OPEN MIC WEEK 72 - 'St James Infirmary' cover

The version of 'St James Infirmary' is a song about a gambler who discovers that his lover has died from a venereal disease. This version was written shortly before 1930 by Irving Mills and it was based off an English folk song from the 1800s, so its true origins are a bit of a mystery. If you want to read a bit more about it, I wrote a blog post a few weeks ago about Cab Calloway's version, which appears in a creepy short animation from 1933.

Lyrics:

I was down in old Joe's barroom
On the corner by the square
The usual crowd was assembled
And big Joe McKinny was there

He was standing at my shoulder
His eyes were bloodshot red
He turned to the crowd around him
And these are the very words he said

Folks, I went down to St. James Infirmary
See my baby there;
She's stretched out on a long, white table
She's so sweet, so cold, so fair

Let it go, let it go, ohh bless her
Wherever she may be
Her ghost may search this whole wide world over
But she'll never find another sweet man like me

When I die, bury me
In my old Stetson top hat
Put a twenty-dollar gold piece on my watch chain
So you can let all the boys know I died standing pat

An' give me six crap shooting pall bearers
Let a chorus girl sing me a song
Put a jazz band on top of my hearse wagon
So we can raise hell as we go along

Roll out your rubber tired carriage
Roll out your old time hat
12 men going to the graveyard
11 men coming back

Folks, now that you have heard my story
Hand me another shot of that booze;
If anyone should ask you
You just tell 'em I've got those old gambler's blues