“The Bootlegger (Trammell's Bootlegger)”

Description

"Hee-haw, hee-haw, Blind Jack is my name, I romp, I paw, I snort, I snooze, For I am in the business of selling booze." But the police are after him; he hopes to escape, but apparently is punished -- and hopes to win a prize for his poetry about it

Supplemental text

Bootlegger, The (Trammell's Bootlegger)
  Partial text(s)

          *** A ***

The Bootlegger

From Harvey H. Fuson, Ballads of the Kentucky Highlands, p. 157.
Source not clearly indicated; probably from manuscript. It is
signed "Trammell" and dated November 22, 1915.

Hee-haw, hee-haw, Blind Jack is my name,
I romp, I paw, I snort, I snooze,
For I am in the business of selling booze;
But the courts are after me, they're on my track,
I fear before long my business will slack.

I'll change my name, take my booze on my back,
So my name no longer will be Blind Jack,
Oh, I look like a tramp, I look like a beggar,
They call this type o' Jack a boozing bootlegger.

(3 additional stanzas; stanzas 3 and 4 have three lines, stanza 5
has five)

Notes

Seemingly not traditional, and certainly not very good (or very easy to understand), but Fuson includes it as a "type of extreme modern ballad." - RBW

References

1. Fuson, p. 154, "The Bootlegger" (1 text)
2. ST Fus154 (Partial)
3. Roud #16369
4. BI, Fus154