"Jesse James" is an American folk song about the outlaw of the same name, first recorded by Bascom Lamar Lunsford in 1924. The song has been covered by many artists, including Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, The Kingston Trio, The Pogues, The Ramblin' Riversiders, The Country Gentlemen, Willy DeVille, Van Morrison, Bob Seger, and Bruce Springsteen. Members of the Western Writers of America chose it as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time.
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Description
The lyrics are largely biographical containing a number of details from Jesse James' life, portraying him as an American version of Robin Hood, though there is no evidence to indicate that he actually "stole from the rich and gave to the poor". The song is the starting point of the Jesse James panel of a mural on American folk songs by Thomas Hart Benton.
Robert Ford, who killed Jesse, was a James' gang member. Mr. Howard was the alias that James lived under in Saint Joseph, Missouri at the time of his killing.
The song was recorded in 1924 by Bascom Lamar Lunsford, and subsequently by many artists, including Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Eddy Arnold, Jackson C. Frank, The Country Gentlemen, The Pogues, The Kingston Trio, Van Morrison, Bob Seger, Willy DeVille and Bruce Springsteen. It is the most famous song about James. Part of the song is heard at the end of the 1939 movie, Jesse James. The song was used in a 1958 episode of the TV western series Lawman, in which the marshal tries to get Robert Ford (played by Martin Landau) out of town safely. Ry Cooder's arrangement of the song plays over the end credits of Walter Hill's 1980 movie The Long Riders, and a portion of the song is performed on-screen by Nick Cave, playing a strolling balladeer in a bar patronized by Robert Ford, in the 2007 movie The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.
The definite author of the song is unknown, but often attributed to Billy Gashade and some versions include a statement to that in one of the verses.
Lyrics
Although the lyrics and structure of the song vary among versions, the following arrangement is typical:
A somewhat different version, alternately titled I Wonder Where My Poor Old Jesse's Gone, is as follows: