Wild Bill Jones? Long necked bottle?

Subject: Wild Bill Jones? Long necked bottle?
From: The Shambles
Date: 28 Aug 00 - 01:29 PM

Who was Wild Bill Jones and what is a long necked bottle, exactly?

Subject: RE: Wild Bill Jones? Long necked bottle?
From: The Shambles
Date: 28 Aug 00 - 01:30 PM

Or even Wild Bill Jones 2

Subject: RE: Wild Bill Jones? Long necked bottle?
From: MMario
Date: 28 Aug 00 - 01:32 PM

Reading the lyrics I would suspect "Wild bill Jones" is just a generic stereotype of young punk hitting on someone else's girl; long necked bottle would be one of the type seen in the saloons on TV and movies...

Subject: RE: Wild Bill Jones? Long necked bottle?
From: The Shambles
Date: 28 Aug 00 - 01:38 PM

Thanks. Slightly different lyrics HERE

And we now have another Lulu. Or is the same girl?

Subject: RE: Wild Bill Jones? Long necked bottle?
From: Troll
Date: 28 Aug 00 - 01:56 PM

A "long-necker" is a beer bottle shaped like a classic wine bottle only smaller. There are some sections of the US where long-neckers are all the Good-'ol-boys will drink.Why. 'Cause if theres a fight, you can break the bottle on the table and the neck will serve as the handle of a very nasty weapon.
There really ARE bars with chicken wire cages around the stage to protect the band. Not as in the Blues Brothers, but in case theres a fight and things (and people) start flying through the air.
I don't play bars for that very reason.

troll

Subject: RE: Wild Bill Jones? Long necked bottle?
From: Jim Krause
Date: 29 Aug 00 - 01:14 PM

This is one of my favorite badman ballads. Hmmm, another thread?

Subject: RE: Wild Bill Jones? Long necked bottle?
From: Bud Savoie
Date: 17 Jan 02 - 10:53 PM

The Shambles asked back in August of '00 who was Wild Bill Jones. Most of these murder ballads seem based on fact. Anyone know who this man was and whether he really existed?

Oddly enough, all he seems to have been was a 21-year-old with a smart mouth. The guy whose girl he was chatting up is the killer in the ballad.

Subject: Lyr Add: WILD BILL JONES (from Vance Randolph)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 18 Apr 05 - 12:01 AM

"Wild Bill Jones" sometimes shares a verse or two with "William Cook" but that is a different song. Sharp collected a version (in the DT) and published it in "English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians," II, but the basic story is common enough, and I doubt an English origin. A modern version in the DT by the New Lost City Ramblers has added verses, including a line about a long-necked beer bottle (from the version of the Stanley Brothers?) among others; this is new material. The song is widespread in the South, from Virginia to Arkansas.

Here is another version from Randolph.

Lyr. Add: WILD BILL JONES 3

As I went walkin' down the road,
I met up with Wild Bill Jones,
He was walkin' an' talkin' to the gal I love,
An' I bid him to leave her alone.

He says my age it is of twenty-one,
Too old to be controlled,
I drawed my revolver from my side
An' I shattered that pore boy's soul.

He reeled, he rocked, he staggered,
He gave one dyin' groan,
He throwed his arms round my woman's neck
Sayin' baby, you're left all alone.

One dollar in my pocket,
My six-shooter in my hand,
With friends and relations all around me
We'll make old Wild Bill stand.

One dollar in my pocket,
A-layin' in this here jail,
I sure am sad an' lonesome,
Nobody to go my bail.

I wrote my mother a letter
To tell her I was in jail,
She wrote me back a answer
Sayin' son, I'll go your bail.

I got a letter from Luly,
An' this is the way it read:
Daddy, if you ever git in trouble,
Don't never hang down your head.

Come on all you wild cowboys,
Let's all get on a spree,
Today was the last of Wild Bill Jones,
An' tomorrow 'll be the last of me.

A western touch here. With music, sung by Mrs. Isabel Spradley, Van Buren, Arkansas, 1929. She learned the song from neighbors in the hills north of Van Buren.

Subject: RE: Wild Bill Jones? Long necked bottle?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 19 Oct 13 - 04:15 PM

Lyr. Add: WILD BILL JONES 4

One day as I was a-rambling around,
I met up with Wild Bill Jones;
He was walking and talking with my own true love,
And I bid him to leave her alone.

He says, "Young man, I'm twenty-one,
Too old for me to be controlled."
And I drew my special from my side,
I destroyed that poor boy's soul.

He rolled, he struggled all over the ground,
And he gave one dying groan.
He looked right up at my darling's face,
Says, "Darling, you're left alone."

I'm bound for the walls of prison, little girls,
I'm bound for the walls of jail,
I'm bound for the walls of prison, little girls,
Oh, won't you go my bail?

When I am dead and in my grave,
With girls all a-crowding around,
Just push back the coffin lid,
Look down on a gambling man.

Perhaps could be combined with "Twenty-One Years" to make a more complete song.

From singing of Finley Adams, Kentucky, 1939. Lib. Congress AFS record 2797. Stanza 5 from singing of Mrs. W. L. Martin, Virginia, Lib. Congress AFS record 2746.

P. 722, Duncan Emrich, 1974, American Folk Poetry, An Anthology. Little, Brown.