Album Cover of the Day

This little oddity of "experimental sound" from 1953 comes from M-O-R, Easy Listening producer/arranger Gordon Jenkins and is somewhat famous for its inclusion of the song "Crescent City Blues" sung by Beverly Mahr, from which Johnny Cash lifted the melody and several verses for his "Folsom Prison Blues."  A substantial cash settlement between Jenkins and Cash was reached in 1969 after Jenkins filed suit for plagiarism.

Incidentally, the "7 Dreams" of the LP are narrated by jazz bassist, Bill Lee, who was Spike Lee's father.

Crescent City Blues

Gordon Jenkins, 1953 (as sung by Beverly Mahr)

 

I hear the train a-comin, it's rolling 'round the bend

And I ain't been kissed lord since I don't know when

The boys in Crescent City don't seem to know I'm here

That lonesome whistle seems to tell me, Sue, disappear

 

When I was just a baby my mama told me, Sue,

When you're grown up I want that you should go and see and do

But I'm stuck in Crescent City just watching life mosey by

When I hear that whistle blowin', I hang my head and cry

I see the rich folks eatin' in that fancy dining car

They're probably having pheasant breast and eastern caviar

Now I ain't crying envy and I ain't crying me

It's just that they get to see things that I've never seen

If I owned that lonesome whistle, if that railroad train was mine

I bet I'd find a man a little farther down the line

Far from Crescent City is where I'd like to stay

And I'd let that lonesome whistle blow my blues away