Little Jesse was a gambler, night and day
He used crooked cards and dice.
Sinful guy, good hearted but had no soul
Heart was hard and cold like ice
Jesse was a wild reckless gambler
Won a gang of change
Altho` a many gambler`s heart he led in pain
Began to spend a-loose his money
Began to be blue, sad and all alone
His heart had even turned to stone.
What broke Jesse`s heart while he was blue and all alone
Sweet Lorena packed up and gone
Police walked up and shot my friend Jesse down
Boys i got to die today
He had a gang of crapshooters and gamblers at his bedside
Here are the words he had to say:
Guess I ought to know
Exactly how I wants to go
(How you wanna go, Jesse?)
Eight crapshooters to be my pallbearers
Let `em be veiled down in black
I want nine men going to the graveyard, bubba
And eight men comin back
I want a gang of gamblers gathered `round my coffin-side
Crooked card printed on my hearse
Don`t say the crapshooters`ll never grieve over me
My life been a doggone curse
Send poker players to the graveyard
Dig my grave with the ace of spades
I want twelve polices in my funeral march
High sheriff playin` blackjack, lead the parade
I want the judge and solic`ter who jailed me 14 times
Put a pair of dice in my shoes (then what?)
Let a deck of cards be my tombstone
I got the dyin` crapshooter`s blues
Sixteen real good crapshooters
Sixteen bootleggers to sing a song
Sixteen racket men gamblin`
Couple tend bar while i`m rollin` along