Hey all. Sorry for starting so many threads. I'm glad you could sort 'em out Joe.

And Aziz, thanks for the comments. But do you assume I'm not black also?

Regarding "Done Gone": The book "The Wind Done Gone" is absolutely fantastic as a contrast to "Gone with the Wind." I bought it before the lawsuit.

Gerry, the Google link is very cool. But it refers to different lyrics than those here. There are several variations of these songs. This melody is, maybe, unique. It is a recording you can find online.

But regarding the Lomax brothers, they were the ones who got Leadbelly and others to record for the first time. So their influence can't be understated.

Leadbelly didn't write these songs, by his own admission. They are adaptations of (most likely) slave work songs, that became black American prison work songs, that became folk songs. And they might have been lost forever if not for the few who saw value in recording them.   

Regarding the potential offensive nature of particular words, Aziz, I think you're right. I doubt that many "Americanisms", whether by black Americans or others, are truly native. Most of these probably adapted from people in the old countries. Which, in this case, would be a combination of Africans, slave populations in the US South- antebellum, English as it was mangled by everyone inhabiting the New Indies prior to 1860, and the once greater Great Britain (meaning everyone influencing the States from G.B. and the Commonwealth).

I still hope for confirmation of the missing lyrics. The 1960's songbook is NOT correct. At best, it "cleaned up" the lyrics. But I think it actually goes further, providing a totally different lyrical view. Leadbelly may have approved. But it isn't what he sang in 1939.