In April of 1882, Jesse James was murdered.... With Jesse's death (shot in the
back of the head, unarmed, by a man he trusted as a friend), the legend was
complete.... All that was needed in order to enshrine the legend permanently was
a ballad. Within a short time after Jesse's death, an otherwise unknown minstrel
by the name of Billy Gashade (mentioned in the last verse of the song) created the ballad which has come to be Jesse
James' lasting epitaph....
"Until recently, the earliest known printing of 'Jesse James' was a broadside printed by New York publisher Henry J. Wehman (no. 1044). Though undated, it can be placed between 1888 and 1897 on the basis of Wehman's address given on the sheet. It has been reproduced by Finger (1927) and by Thede and Preece.
According to Norm Cohen in his book Long Steel Rail, in 1977, Guthrie T. Meade came across an 1887 pocket songster in the Library of Congress, Comic and Sentimental Songs; one of the texts, as sung by Robert Jones, is 'Jesse James'.
Jones, born blind in east Tennessee, made his living after the age of fifteen by singing and playing the fiddle . In the text of "Jesse James", in the last stanza it says the song was made by Billy LaShade, rather than Gashade (as mentioned above)
In 1910 "Jesse James" was collected by John A. Lomax in "Cowboy Songs and other Frontier Ballads". In the last stanza of Lomax's text of "Jesse James", it says the song was made by Billy Gashade.
It's on page 27 of the next pdf: Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads
The first recorded version of this traditional I could find : Bentley (or Bently) Ball in 1920.
His source for the "Jesse James" ballad was John A. Lomax's 1910 lyrics as printed above.
He made a few minor textual changes: "dirty little coward" in Lomax's lyrics became "mean little coward" in Ball's version.
Bentley Ball
The only info on Bentl(e)y Ball I could find is this: Bently Ball was an itinerant typewriter salesman and song collector who forayed into recording. He also was the first artist to record "Gallows Trees" (which became a classic, recorded by Leadbelly as "Gallis Pole" and Led Zeppelin as "Gallows Pole"). SEE NEXT LINK
And the first artist to record "The Dying Cowboy". SEE NEXT LINK
The recorded history of "Jesse James" begins rather early compared to most of the other songs in this book. It was first recorded by Bentley Ball for Columbia in May, 1919, as part of a group of folksongs rendered in concert-hall style for "cultured" listeners.
Bentley Ball also wrote a book in which he made some comments on cowboy songs like "The Dying Cowboy" and "Jesse James"
(o) Bentley Ball (1920)
Recorded April 1919 in New York
Matrix # 90039
Released in 1920 on Columbia A3085
Listen here:
Or here:
(c) Bascom Lamar Lunsford (1924) (as "Jesse James")
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, vocals and banjo
Recorded in Atlanta, GA Saturday, March 15, 1924
Released on Okeh 40155
Listen here:
Here's a version by Lunsford from a few years later.
(c) Ernest Thompson (1924) (as "Jessie James")
Recorded April 26, 1924 in New York.
Released on Columbia 145-D and also on Harmony 5121-H
Listen here:
(c) Riley Puckett (1924) (as "Jesse James")
Acc. by Gid Tanner on guitar
Recorded September 11, 1924
Released on Columbia 15033-D
Listen here:
(c) George Reneau (1924) (as "Jesse James") (DIFFERENT SONG)
Recorded September 12, 1924
Released on Vocalion 14897
As you can hear this is a different song about Jesse James
(c) Vernon Dalhart (1925) (as "Jesse James")
Recorded September 1925 in New York
Released on Gennett 3143 and Silvertone 4012
Listen here:
(c) Vernon Dalhart 1925 (as "Jesse James")
Recorded September 22, 1925
Released on Edison 51621
And on Edison Blue Amberol cylinder 5057
Listen here:
(c) Fiddlin’ John Carson and his Virginia Reelers 1927 (as "Jesse James")
Fiddlin’ John Carson, f; unknown, f; unknown, bj; Moonshine Kate (Rosa Lee Carson), g.
Recorded Atlanta, GA Thursday, March 17, 1927
Released on Okeh 45139
Listen here:
(c) Vernon Dalhart 1927 (as "Jesse James")
Vernon Dalhart, v; acc. Murray Kellner, f; own h; Carson Robison, g.
