Lead Belly is a great example of lyric creep. His personal tradition was an oral one. I have seen no mention in his biography of his writing songs down. He just sang 'em and sang 'em. Being as human as the rest of us, his lyrics changed over time.

It is clear from his biography that Lead Belly would make lyric changes to would endear himself to a particular audience or to fit their expectations. I bet some of the changes remained when they were particularly well-received.

There are many Lead Belly songs which were recorded numerous times, and yet each is different. Therefore there is seldom a "definitive" version of a Lead Belly song. Of course, Lomax put out that Lead Belly song book, but it only represents that "snap shot of the bird in flight", so to speak.

If you listen to Lomax's other collections and then read the lyrics he provided, it is clear he (or his transcriptionist) "got it wrong" many times. Makes you wonder if Child "got it wrong" sometimes also.

It seems that most agree that a song is a living breathing thing and each person will in some way change it as it passes through them.

Roger in Baltimore