Cocaine Blues

"Cocaine Blues"
Song
Language	English
Songwriter(s)	T.J. "Red" Arnall

"Cocaine Blues" is a Western Swing song written by TJ Arnall, a reworking of the traditional song "Little Sadie". This song was originally recorded by Roy Hogsed May 25, 1947, at Universal Recorders in Hollywood, California. It 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 Quinten 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 famously performed the song at his Folsom Prison concert, substituting "Folsom" for "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 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 tranfusion" along with some other minor lyrical changes.

Other artists

Several artists have recorded "Cocaine Blues", including:

• Nick Drake
• Uncle Tupelo
• Merle Travis
• Hank Thompson
• Hank Williams III
• Electric Frankenstein
• George Thorogood
• Townes Van Zandt
• Roy Hogsed

Hank Thompson's version appears on the soundtrack to the 2006 video game, Scarface: The World is Yours.

Note that 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".

Other versions

T.J. Arnall is also sometimes credited with the version of "Cocaine Blues" written and recorded by Billy Hughes (also in 1947). The music is the similar, both bearing a marked resemblance to 'Little Sadie", however the lyrics in Hughes's 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 "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."

Other songs named "Cocaine Blues"

"Cocaine"

Another song of the same title (sometimes called simply "Cocaine") was written and recorded by Luke Jordan during the late 1920s. This song was also recorded by white bluesman Dick Justice - lyrics are here: http://www.cocaine.org/cocaine.htm.

"Take A Whiff On Me"

Another song named "Cocaine Blues" (also known as "Take a Whiff on Me" or "Cocaine Habit Blues") exists that is recognizable for the refrain "Cocaine run all 'round my brain" and the lyric:

Cocaine's for horses Lord it ain't men

They tell me it'll kill me but they won't say when.

This is referred to the "traditional version" of "Cocaine Blues" by many people in the music business. The song was first published by John Lomax in 1934 as "Honey, Take A Whiff On Me". Lomax stated that its origins were uncertain.

"Tell It To Me"

Another song sometimes called "Cocaine Blues" is "Tell It To Me" recorded by the Grant Brothers in 1928 (Columbia 15332-D). Also called "Let The Cocaine Be", some musicologist see a relationsip to "Take A Whiff On Me" since some versions share the same lines. 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.

Cocaine's going to kill my honey dead.

Bibliography

• Kienzle, Rich. Southwest Shuffle: Pioneers of Honky Tonk, Western Swing, and Country Jazz. New York: Routledge, 2003. ISBN 0-415-94102-4
• 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.

External links

• Covers and Permutations