title: Little Sadie
text: "Little Sadie" is a 20th-century American folk ballad written in Dorian mode. 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. 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.
  
  Earliest transcription
  The earliest written record of the song dates from 1922. This lyric fragment, transcribed in Joplin, Missouri, is noted in the 1948 book Ozark Folksongs, Vol. II.
  
  "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.
  
  Carolina to Mexico
  Some versions refer to the Sheriff of Thomasville, North Carolina apprehending the murderer "down in" Jericho, South Carolina (a large rice plantation in the lowlands). Other versions transpose Mexico (or Juarez, Mexico) for Jericho.
  
  Clarence Ashley's recording
  In the first sound recording (the 1929 recording by Clarence Ashley), Little Sadie may have been a prostitute:
  
  I woke next morning 'bout half past nine,
  The buggies and the hacks all formed in line,
  The gents and the gamblers all standing around,
  They're gonna take Sadie to the burying ground.
  
  The most common version in country and rock is attributed to T. J. 'Red' Arnall's 1947 Western Swing recording with W. A. Nichol's Western Aces. This version was covered by Johnny Cash, Grateful Dead, Crooked Still, Doc Watson, and George Thorogood, among others. The 1970 Bob Dylan versions are taken from either of Clarence Ashley's recordings.
  
  "Little Sadie" may have been an influence on the 1960s song "Hey Joe".
  
  Selected list of recorded versions
  1929 Bad Lee Brown [unissued] - John Dilleshaw & The String Marvel (OKeh 402406-B)
  1929 Little Sadie - Clarence Ashley (Columbia 15522-D)
  1939 Bad Man Ballad - Willie Rayford, recorded at Cummins State Farm, near Varner, Arkansas by John Lomax and Ruby Lomax
  1946-1948 Whisky Blues - Slim Dusty - Regal Zonophone Collection - Slim Dusty (8142472) Very rare.  Exact date is not known.
  1948 Cocaine Blues - Roy Hogsed, US Country #15.  Music/lyrics attributed to T. J. 'Red' Arnall
  1940s Chain Gang Blues - Riley Puckett
  1940s Bad Lee Brown - Woody Guthrie and Cisco Houston
  1959 Badman Ballad - Cisco Houston The Cisco Special! album
  1960 Transfusion Blues - Johnny Cash Now, There Was A Song album, and on 1968 album At Folsom Prison. 
  1960 Bad Man's Blunder - The Kingston Trio String Along album
  1960 Whiskey Blues - Slim Dusty Songs for Rolling Stones album
  1968 Cocaine Blues - Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison album
  1970 Little Sadie "Trees" (trees folk band) Recorded 1970  On the shore  album  Trees  Folk rock, Genre: psychedelic folk, progressive folk, progressive rock
  1970 In Search of Little Sadie and Little Sadie - Bob Dylan Self Portrait album
  1970 Little Sadie - Doc Watson Doc Watson on Stage (Vanguard VSD 9/10)
  1972 Little Sadie - John Renbourn Faro Annie (Reprise MS2082)
  1978 Cocaine Blues - George Thorogood & The Destroyers
  1979 Little Sadie - Tony Rice Unit, Manzanita album
  1990 Little Sadie - Daniel Lanois, b-side Under A Stormy Sky single
  1993 Little Sadie - Jerry Garcia, David Grisman and Tony Rice, The Pizza Tapes album
  1996 Little Sadie - Freight Hoppers Where'd You Come From, Where'd You Go? album
  1998 Little Sadie - The Sadies Precious Moments album
  1999 Little Sadie - Mark Lanegan I'll Take Care of You album
  2001 Little Sadie - Old Crow Medicine Show - The Troubles Up and Down the Road EP
  2004 Little Sadie - The Radiators - Earth vs. The Radiators: the First 25 Live DVD
  2005 Little Sadie - John Doyle - "Wayward Son"
  2006 Little Sadie - Crooked Still - Shaken by A Low Sound album; featured in The Last of Us Part II trailer presented at E3 2018, and also in the final game.
  2006 Little Sadie - Greg Graffin - Cold as the Clay album.
  2011 Little Sadie/White-Wheeled Limousine/Just One More - Bruce Hornsby and the Noisemakers "Bride of the Noisemakers" album
  2013 Little Sadie - Tim Timebomb
  
  References
  
  Other sources
   Roud Folk Song Index 780
   Laws Ballad Index I8
   The Traditional Ballad Index LI08
   Lyle Lofgren "Remembering The Old Songs: Little Sadie" Inside Bluegrass, January 2002
  Little Sadie by The Rosinators - lyrics, song history and tab links
   Miller Jr., E. John; & Michael Cromie Folk Guitar, Quadrangle, (1968), p109
   Sing Out! Reprints, Sing Out, (196?), 9, p35
   Bailey, Hobart. Rosenbaum, Art Old-Time Mountain Banjo'', Oak, (1968), p56
  
  1930 songs
  Bob Dylan songs
  Woody Guthrie songs
  Murder ballads