THE DYIN' CRAPSHOOTER'S BLUES

 - Blind Willie McTell

Little Jesse was a gambler night an day
He used crooked cards and dice
Said the guy's good hearted but he had no soul
Heart was hard and cold as ice

Jesse was a wild reckless gambler
Won a gang of change
Although many gamblers 
heart he led in vain

Began to spend and lose his money
began to be blue
Standing all alone,
His heart had even tuned to stoned

What broke Jesse's heart as he was all alone
Sweet Loreen had packed up and gone
Police walked up and shot my friend Jesse Down
Boy the cat he Died today

He had a gang of crapshooters gambling at his bedside
These are the words he had to say
"Guess I ought to know
Exactly how I want to go"
(how you want to go Jesse?)

8 crap shooters to be my pall bearers
Let em be veiled in down black
I want 9 men going to the graveyard, bubba
and 8 men coming back

I want a gang of gamblers gathered around my coffinside
Crooked card printed on my hearse
Don't say the crapshooters ought to grieve over me
Life's been a doggone curse

Send poker players to the grave yard
Dig my grave with the ace of spades
I want 12 polices in my funeral march 
A cat playin blackjack leading the parade

I want the judges to list who Jailed me 14 times
Put a Pair dice in my shoes
(then what?)
Let a deck of card be my tombstone
I got the dyin crapshooter's blues

16 real good crapshooters
16 bootleggers to sing a song 
16 racket men gamblin
Couple tendin bar while we roll around

He wanted 22 Women down the Hampton Hotel
26 off of South Bell
29 women out of North Atlanta
No Jesse didn't pass out so swell

His head achin was his heart was thumpin
Little Jesse went to hell bouncin and jumpin
Folks don't be standing around old Jesse cryin
Want's everybody do the Charleston while he's dyin

One foot up, toenail draggin
Throw my buddy Jesse in the hoodoo wagon
Come here mama with that can of booze
Dyin crapshooter's leavin the world
Dyan Crapshooter's goin down slow
With Dyin crapshooter's blues