CRESCENT CITY BLUES
Words and music by Gordon Jenkins
As recorded by Gordon Jenkins & His Orchestra with vocalist Beverly Mahr, originally on Jenkins' album "Seven Dreams" (1953)*

I hear the train a-comin'; it's rollin' 'round the bend,
And I ain't been kissed, Lord, since I don't know when.
The boys in Crescent City don't seem to know I'm here.
That lonesome whistle seems to tell me: "Sue, disappear."

When I was just a baby, my mama told me: "Sue,
When you're grown up, I want that you should go and see and do"
But I'm stuck in Crescent City, just watchin' life mosey by.
When I hear that whistle blowin', ooh! I hang my head an' cry.

I see the rich folks eatin' in that fancy dinin' car.
They're prob'ly havin' pheasant breast an' eastern caviar.
Now I ain't cryin' envy, and I ain't cryin' mean.
It's just that they get to see things that I've never seen.

If I owned that lonesome whistle, if that railroad train was mine,
I'll bet I'd find a man a little farther down the line.
Far from Crescent City is where I'd like to stay,
And I'd let that lonesome whistle blow my blues away.
Then I'd let that lonesome whistle blow my blues away.

- - -
* Jenkins' album includes a dramatized story, part of which can be heard here, at YouTube. The complete song, without the narrative, appears on the various-artists compilation "Roots & Branches: Artists, Songs & Recordings that Inspired the Legend of Johnny Cash" and can be heard here. The tune is said to borrow from Little Brother Montgomery's jazz piano instrumental "Crescent City Blues" but frankly I can't hear much similarity.

Beverly Mahr was Gordon Jenkins' wife.

Jenkins' song has also been recorded by:
The New Hot Frogs, with Pat Yankee, on "Together at Last!" (1999)
Travis Edmonson on "The Tucson Tapes - First Set" (2001) - YouTube
Sundae & Mr. Goessl on "When You're Smiling" (2018)
--all of which can be heard on Spotify.