Letras
Little Jesse was a gambler night and day
He used crooked cards and dice
He was a sinful guy, good-hearted but he had no soul
His heart was hard and cold like ice
Jesse was a wild, reckless gambler, won a gang of change
Although many a gambler's heart he left in vain
Little Jesse begun to spend and lose his money, begun to be blue
His heart had even turned to stone
What broke Jesse's heart while he was blue and all alone?
Sweet Lorene had packed up and gone
Police walked up and shot my friend Jesse down
"Boy, he's gotta die today"
He had a gang of gamblers and crap shooters at his bedside
Here are the words he had to say
"Guess I oughta know how I wanna go"
"How you wanna go, man?"
"Nine crap shooters to be my pallbearers
Let 'em be veiled down in black
Nine going to the graveyard, Bubba
But eight men coming back
I want a gang of gamblers and crap shooters at my coffin side
Crooked card printed on my hearse
Don't say the crap shooters would ever grieve over me
My life been a doggone curse
Send poker players to the graveyard
Dig my grave with ace of spades
Twelve polices in my funeral
With the sheriff playing blackjack in the parade
I want the judges and listers who jailed me fourteen times
Put a pair of dice in my shoes
Let a deck of cards be my tombstone
I got the dyin' crap shooter blues
Sixteen real good crap shooters
Sixteen bootleggers to sing a song
Nine racket men gamblin'
Book a couple tens as we roll along
He wanted twenty-two women out of the Hamilton Hotel
Twenty-six off of South Bell
Twenty-nine women out of North Atlanta
No, that little Jesse didn't pass out so swell
His head was achin', heart was thumpin'
Jesse went to hell bouncin' and jumpin'
But folks, don't be standin' 'round old Jesse cryin'
He wants everybody to do the Charleston whilst he's dyin'
One foot up, toenail draggin'
Threw my buddy Jesse in the hoodoo wagon
Come now, mama, with that candle booth
The dyin' crap shooters leavin' the world
The dyin' crap shooters goin' down slow
With the dyin' crap shooter blues