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Coon Can/Poor Boy/Little Sadie (Laws I8)
Old-time Appalachian Blues; North Carolina, Virginia, Texas- Widely Spread;
ARTIST: From Carl Sandburg;
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes; DATE: Early 1900’s (1922);
RECORDING INFO: Little Sadie: Clarence Ashley, "Little Sadie" (Columbia 15522-D, 1930; on RoughWays1); Wade Ward, "Little Sadie" [instrumental] (on Holcomb-Ward1); Ashley, Clarence (Thomas/Tom)). Old-Time Music at Clarence Ashley's, Part 2, Folkways FA 2359, LP (1963), cut# 2; Dr. Corn's Bluegrass Remedy. It'll Tickle Your Innards, Grassroots GR 004, LP (1977), cut#B.03; Foreacre, Louise. Stoneman Family Old Time Songs, Folkways FA 2315, Cas (1957), cut# 12; Freight Hoppers. Where'd You Come From, Where'd You Go?, Rounder 0403, CD (1996), cut# 4; Jarrell, Tommy. Rainbow Sign, County 791, LP (198?), cut# 4; May, William. Folksongs and Ballads, Vol 4, Augusta Heritage AHR 010, Cas (1992), cut#B.06 (Sweet Sadie); Michael, Walt; & McCreesh, Tom. Dance Like a Wave on the Sea, Front Hall FHR-017, LP (1978), cut# 5; Ward, Wade. Roscoe Holcomb and Wade Ward, Folkways FA 2363, LP (1962), cut#B.09; Watson, Doc. Doc Watson on Stage, Vanguard VSD 9/10, LP (1970), cut# 22; West, Hedy; and Bill Clifton. Getting Folk Out of the Country, Bear Family BF 15008, LP (198?), cut# 4;
Bad (Man) Lee Brown: "Last night I was making my rounds" Laws – Round #780 – Randolph- Ozark 2 pp117-8 -- Tom PALEY (voc/ banjo): ARGO ZFB-3 1960; Native American Balladry, Amer. Folklore Society, Bk (1964), p250; Unknown Singers. Folk Music in America, Vol. 9, Songs of Death & Tragedy, Library of Congress LBC-09, LP (1978), cut#B.01; John Dilleshaw's "Bad Lee Brown,"
Penitentiary Blues: McGee, Sam. Grand Dad of the Country Guitar Pickers, Arhoolie 5012, LP (197?), cut# 12; Webster, Otis. Southern Prison Blues, Tradition 2066, LP (196?), cut#A.03;
Bad Man Ballad: American Ballads and Folk Songs, MacMillan, Bk (1934), p. 89;
OTHER NAMES: “Bad Man's Blunder,” “Bad(Man) Lee Brown;” “Penitentiary Blues;” “Bad Man Ballad;” “Cocaine Blues;” “Ode to Bad Bill;” “Chain Gang Blues;”
SOURCES: Laws I8, "Bad Lee Brown;" Randolph 155, "Bad Lee Brown" (2 texts, 1 tune); MWheeler, pp. 109-111, "Late One Night" (1 text, 1 tune); Lomax-ABFS, pp. 89-91, "Bad Man Ballad" (1 text, 1 tune); Grossman, Stefan. Book of Guitar Tunings, Amsco, Sof (1972), p66; Lomax, Amer. Ballads, 89, 12, m. (Miss. "Bad Man Ballad," partly from L.C. Record 1859, 8 sts.). St. 1 and the last half of st. 10 are given above. Brown II, 597, 8 (N.C. "Sadie"). Cambiaire, 22 (same source as Henry's). Henry, Songs Sung, 39, 6 ( (Tenn. "Little Sadie"). Randolph II, 117, 2, m.; 1½ (Mo.). Wheeler, 110, 10. m. ("Late One Night"). Williams, 410, 9 (Ky.). L.C. Records 2851 B1 (N.C. "Little Sadie"); 384 B (Fla.); and the following under the title "Bad Man Ballad"; 706 A1 (S.C.) and 2591 B2 (Ark.).
