CROW JANE ALLEY
As recorded by "Foster & Harris" (Georgia Tom Dorsey & Tampa Red)*, 1928.

[A]
(Boy, don't you hear that music playin' down at Miss Susie's house in Crow Jane Alley? Come on, let's go down there.)
I ain't goin down in Crow Jane Alley tonight; I got too much money, an' I don't feel like gettin' raided. I'm gwine stay out here on Avenue B an' let the sun shine on me an' my money.
(I'm goin on down there.)
You goin' down there anyhow?
(Yeah.)
'Fore you go down there in the Alley come here an' let me tell you somethin' 'bout Crow Jane.
(What you got to say?)
I'm 'on tell you. [scat] Listen here, boy:

[B]
I got a gal, (I know you is.) I mean a gal, (Uh-huh.)
She's the ugliest woman in town. (Tell the truth!)
And ev'ry place I go, don't matter where, (Yeah?)
She follows me just like a hound. (I bet she do!)
I was invited out to a ball the other day, (Uh-huh.)
Where all the high browns, they give a sway. (Sho' 'nuff!)
You know, that woman followed me all the way.
She like to ruint them folks' balls that day. (I'll bet she broke it up!)
That's the reason I'm forsted to say— (What you gon' say now?)

Partner, Crow Jane is all right with me,
But they done gone out o' style. (That's right, too!)
They will cut your th'oat while you sleep,
Boy, look down in yo' face an' smile. (Uh-huh!)
They will wake up in the mornin' and say, don't feel right,
Cut up your clo'es just for spite, (Yeah.)
Dream of ol' razors an' tin cans, (Hah!)
Always after some married woman's man. (That's right.)
Yellow woman get mad, partner, she'll hang her head an' pout. (Sho' will)
Crow Jane gets mad, boy, somebody's got to go out. (Ha!)
Want you to listen good to what I'm sayin'.
You don't have to be dark to be a real Crow Jane. (You don't.)
A brown is nice lookin'; she needs no repair. (Now ain't that the truth?)
A Crow Jane is ugly; she needs some false hair.
But a Crow Jane is all right with me, partner,
But they done gone out o' style.
I mean, they done gone clean out o' style. (That alley don't want no more o' me!)


* I have attempted to separate the two performers by putting the lines of one of them in parentheses, but I don't know which is which.
Part A is spoken with no particular rhythm. Part B is recited so that the rhythm of one performer's words (the one not in parentheses) roughly matches the accompanying piano music. Also note: Part B is in rhyme.
Vocabulary: like to=nearly; ruint=ruined; forsted=forced.