#Where did you sleep last night

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

Nirvana - Where Did You Sleep Last Night

[unavary]

nirvana

[linusbenjamin]

Kurt Cobain Where Did You Sleep Last Night? | 1994

[agirlnamedbone]

Kosuke Ajiro | "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" | 2014

[steezylad]

[bruiseviolethands]

i hope you can hear me from up there mom

[paceypeternathanslawyer]

One Tree Hill Meme {73/187} Season 4 Episode 6: Where Did You Sleep Last Night Nathan & Haley In Every Episode

[unevaguedeprintemps]

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Nirvana

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[rustbeltjessie]

My girl, my girl, don’t you lie to me—

Where Did You Sleep Last Night (also known as “In the Pines,” “Black Girl / Black Gal,” and “My Girl”) is a bit of a confusing one. Is it a murder ballad, or a death song? Someone in it is dead, and has died in a horrific way, but exactly who has died changes depending on the version you’re listening to, as does the way in which the victim died, and who is responsible for their death. And who is singing this song? The killer, someone that knows the killer, an omniscient third party? There are point-of-view shifts all over the place. My girl, my girl, don’t lie to me / tell me where did you sleep last night? That’s how the song begins. In the pines, in the pines, where the sun don’t ever shine, she replies, I shivered the whole night through. Most of the stanzas in the version I am referencing follow this formula, alternating between the person speaking to the ‘girl,’ and the girl’s responses. All save one, which starts: Her husband was a hard working man. In that one verse, the singer takes a different point of view entirely.

Some of these confusing aspects may stem from the fact that the song we now know as “Where Did You Sleep Last Night” is a mashup of two older ballads: “In the Pines” and “The Longest Train.” Some versions of the song reference the train explicitly, and state that the victim was decapitated by a train. In others, such as the one I’m most familiar with, the only reference to a train is that [his] head was found in a driving wheel. And in still others, the cause of death is reattributed and no reference to trains is made at all. Similarly, the person fleeing into the pines changes from version to version. In most, including this one, it is a woman, but why she is fleeing or what she is fleeing from is not made explicit. Is she fleeing her rapist? Is she a murderer, or the witness to a murder? Did she commit some other transgression that she is hiding from the repercussions of? Or are the pines simply a metaphor? My girl could be running from life and into death, or from chastity and into (her) sexuality.

I find that all these inconsistencies and mysteries only add to the song’s beauty and sadness. It’s easier to imagine yourself as the one in the pines when you can ascribe your own personal reasons for running—and your own personal places to run to—to the song’s protagonist, and that makes the song even more haunting. Speaking of: to my ear, Leadbelly’s 1944 recording is the most haunting take—his quavering voice, the scratchy blues guitar—though Nirvana’s 1993 MTV Unplugged version is also essential. Listen, and shiver the whole night through.

—Jessie Lynn McMains, from “I guess there’s just a meanness in this world.” (Murder Ballads and Death Songs) (October 2021)

[seamusicpoetry]

Nirvana-Where Did You Sleep Last Night (1994)

...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...

[rastronomicals]

2:55 PM EDT March 18, 2024:

Nirvana - "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" From the album MTV Unplugged in New York

Last song scrobbled from iTunes at Last.fm

[thewaymouth]

HOLE - Rumours, Lies And Media Rape

1993-1995 Live Compilation (Hellenbach Records)

Where Did You Sleep Last Night?

(Leadbelly cover)

[seymourmusicclub]

Leadbelly - Where Did you Sleep Last Night

[agirlnamedbone]

in the pines, in the pines

[beyourselfchulanmaria]

Nirvana - Where Did You Sleep Last Night (Live On MTV Unplugged Unedited)