The Rake
“The Unfortunate Rake” was first heard in Ireland in the 1700s.
The ballad soon became a busker’s favorite throughout Britain. Within a few years, the setting was moved to St. James Hospital in London and the occupation and then the gender of the main character changed to suit the singer.
It reached America in the 1800s and split into two traditions. One was adopted and nurtured by the black community east of the Mississippi; the other carried by whites into the west.
In the East, a jazz version became popular in New Orleans under the title “The St. James Infirmary.” It branched off into a half-dozen blues songs as well, including “Gambler’s Blues” and “The Dying Crapshooter’s Blues.”
Out west, the song featured a cowboy as the dying narrator. A bit of the lyric of “The Streets of Laredo” became the title of a Broadway play and later a movie: “Bang the Drum Slowly.”
Other relatives of the song have been discovered in mountain music and even in the Bahamas.
It all tracks back to the poor rake of centuries ago and the most enduring song in folk music history.
