We have the Woody Guthrie song of this title in the database (click here), but I didn't find the traditional version. Here 'tis.
-Joe Offer-
POOR LAZARUS
(traditional)
(repeat the first line of each verse)
High Sheriff, he told the deputy, he says, "Go out and bring me Lazarus."
High Sheriff, he told the deputy, he says, "Go out and bring me Lazarus.
Bring him dead or alive, Wo, Lawdy, bring him dead or alive."
Oh, the deputy begin to wonder, where in the world he could find him…
"Well I don't know, Wo, Lawdy, I just don't know."
Oh, they found poor Lazarus way out between two mountains…
And they blowed him down, Lawd, Lawd, and they blowed him down.
Old Lazarus told the deputy he had never been arrested…
By no one man, Wo, Lawdy, by no one man.
So they shot poor Lazarus, shot him with a great big number…
Number forty-five, Wo, Lawdy, number forty-five.
And they taken poor Lazarus and they laid him on the commissary counter…
and they walked away, Wo, Lawdy, and they walked away.
Lazarus told the deputy, "Please gimme a cool drink of water…
Just before I die, Wo, Lawdy, just before I die."
Lazarus' sister run and told her mother…
"Poor Lazarus is dead, Wo, Lawdy, poor Lazarus is dead."
Lazarus' mother, she laid down her sewing…
She begin to cry, Wo, Lawdy, she begin to cry.
Lazarus' mother, she come a-screaming and a-crying…
"That's my only son, Wo, Lawdy, that's my only son."
Lazarus' father, he sure was hard-hearted…
Didn't say a word, Wo, Lawdy, didn't say a word.
Lazarus' sister, she couldn't go to the funeral…
Didn't have no shoes, Wo, Lawdy, didn't have no shoes.
Cap'n, did you hear about - all your men gonna leave you?…
Next pay-day, Wo, Lawdy, next pay-day.
from Lomax, Folk Song USA and Folk Songs of North America, but I removed the Lomax attempt at "Negro dialect."
JRO
Click to play
To play or display ABC tunes, try concertina.net
ABC format:
X:1
T:Poor Lazarus
M:4/4
Q:1/4=120
K:E
G8|GG4EE3/2C/2|E3/2C/2E6|-E5GG2|G2E3/2E/2=G3/2F/2E3/2C/2|
E2E6|-E6B2|BB9/2G/2B3/2G/2|B3/2G/2B6|-B5BcB|
ee2ec3/2B/2G2|B2c6|-c6c3/2B/2|e2c3/2c/2Bc3|
c4B3/2c/2=G3/2F/2|E2E3/2C/2E7/2||
Here's the Traditional Ballad Index entry on the song:
Poor Lazarus (Bad Man Lazarus) [Laws I12]
DESCRIPTION: Lazarus breaks into the commissary and flees. The sheriff orders that he be taken dead or alive. Deputies shoot Lazarus and bring him back. He asks for a drink of water and dies. Lazarus's sister tells his mother, who recalls how troublesome he was
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1934
KEYWORDS: robbery death family
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Laws I12, "Poor Lazarus (Bad Man Lazarus)"
Lomax/Lomax-FolkSongUSA 86, "Po' Laz'us" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs, pp. 91-93, "Po' Laz'us (Poor Lazarus)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 342-345, "Po' Laz'us" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 303, "Po' Lazarus" (1 text, 1 tune, composite)
Frye-TheMenAllSinging, p. 185, ("Go and bring me old bad Lazarus") (1 text)
GarrityBlake-FishFactory, p. 61, ("Didn't Lazarus shit on the commisary counter") (1 text)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 909-910, "Po' Laz'us (Poor Lazarus)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 179-181, "(Lazarus)" (1 text)
DT 661, (POLAZRUS?)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, pp. 400-402, "Poor Lazarus" (1 text)
Roud #4180
RECORDINGS:
Bright Light Quartet, "Po' Lazarus" (on LomaxCD1701) (on LomaxCD1705)
James Carter & prisoners, "Po' Lazarus" (on LomaxCD1705)
Vera Hall, "Po' Laz'us" (AFS 1320 A2, 1937) [Note: Dixon/Godrich/Rye also identifies this AFS number with a Vera Hall recording of "John Henry"; one of them is clearly in error, but I don't know which] (AFS 4050 A1, 1940)
Menhaden Fishermen, "Lazarus" (on USMenhaden01)
Henry Morrison, "Lazarus" (on LomaxCD1705)
William Thompson and Group, "Lazarus" (on VaWork)
NOTES [199 words]: The two Bright Light Quartet citations are different versions, recorded on separate dates. - PJS
The Menhaden01 version ends with the "every mail day," "ready made money," and "gonna roll here" verses from "Goin' Home."
At the beginning of the ballad -- before he "walked away" -- "Lazarus sit(ted) (USMenhaden01,VaWork)/ shit (GarrityBlake-FishFactory)/ walked (Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry) / up (Morrison LomaxCD1705) on the commissary counter," he "broke in the commisary window (Lomax/Lomax-AmericanBalladsAndFolkSongs)," or "commissary man swore out warrant for Lazarus (Harold Courlander, A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore)." As always, there is the question of censorship by singers or collectors.
As an example of how bits float from chantey to chantey Frye-TheMenAllSinging has this meld of "Mule on the Mountain" and "Poor Lazarus": "Old Lazarus the mule ... he shit on the commissary counter! ... he just walk away." Not knowing the prison song, Frye thought "Lazarus could have been the Biblical character, more likely the mule that plowed the garden at home, or a mine mule he [the singer] remembered if he had actually been to the mountains to dig coal." (pp. 184, 188). - BS
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