Cocaine Blues

The song is the tale of a man, Willy Lee, who murders his unfaithful girlfriend while under the influence of whiskey and cocaine.

Willy is apprehended by a sheriff from Jericho Hill, tried, and promptly sentenced to "ninety-nine years in the San Quentin Pen".

Lyrically based upon the turn of the century, traditional, folk song "Little Sadie", the popular version of this song was originally recorded by W. A. Nichol's Western Aces (vocal by "Red" Arnall) on the S & G label, probably in 1947, and by Roy Hogsed and the Rainbow Riders May 25, 1947, at Universal Recorders in Hollywood, California.

The film version, edited down to make it shorter, fades into the next scene before the line "I can't forget the day I shot that bad bitch down" is sung.

For instance, Hughes has the Cocaine Kid, not Willy Lee, killing "his woman and a rounder, too" in Tulsa, being captured in El Paso, and sentenced to "ninety-nine years way down in Mac."