Jailhouse Blues: B.B. King, Cook County and Lou Behind Bars

What is it about performing live at a prison that brings out the best in a musical artist?  Johnny Cash is the gold standard with albums at Folsom and San Quentin prisons that are considered some of the finest live albums ever recorded regardless of genre.  Bob Dylan has done it.  Metallica has done it.  Frank Sinatra performed for 3,000 female inmates in 1965.  That is so Frank.  The Sex Pistols performance at Chelmsford Top Security Prison is just so perfect as well.  All of England thought the Sex Pistol should be incarcerated.  A pure punk statement.  The finest live prison album never happened but should have.  In the early 1970s, the Beach Boys should have performed with Charles Manson at San Quentin.  It would have brought down the house.  Charlie Rocks!!!  All the people who buy John Wayne Gacy’sclown paintings say so.  

Lou had also heard good things about B.B. King’s Live in Cook County Jail released in 1971 but recorded in September 1970.  Again, this is considered one of the true live performance highlights ever put on wax.  So, when Lou saw the album incarcerated in the bins at The Vogue, Lou had to perform a jailbreak.  And good thing too, the album is as good as advertised.

The record was something special in King’s extensive catalog and it might not even be the best live album King recorded.  Some might give the nod to Live at the Regal.  In any case, Cook County spent 33 weeks on the Billboard LP chart and reached number one on the R&B chart.  King would never do so again, which is remarkable to think about.  Without a doubt the album is one of the great blues recordings of all time and maybe at the top in terms of live blues recordings.  

Cook County provides much inspiration for the Blues Brothers,who parodied the live jail concept as well as celebrating it.  The Blues Brothers movie could only end with a jailhouse performance.  There was no other ending to a life immersed inthe blues.  

Lou spent some time in the slammer in his youth for some drunken hijinks.  The guards named Lou James Brown because when he was arrested, he was feeling good.  In jail, Lou wrote and performed a few blues tunes because that is what you do when you are subjected by the Man.

The first tune was inspired by “Spoonful” and lemon juice running down Lou’s leg.  He missed his woman, you see.  Jail is lonely.  It was called “Spoonful o’Honey” and it had a Robert Johnson Mississippi Delta roadhouse/crossroads vibe.  Lots of vibes.

Bees buzzing

Round my head

But my honey’s gone

Bees buzzing

Round my head

Been drinking way too long

 

I only need a spoonful

From my baby’s honey pot

I only need a spoonful

If she’s giving what she got

 

Bees buzzing

Round my head

But my honey’s gone

 

Bees buzzing

Round my head

Been drinking way too long

 

Baby how bout

Some sweet stuff

I’ve gone on

Way too long

With only nothings

You know that

Sure enough

 

Bees buzzing

Round my head

But my honey’s gone

 

Bees buzzing

Round my head

Been drinking way too long

 

Hey baby

How’s bout a sip

From your honey jar

With just one sip

I would gladly

Leave this bar

 

Bees buzzing

Round my head

But my honey’s gone

 

Bees buzzing

Round my head

Been drinking way too long

 

Happy with the results, Lou decided to come up with a few more blues songs to fill out his set list for when he performed in the jail assembly hall.  He could not go up there as a one-hit wonder.  So, Lou got to thinking of murder ballads, train songs, and the Beat Generation.  As you do in jail.  The title of this suite of songs was Blues of the White Negro.  Blame Norman Mailer.

Joanie’s Gone

Joanie was a speedy girl
speeding all around
She was fast and loose
and tell the truth
She never touched the ground

Billy spent the day sharpening knives
But Joanie’s tongue was sharper
She questioned Billy’s aim
Things were never quite the same
That’s all it took to mark her

Billy shot his load on a Thursday night
blind drunk in a game of Willie Tell
First time he shot her
She bowed her head
And right down Joanie fell

In the dead of night
Joanie was fallen by a shooting Star
By the light O’ morn
Dawn broke red
On the floor of the Bounty bar

Now Billy he’s in the Bounty
Drinking out of a silver cup
Joanie she’s in the graveyard
Doing her level best to get up

Billy ain’t paid no fine
Nor served no ninety-nine
Instead he skipped to Tangier
On an ocean line

And ain’t it Queer
That Joanie’s gone
And Billy tells the tale
That we all know
That’s how it goes
Some things never fail

 

Stacked Law Blues

Shelton and Lyon drank in a saloon
One night in ‘95
One would survive on in song
The other would not come out alive

Kammerer and Carr staggered into a bar
One night in ‘44
One would walk home under the stars
And one would be no more

Lyon stole Lee’s hat
And you cannot let that be
If you wish to walk free
With your honor still intact

Down by the river
Kammerer made his move
Whether attack or love
We’ll never be able to prove

Stagger Lee went to the barroom
And he stood by the barroom door
He said nobody move
And pulled his forty-four

By the river’s edge
Carr nixed Kammerer’s pledge
Pulled out a knife
And took Dave’s life
Pushed the body over the ledge

Stagger Lee did his crime
And served the time
With no remorse
Until the year of ‘09

Carr’s guilt washed down
From the river to the sea
For a Boy Scout and his Honor
Cannot let an old faggot be

To kill and walk all but free
To escape the hangman’s tree
A Boy Scout and his Honor
Cannot let an old faggot be

 

Slow Down Cannastra

Slow down Cannastra
You can’t be goin’ any faster
Hi-balls coursing through your veins
As you ride down that 97 train

Bill, your girl’s shacked with Jack
Your train’s done jumped its track
Heard word you’re never coming back

You’re riding alongside Casey
Chasing down that white line
Your train’s gonna collide
With that Wabash in the sky

Bill, your girl’s shacked with Jack
Your train’s done jumped its track
Heard word you’re never coming back

Your life’s gone off the rails
But you’ll live on in past tales
Of those who know, not to live so fast

Bill, your girl’s shacked with Jack
Your train’s done jumped its track
Heard word you’re never coming back
(Refrain)

So, there you have it a four song EP from Lou’s time in jail.  Lou never got to perform them live, but just like live prison albums there is a whole tradition of songs written there.  Lou’s effort fit in nicely there.  B.B. King was changed forever by his experience performing in Cook County.  He became the better man for it.  This is what jail is supposedly all about.  After 24 hours in jail, Lou knows he saw things differently.  It is not the time spent, but how you spend your time.

Suggested Sites and Sounds:

Prison Concerts:  The 25 Best Bands To Play a Prison Concert, Ranked

Sex Pistols in Jail:  Sex Pistols Chelmsford Prison UK 1976 [SBD Recording]

Songs Written in Jail:  The five best songs that were written in jail

Songs About Jail:  25 Best Songs About Prison & Going to Jail of All Time

Blues Brothers The Jailhouse Concert:  The Blues Brothers - Jailhouse Rock (Elvis Presley cover) - 1080p Full HD

— Lou Waxman