The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #54361 Message #841239
Posted By: masato sakurai
05-Dec-02 - 07:36 AM
Thread Name: Origins: Bad Lee Brown / Little Sadie
Subject: RE: Lyr. Req: BAD LEE BROWN - not Croce's
The entry in Laws, Native American Balladry, rev. ed. (1964, p. 250):
I 8
BAD LEE BROWN
(Little Sadie)
After killing his woman, the bully tries to run away, but he is arrested, tried, and sentenced to ninety-nine years.
Late las' night I was a-makin' my rounds,
Met my woman an' I blowed her down,
Went on home an' I went to bed,
Put my hand cannnon right under my head,
Here for de res' of my nachul life,
An' all I ever done is kill my wife.
Lomax, Amer. Ballads, 89, 12, m. (Miss. "Bad Man Ballad," partly from L.C. Record 1859, 8 sts.). St. 1 and the last half of st. 10 are given above. Brown II, 597, 8 (N.C. "Sadie"). Cambiaire, 22 (same source as Henry's). Henry, Songs Sung, 39, 6 ( (Tenn. "Little Sadie"). Randolph II, 117, 2, m.; 1½ (Mo.). Wheeler, 110, 10. m. ("Late One Night"). Williams, 410, 9 (Ky.). L.C. Records 2851 B1 (N.C. "Little Sadie"); 384 B (Fla.); and the following under the title "Bad Man Ballad"; 706 A1 (S.C.) and 2591 B2 (Ark.).
~Masato