in the pines song meaning

The engine it stopped at a six-miles post, the cabin it never left town.”. “In the pines, in the pines, where the sun never shines and I shiver when the cold wind blows.”. All rights reserved. The longest train I ever saw Went down that Georgia Line The engine passed at six o'clock The caboose went by at nine. My girl, my girl, don't lie to me Tell me where did you sleep last night In the pines, in the pines Where the sun don't ever shine I would shiver the whole night through My girl, my girl, where will you go I'm going where the cold wind blows In the pines, in the pines Where the sun don't ever shine I would shiver the whole night through … Her master finds her (supposedly dehydrated and weak) and tells her to give up running because she will not make it more than a mile and a half before dying. Nirvana's "Where Did You Sleep" is so definitive that the stray ends of the history of "In the Pines" come together. Pines definition: Isle of → Youth | Meaning, pronunciation, translations and examples The earliest printed version was four lines and a melody compiled by Cecil Sharp in Kentucky in 1917. Cobain called the song “Where Did You Sleep Last Night,” but it’s also called “In the Pines,” sometimes “Black Girl,” or “My Girl.”. In the pines, in the pines, where the sun never shines And you shiver when the cold wind blows. Cobain called the song “Where Did You Sleep Last Night,” but it’s also called “In the Pines,” sometimes “Black Girl,” or “My Girl.” It’s a folk song and as such, its origins are foggy. Become A Better Singer In Only 30 Days, With Easy Video Lessons! “I think the pines symbolizes a wilderness,” says Elizabeth DiSavino, a professor of music at Brea College in Kentucky. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. MP3 In his versions, Lead Belly leans into the darkness of the song. I stayed in the pines where the sun never shines And shivered when the cold wind blows. Library of Congress, MediaPunch Inc/Alamy Stock Photo, MTV, Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy Stock Photo, Baiba Šomase/Alamy Stock Photo, An Interview With Willie Nelson at 87: “I Didn’t Ever Think I’d Get This Old”, subscribe and listen to the show on Apple Podcasts. For all its complicated history, the meaning of "In the Pines" may be even more blurry, a vast continuum of different varieties of misery and suffering. Through the Montana moon in the pines, Montana moon in the pines. Like numerous other folk songs, "In the Pines" was passed on from one generation and locale to the next by word of mouth. And, lyrically, he does away with the train entirely. Here the woman is in the pines because her husband has died under the train, leaving her with little choice but prostitution. My daddy was a railroad man, killed a mile and a half from here. Lizzie Abner, 1917* The Longest train I ever saw Went down that Georgia line The engine passed at 6 o'clock The cab passed by at 9. Over time, the popular ones would be set to music. And it was so clear how much that song meant to him. Those who have recorded the song include the folk legends Leadbelly, Joan Baez and Pete Seeger, the country pioneers Bill Monroe and Chet Atkins, the rockers Sir Douglas Quintet and Duane Eddy, the pop vocalist Connie Francis and the jazz saxophonist Clifford Jordan. When they settled along the Appalachians, the European murder ballad became a bedrock of the American folk tradition. But it retains that sad and haunting quality thanks to the high harmonies of Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys telling this tale about the enigmatic train that takes his love away. The song probably has its origins in the Southern Appalachians, where it is still passed on as part of an oral tradition. Artists in the decades to come will pick and choose depending on the story they want to tell or the mood they want to evoke. In the pines, in the pines, where the sun never shines And it shiver when the cold wind blows My love, my love, what have I done To make you treat me so You've caused me to weep, you've caused me to mourn You've caused me to loose my home In the pines, in the pines, where the sun never shines And it shiver when the cold … “What’s more country than a heartbreak song,” she says. "You caused me to weep/ And you caused me to moan/ You caused me to leave my home," she sings, perhaps to the cruel fates, perhaps to the ghost of her husband. “The longest train I ever saw went down that Georgie line. Australia's Triffids did a takeoff on "In the Pines." The first printed version was published in 1917 in a collection compiled by Cecil Sharp. I asked my captain … The perfect song for simple people.". pine definition: 1. an evergreen tree (= one that never loses its leaves) that grows in cooler areas of the world…. You can manage your newsletter subscriptions at any time. In 1925, a version of the song was recorded onto phonograph cylinder by a folk collector. You can also subscribe and listen to the show on Apple Podcasts. You've caused me … To hear a full audio version, listen to this episode of Studio 360 below. And then later a man, her husband, is found dead—decapitated of all things. Slate relies on advertising to support our journalism. The song is 'In the Pines' by Danny Farrant, animation and art by me, Merry (early) Christmas!! Song Meaning This song is about a black slave girl in America in the 1950s who has run away from her master and spent the night sleeping under a pine tree. in the pines, in the pines, where the sun never shines, will shiver the whole night through. In the latest episode of Studio 360 (which along with being a public-radio show is a Slate podcast), producer Lauren Hansen tells the long, rich musical and social history of a great old American song, before and after Kurt Cobain and Nirvana took a turn at making it theirs. Another element is the train—a mysteriously long train. ALTHOUGH LEADBELLY IS credited with authorship of "Where Did You Sleep" on "The Winding Sheet" and Nirvana's "Unplugged in New York," his own discovery of the song was almost as secondhand as that of the Seattle musicians. The answer may be that its essence is not a specific story or even a musical style but the kind of intensely dark emotion that, as is the case with much in American music, survives longer in popular memory than does treacly sentiment. The other pivotal musician for this song is the great early 20th-century folk and blues musician Lead Belly. "The longest train" section probably began as a separate song, which merged with "In the Pines"; references in some renditions to "Joe Brown's coal mine" and "the Georgia line" may date its origins to Joseph Emerson Brown, a former Georgia governor, who operated coal mines in the 1870's. In Monroe’s