Most of the writing I have read on Leadbelly is quite apologetic and insanely sensitive to his plight. Now with the couple of things that happened to Son House I can get it. I have a harder time with leadbelly. The man spent a sizable portion of his adult life behind bars or on the chain gang and I have read enough to know how bad that sucked. But why are most of the writings done to look like he just done wrong again? Gosh Man what was he suppose to do? Hell he couldn't help it. He was just unlucky. Society just had it out for him. Why did god and country persecute such a person? Poor Huddie cant catch a break. It was a conspiracy. On and on and on and on.
Could it be that about half the stuff he did was him being a crappy person? Why do we need to make excuses for situations that we know about largely from him............who lets face it, was know to stretch the truth on a good day. Him being one of Americas best songsters (even if overrated as a blues player, my personal opinion) should not be grounds for revisionists to make listeners feel better for enjoying the music of someone that may have been a very dangerous person to spend too much time with. OJ killing a couple of people has no bearing on how talented an actor he was and oh yea an alright football player. The facts prevent us from romanticizing him into something he isn't. There have been no such safeguards when dealing with Huddie.
Could it be that about half the stuff he did was him being a crappy person? Why do we need to make excuses for situations that we know about largely from him............who lets face it, was know to stretch the truth on a good day. Him being one of Americas best songsters (even if overrated as a blues player, my personal opinion) should not be grounds for revisionists to make listeners feel better for enjoying the music of someone that may have been a very dangerous person to spend too much time with. OJ killing a couple of people has no bearing on how talented an actor he was and oh yea an alright football player. The facts prevent us from romanticizing him into something he isn't. There have been no such safeguards when dealing with Huddie.
