Mr. Bojangles - David Bromberg.mp3

[00:10.061] I knew a man Bojangles
[00:11.445] And he danced for you
[00:17.317] In worn out shoes
[00:20.252] With silver hair, a ragged shirt, and baggy pants
[00:27.159] He did the old soft shoe
[00:31.025] He jumped so high
[00:34.094] You know he jumped so high
[00:38.082] And then he lightly touched down
[00:47.957] Mister Bojangles
[00:53.244] Mister Bojangles
[00:57.064] Mister Bojangles
[01:01.351] C’mon dance
[01:05.921] I met him in a cell down in New Orleans, alright
[01:12.514] I was down and out
[01:17.717] He looked to me to be
[01:18.795] The eyes of age as he spoke right out
[01:28.466] He talked of life
[01:31.502] Yes, he talked of life
[01:35.289] He laughed and slapped his leg a step
[01:41.487] He said the name Bojangles
[01:44.306] And then he danced a lick
[01:49.544] Across the cell
[01:53.030] He grabbed his pants a better stance
[01:55.682] Oh, he jumped up high, high
[02:00.853] He clicked his heels
[02:04.322] He let go a laugh
[02:07.379] You know he let go a laugh
[02:13.350] He shook back his clothes all around
[02:21.757] Mister Bojangles
[02:26.895] Mister Bojangles
[02:31.282] Mister Bojangles
[02:35.201] C’mon dance
[02:40.033] [Spoken by David Bromberg, “This is really a true story, ya know. A lot of people had heard the song.
[02:44.303] And well, at least Jerry Jeff has told me it was a true story.
[02:47.439] I played guitar with Jerry Jeff Walker for about two years and we did this song every night for two years.
[02:54.778] And I never got tired of it.
[02:58.231] Jerry got a little tired of it.
[03:01.584] At night after the clubs closed we would do horrible things to it.
[03:06.772] It was a true story, he,this guy, Bojangles was a,he was a street dancer in New Orleans.
[03:13.593] What he do was go from bar to bar,
[03:16.647] and ah, he put-a, put money in the jukebox or get someone else to do it.
[03:21.484] And then he would either dance or pantomime the tune, right.
[03:24.420] And for that people would buy him drinks,
[03:27.705] get him pretty drunk, and then he would go onto the next bar and,the next one until it was closing time.
[03:32.609] And then he would do it the next night.
[03:36.329] And after a few night of this, he would end up on the corner and the cops would pick him up and take him to the drunk-tank; which is where Jerry Jeff met him.
[03:46.789] Ah, Jerry Jeff wasn’t there on a research project,
[03:50.208] I... I mean the way I got that story, I, I may have that wrong, but the way I got that was he propositioned the right woman, at the right time, in the wrong place.
[04:01.151] And her husband, the bartender…
[04:05.170] ah, called the cops and they, ah, they took Jerry, ah, to the parish jail.
[04:16.680] And he, he and this guy just talked for three days in the cell about, you know about what he does.”]
[04:24.169] He said he danced for those at minstrel shows and county fairs
[04:31.325] Throughout the south
[04:34.695] He spoke with tears of fifteen years
[04:37.981] How his dog and him
[04:42.118] Traveled about
[04:46.388] His dog up and died
[04:48.973] You know his dog up and died
[04:54.301] After twenty years he still grieves
[05:00.159] He said, I dance now at every chance in honky-tonks
[05:07.566] For drinks and tips
[05:10.688] But most the time
[05:12.823] I spend behind these county bars
[05:18.311] ‘Cause I drinks a bit
[05:22.165] He shook his head
[05:27.052] And as he shook his head
[05:32.290] I heard someone ask please
[05:40.412] Mister Bojangles
[05:50.931] Mister Bojangles
[05:53.989] C’mon
[05:56.486] [Instrumental Interlude]
[07:03.403] I knew a man Bojangles
[07:04.556] And he danced for you, c’mon