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Cocaine Blues
Cocaine Blues
"Cocaine Blues"
Based on "Little Sadie"
Written by Language Form Original artist Recorded by Performed by
T.J. "Red" Arnall English Western swing W. A. Nichol’s Western Aces Roy Hogsed Johnny Cash see also (Other artists) Johnny Cash at his Folsom Prison Concert
full, unedited version (apparently a different "take") is found on the soundtrack CD. The song is also featured on Johnny Cash’s Columbia album, Now, There Was a Song! under the title "Transfusion Blues" substituting the line "took a shot of cocaine" with "took a transfusion" along with some other minor lyrical changes.
Other artists
Several artists have recorded "Cocaine Blues", including: • W. A. Nichol’s Western Aces (1947) • Roy Hogsed and the Rainbow Riders (1947) • Hank Thompson (1959) • George Thorogood and The Destroyers (1978) • Merle Travis (released posthumously on Rough, Rowdy and Blue 1986. Travis also plays on Thompson’s version) • Uncle Tupelo (live versions 1988-93)[1] • Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones (on "Voodoo Brew") (1993) • Hans Theessink and Blue Groove (1993) • Hank Williams III (1999) • Electric Frankenstein (2001) • Crash Test Dummies (2001) • Gary Davis (?) • Eddie Spaghetti of The Supersuckers (2004) The Woody Guthrie track on the Smithsonian Folkways Asch Recordings, Vol 4., track 92, entitled "Cocaine Blues (Bad Lee Brown)" is not this song but "Bad Lee Brown", another version of "Little Sadie".
"Cocaine Blues" is a Western Swing song written by T.J. "Red" Arnall, a reworking of the traditional song "Little Sadie". This song was originally recorded by W. A. Nichol’s Western Aces (vocal by "Red" Arnall) on the S & G label, probably in 1947, and by Roy Hogsed and the Rainbow Riders May 25, 1947, at Universal Recorders in Hollywood, California. Hogsed’s recording was released on Coast (262) and Capitol (40120), with the Capitol release reaching #15 in 1948. The song is the tale of a man, Willy Lee, who shoots his woman to death while under the influence of whiskey and cocaine. Willy is caught and sentenced to "ninety-nine years in the San Quentin Pen". The song ends with Willy saying: "Come all you hypes and listen unto me, Just lay off that whiskey and let that cocaine be."
Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash famously performed the song at his Folsom Prison concert, saying "Folsom" instead of "San Quentin", an event also portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix in the Cash biographical film Walk the Line. The film version, edited down to make it shorter, fades into the next scene before the line "I can’t forget the day I shot that bad bitch down" is sung. The DVD specials include an extended version of the song with the lyric, and the
Other versions
T.J. Arnall is also sometimes credited with the version of "Cocaine Blues" written and recorded by Billy Hughes (also in 1947).[2] The music is the similar, both bearing a marked resemblance to ’Little Sadie", however the lyrics in Hughes’ vary considerably from those in Arnall’s. For instance, Hughes has the Cocaine Kid, not Willy Lee, killing "his woman and a rounder, too" in Tulsa, being captured in El Paso, and sentenced to
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"ninety-nine years way down in Mac." It ends with: "For you’ll become an addict and blow your lid. Take a look at what it did to the Cocaine Kid."
Cocaine Blues
Zandt (1993, on Roadsongs) and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott (1995, on South Coast), as well as by the punk band UK Subs[8]. “Sweet Cocaine” by Fred Neil (1966) is loosely based on the same song.[9] The refrain, “Cocaine runnin’ all ’round my brain”, was used by reggae artist Dillinger in "Cocaine In My Brain" (“I’ve got cocaine runnin’ around my brain”) and more recently in turn by hip hop group Poor Righteous Teachers in the song “Miss Ghetto” on the album The New World Order (“She’s like cocaine, running around my brain/Miss Ghetto be like cocaine, running around your brain”).
Other songs named "Cocaine Blues"
"Cocaine Habit Blues"/"Take a Whiff on Me"
Another song is often known as “Cocaine Blues” but is completely different; it also known, in its different versions, as “Take a Whiff on Me” and “Cocaine Habit Blues”. This song has three families of variants.
