" this song, which has been floating around in New Orleans since way before the 1950s."

It's a fairly safe bet that this song's origins, if they could be found, would be found not in the city of New Orleans but at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, aka "the Ponderosa." Of course, many Angola inmates have always come from the state's largest city, and many of those relative few "alumni" who live long enough to be released find their way back to town. And this song has always gone back and forth with its singers.

I'm fairly sure that Champion Jack Dupree recorded this as "Junker's Blues," and that his rendition may be the first/oldest commercial recording. (I'm assuming that there was probably at least one earlier "collector's" recording made at Angola.)

(Great to see this old thread reappear...)