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12-stringer Origins:Jickson Johnson/Johnson Jinkson/3 Butchers (13) ADD: Johnson Jinkson 22 Sep 07


Mine is on vinyl and I don't have a working phonograph, but cf the one in the 1964 "Peggy Seeger Songbook" (Oak), from which it derives. As I recall from last hearing it, the I&S lyrics are very close, if not quite identical, to these.

Johnson Jinkson

Johnson he was riding along
As fast as he could ride
When he thought he heard a woman,
He heard a woman cry.

Johnson getting off his horse
And proceeding to look all around
Till he came upon a woman
With her hair pinned to the ground.

Woman, dearest woman,
Who has brought you here for spite?
Who has brought you here this morning
With your hair pinned to the ground?

It were three bold and struggling men
With sword keen in hand
Who have brought me here this morning
With my hair pinned to the ground.

Johnson being a man of his own
And being a man in bold
He took off his overcoat
To cover her from the cold.

Johnson getting on his horse
And the woman getting on behind
Down that long and lonesome highway
Their fortunes for to find.

They rode on and further on
And nothing could they spy
When she put her fingers to her ears
And gave three shivering cries.

Out sprang three bold and struggling men
With swords keen in hand
who commanded Johnson
Commanded him to stand.

I'll stop then, said Johnson,
I'll stand then, said he,
But I never was in my life
Afraid of any three.

Johnson killing two of them
Not watching the woman behind
While he was upon the other one
She stabbed him from behind.

The day was clear and a market day
And the people all passing by
Who saw this awful murder
And saw poor Johnson die.

Ultimate source of this version is a late 1930s field recording, made at a migrant labor camp in Visalia, CA, of Troy Cambron, vocal with guitar. The original Cambron performance can be found in the "Voices from the Dust Bowl" program at American Memory and is worth the search.


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