"Take a Whiff on Me"
Secondly, “Take a Whiff on Me” (again often known as “Cocaine Blues”) shares chords and many rhyming couplets with this song, but with the refrain “Honey, take a whiff on me” instead of “Cocaine runnin’ all ’round my brain”. This version is most strongly associated with Lead Belly, whose version opens with “Walked up Ellum and I come down Main.” (“Ellum”, “Elem” and “Dep Elem” in various version, refers to Elm Street in Dallas, in that city’s red light district.[10])The song was first published by John Lomax in 1934 as "Honey, Take a Whiff on Me". Lomax stated that its origins were uncertain.[11] Variants on the Lead Belly version have been recorded by Blind Jesse Harris (1937), Woody Guthrie, Roy Bookbinder, Merle Travis, The Byrds (1970), Mungo Jerry (as “Have a Whiff on Me”, 1971 single), Old Crow Medicine Show ("Cocaine Habit" from their 2006 album Big Iron World), The White Stripes and others.[2] "Take a Drink on Me" The song “Take a Drink with Me”/”Take a Drink on Me”, recorded by white old-time music performer Charlie Poole in 1927 and collected by various folklorists[12], is a variant on “Take A Whiff On Me”, with alcohol rather than cocaine as the drug of choice. This in turn has been performed by a number of artists in the folk music and country music traditions, including the New Lost City Ramblers.[3] It shares some words with Frank Hutchison’s 1927 ballad “Coney Isle”.[13]
"Cocaine Blues"/"Coco Blues" (Cocaine, running all around my brain)
One of the most familiar, usually known as “Cocaine Blues”, is Reverend Gary Davis’ arrangement, an eight-bar blues in C Major. Davis says he learned the song in 1905 from a traveling carnival musician, Porter Irving.[3][4] This version is made up of rhyming couplets, followed by a refrain “Cocaine, running all around my brain” or “Cocaine, all around my brain”).[5] The song is sometimes known as “Coco Blues”, as on Davis’ 1965 album Pure Religion and Bad Company. Gary Davis was a key influence on the folk revival singers of the early 1960s, including Dave Van Ronk, who learned this version of “Cocaine Blues” from Davis (it features on his 1963 album Folksinger) and Bob Dylan (a 1961 variant features on The Minnesota Tapes, a 1962 variant is on Gaslight Tapes[1] and third version is on more recent compilation album Tell Tale Signs (However, on Van Ronk’s record, the song is wrongly credited to Luke Jordan, who recorded a completely different of the same name, see below.)[6][7] Davis’ version of “Cocaine Blues” was subsequently recorded by a number of artists in the folk revival/singer-songwriter tradition, including Dick Farina and Eric von Schmidt (1963), Hoyt Axton (1963, on Thunder ’n Lightning), Davey Graham (1964, on Folk, Blues and Beyond), Nick Drake (on Tanworth-in-Arden 1967-68), Jackson Browne (1977, on Running on Empty), Stefan Grossman (1978, on Acoustic Guitar), Townes Van
"Cocaine Habit Blues"
A third, very closely related to this version is the one also commonly known as “Cocaine
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Habit Blues”, recorded by the Memphis Jug Band in 1930 (credited to Jennie Mae Clayton).[14] It was a jug band standard, later recorded by the Panama Limited Jug Band and by Jerry Garcia in Mother McCree’s Uptown Jug Champions in 1964.[4] It has an introductory verse “Oh cocaine habit mighty bad”.[5]
Cocaine Blues
@displaysong.cfm?SongID=8060).[18] This song was also recorded by white bluesman Dick Justice in 1929/30 (lyrics are here: http://www.cocaine.org/cocaine.htm). A version was recorded under the title "Good Cocaine (Mama Don’t Allow It)" by the Kentucky Ramblers. David Bromberg recorded a version as "Cocaine Blues". The Luke Jordan lyrics share some lines ("Cocaine’s for horses and not for men/Doctor says it’ll kill you but don’t know when") with "Take a Whiff on Me" as recorded by Lead Belly and the Reverend Gary Davis version of "Cocaine Blues" as recorded by Bob Dylan.
