and nobody prays like Willie McTell

"I started writing this song in '29 tho' I didn't finish it - I didn't finish it 'till 1932. Mister Williams is the name - Jesse Williams. See he got shot here on Corner Street. And after getting shot, I'd taken him home. Then he was sick about three weeks after I'd taken him home, sick from the shot, and so he give me this request. He said that he wanted me to play this over his grave. That I did. See I had to steal music from every which way you could get it to get it to fit. But I - I messed it up in a way, somehow or other just to suit him; I finally played what he wanted but he got everything he wanted but the women from Atlanta. He didn't get no women from Atlanta. Cause they say it was too far for 'em to come. He was buried in New York. I'd taken him there in an ambulance. Cost me 200 - I think it was 282 dollars I think and 85 cents the men charged him to take him home. But he was able. His father give him anything he wanted. Give him everything he wanted but the women in Atlanta. He didn't have the 16 women - the 22 women out of the Hampton Hotel - he didn't have that. He didn't have the 29 out of North Atlanta. And he didn't have the 26 off of South Bell, that which might have - we call Hill Street. That way he hung out there you know, doin' his - doin' his women-lovin' time you know. After getting shot, I carried him home. I sat by the bedside every day, and he would tell me what he wanted. And I would tell his dad. So after he died, daddy said "Well, everything he wanted he will get". So he got everything he wanted but the women from Atlanta. So I had to play him the Dyin' Crapshooter's Blues. That's what I was supposed to name 'em. "


The Dyin' Crapshooter's Blues--Blind Willie Mctell

Little Jesse was a gambler, night and day
He used crooked cards and dice.
Sinful guy, good hearted but had no soul
Heart was hard and cold like ice

Jesse was a wild reckless gambler
Won a gang of change
Altho' a many gambler's heart he led in pain
Began to spend a-loose his money
Began to be blue, sad and all alone
His heart had even turned to stone.

What broke Jesse's heart while he was blue and all alone
Sweet Lorena packed up and gone
Police walked up and shot my friend Jesse down
Boys i got to die today
He had a gang of crapshooters and gamblers at his bedside
Here are the words he had to say:

Guess I ought to know
Exactly how I wants to go
(How you wanna go, Jesse?)

Eight crapshooters to be my pallbearers
Let 'em be veiled down in black
I want nine men going to the graveyard, bubba
And eight men comin back

I want a gang of gamblers gathered 'round my coffin-side
Crooked card printed on my hearse
Don't say the crapshooters'll never grieve over me
My life been a doggone curse

Send poker players to the graveyard
Dig my grave with the ace of spades
I want twelve polices in my funeral march
High sheriff playin' blackjack, lead the parade

I want the judge and solic'ter who jailed me 14 times
Put a pair of dice in my shoes (then what?)
Let a deck of cards be my tombstone
I got the dyin' crapshooter's blues

Sixteen real good crapshooters
Sixteen bootleggers to sing a song
Sixteen racket men gamblin'
Couple tend bar while i'm rollin' along

He wanted 22 womens outta the Hampton Hotel
26 off-a South Bell
29 women outta North Atlanta
Know little Jesse didn't pass out so swell

His head was achin', heart was thumpin'
Little Jesse went to hell bouncin' and jumpin'
Folks, don't be standin' around ole Jesse cryin'
He wants everybody to do the charleston whilst he dyin'

One foot up, a toenail dragging
Throw my buddy Jesse in the hoodoo wagon
Come here mama with that can of booze

The dyin crapshooter's - leavin' the world
The dyin' crapshooter's - goin' down slow
With the dyin' crapshooter's blues