The Dying Crapshooter Blues

Little Jesse was a gambler, night and day

And he used crooked cards and dice

He was a son of guy, good hearted but he had no soul

Jesse's heart was hard and cold like ice

Jesse was a wild reckless gambler

He won a gang of change

Altho' a many gambler's heart he led in pain

Jesse began to spend and loose his money

He began to be blue, sad and all alone

What broke Jesse's heart while he was blue and all alone

Sweet Lorena packed up and gone

And the police walked up and they shot my friend Jesse down, boy

He got to die someday

He had a gang, gang and gamblers at his bedside

And here are the words he had to say

I guess I ought to know

Exactly how I want to go

(How you wanna go, Jesse?)

Eight crapshooters to be my pallbearers

Let 'em be veiled down in black

I want nine men going to the graveyard, buddy

I want eight men coming back

I want a gang of gamblers gathered 'round my coffin-side

Crooked card printed on my hearse

My life has been a doggone curse

Well, well, well, well

Send poker players to the graveyard, buddy

Dig my grave with the ace of spades

I want twelve polices in my funeral march

High sheriff playin' blackjack, lead the parade

I want the judge and solic'ter who jailed me fourty times

Put a pair of dice in my shoes, what else

Let a deck of cards be my tombstone, buddy

I got the dying crapshooter

Sixteen real good crapshooters

Sixteen bootleggers to sing a song

I want sixteen racket men gamblin'

Couple tend bar while I'm rollin' along

He wanted twenty two womens outta the Hampton Hotel

He wanted twenty six off-a South Bell

He wanted twenty nine women outta North Atlanta

Know little Jesse didn't pass out so swell

Well his heart was aching and his head was thumping

Little Jesse went down bouncin' and jumpin'

Folks, don't be standing 'round ol' Jesse dying

He wants everybody to do the Charleston whiles he gone

One foot up, and a toenail dragging

Throw my friend Jesse in the hoodoo wagon

Come here mama with that can of booze

I got the dyin’ crapshooter's, blues

The dyin’ crapshooter's blues

The dyin’ crapshooter