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"THIS IS A LOVE SONG!" Rachel insists. And she's right.

Bessie Smith recorded Send Me to the 'Lectric Chair in 1927, accompanied by her Blue Boys: Fletcher Henderson piano, "Trombone Cholly" Charlie Green trombone and Joe Smith cornet.

A Barlow is a classic jack knife, maybe not so well suited to stabbing: Bessie said she "cut him" with her Barlow, which might have worked a little better. Abraham Lincoln had a Barlow too, which he received from a total stranger. It seems the stranger had been given the knife on the condition that, if he ever met anybody uglier than he was, he had to pass it along. And so Abe got his knife.

For all that, the first time I heard this song was listening to David Bromberg with my brother Tom at the Horseshoe in the 1970s. I figure they're all worth a listen.

lyrics

Judge your honour, you wanna hear my plea
Before you open up your court.
Cause I don't want no sympathy.
I done cut my good man's throat.
I caught him with a trifling Jane,
I warned him 'bout before.
I had my knife and went insane.
The rest you ought to know

Judge (JUDGE!), judge (JUDGE!), dear mister judge,
Send me to the 'lectric chair
Judge (JUDGE!), judge (JUDGE!), lordy lordy judge,
I wanna get away from here.
I wanna take a journey
To the devil down below.
Done killed my man
I just wanna reap just what I sow.
Oh judge (JUDGE!), judge (JUDGE!), lordy lordy judge
Take me to the 'lectric chair.
.......

Judge (JUDGE!), judge (JUDGE!), lordy lordy judge
Take me to the 'lectric chair.
Judge (JUDGE!), judge (JUDGE!), good kind judge
I love him so dear.
I stabbed him with my Barlow,
I kicked him in the side,
I stood here laughing over him
While he wallowed around and died.
Judge, judge, lordy lordy judge,
Take me to the 'lectric chair.

I don't want no good man
To pay my bail.
Babe I don't want to spend no
Ninety years in some stinking jail.
So judge, judge, sweet judge,
Send me to the 'lectric chair.

credits

from Spadina Saturday Night, released December 19, 2020
George Brooks, 1927
Recorded by Bessie Smith for Columbia in New York, March 3, 1927.
Vocal Rachel Zilberg
Photo Patrick Tevlin

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