Leadbelly - The Gallows Pole free for downloading

The blues is strong with this one. Have a nice day :-)

Man could he shred that guitar

This is a traditional folk song that's centuries old. It has gone by the names The Maid Freed from the Gallows, Gallows Pole and The Sycamore Tree. Leadbelly recorded a version in 1939 and Zeppelin did a version in 1970. Stop arguing over who should get the royalties. 

Good on LZ. for bringing this to life I would never have listened to it otherwise and if LZ. had never had existed I would love to have done the same.

I love that Jimmy Page came back to New Orleans and paid a very substantial amount of money to Ledbelly and this tied Led Zeppelin to American Blues for eternity!

To all you people spewing hateful words towards Led Zeppelin in the comments: the only Led Zeppelin fans who will see them are also, likely Leadbelly fans so there's no need for all the hate. Furthermore Led Zepp were obviously Leadbelly fans as well. Try not to clutter up all this goodness with your hate.

Still listening to this in 1933.

You can hear rock and roll alive before its birth right here.

Zeppelin, The Animals, Nirvana... Damn Lead Belly was influential. I am very thankful for this man.

This guy is an American treasure. Why aren't there any docu dramas about him?

1 million views! Thank you guys for the comments, lets keep the real music alive!

By Zep covering this is paying homage to an American legend. They aren't stealing.... we all know whos stuff it is.

I'm not sure, just guessing but if you tried to find the guitar this was recorded with you can't because almost immediately after cutting this track that guitar violently erupted into flames and burned to a crisp.

I think it's funny when people complain about plaigerism. The blues is all a big share-fest of pain no matter how one man or the other interprates it

All these blues men where hardcore heroes with massive balls of steel. Respect.

Leadbelly is amazing but he never claimed any of these songs as his. He learnt them from someone just as Zepplin learnt them from him. That is what folk music is all about.