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2. LITTLE SADIE (Live)
This is another old song for which I stitched together bits and pieces of various versions and added a lot of bits and pieces of my own. One of the versions I came across mentioned cocaine, and I enlarged upon that by grafting on the facts of an actual attempted murder case involving cocaine that I had done as a defence lawyer. I also threw in a courtroom scene, and something resembling some repentant advice from the killer at the end. In real life, my client was completely unrepentant, and I was quietly not unhappy when the judge rejected the plea bargain that had been agreed to by the prosecution (because the crime was simply too grave) and gave him a considerably longer sentence than the one he was expecting.

lyrics

2. LITTLE SADIE
Traditional – additional lyrics by Marc Nerenberg
Every man in town knew Little Sadie. Ah, she were my wife, but she weren’t no lady.
Her one true love was my cocaine. She took it all one night, and was gone again.

I went out that night, makin’ my rounds. Oh, I met my Little Sadie and I blowed her down.
I run right home, and I jumped into bed, with my 44 smokeless under my head.

Well, I begun to think of what a deed I’d done. Oh, I grabbed my hat, and I begun to run.
I made a good run, but I run too slow. They overtook me down in Jericho.

I was just standin’ on the corner readin’ my bill, when up stepped the sheriff from Thomasville.
He said, “Young man, is your name Brown? Remember the night you blowed Little Sadie down?”

I said, “No sir, my name is Lee! If you got any papers, don’t you serve ‘em on me.”
Then he said, with his gun in his right hand, “Why don’t you try that story on the witness stand?”

And then he put me on a train and he brought me back, to face the judge, all dressed in black.
I had no one for to go my bail. They crammed me into that county jail.

I was in the courtroom for my trial. The jury marched in in single file.
And the witnesses looked me straight in the eye, and they all said, “That’s the guy!”

Well, the jury said, “murder in the first degree”. I said, “Oh Lord! Have mercy on me!”
The judge, he sent me straight to the pen – to keep me from killin’ ever again.

Well, it’s 99 years of linin’ track, with this stripèd shirt across my back,
And around my legs, this ball and chain. That’s the sentence he did ordain.

And so, young men, heed my advice: if you’ve got a woman, better treat her nice.
And don’t neither one of you touch cocaine. You don’t want this ball and chain!

credits

from DELIA'S GONE: Murder Ballads & Other Songs of Love & Death, released July 15, 2019
Traditional, arranged and adapted, with additional lyrics, by Marc Nerenberg

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Marc Nerenberg Montreal, Québec

Marc Nerenberg is a veteran Montreal folksinger who plays old time banjo styles and blues harmonica. He has a narrative- centric repertoire, recounting stories in song and wrapping stories around songs. You may “be drawn in by a combination of Marc’s mastery of traditional banjo styles, his idiosyncratic singing, and [his] richly detailed ballads.” (Mike Regenstreif – Folk Roots/Folk Branches 2019) ... more

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