“St James Infirmary Blues” is a traditional song from New Orleans, from the days when jazz and blues were still taking form and still forms of folk music. (Cough, BLM, cough, ACAB.) It’s probably related to the old English ballad “The Unfortunate Rake/Lad/Maid/Sailor/Soldier/etc”. This would make it a blues cousin to the country ballad “The Streets of Laredo” — which showed up in Canada in forms like “The Bad Girl’s Lament.”
This is the words and chords to “St James Infirmary Blues” as we do it, for example in this video. Notice that Chrissy’s guitar is tuned down 2 semitones, so she uses Em chord shapes to play in the key of Dm.
https://youtu.be/wuVvt-mo0O0
St James Infirmary Blues
I went down to old Joe’s barroom
On the corner down by the square
The drinks were served as usual
And the usual crowd was there
Em B7 Em – / – Am B7 – / 1st / C7 B7 Em –
or
Dm A7 Dm – / – Gm A7 – / 1st / Bb7 A7 Dm –
At the door stood old Joe Kennedy
His eyes all bloodshot red
He turned to the crowd around him
And this is what he said
“Let her go, let her go, god bless her
Wherever she may be
She can search the whole wide world over
She’ll never find a man as sweet as me”
I followed 16 coal black horses
To pull that rubber tired hack
Well it’s 17 miles to the graveyard
But my baby’s never coming back
I tried to keep from crying
My heart felt just like lead
She was all I had to live for
I wished it was me instead
When I die send crapshooters for pallbearers
Chorus girl to sing me a song
Put a jazz band on my hearse wagon
Raise hell as I roll along
Now that I’ve told my story
Let’s have another round of booze
And if anyone should happen to ask you
Tell em I’ve got those St. James Infirmary Blues
Chords Symbols
Here’s some help deciphering our chord shorthand:
/
A slash divides the chords for one line of lyrics from the next.
—
A dash means repeat the previous chord.
C FG
For an example of a ‘squeeze chord’ like this, you would play the F & G chords in the same amount of time you would play the C. This is a proportional way of indicating the rhythm of chord changes.
”
A quotation mark means repeat the chords from the previous line
1st, 2nd, etc.
Play the chords from the 1st, 2nd, etc., line
Here’s more details and examples, if this isn’t making a lot of sense to you.
Blackgrass 