KENTUCKY BLUES

Well whiles we here tryin' to have our fun
'Spose the law jumped up and said, 'Nobody run!'
Well, you know I'm long gone, from Kentucky
Long gone, an' got away lucky
'Cause I'm gonna leave so keen
I'll be just like a submarine

Well, my woman poked her head out the window of the bed
Said, 'Please don't let them kill Mister Little Hat dead'
I said, 'No use worryin', sweet mama, I ain't gonna be here long'
Tell her not to sing this worryin' song
'Cause I'm gonna leave so keen
I'm gonna be just like a submarine

Well an officer, you know the man, they call him Austin Jack
Stopped and put the bloodhounds right on my track
'Cause the hounds they couldn't catch my scent
You know, they couldn't tell where Little Hat went
'Cause I left so keen
People, I was just like a submarine

Well here comes the Santa Fe just puffin' and flyin'
Oughta seen me when I reached up and caught them blinds
They said, 'There's another long gone - from Kentucky
Long gone - an' he got away lucky
'Cause he's ever so keen
He's just like a submarine'

I want to sing this song, ain't gonna sing no more
'Cause I'm leavin' San Antonio, I don't plan on coming here no more
Well, I don't play the dozen and neither the ten
'Cause you keep on talkin', I leads you in
Well you keep on talkin' till it makes me mad
Well I'll tell you 'bout the money that your father had
'Cause I don't play the dozen, I declare man, and neither the ten

Source: Dennis 'Little Hat' Jones 'Kentucky Blues' recorded in San Antonio, Texas, on 14 June 1930 and issued as Okeh 8815.

Note: the first four stanzas are from the transcription in Paul Oliver 'Songsters & Saints' Cambridge Uni Press 1999 p 70. The last stanza (omitted by Oliver) is my transcription from the reissue on Various Artists 'My Rough and Rowdy Ways Vol I' Yazoo CD 2039.

Little Hat was a singer/guitarist who worked in and around San Antonio, a far cry from Kentucky. However, Oliver notes that, in a compact form with short songs, 'Long Gone' was used as a work song by prisoners. Five recordings of it were made by Lightnin' Washington and his gang for the Library of Congress at Darrington State Prison, Texas, in 1933-36. As Oliver points out, Little Hat's version is quite distinct - 'he was clearly drawn to the image of the submarine slipping away from its enemies; a more telling use than Smith and Handy's text which merely had 'a gang of men' try to capture Dean 'so they chased him with a submarine' [Oliver p70].

Perhaps Masato will be able to supply the Smith/Handy text.

--Stewie.