Cocaine Blues

From Wikipedia:

“Cocaine Blues” is a Western swing song written by T. J. “Red” Arnall, a reworking of the traditional song “Little Sadie”.

Background

The song is the tale of a man, Willy Lee, who murders his unfaithful girlfriend while under the influence of whiskey and cocaine. He flees to Mexico and works as a musician to fund his continued drug use. Willy is apprehended by a sheriff from Jericho Hill, tried, and promptly sentenced to “ninety-nine years in the Folsom Pen”. The song ends with Willy imploring the listener:

Come on you gotta hype listen unto me,
lay off that whiskey, and let that cocaine be.

Early recordings

Lyrically based upon the turn of the century, traditional, folk song “Little Sadie,” the popular version of 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 Records (262) and Capitol (40120), with the Capitol release reaching number 15 on the country music charts in 1948.

Johnny Cash versions

Johnny Cash famously performed the song at his 1968 Folsom Prison concert. He replaced the lyric “San Quentin” with “Folsom”, and changed “C’mon you hypes…” to “C’mon you gotta listen unto me…”, as well as using the then-provocative lyric “I can’t forget the day I shot that bad bitch down.” Cash also altered the last line to “Lay off the whiskey…” instead of “Drink all you want…”. During the performance, which was released uncensored by Columbia Records in 1968 (though other language is censored), Cash can be heard coughing occasionally; later in the concert recording, he can be heard noting that singing the song nearly did his voice in.

The song was also featured on Cash’s 1960 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 (and a tamer version of the climactic lyric “I can’t forget the day I shot my woman down”). Cash later recorded “Cocaine Blues” for his 1979 album Silver. Cash chose not to use the word “bitch” in this version. […]

On January 14, 1969, during the Beatles’ “Get Back” sessions, Paul McCartney was at the piano and sang a few moments of “Cocaine Blues.”

Paul [then] tells an anecdote about meeting [Johnny] Cash – mentioning how Johnny mistook Tony
Barrow for Brian Epstein, then, inspired by some whistling in the background, sings a few
words from “On a Clear Day You Can See Forever,” the title song from a 1966 play

From “Drugs, Divorce and a Slipping Image – The Complete, Unauthorized Story of The Beatles’ ‘Get Back’ Sessions” by Doug Sulpy

Bootlegs

Cover versions played during the "Get Back" sessions

"Cocaine Blues" was covered during The Beatles' "Get Back" sessions in January 1969. Here is the complete list of covers recorded by Paul McCartney, either alone or with other Beatles, during these sessions:

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.