Folk Song
The lyrics are largely biographical containing a number of details from Jesse James' life, portraying him as an American version of Robin Hood, though there is no evidence to indicate that he actually "stole from the rich and gave to the poor".
"But that dirty little coward / That shot Mr. Howard / Has laid poor Jesse in his grave."
Robert Ford, who killed Jesse, was James' gang member. Mr. Howard was the alias that James lived under in Saint Joseph, Missouri at the time of his killing.
The folk song "Jesse James" was recorded in 1924 by Bascom Lamar Lunsford, and subsequently by many artists, including Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, The Country Gentlemen, The Pogues, The Kingston Trio, Van Morrison, Willy DeVille and Bruce Springsteen on his 2006 album We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, and it is the most famous song about James. Part of the song is heard at the end of the 1939 movie, "Jesse James". The song was used in a 1958 episode of the TV western series "Lawman", in which the marshal tries to get Robert Ford (played by Martin Landau) out of town safely. Ry Cooder's arrangement of the song plays over the end credits of Walter Hill's 1980 movie The Long Riders, and 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.
Read more about this topic: Jesse James In Music
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