IN THE PINES
(Variant titles: "Black Girl" and "Where Did You Sleep Last Night")
(Traditional**)
Peg Leg Howell - 1929
Fiddlin' Arthur Smith & His Dixieliners - 1938
Bill Monroe - 1941
Huddie Ledbetter - 1944
Bascom Lamar Lunsford - 1949
Carter Sisters with Mother Maybelle & Chet Atkins - 1949
The Louvin Brothers - 1956
The Kossoy Sisters - 1956
Pete Seeger - 1957
Josh White - 1957
Lonnie Dinegan - 1957
Dave Van Ronk - 1959
The Browns - 1961
The New Christy Minstrels - 1961
Lorne Greene - 1962
Joan Baez - 1963
Penny Lang - 1963
The Kentucky Colonels - 1964
The Four Pennies - 1964
Jimmy Martin - 1965
The Sir Douglas Quintet - 1965
Clifford Jordan & Sandra Douglass - 1965
The Pleazers - 1965
Marianne Faithfull - 1965
The Osborne Brothers - 1966
Shawn Phillips - 1966
Grateful Dead - 1966
Tiny Tim - 1966
Warner Mack - 1966
Norma Tanega - 1967
Elton Britt - 1968
Strange Creek Singers - 1968
Jerry Reed - 1969
John Phillips - 1969
Long John Baldry & Maggie Bell - 1971
Link Wray - 1973
Vassar Clements - 1975
Gene Clark - 1977
Mickey Newbury - 1977
Boone Creek - 1978
Charlie McCoy - 1979
Ralph Stanley & Jimmy Martin - 1980
The Oak Ridge Boys - 1983
Blood On The Saddle feat. Annette Zilinskas - 1986
Mark Lanegan - 1989
Cows - 1992
Nirvana - 1994
Dolly Parton - 1994
Charlie Louvin - 1996
Odetta - 2001
Alexander Veljanov - 2001
Youth Gone Mad feat. Dee Dee Ramone - 2002
R. Crumb - 2003
Erin Bode - 2003
Smog - 2005
Susheela Raman - 2007
Julie Hohnson - 2008
Sam Marshall - 2008
Micah P. Hinson - 2009
Piter Wilkens - 2010
Hugo Race - 2010
Jack Rose - 2010
Also recorded by:
Mac Wiseman; Duane Eddy; Earl Scruggs; Roscoe Holcomb; Joe Craven;
Jackson C. Frank; The Pine Leaf Boys; Charlie Feathers; Elton Britt;
Texas Jim Robertson; Doc Watson; Jimmie Davis; Tennessee Ernie Ford; Leon Russell; Josh White; Nathan Abshire............and many others.
As recorded by TEXAS JIM ROBERTSON:
The longest train I ever saw
Was in the Georgia pines
The train came by at six o'clock
The cab came by at nine
The purtiest girl I ever saw
Lived down that railroad track
Had clear blue eyes and golden hair
In curls all down her back
Look up, look down that railroad track
Bend down my head and cry
Little girl, little girl, what have I done
That you should pass me by
In the pines, in the pines
Where the sun never shines
And you shiver when the cold winds blow
The longest train I ever saw was in the Georgia pines
A train can come, a train can go
It passes in the night
And leaves a broken heart behind
That nothin' can set right
The whistle on that lonesome train
It turns my heart to stone
I know It means my love has gone
And left me here alone
The longest train I ever saw
Stretched ten miles down the track
It couldn't carry my grief away
Unless it brought you back
In the pines, in the pines
Where the sun never shines
And you shiver when the cold winds blow
The longest train I ever saw was in the Georgia pines
**********
As recorded by JIMMY MARTIN:
The longest train I ever saw
Went down that Georgia line
The engine passed at six o'clock
And the cab passed by at nine
In the pines in the pines
Where the sun never shines
And we shiver when the cold winds blow
Uh huh huh uh huh huh huh huh uh huh huh
(Mandolin Solo)
I asked the captain for the time of day
He said he throwed his watch away
Along steel rail and the short cross tie
I'm on my way back home
In the pines in the pines
Where the sun never shines
And we shiver when the cold winds blow
Uh huh huh uh huh huh huh huh uh huh huh
(Mandolin Solo)
Little girl, little girl what have I done
That makes you treat me so
You've caused me to weep, you've caused me to mourn
You've caused me to leave my home
In the pines in the pines
Where the sun never shines
And we shiver when the cold winds blow
Uh huh huh uh huh huh huh huh uh huh huh
**********
As recorded by THE BROWNS:
In the pines in the pines
Where the sun never shines
And you shiver when the cold winds blow
Little girl, little girl, 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 leave my home
In the pines in the pines
Where the sun never shines
And you shiver when the cold winds blow
The longest train I ever saw was on this railroad line
The engine passed at eight o'clock
The caboose went by at nine
In the pines in the pines
Where the sun never shines
And you shiver when the cold winds blow
**********
As recorded by ELTON BRITT:
In the pines in the pines where the sun never shines
And you shiver when the cold winds blow
In the pines in the pines where the green top entwines
With pillows of white when it snows
There's a song in my heart I remember from time
And it always brings mem'ries of home
Like the old country school and the church in the wildwood
And the walk through the pines all alone
There's an old swimming hole and a creek that we fished in
And the trails of the old beagle hounds
And the homecoming days and the family reunions
And the hymns that have kept me in ground
In the pines in the pines where the sun never shines
And you shiver when the cold winds blow
In the pines in the pines where the green top entwines
With pillows of white when it snows
In the poorest of life there are all kinds of timbers
And they all have the meaningful signs
For the willow is weak while the oak's strong and mighty
While the symbol of peace is the kind
In the pines in the pines where the sun never shines
And we shiver when the cold winds blow
**********
As recorded by JERRY REED:
Now the longest train I ever done seen
Was in those Georgia lines
Now that train came by at five o'clock
And the cab came by at nine
In the pines in the pines where the sun never shines
And they shivered when the cold winds blow
In the pines in the pines where the sun never shines
And they shivered when the cold winds blow
(Instrumental Break)
Look down, look down that lonesome road
Hang down your little head and cry
Little girl, little girl what have I done
That you should have passed me by
In the pines in the pines where the sun never shines
And they shivered when the cold winds blow
Now the longest train I ever saw
Was in those Georgia lines
**********
As recorded by HUDDIE LEDBETTER:
Black girl, black girl, don't lie to me
Tell me where did you sleep last night
In the pines, in the pines where the sun never shines
And I shivered the whole night through
Black girl, black girl, where will you go
I'm goin' where the cold wind blows
In the pines, in the pines where the sun never shines
And I'll shiver the whole night through
Black girl, black girl, don't lie to me
Tell me where did you sleep last night
In the pines, in the pines where the sun never shines
And I shivered the whole night through
My husband was a railroad man
Killed a mile and a half from here
His head was found in the driving wheel
And his body hasn't ever been found
Black girl, black girl, where will you go
I'm goin' where the cold wind blows
You caused me to weep and you caused me to mourn
You caused me to leave my home
**********
** There have been so many versions of this song, with different titles and verses, that authorship is often wrongly attributed to Alan Riggs or Huddie Ledbetter. Although neither was the original writer, they both put their own stamp on the song with original arrangements and lyric variations.
**********
Song research and transcriptions by Mel Priddle - January 2011)
