Little Sadie


"Little Sadie" is a 20th-century American traditional folk ballad. 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 a woman, in some versions his wife or girlfriend. He is then sentenced by a judge. It is most commonly sung to a tune in Dorian mode.

Earliest transcription

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, under the title "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.

Musical variations

The first sound recording recording, by Clarence Ashley, was published in 1930, he played the song in "mountain modal" or "sawmill tuning".
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, 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 versions refer to the Sheriff of Thomasville, North Carolina apprehending the murderer "down in" Jericho, South Carolina. Other versions transpose Mexico for Jericho.
"Little Sadie" may have been an influence on the 1960s song "Hey Joe".

Selected list of recorded versions