Lyr Req: Jailer Bring Me Water (Bobby Darin)

Subject: LYR REQ: Jailer won't you bring me some water
From: Marion
Date: 14 Jun 99 - 10:37 AM

Does anyone know this song? I've heard it sung by Penny Lang. The chorus goes:

Jailer won't you bring me some water? (3x) My throat is kind of dry.

What I am looking for is the words to the verses - I can probably figure out the chords with a little time and hair-pulling.

thanks, Marion

Subject: RE: LYR REQ: Jailer won't you bring me some water
From: bet
Date: 14 Jun 99 - 10:30 PM

Subject: RE: LYR REQ: Jailer won't you bring me some water
From: Charlie Baum
Date: 15 Jun 99 - 12:53 PM

I'm not familiar with your version, but is this song perhaps related to the old Leadbelly, "Bring Me a Little Water, Silvie" (in the DT database)?

--Charlie Baum

Subject: RE: LYR REQ: Jailer won't you bring me some water
From: Marion
Date: 15 Jun 99 - 01:09 PM

I'll look for that, thanks.

Subject: RE: LYR REQ: Jailer won't you bring me some water
From: Matthew B.
Date: 15 Jun 99 - 05:04 PM

There's also a song that Paul Robeson sang in the movie The Emperor Jones, that begins:

Water boy, bring me some wa-ater
If ya don'ts come quick
I'm gwyna tell your mammy...

I think it might be a variation on the same song you're looking for because he sings it while swinging a sledge hammer on a chain gang.

Subject: RE: LYR REQ: Jailer won't you bring me some water
From: Mike Regenstreif
Date: 15 Jun 99 - 05:22 PM

"Jailer, Bring Me Water," recorded by Penny Lang is not related to either Lead Belly's "Sylvie" or "Water Boy" performed by Paul Robeson.

On Penny's album, it's listed as traditional. However, I think it may actually have been written by Bobby Darin during his folk fling in the early-60s.

Mike Regenstreif

Subject: RE: LYR REQ: Jailer won't you bring me some water
From: Matthew B.
Date: 15 Jun 99 - 11:19 PM

Oh well. I thought it was a logical guess.

Subject: Lyr Add: JAILER BRING ME WATER (Bobby Darin)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 12 Nov 09 - 01:22 PM

Bobby Darin wrote JAILER BRING ME WATER and recorded it in 1961. It was released in 1962 as a single, the B side of THINGS, also on an LP "Things & Other Things" (Atco 33-146, 1962), which has been rereleased as a CD.

The song has sometimes been mistakenly called "traditional."

It has been recorded by lots of people, for example, The Bachelors, Jackie DeShannon, Freddie & the Dreamers, Johnny Rivers, Johnny Tillotson. There is even a French version called DIS-LUI QUE J'EN RÊVE (JAILER BRING ME WATER), with French lyrics by G. Aber, recorded by Johnny Hallyday.

The tune sounds like a jazzy upbeat version of GO TELL AUNT RHODY.

Penny Lang apparently recorded it on "Penny Lang and Friends Live" but I haven't heard her version, so I can't verify that it's the same as Darin's.

Below is a simplified version of what Darin sang, from http://www.bobbydarin.com/jailer.html. As usual for him, he embellished the repeated lines with lots of "throwaway" words like "Oh, well, now, come on, won't ya..."


JAILER BRING ME WATER
(Bobby Darin)

CHORUS: Jailer, bring me water. (3x)
My throat is kind o' dry.

1. I never had me no money. (3x)
I ain't that kind o' guy.

2. I'm gonna work till the good Lord calls me. (3x)
It'll be in the by and by.

3. Jailer, if you see my baby, (3x)
Just tell her I said goodbye.

Subject: RE: LYR REQ: Jailer won't you bring me some water
From: alex s
Date: 12 Nov 09 - 04:43 PM

I thought it was

I'm gonna WAIT 'til the good Lord calls me
He'll be here by(e) and by(e)

??

Subject: RE: LYR REQ: Jailer won't you bring me some water
From: Bodbum
Date: 12 Nov 09 - 05:18 PM

I sing 'Jailer bring me water'. I heard it on an old ep sung by Bobby Darin that I've got.

Try www.bobbydarin.com/jailer

Hopefully this helps.