“Tell It to Me”
“Tell It to Me”, another traditional song of unknown authorship, is often known as “Cocaine Blues”.[15] Also called "Let The Cocaine Be", some musicologists see a relationship to "Take A Whiff On Me" since some versions share the same lines.[16] It has a similar structure to “Take A Whiff”/”Cocaine Habit Blues”, and some versions share couplets (e.g. “Cocaine’s [dose] is not for a man/Doctor said will kill you, but he don’t say when” and “You know I walked down Fifth and I turned down Main/Looking for a nickel for to buy cocaine” [6]), but the refrain is darker: “Cocaine that killed my honey dead”. It may also share some relationship to the Western swing version; its chorus contains the lines: Tell it to me, tell it to me. Drink corn liquor, let the cocaine be. A version was collected (as “Cocaine”) by folklorist Mellinger Edward Henry (1873-1946) in his Folk Songs from the Southern Highlands from the singing of Barnet George, Lithonia, Georgia, July 1931[7]. The earliest recorded version is by white Tennesse band The Grant Brothers in 1928 (Columbia 15332-D).[17] It has been recorded by numerous folk revival artists[8][ http://www.deaddisc.com/songs/ Tell_It_To_Me.htm], including David Grisman and the New York City Ramblers at the Newport Folk Festival. Grisman collaborated with the Grateful Dead in 1970, and they included it in their live repertoire at that time.[9] It has more recently been covered by The Old Crow Medicine Show and White Ghost Shivers.
References
[1] http://www.angelfire.com/az/xtapes/ ut.html [2] Kienzle, Southwest Shuffle, p. 76 "... Billy Hughes, composer of ’Tennessee Saturday Night’ and ’Cocaine Blues,’ ..." [3] Stefan Grossman teaches "Cocaine Blues" [4] CBN Black History Section biog of Davis [5] Kemper Kokaine song Nr.020, p.288 [6] See Waltz and Engle “Cocaine Blues (I)” in the Traditional Ballad Index [7] Kemper Kokaine Songs Nr.020 (Davis), 022 (Van Ronk), 023 (Dylan), 024 (Van Ronk), 025 (Tom Rush) [8] Kemper Kokaine Song Nr.122, p.326 [9] Kemper Kokaine Song Nr.050 [10] Waltz and Engle “Deep Elem Blues” [11] Lomax, American Ballads and Folk Songs, p. 186: "The origin of this cheerful ditty of the dope-heads is doubtful. At any rate the Southern barrel-house Negroes sing it and have made it their own." [12] Waltz and Engle “Take a Drink on Me” [13] Waltz and Engle “Coney Isle” [14] Kemper Kokaine song Nr.004, p.283 [15] Tullos, Long Journey Home, p. 11: "... The Grant Brothers, from nearby Bristol, recorded a song called ’Tell It To Me,’ known widely today as ’Cocaine Blues’ ..." [16] Waltz, "Take a Whiff on Me": "I’m joining them primarily because many versions of "Tell It to Me" include the ’Honey, take a whiff on me" refrain, but a case could also be made for splitting’." [17] Russell, Country Music Records, p. 377. Collected on My Rough and Rowdy Ways, Vol. 1, Yazoo 2039, 1998.
"Cocaine"
Another song of the same title (sometimes called simply "Cocaine" or "Simply Wild About My Good Cocaine") was recorded by black bluesman Luke Jordan in 1927 (lyrics are here http://www.mudcat.org/
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[18] Paul Oliver Songsters and Saints: Vocal Traditions in Race Records, Cambridge University Press, 1984; Wolf-Reinhard Kemper Kokain in der Musik: Bestandsaufnahme und Analyse aus kriminologischer Sicht Song Nr.002-3, p.282
Cocaine Blues
• Lomax, John A. American Ballads & Folk Songs. 1934. • Russell, Tony. Country Music Records: A Discography, 1921-1942. Oxford University Press, 2004. ISBN 0195139895 • Tullos, Allen. Long Journey Home: Folklife in the South. Southern Exposure, 1977. • Waltz, Robert B; David G. Engle. "Take a Whiff on Me". The Traditional Ballad Index: An Annotated Bibliography of the Folk Songs of the English-Speaking World. Hosted by California State University, Fresno, Folklore, 2007
Bibliography
• Kemper, Wolf-Reinhard. Kokain in der Musik: Bestandsaufnahme und Analyse aus kriminologischer Sicht’. BerlinHamburg-Münster: LIT Verlag , 2001 ISBN 3825853160, ISBN 9783825853167 • Kienzle, Rich. Southwest Shuffle: Pioneers of Honky Tonk, Western Swing, and Country Jazz. New York: Routledge, 2003. ISBN 0-415-94102-4
External links
• Covers and Permutations
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocaine_Blues" Categories: Roy Hogsed songs, Johnny Cash songs, Western swing songs, Bob Dylan songs This page was last modified on 12 May 2009, at 11:27 (UTC). All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details.) Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a U.S. registered 501(c)(3) taxdeductible nonprofit charity. Privacy policy About Wikipedia Disclaimers
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