DUPREE BLUES
Created on 17/09/2007Latest update on 10/10/2023
Artist: Blind Willie Walker
Author: traditional
Label: Columbia
Year: 1925
Atlanta ballad based on true facts: Frank Dupree was a murderer who was hanged in 1922. Frank Dupree by Vernon Dalhart ('28) was another song inspired by the same facts and written by street evangelist Blind Andy Jenkins who first recorded it in '25 for OKeh. Willie Walker was a blind South Carolina guitarist, ex Greenville String Band, just like Blind Gary Davis.
Covers:
- 1930:
- 1934:
- 1935:
- 1936:
Walter Roberts [as Dupree]
- 1937:
- 1937:
- 1944:
Josh White [who toured with Willie Walker during the twenties]
- 1946:
Blind Sonny Terry [as Betty & Dupree]
- 1955:
Brownie McGhee [idem]
- 1957:
Billy Lee Riley [idem]
- 1957:
Chuck Willis [idem; pop version avoiding any lyrical link to the crime (compare with Lloyd Price's Stagger Lee)]
- 1959:
Dave Van Ronk [idem; with lyrics true to the facts]
- 1960:
- 1962:
- 1966:
- 1966:
- 1970:
Nyles Jones [as DePritt & Betty]
- 1971:
- 1982:
- 1991:
Guitar Gabriel [as Betty & DePritt]
- 1998:
Taj Mahal [as Betty & Dupree]
- 2008:
Songs about enamoured boys stealing jewelry for their girls and paying for it in prison are universal. See also: Allentown Jail/Les Prisons Du Roi.
