Jerry Jeff Walker – Mr. Bojangles

I’ve wanted to revisit Jerry Jeff Walker for a long time. I picked an easy one, but the song has always meant a lot to me. It’s for the personal connection that I picked this one. I first heard this song by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, but I love this version as well. Only a few songs can make me feel emotional, and this one does. The song gets me emotionally involved with the story, and then comes the line, his dog up and died. I can feel that, and it hurts every time. 

The inspiration for the song started in the mid-60s, before Walker was known. He was passing through New Orleans and ended up spending a night in a jail cell on a minor charge. While there, he met an older man who began talking to pass the time. The man said his name was Mr. Bojangles, not his real name, but as something he used to avoid giving his identity to the police.

During the conversation, the man talked about his life as a street dancer. He described performing for tips, moving from place to place, and how he used dance to get by. At one point, the mood shifted. He spoke about his dog that had died, and how that loss affected him. Then, almost as a way to break the tension in the cell, he started tapping and dancing a little. This meeting stayed with Walker.

After getting out, Walker wrote the song based on that encounter. He didn’t try to document the man exactly. Instead, he shaped the story into something broader, a character built from memory. The name itself came from the man’s habit of using it in place of his real one, which also echoed the stage name of dancer Bill Robinson, though the song is not about Robinson. I thought it was when I found out about Robinson. 

This song has stood the test of time. I hardly use that worn-out phrase, but it does. Just like some movies are classics, this is because of that story. It’s a great story song, and you get a full look at the characters. It’s some excellent songwriting in that. 

Walker was born in New York but drifted around the country in the 60s. In the early 1970s, Walker relocated to Austin, Texas, where he became part of the burgeoning outlaw country music scene. He helped define that genre. He was part of the Texas songwriters such as Willie Nelson, Guy Clark, and Townes Van Zandt. He is not technically a natural-born Texas singer-songwriter, but he is remembered by many as one. 

Walker recorded the first version of the song, and it peaked at #77 on the Billboard 100 in 1968. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band recorded their version the next year, releasing it in 1970, and it peaked at #9 on the Billboard 100, #2 in Canada, and #2 in New Zealand in 1971.

Mr Bojangles

I knew a man Bojangles and he’d dance for you
In worn out shoes
Silver hair and ragged shirt and baggy pants
He did the old soft shoe
He jumped so high
He jumped so high
Then he’d lightly touch down

I met him in a cell in New Orleans
I was down and out
He looked to me to be the eyes of age
As he spoke right out
He talked of life
He talked of life
He laughed slapped his leg a step

He said the name Bojangles and he danced
A lick across the cell
He grabbed his pants a better stance
Then he jumped so high
He clicked his heels
He let go a laugh oh he let go a laugh
Shook back his clothes all around

Mister Bojangles
Mister Bojangles
Mister Bojangles
Dance

He danced for those at minstrel shows and county fairs
Throughout the South
He spoke with tears of fifteen years how his dog
And him traveled about
His dog up and died
He up and died
After twenty years he still grieves

He said I dance now at every chance in honky-tonks
For drinks and tips
But most o’ the time I spend behind these county bars
Hell I drinks a bit
He shook his head and as he shook his head
I heard someone ask him please

Mister Bojangles
Mister Bojangles
Mister Bojangles
Dance

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

21 thoughts on “Jerry Jeff Walker – Mr. Bojangles”

  2. Pingback: Jerry Jeff Walker – Mr. Bojangles – MobsterTiger

  3. It’s a classic, top songwriting and a memorable and sad story. One that doesn’t go down that familiar old hokey Country maudlin route of the 60’s-70s, it is just a sad song and that works well enough.

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  4. How did I not know this isn’t about Bill Robinson but a random guy Walker met in jail? And David Bromberg quietly off to the side playing the hell out of this song until they finally cut to him for a solo. One of the hottest shows I recall was David Bromberg some time in the 70s.

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  7. well written song that does seem timeless…before I knew, I might have guessed it dated back to the Depression era not the late-60s. I grew up hearing the NGDB version which I favor but it’s good to hear the original too.

    sounds like a story chapter…did anyone make a movie about ‘Bojangles’ life?

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    1. You know CB….I wanted to cover him and I hate that I picked the most obvious one…but today it fit. If he only would have wrote this song…he would still be a legend. One of the most perfect story songs ever.

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      2. When you talk about somebody like Jerry Jeff Walker, there is no obvious one. . He recorded so many wonderful, timeless songs. This is a great choice.

        I don’t drink. Never cared for the stuff. But when I think about drinking, it is always that line, “I drinks a bit.” Perfect.

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  10. Great song. Thanks.

    I’m a big fan of Uncle Charlie and his Dog Teddy album by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.

    I always thought the Sammy Davis Jr. version made a lot of sense for Mr. Davis.

    Have grown to love Bromberg’s performing this tune on his own.

    Like I said, great song

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  11. Such a great song! The first version I recall hearing was by Sammy Davis Jr. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band came many years later. I neither knew the background story nor Jerry Jeff Walker’s original – great to learn about both!

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