NOTES: One part, known as a banjo, fiddle and guitar solo which originated in the Appalachian region but has been found as far west as Arkansas as early as 1939. “Little Sadie” also known as “Bad Man Ballad” is probably where Jim Croce got the idea and name for his hit song, ‘Bad Bad Leroy Brown.” Although Lee Brown is usually the bad man in the “Little Sadie,” Croce’s song is an entirely different song. “Bad Man's Blunder,” by Hays and Cisco Houston is a variant of “Little Sadie” that was a hit for the Kingston Trio. “Penitentiary Blues/Cocaine Blues,” was released by Johnny Cash in 1960 and redone by George Thorogood many years later.
The basic plot is this: The singer goes out one night to "make his rounds." He meets his (girlfriend/wife), Little Sadie, and shoots her. He flees, but is overtaken and sentenced to (a long prison term/life). Another description by Laws: “After killing his woman, the bully tries to run away, but he is arrested, tried, and sentenced to ninety-nine years.”
Manfred Herbert: On page 165 of Song and Dance Man: The Art of Bob Dylan, by Michael Gray (1981 revised Hamlyn edition), the author, like many others before and after him, falls into the trap of falsely attributing a deeper meaning, "creative idiosyncrasy", to Bob Dylan's rendition of a traditional folk song, in this case, "Little Sadie."
GRAY: "In Search of Little Sadie" and "Little Sadie" are based on an older song, which Johnny Cash recorded as "Transfusion Blues"... and as "Cocaine Blues"... The story-line has remained much the same -- it tells of an escape, arrest, trial and jailing. But while Cash plods through a lifeless narrative, congealing in his artificial Manliness, Dylan ditches the worst platitudes, transforms others, by his timing, into wit, and fills his narrative with creative idiosyncrasy. While Cash sings "overtook me down in Juarez, Mexico" (a place already associated with Dylan in song, from "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues") Dylan has it "They overtook me down in Jericho," which gives, as Geoffrey Cannon wrote, "an echo of his persistent references to places of abstract myth. Cash places the arrest: Dylan puts it anywhere." p. 165, 1981 Hamlyn edition.
I do not mean to belittle Gray's research and in fact consider it a milestone in Dylanology (whatever that is). It has given me a lot of food for thoughts, since its first edition came out shortly after the British edition of Scaduto's biography -- and his book along with Scaduto's (and the first Writings and Drawings edition) has probably influenced me more than any others.
Back in the early 1970s, it kindled my interest in Dylan's poetry, but it also made me aware of the fact that a lot of "deeper meaning", "creative idiosyncrasy" (as Gray puts it) is falsely attributed to Bob's renditions of traditional folksongs. A lot of critics seem to see the Midas touch on EVERYTHING picked up by Dylan, and a lot of (IMO) "worthless foam" is uttered based on these false premises.
"I lost my glasses can't see Jericho" (Some Other Kind of Songs -- Bob Dylan) -- again, I ain't no expert nor an expert's son (no Dylan connection but a paraphrased "floating stanza" from numerous blues songs), but here's my five-cents worth about "Little Sadie":
Gray and Cannon (in his review of 'Self Portrait' in The Guardian of June 26, 1970) seem to have lost *their* glasses as well. Blinded by the light of Dylan's glory, they do not perceive that Dylan sings the older folk song version of which Cash's versions are variants/re-writes (by T. J. Arnall).
Dylan's source of "(In Search of) Little Sadie" is the version of Clarence (Tom) Ashley with Doc Watson, recorded by Mike Seeger in Chicago, IL, February 1962 (Folkways FA 2359 "Old Time Music at Clarence Ashley's, Vol. 2"). The lyrics are basically identical, "Jericho", and all...
Moreover, a Cisco Houston variant of the same song family, "Bad Lee Brown" (Everest FS-205: "Cisco Houston"), probably recorded in the 1940s, which has completely different lyrics, also names "Jericho" as the place of arrest.
"Jericho" -- a "place of abstract myth"? Dylan's use of it "creative idiosyncrasy"?
The song seems to be known as "Little Sadie" only in and around North Carolina (another version by that title was collected by the Archive of American Folksong in Elk Park, NC).
