East St. Louis- AB- Eight bar- WC Handy circa 1892


In 1941 Handy recalled that in 1892 he "heard shabby guitarists picking out a tune called 'East St. Louis.' It had numerous one-line verses and they would sing it all night: 'I walked all the way from old East St. Louis, And I didn't have but one po' measly dime. That one line was an entire stanza." The tune that Handy prints is a typical eight-bar blues tune, here's Blind Willie McTell's version:


I walked all the way from East Saint Louis
I never had but that one, one thin dime

I laid my head in a New York woman's lap
She laid her little cute head in mine

She tried to make me bleed by the rattlings of her tongue
The sun would never, never shine

I pawned my sword and I pawned my chain
Well I pawned myself but I fell to shame

I tried to see you in the fall
When you didn't have no man at all

I'd love to meet you in the spring when the bluebird's almost ready to sing
Faree, honey, faree well

You can shake like a cannon ball, get out and learn that old Georgia crawl
Faree, honey, faree well

(play it boy...)

And I laid my head in a barroom door
And I can't get drunk, drunk no more

Now if you can't do the sugary get yourself on out of this house to me
Faree, baby, faree well

I tried to see you in the spring when the bluebird's almost ready to sing
Faree, honey, faree well

And I walked on back to East Saint Louis
Never had but that one, one thin dime