New York, NY
Recorded April 12, 1927
Released on Victor 20966
(c) Frank Luther 1927 (as "Jesse James")
Recorded Febr/March 1927
Released on Grey Gull 4133
(c) Harry "Mac" McClintock (1928) (as "Jesse James")
Recorded on March 10, 1928 in Oakland, CA
Released on Victor 21420
Listen here:
(c) Marc Williams (1928) (as "Jesse James")
Recorded March 23, 1928 in Chicago, IL
Released on Brunswick 269
(c) Uncle Dave Macon & Sid Harkreader 1929 (as "Life and Death of Jesse James")
Uncle Dave Macon, bj/v; Sid Harkreader, g
Recorded in Chicago, IL Thursday, June 20, 1929
Released on Vocalion 5356
Listen here:
(c) Bill Bender (The Happy Cowboy) (1939) (as "Jesse James")
Recorded Fall 1939 in New York
Released on Varsity 5141
Re-released in 1943 on Asch in
Listen here: Jesse James %28Outlaw%29 - Bill Bender.mp3
(c) Woody Guthrie (1940) (as "Jesus Christ")
In 1940 Woody Guthrie turned Gashade's original song around. Observing the disparity between how the rich and the poor people lived in New York City, he wondered what might happen if Jesus "was to walk into New York City and preach like he use to." Using Gashade's melody as well as the lyrical structure from "Jesse James," Guthrie provided his answer, putting Jesus in the lead role and having him nailed in the air by the bankers, preachers, cops and soldiers.
And here's Woody's "Jesus Christ"
In 1944 Woody Guthrie would record a song with the same title "Jesse James", which is a different song in both melody and lyrics. That version was copied from Leadbelly's "Western Cowboy" (1933) or "Cow Cow Yicky Yea / Out on the Western Plains" (1943) or "Western Plain (When I Was a Cowboy)" (1944)
On his turn Leadbelly's version was adapted from Watts & Wilson's "The Sporting Cowboy" -
Watts & Wilson (Wilmer Watts and Frank Wilson), c. April, 1927, Chicago, IL.
But more so from the traditional "The Old Chisholm Trail" recorded on March 22, 1928 by Harry "Mac" McClintock
(c) Carl Sandburg 1945 (as "Jesse James")
Recorded June 3, 1943 in NYC
Released on Decca 40023 (as part of album A-356)
Listen here: Jesse James - Carl Sandburg.mp3
And here's "The Ballad of Jessie James" from the 1949 movie "I Shot Jessie James"
(c) Pete Seeger 1957 ( as "Jesse James")
Listen here:
(c) Kingston Trio 1961 ( as "Jesse James")
Listen here:
(c) Bob Dylan 1961 (as "Jesse James")
In February 1961 Dylan sang a portion of "Jesse James", recorded in the East Orange, New Jersey home of Bob & Sid Gleason
Listen here: Jesse James - The Bob Dylan Project
Bob Dylan, in his song "Outlaw Blues" from his 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home, defends his decision to "go electric" with the line "Ain't gonna hang no picture, ain't gonna hang no picture frame/Well, I might look like Robert Ford, but I feel just like a Jesse James."
(c) Bob Seger (1972) (as "Jesse James")
Listen here:
(c) Ry Cooder 1980 (as "Jesse James")
Ry Cooder's arrangement of the song plays over the end credits of Walter Hill's 1980 movie The Long Riders
Listen here:
(c) Pogues 1985 (as "Jesse James")
Listen here:
(c) U2 1988 (as "Jesus Christ")
Due to U2's spirited 1988 cover, Guthrie's revision as "Jesus Chist" may be as well known -- if not more so -- than the original "Jesse James"
Listen to U2's version of Woody Guthrie's "Jesus Christ"
(c) Jackson C Frank 1997 (as "Jesse James")
(home-recording) on CD "Blues Run the Game"
Listen here:
(c) Van Morrison, Lonnie Donegan & Chis Barber 2000 (as "Ballad of Jesse James")
on album "Skiffle Sessions" (Live in Belfast 1998)
Listen here:
(c) Bruce Springsteen 2006 (as "Jesse James")
Listen here:
(c) Nick Cave 2007 (as "Ballad of Jesse James")
A portion of the song is performed on-screen by Nick Cave, playing a strolling balladeer in a bar patronised by Robert Ford, in the 2007 movie The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.
View here:
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