CHORUS:

She said your easy rider Had to get away soon. So he hopped a rattler, A "side-door pullman car". He's gone to where the Southern Cross the Yellow Dog.

I had that great "Louis Armstrong Sings WC Handy" album on vinyl, and I still remember this chorus. Handy was known as Father of the Blues on the basis of the St. Louis Blues, but only the chorus is actually a true blues. The same is true of Beale Street Blues, and the rest of his hits -- Basin Street Blues, etc., are really Tin Pan Alley tunes influenced by the blues.