The judge tol’ Dupree,
“Jelly roll’s gonna be your ruin.”
“No, no, judge, for that is
What I’ve done quit doin’.”
The judge tol’ Dupree,
“I believe you quit too late,
Because it is
Already your fate.”
[33] See phonograph record, Michigan Water Blues.
In striking contrast to the Dupree just given is one sung by a young Negro who had been in the chain gang a number of times and whose major repertoire consisted of the plaintive chain gang songs. Here the singer has translated the version into his own vernacular, varying lines, eschewing rhyme, carrying his story through the regular channels of the prison type. The lines are given exactly as sung, repetitions and irregularities constituting their chief distinction. And yet something of the same story runs through it. It is perhaps a little nearer the Atlanta version, and the singer adds still another interpretation that Dupree and Betty had quarreled and as a result Dupree had killed her and hidden her body in the sawdust. An interesting local color is that Dupree was sent to Milledgeville, Georgia, where as a matter of fact is situated the combined state prison and hospital. Here, then, is the song with its mixed imagery and reflection of a certain mentality.