This lesser-known recording is my favorite performance of this song. The recording features this spoken introduction: "I started writin' the song in '29, though I didn't finish it, I didn't finish it till 1932. Mister Williams—his name was Jesse Williams—see, he got shot here on Coral Street. And after gettin' shot, I'd taken him home. 'Cause he was sick about three weeks after I'd taken him home, sick from the shot. And so he give me this request. And then he wanted me to play this over his grave. That I did. "See, I had to steal music from every which-a-way to get it, to get it, to get it to fit. But I messed it up anyways somehow or other just to suit him. I finally played what he wanted, but he got everything he wanted but the women from Atlanta—he didn't get the women from Atlanta. 'Cause, see, it was too far for 'em to come. He's buried in New York. I'd taken him there in ambulance. Cost me two hundred—I think it was two hundred and eighty-two dollars—I think, and eighty-five cent I think the man charged me for carrying him home. But he was ill. "His father give him anything he wanted. Give him everything he wanted but the women in Atlanta. He didn't have the sixteen women, the twenty-two womens out the Hampton Hotel—he didn't have that. He didn't have the twenty-nine outta North Atlanta. And he didn't have the twenty-six offa South Bell, that which mighta we called Hell Street. That's where he hung out at, you know, doin' his, doin' his women-lovin' time, you know ...
Tags: blind, willie, mctell, dying, crapshooter, blues, guitar, gambler, funeral
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