RAILROAD BILL

Created on 16/06/2001
Latest update on 14/09/2022

Artist: Riley Puckett
Author: traditional
Label: Columbia
Year: 1924

With Gid Tanner. Melodically related to the English children song Dirty Bill (From Vinegar Hill).

Covers:

1924:

Roba Stanley & Bill Patterson

1927:

J.H. Small

1927:

Martha Copeland [as Hobo Bill; first black artist to record it]

1929:

Will Bennett [as an old man; contemporary of the real legend and celebrating Bill's independence: "He never worked and he never will, Ride Bill, ride"; his lyrics mention the World Fair in St. Louis in 1904, illustrating the age of some of his verses (and his own age)]

1929:

Frank Hutchison

1937:

Blind Jesse Harris

1937:

Vera Hall

1942:

Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee

1955:

Tom Paley

1956:

Lonnie Donegan

1956:

Paul Clayton

1959:

Hobart Smith

1961:

Rambling Jack Elliott

1963:

Joan Baez

1970:

Bob Dylan [on Bootleg Series Vol 10 and also on Minnesota Hotel Tapes ('61)]

1972:

Ferre Grignard

1973:

Taj Mahal

1981:

Gun Club

1998:

Van Morrison-Lonnie Donegan-Chris Barber

2000:

Dave Alvin

2004:

Greg Brown

2011:

Gillian Welch & David Rawlings

2016:

Billy Bragg & Joe Henry

This is a real story. There once was a Railroad Bill, his name was Morris Slater. Worked as a day laborer in the harsh terpentine plantations in the south Alabama woods. In 1893 he killed a policeman and escaped by jumping on a train. From then on he ambushed the L&N line with raids and murders. In 1895 he shot a sheriff (but he didn't shoot no deputy). Another two years later he was captured and executed. Officials had to carry his dead body from town to town to prove he passed. The stuff where legends are made of.

Contact


If you noticed blunt omissions, mis-interpretations or even out-and-out errors,
please let me know:

Arnold Rypens
Rozenlaan 65
B-2840 Reet (Rumst)

info@originals.be

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