"Little Sadie" is a 20th-century American folk ballad in D 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 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.
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.
In the first sound recording (the 1930 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 (swarmed?) in line,
The gents and the gamblers all standing around,
They're gonna take Sadie to the burying ground.
This verse does not appear in Ashley's 1963 recording with Doc Watson.
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, The 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.
Some researchers have suggested that "Little Sadie" may have been an influence on the 1960s song "Hey Joe".
1929-1930 Bad Lee Brown - John Dilleshaw
1930 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
1947 Cocaine Blues - W. A. Nichol's Western Aces, vocal by "Red" Arnall [S & G Records SG 011]
1947 Cocaine Blues - Billy Hughes
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
1960 Bad Man's Blunder - The Kingston Trio String Along album
1960 Whiskey Blues - Slim Dusty Songs for Rolling Stones album
1963 Little Sadie - Clarence Ashley Old-Time Music at Clarence Ashley's, Part 2 (Folkways FA 2359)
1968 Cocaine Blues - Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison album
1970 In Search of Little Sadie - Bob Dylan Self Portrait album
1970 Little Sadie - Bob Dylan Self Portrait album
1970 Little Sadie - Doc Watson Doc Watson on Stage (Vanguard VSD 9/10)
1970 Little Sadie - Trees On the Shore album
1972 Little Sadie - John Renbourn Faro Annie (Reprise MS2082)
1972 Ode to Bad Bill - Peg Leg Sam (spoken word version)
1978 Cocaine Blues - George Thorogood & The Destroyers
1979 Little Sadie - Tony Rice Unit, Manzanita album
1993 Little Sadie - Jerry Garcia and David Grisman, The Pizza Tapes
1996 Little Sadie - Freight Hoppers Where'd You Come From, Where'd You Go? album
1999 Little Sadie - Mark Lanegan I'll Take Care of You album
1999 Cocaine Blues - Hank Williams III
2001 Little Sadie - Old Crow Medicine Show - The Troubles Up and Down the Road EP
2002 Little Sadie - The Sadies- on the Bloodshot Records Sampler - Making Singles, Drinking Doubles
2004 Little Sadie - The Radiators - Earth vs. The Radiators: the First 25 Live DVD
2005 Little Sadie - Sankofa Strings - Colored Aristocracy album
2006 Little Sadie - Crooked Still Shaken by A Low Sound album
2006 Little Sadie - Greg Graffin Cold As The Clay album
2009 Little Sadie - Jack Rose, The Black Twig Pickers Jack Rose & The Black Twig Pickers album
2011 Little Sadie/White-Wheeled Limousine/Just One More - Bruce Hornsby and the Noisemakers "Bride of the Noisemakers" album
2011 Little Sadie - Norman Blake on the Deluxe Edition of the O Brother, Where Art Thou? Soundtrack
2013 Little Sadie - Tim Timebomb and Friends
2013 Little Sadie - Moriarty
2015 Little Sadie - Sam Kelly (musician)
