SAN FRANCISCO BAY BLUES
“San Francisco Bay Blues” is an American folk song and is generally considered to be
the most famous composition by Jesse Fuller. Fuller first recorded the song in the mid-
1950s for a small label called World Song. The song was brought into wider popularity in
the early 1960s by club performances by Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Bob Dylan, and Jim
Kweskin. Recorded covers have been performed by many artists including Richie
Havens, Eric Clapton, The Flatlanders, Paul McCartney, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin,
and Peter, Paul, and Mary. A “one-man band” rendition of the song featuring a kazoo solo
was recorded by Fuller himself in a 1962 concert. This has been included in a
Smithsonian Folkways compilation, “Friends of Old Time Music”.
I got the blues from my baby left me
by the San Francisco Bay,
The ocean liner’s gone so far away.
Didn’t mean to treat her so bad,
She was the best girl I ever have had,
She said goodbye, I can take a cry,
I want to lay down and die.
I ain’t got a nickel
and I ain’t got a lousy dime.
She don’t come back,
think I’m going to lose my mind.
If she ever gets back to stay,
it’s going to be another brand new day,
Walking with my baby
down by the San Francisco Bay.
Sitting down looking from my back door,
Wondering which way to go,
The woman I’m so crazy about,
she don’t love me no more.
Think I’ll catch me a freight train,
’cause I’m feeling blue,
And ride all the way to the end of the line,
thinking only of you.
Meanwhile, in another city,
Just about to go insane,
Thought I heard my baby, Lord,
the way she used to call my name.
If I ever get her back to stay,
it’s going to be another brand new day,
Walking with my baby
down by the San Francisco Bay,
Walking with my baby
down by the San Francisco Bay,
One thought on “SAN FRANCISCO BAY BLUES”
Jesse Fuller……….https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lqp52Uv6WA