Lyr Req: 16 Coal Black Horses, a funeral dirge

09 Apr 02 - 02:39 PM (#686391)
Subject: 16 Coal Black Horses a funereal dirge
From: GUEST,[e-mail]

A gentelman taught us a song he had learned from his mother. All he could remeber was

16------16 coal black horses all lined up in a row---- 16-----16 coal black horses comein to carry him away

Can anyone please help us with the rest of this?

Thank you David and Mary Ellen

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09 Apr 02 - 02:56 PM (#686405)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 16 Coal Black Horses a funereal dirge
From: MMario

The only thing I can find with "sixteen coal black horses" is St. James Infimary

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09 Apr 02 - 03:48 PM (#686451)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 16 Coal Black Horses a funereal dirge
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)

The sixteen coal black horses are in a version of St. James Infirmary by Janis Joplin and Joe Turner. You can find the lyrics here : St. James

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10 Apr 02 - 04:47 AM (#686852)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 16 Coal Black Horses a funereal dirge
From: IanC

Must be that. 16 is too many for a real funeral ... Pres. McKinley only got 6 in 1901.

:-)
Ian

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12 Apr 02 - 07:28 PM (#688852)
Subject: Lyr Add: ST. JAMES INFIRMARY
From: Jim Dixon

Since this version doesn't seem to be in DigiTrad or the Forum, I might as well put it here:
Copied from http://www.bluesforpeace.com/lyrics/st-james-infirmary.htm

ST. JAMES INFIRMARY
(Janis Joplin / Joe Turner)

I went down to old Joe's bar room, on the corner by the square.
Well, the drinks were bein' served as usual, and this motley crowd was there.

Well, on my left stood Joe McKennedy, and his eyes were bloodshot red.
When he told me that sad story, these were the words he said:

I went down to the St. James Infirmary. I saw my baby there.
She was stretched out on a long white table, so cold, and fine, and fair.
Go ahead!

Let her go. Let her go. God bless her, wherever she may be.
She can search this world over, never find another man like me.

Yes, sixteen coal-black horses to pull that rubber-tired hack.
Well, it's seventeen miles to the graveyard, but my baby's never comin' back.

Well, now you've heard my story. Well, have another round of booze.
And if anyone should ever, ever ask you, I've got the St. James Infirmary blues!

[p.s. There's another version of St. James Infirmary in DT that doesn't mention the horses. It also has the first 4 verses in a strange order. The version given above is closer to what I've always heard. --JD]

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12 Apr 02 - 10:32 PM (#688930)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 16 Coal Black Horses a funereal dirge
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)

Glad you put it in. I was debating with myself, because it differs in several ways from the old versions in the books. I wonder where Joe Turner got it? The one in the DT seems to have been cobbled together.

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12 Apr 02 - 11:54 PM (#688953)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 16 Coal Black Horses a funereal dirge
From: Rolfyboy6

I'm glad you put it in too. This is the modern version being passed along by blues musicians from one to another. It has a early jazz/ragtime feel. The crowd in the barroom is generally described as "and the usual crowd was there."

and an additional verse: "I want six crap shooters for pallbearers
Chorus girls to sing me a song
and a jazz band on my hearse wagon
To raise hell as I roll along." This was the version I learned in the 50s (I was about 12) from Mrs. Helen Keinitz, a friend of my mother. She said she learned it as a young woman about 1928.

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13 Apr 02 - 12:03 AM (#688958)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 16 Coal Black Horses a funereal dirge
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)

I have posted the old version from Carl Sandburg, 1927, which is a more complete version of the above, in thread 20256 because that thread has the name "St. James..." Gambler's Blues
"Gambler's Blues" may have been an earlier title. Sandburg gives sheet music, which I have not compared with that of other versions.

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