version, there’s actually no mention of death or violence, so it eschews the murder ballad elements of its predecessors and becomes a bit lighter and sweeter in tone. As for our murder ballad, “In the Pines” has its own collection of lyrical calling cards, which first start come together in 1926, when a banjoist named Dock Walsh makes the first commercial recording of the song. This was the first documentation of "The Longest Train" variant of the song, which includes a verseabout "The longest train I ever saw". It was probably born from African Americans living along or east of the Appalachian Mountains around the turn of the 20th century. In the bluegrass and country versions popularized by Mr. Monroe, the song's eerie qualities are rooted in the genre's "high lonesome" sound, with fiddles and yodeling harmonies used to evoke the cold wind blowing. Thanks for signing up! Join Slate Plus to continue reading, and you’ll get unlimited access to all our work—and support Slate’s independent journalism. “You can see in videos he’s singing to these ladies in pink chiffon gowns and he’s got this face like these people  really want me to sing this here?”, In 1944, in New York, Lead Belly records the first of at least a half-dozen versions of “In the Pines,” which he most often calls “Where Did You Sleep Last Night,” or “Black Girl,” or “Black Gal.”, “He found this song and reinterpreted it and made it his own,” she says. As she demonstrated in a telephone conversation, she can also sing a very different "Mitchell County, N.C." version that includes a reference to the local Clenchfield railroad line. In their traditional interpretation, the Kossoy Sisters begin: "Little girl, little girl, where'd you stay last night? “I would call that recording a pre-bluegrass era recording,” DiSavino says. Send me updates about Slate special offers. Not even your mother knows." “Lead Belly lead a violent life,” she says. Alan Lomax, the folk music archivist and promoter, reported to Ms. McCulloh that Leadbelly learned parts of the song from someone who had taken it from the 1917 Sharp version and other parts from the 1925 cylinder recording. P.s. “A place where a person has left to be by themselves to face what they are and what they have done.”. I tried to make it about her as an individual. In one case, a husband demands: "Don't lie to me; where did you sleep last night?" Any time there were more than three or four songs to be sung, 'In the Pines' was one of them. “He was in jail for murder. In Shakespeare’s time, when some gruesome slaying or rape occured, the crime was transcribed and printed onto large pieces of paper which were sold on the streets. "He was a schoolteacher, and he found in the attic of an old school a box of blues records." The woman may also be asked, "Where did you get that dress, and those shoes that are so fine?" There is the chorus "in the pines," a stanza about "the longest train I ever saw" and another verse in which someone is decapitated by a Train. ", In other versions, the focus is clearly, as the novelist Ms. McCrumb notes, on a confrontation: "There's a woman doing something not socially acceptable, and she's been caught at it." It's easy to play, easy to sing, great harmonies and very emotional. Her name was Caroline. Despite all the variations of "In the Pines," these questions are almost never asked of a man. In fact, the song was a folk song, usually known as "In the Pines," which dates back at least to the 1870's. In the pines, in the pines where the sun never shines I will shiver the whole night through Hey girl, hey girl where will you go I'm going where the cold wind blows In the pines, in the pines where the sun don't ever shine I will shiver the whole night through Hey girl, hey girl don't lie to me tell me where did you sleep last night In his song, Lead Belly addresses either “my girl” or “black girl,” probably depending on the white or black audiences he was singing to at the time. Long before Nirvana's rise, he and Mark Lanegan, leader of the Seattle rock group Screaming Trees, formed a friendship around a mutual love of Leadbelly. It’s in the 1940s, that the song really starts to put down roots with two major, influential and lasting renditions of “In the Pines” by two very important artists. "Carolina in the Pines" addresses Martin's wife whose actual name was Caroline: "I tried to write a love song about my wife without trying to relegate her to a secondary position as a supporter of me. Browse our 12 arrangements of "IN THE PINES." The sense of ghosts was palpable: a widow singing a widow's tune, biting as heavily into each "don't lie to me" as her husband had. In the pines, in the pines, where the sun never shines And we shiver when the cold wind blows. "My father gave me the record when I was a kid," Mr. Lanegan says. That bluesified effect gives the song a creepier feel, like something’s not right. I don't ever remember not hearing it and not singing it. Jason Isbell explains the meaning behind some of his best songs including Alabama Pines, Dress Blues and Tour Of Duty. MMM: I think I was 23 years old. Lyrics about beheading drop out, but the enigmatic train is almost as frightening, suggesting an eternal passage: "I asked my captain for the time of day/ He said he throwed his watch away. I once lived the life of a rambler, I lived off the fruit of the land But now I'm living on burgers and ol' skunky … "In the Pines" will have other versions, of course. This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. It’s lonely. In the Pines Lyrics: My girl, my girl, don't lie to me / Tell me where did you sleep last night / In the pines, in the pines / Where the sun don't ever shine / I would shiver the whole night through Mr. Cobain's identification with female rockers, from Hole to the Raincoats, encompasses the trespassing woman of the tale. Oh, people were mesmerized, and you know half the people in the room had no idea what that song was.”. But there is really no need for anyone to ever sing it again. A song of unknown origins that goes by many names but has influenced generations of musicians. “And the sense of being in the pines as being alienated from love and alienated from life that way.”. A traditional American folk song which dates back to at least the 1870s, and which is generally believed to be Southern Appalachian in origin (although some think that it has an older Irish history). Please try again. 2) Now I'm just a singer with miles in my eyes, I'm a rich man with nothing to show, I spend all my nights singing love songs, to ladies that I'll never know. And you can actually see a pattern emerge over time, with each subsequent decade, each generation picking a tradition for themselves. 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