This song contains some of the same language:

From Michael Taft's Pre-War Blues Lyrics Concordance:


RAILROAD BILL
Will Bennett, Vocalion 1464, 1929.

1. Railroad Bill : ought to be killed
Never worked : and he never will

REFRAIN: Now I'm 'o' ride my Railroad Bill

2. Railroad Bill : done took my wife
Threatened on me : that he would take my life

3. Going up the mountain : take my stand
Forty‑one derringer : in my right and left hand

4. Going up the mountain : going out west
Forty‑one derringer : sticking in my breast

5. Buy me a gun : just as long as my arm
Kill everybody : ever done me wrong

6. Buy me a gun : with a shiny barrel
Kill somebody : about my good‑looking gal

7. Got a thirty‑eight special : on a forty‑four frame
How in the world can I miss him : when I've got dead aim

8. When I went to the doctor : asked him what the matter could be
Said if you don't stop drinking son : it'll kill you dead

9. Going to drink my liquor : drink it and win [or "in the wind"?]
Doctor said it will kill me : but he never said when

10. If the river was brandy : and I was a duck
I'd sink to the bottom : and I'd never come up

11. Honey honey : do you think of me
Times have caught me : living on pork and beans

12. Son you talk about your honey : you ought to see mine
She's humpbacked bow‑legged : crippled and blind

13. Honey honey : do you think I'm a fool
Think I'm going to quit you : while the weather is cool

14. Honey honey : quit your worrying me
It's going through the world : in my heart disease

15. Going up the mountain : *do everything*
Go through the world :