"Little Sadie" (Roud 780) is a 20th-century American traditional folkballad. It is also known variously as "Bad Lee Brown", "Cocaine Blues", "Transfusion Blues", "East St. Louis Blues", "Late One Night", "Penitentiary Blues" and other titles.[1] It tells the story of a man who is apprehended after shooting a woman, in some versions his wife or girlfriend. He is then sentenced by a judge. It is most commonly sung to a tune in Dorian mode.
The earliest written record of the song dates from 1922.[2] This lyric fragment, transcribed in Joplin, Missouri, is noted in the 1948 book Ozark Folksongs, Vol. II, under the title "Bad Lee Brown":
Last night I was a-makin' my rounds,
Met my old woman an' I blowed her down, I went on home to go to bed, Put my old cannon right under my head.
Jury says murder in the first degree, I says oh Lord, have mercy on me! Old Judge White picks up his pen,
Says you'll never kill no woman ag'in.
Musical variations
The first sound recording recording, by Clarence Ashley, was published in 1930,[3] he played the song in "mountain modal" or "sawmill tuning".[4]
Some versions refer to the Sheriff of Thomasville, North Carolina apprehending the murderer "down in" Jericho, South Carolina[5] (a large rice plantation in the lowlands).[6] Other versions transpose Mexico (or Juarez, Mexico) for Jericho.[7]
"Little Sadie" may have been an influence on the 1960s song "Hey Joe".[8]
Selected list of recorded versions
1929 "Bad Lee Brown" [unissued] - John Dilleshaw & The String Marvel (OKeh 402406-B)
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