Young busker musicians perform the classic 20th Century American folk ballad \"Little Sadie\". If anyone knows these two Canadian guys on banjo and washboard, please let me know I'd like to give them a proper credit. I believe the banjo player is named Brody and on washboard is Marcus Lennie.
\"Little Sadie\" is also known variously as \"Bad Lee Brown\", \"Cocaine Blues, \"Transfusion Blues\", \"East St. Louis Blues\", \"Late One Night\", \"Penitentiary Blues\" and other titles. The song tells the story of a man who is apprehended after shooting his wife/girlfriend. He is then sentenced by a judge.
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.
In the first sound recording (the 1930 recording by Clarence Ashley), Little Sadie may have been a prostitute.
Woke next morning 'bout half past nine,
The buggies and the hacks all swarmed in line,
The gents and the gamblers all standing around,
They're gonna take Sadie to the burying ground.
Recorded in front of the old Taylor Shoes store on Dundas Street West in Toronto on Aug. 22, 2014.
