Lead Belly — Lead Belly: The Man Who Invented Rock & Roll

Creedence Clearwater Revival, Nirvana, Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead, Elvis Presley, White Stripes, Led Zeppelin, Tom Petty. Oh, and don’t forget Ram Jam: They all can’t be wrong in that a Lead Belly song—be it “Cotton Fields” or “Midnight Special” or “In the Pines” and on and on—is simply too hard to pass up. The temptation to translate him for rock ears is just too great.

Still, Lead Belly: The Man Who Invented Rock & Roll is a mighty bodacious claim. Undaunted by the magnitude of such a boast, Janis Joplin, Van Morrison and George Harrison have already pled their case just within the opening 60 seconds of this biographical documentary. Jerry Lee Lewis, Paul McCartney, Arlo Guthrie, Willie Nelson, John Fogerty and B.B. King are still to come over the course of the DVD’s remaining 80 or so minutes. Even Tom Jones gets the Lead out by shaking up “Black Betty.” Plus, joining the rockers is a similar festival of iconic folkies—Pete Seeger (with and without the Weavers), Odetta, Harry Belafonte, Joan Baez—who likewise gush praise upon the influential and powerful King of the 12-String Guitar.

All that star power gets put to good use telling the tale of Huddie Ledbetter (1889-1949), known more dramatically as Lead Belly. Their vintage interviews as well as performances weave among a stream of historical photographs and film. Family members offer insider perspective. Alan Lomax also helps color the storyline with personal insights from working with the blues- and folk-singer after serendipitously “discovering” him in quite the odd location.

Importantly, you get to hear from Ledbetter himself, in his own words: spoken, sung as well as boomingly performed in front of cinematic cameras.

As for that odd location: In 1933, it so happened that the forever-roaming father-and-son team of John and Alan Lomax were down South on one of their song-catching missions for the Library of Congress. This particular stop put them and their 300 plus-pound direct-to-disc recorder inside the Angola Penitentiary. Ledbetter was also in there—except serving yet another sentence for having killed yet another man. The Lomaxes sat awestruck as that massive contraption began etching “Angola Blues” and “Irene” (which would develop into his theme song, of sorts, as well as one of the all-time great singalongs) into acetate discs, right there on the spot. The wheels of stardom were set into motion at that moment.

The twisting path up to and from that pivotal point is fully detailed, starting with the lure of Shreveport’s notorious Fannin Street. Palling around with Blind Lemon Jefferson for a spell. Drawing his share of knives. Cocking his share of pistols. And, in turn, heading to his share of prisons for his share of murder convictions; but then somehow managing to keep finding his share of revolving doors to let him back out. Breaking from the Lomaxes. Moving to New York City. Conquering the budding folk scene there. Living up to Lead Belly Sings for Children. Filling the role of songster, entertainer and inspirator. Bringing entire rooms into shared song with every pass of the refrain to “Irene, Goodnight.” And sneaking in his final, farewell concert at a packed Carnegie Recital Hall not long before Lou Gehrig’s disease fatally robbed him of everything, bit by bit.

Besides spanning boyhood to Bellevue Hospital, the documentary also connects some interesting dots strung all the way across the foaming ocean. In the 1950s, a ragtag musical phenomenon known as skiffle spread like wildfire through England. Lonnie Donegan, the movement’s chief pyromaniac, did his part to help spawn an estimated 50,000 such skiffle bands. And, surprisingly, so did Lead Belly. Because in ’54, Donegan supercharged a version of his “Rock Island Line” that swiftly became an anthem that caught many formative ears, from Jimmy Page to David Bowie to Liverpool’s Quarrymen. Hence, by Harrison’s calculus: “No Lead Belly … No Beatles.”

Know this: Ledbetter was indeed inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. The Class of 1988, specifically, which included Bob Dylan, Les Paul, Woody Guthrie, and, yes, the Beatles. Regardless of whether rock & roll was of his creation, Lead Belly certainly embedded his larger-than-life persona and potent music into the DNA of a few different genres. Invented inarguably champions that fact quite entertainingly so.

Label: Pop Twist

Release date: 4/11/25

Reviewed by Dennis Rozanski