (the virtuous side of the body) to the left (the side where the heart is anatomically located).\u00a0 I still can&#8217;t go through a museum without noting which side the wound is on, and checking dates &#8212; for example, here&#8217;s a painting by Joachim Patinir [1480-1524] with it on the left, but Rogier van de Weyden [1400-1464] still had it on the right.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I don&#8217;t remember the chronology clearly, but I think I first got Pete Seeger and Julius Lester&#8217;s instruction book on how to play Lead Belly&#8217;s 12-string guitar style, and it was another few months or maybe even a year before I persuaded my mother to buy me a 12-string. Actually, it didn&#8217;t take much persuading, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/hung-him-on-the-cross\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">They Hung Him on the Cross (Lead Belly)<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>They Hung Him on the Cross (Lead Belly) - Old Friends: A Songobiography<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/hung-him-on-the-cross\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"They Hung Him on the Cross (Lead Belly) - Old Friends: A Songobiography\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I don&#8217;t remember the chronology clearly, but I think I first got Pete Seeger and Julius Lester&#8217;s instruction book on how to play Lead Belly&#8217;s 12-string guitar style, and it was another few months or maybe even a year before I persuaded my mother to buy me a 12-string. Actually, it didn&#8217;t take much persuading, &hellip; Continue reading They Hung Him on the Cross (Lead Belly) &rarr;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/hung-him-on-the-cross\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Old Friends: A Songobiography\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-03-27T11:00:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-07-06T21:40:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/12-string-as-played-by-leadbelly-232x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Elijah Wald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ElijahWald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ElijahWald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Elijah Wald\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/hung-him-on-the-cross\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/hung-him-on-the-cross\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Elijah Wald\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9\"},\"headline\":\"They Hung Him on the Cross (Lead Belly)\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-03-27T11:00:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-07-06T21:40:10+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/hung-him-on-the-cross\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":451,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/hung-him-on-the-cross\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/03\\\/12-string-as-played-by-leadbelly-232x300.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/hung-him-on-the-cross\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/hung-him-on-the-cross\\\/\",\"name\":\"They Hung Him on the Cross (Lead Belly) - 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special","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/midnight-special.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1098,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/poor-howard-fandango\/","url_meta":{"origin":759,"position":2},"title":"Poor Howard\/Spanish Fandango (fretless banjos and parlor guitar)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"May 8, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Exploring the disparate, intertwining roots of American vernacular guitar, with Lead Belly for the banjo and Henry Worral for middle class parlor music.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"lead belly","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/lead-belly.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":723,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/goodnight-irene\/","url_meta":{"origin":759,"position":3},"title":"Goodnight, Irene (Lead Belly and others)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"April 3, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Another song I've always known -- I'm sure we sang it in school, I'm sure we sang it at the children's sing-along evenings in Woods Hole, I'm sure I heard it sung by Pete Seeger, and the Weavers, and lots of other people, before I knew who Lead Belly was.\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar 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It is Furry Lewis's take on a song that has been recorded\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/casey-jones-kassie-jones\/#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5104,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/ella-speed\/","url_meta":{"origin":759,"position":5},"title":"Ella Speed (A New Orleans murder ballad)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"April 6, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 This is a new one in my repertoire, worked up in the course of researching my book, Jelly Roll Blues: Censored Songs and Hidden Histories. I had heard other versions of the song from Lead Belly, who recorded it several times, and Mance Lipscomb, and the Kweskin Jug Band,\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Jellycover-e1710359243890.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=759"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2992,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759\/revisions\/2992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}