There's nothing to say the speaker is NOT a pimp - my point is simply that he is not necessarily a pimp.

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For many years, the only version I knew of this song was that recorded by Earl Hines, which is probably the Armstrong one, which I still haven't gotten round to. Anyway, it's stripped down to four verses (I went down; Let her go; When I die; I want six crap-shooters). I find it powerful poetically - at least as much so as many poems that have the academic seal of approval.

Earl Hines: St. James Infirmary Blues