Let us look at the other location mentioned in both Dylan's and Clarence Ashley's versions of the song, which Clarence Ashley had previously recorded as Columbia 15522-D, probably in October 1929. Both mention the sheriff from "Thomasville."
And, lo and behold, Thomasville, pop. 14,144 (1980 census) can be found in North Carolina, the Tar Heel State, just south of Winston Salem. The National Zip-Code and Post Office Directory does, however, not list a town named "Jericho" for this state.
So where would you run after shooting Little Sadie down? To a neighboring state? Heading south, "where the climate suits my clothes"?
To South Carolina? Lo and behold, there's a "Jericho" listed in the National Zip-Code and Post Office Directory.
So, is it fair to assume that the traditional "Thomasville" and "Jericho" variants of "Little Sadie" (aka "Bad Man Ballad" aka "Penitentiary Blues" aka "Chain Gang Blues", etc.) could possibly represent a local (or localized) North Carolina murder ballad, just like "Poor Omie" (aka "Naomi Wise", "Poor Omie Wise") (murder of Naomi Wise by Jonathan Lewis in Randolph County, NC, 1808)?
In my opinion, the only "creative idiosyncrasy" seems to be Gray's and Cannon's, the only "abstract myth" their perception of Dylan as someone with the Midas touch -- even when Dylan just sings a faithful rendition of a traditional folksong (Manfred Herbert).
Here are Sandburg's notes on the song: Of Fort Smith, Arkansas, we have heard, "There is no fort there and they have forgotten which Smith it was named after." It is a town where they sing Coon Can and Poor Boy; either name is correct, according to Kate Webber of Fort Smith and Chicago, who communicated the tune and one verse, other verses coming by fast freight with no demurrage from Jack Hagerty of Los Angeles Its moral is plain: retribution overtakes the wrongdoer; years in the penitentiary are long. Folk songs are often like this; they leave the hearer to piece out the story. . . . The boy is found guilty of killing a woman. Why he killed her, his excuses, and explanations, are not told. There must have been extenuating circumstances, or the jury was impressed by the youthful aspect of the prisoner at the bar, in addition to the mother's testimony that he was always a good boy.
Here are the lyrics to Coon Can/Poor Boy/Little Sadie” from Sandburg:
COON CAN- Sandburg 1927
1. My mother called me to her deathbed side,
these words she said to me:
"If your don't mend your rovin' ways,
they'll put you in the penitentiary,
They'll put you in the penitentiary, poor boy,
they'll put you in the penitentiary,
If you don't mend your rovin' ways,
they'll put you in the penitentiary."
2. I sat me down to play coon can, could scarcely read my hand,
A thinkin' about the woman I loved, ran away with another man.
Ran away with another man, poor boy, ran away with another man.
I was thinkin' about the woman I loved, ran away with another man
3. I'm a standin' on the corner, in front of a jewelry store,
Big policeman taps me on the back, says,
"You ain't a goin' to kill no more."
Says, "You ain't a goin' to kill no more, poor boy," says,
"You ain't a goin' to kill no more."
Big policeman taps me on the back, says,
"You ain't a goin' to kill no more."
4. "Oh, cruel, kind judge, oh, cruel, kind judge,
what are you goin' to do with me?"
"If that jury finds you guilty, poor boy,
I'm goin' to send you to the penitentiary.
I'm goin' to send you to the penitentiary, poor boy,
goin' to send you to the penitentiary.
If that jury finds you guilty, poor boy,
I'm goin' to send you to the penitentiary."
5. Well, the jury found him guilty, the clerk he wrote it down,
The judge pronounced his sentence, poor boy; ten long years in Huntsville town.
Ten long years in Huntsville town, poor boy, ten long years in Huntsville town;
The judge pronounced his sentence, poor boy, ten long years in Huntsville town.
6. The iron gate clanged behind him, he heard the warden say,
"Ten long years for you in prison, poor boy,
yes, it's ten long years for you this day.
Ten long years for you in prison, poor boy,
yes, it's ten long years this day."
As the iron gate clanged behind him,
that's what he heard the warden say.
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