"I'm Alabama Bound" is a ragtime

Ragtime

Ragtime is an original musical genre which enjoyed its peak popularity between 1897 and 1918. Its main characteristic trait is its syncopated, or "ragged," rhythm. It began as dance music in the red-light districts of American cities such as St. Louis and New Orleans years before being published...

 melody composed by Robert Hoffman in 1909. Hoffman "respectfully" dedicated it to one M. T. Scarlata. The cover of its first edition (published by Robert Ebberman, New Orleans, 1909) advertises the music as "Also Known As The Alabama Blues" which has led some to suspect it of being one of the first blues songs. However, as written, it is an up-tempo rag (Rag Time Two Step) with no associated lyrics.

It has been recorded numerous times in different styles—both written and in sound recordings—with a number of different sets of lyrics.

Two recording artists claimed composing credits for the tune under two different titles and both with differing lyrics: Trixie Smith

Trixie Smith

Trixie Smith was an African American blues singer, recording artist, vaudeville entertainer, and actress. She made four dozen recordings.-Biography:...

 for "Railroad Blues" (Paramount 12262, 1925) and Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton

Jelly Roll Morton

Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe , known professionally as Jelly Roll Morton, was an American ragtime and early jazz pianist, bandleader and composer....

 for "Don't You Leave Me Here" (Bluebird 10450, 1939).

Huddie "LeadBelly" Ledbetter

Leadbelly

Huddie William Ledbetter was an iconic American folk and blues musician, notable for his strong vocals, his virtuosity on the twelve-string guitar, and the songbook of folk standards he introduced....

 recorded perhaps the best-known version of "I'm Alabama Bound" ("Alabama Bound", Victor 27268, 1940).

Lyrics

The first lyrics associated with the melody was a 1909 sound recording attributing the words to the owner of a New Orleans sheet music publishing company. The actual source of the lyrics is unclear, however, but they may have come out of a folk tradition.

1849—Minstrel

The earliest lyrics expressing the sentiment found in some of the later songs are found in a popular song, "I Hab Leff Alabama", written by Marshall S. Pike and published in 1849. The chorus, which is not the same melody, written in dialect in the original, is:

Alabama agen, Alabama agen,

And if I ebber lib till the sun rise tomorrow,

I's a gwine to go back to Alabama agen.

1909—Rag

The first lyrics actually recorded to the music were by Prince's Band (Columbia A-901) in November, 1909. The music was attributed to Hoffman and words to John J. Puderer. Charles Adams Prince was a popular march band leader of the day, performing cake-walks and military marches. Puderer was the proprietor of The Music Shop in New Orleans, who published Hoffman's sheet music. The verses, in rag-time, were pretty much the same as those found in later versions:

I'm Alabama bound, I'm Alabama bound,

I've tried you out, I've got to turn you down.

The Columbia recording also included such staple coon song lyrics as:

I done told you, nigger, for to be like me,

Just drink good whisky, let your cocaine be.

1915/1916—Negro folk song

Alan Lomax attests to words found in his 1934 collection of "Alabama Bound" as being found in Newman I. White's Negro Folk-Songs (1915–1916). White's fragments, which are not set to music, are:

If de train goes and leaves me here,

I got a mile to ride, I'm Alabama bound.

1925—Blues

Trixie Smith's 1925 "Railroad Blues" contains such lyrics as:

Now, if the train stays on the track, I'm Alabama bound.

Now, if the train stays on the track, I'm Alabama bound.

1928—Old-time

The Tennessee Ramblers

Tennessee Ramblers (East Tennessee)

The Tennessee Ramblers were an American old-time string band originally consisting of William "Fiddlin' Bill" Sievers on fiddle, his son James "Mack" Sievers on banjo and vocals, daughter Willie Sievers on guitar, and cousin Walter McKinney on steel guitar...

' 1928 recording "Preacher Got Drunk and Laid His Bible Down" contains the chorus:

Alabama bound, Alabama bound,

If the train breaks down we got a mule to ride.

The Ramblers' banjo player, James "Mack" Sievers, claimed to have learned the song from an African-American blues musician in Knoxville, Tennessee

Knoxville, Tennessee

Founded in 1786, Knoxville is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Tennessee, U.S.A., behind Memphis and Nashville, and is the county seat of Knox County. It is the largest city in East Tennessee, and the second-largest city in the Appalachia region...

.

1934—Folk song

Lomax's 1934 "Alabama Bound", collected from prisoners in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, contains such verses as:

I'm Alabama boun', I'm Alabama boun',

Jes' as sho' as de train pull out, eas' today, I'm Alabama boun',

Great God a mighty, babe, I'm Alabama boun'.

and,

Why doncha be like me? Why doncha be like me?

Drink yo' high-tension whisky, babe, an' let yo' cocaine be, An' let yo' cocaine be.

Great God a mighty, babe, An' let yo' cocaine be.

1939—Jazz

Jelley Roll Morton's 1939 "Don't You Leave Me Here" has verses such as:

I'm Alabama bound, Alabama bound,

If you like me, honey babe, you've got to leave this town.

She said, "Don't you leave me here, don't you leave me here,

But, sweet papa, if you must go, leave a dime for beer.

1956—Skiffle

Lonnie Donegan

Lonnie Donegan

Anthony James "Lonnie" Donegan MBE was a skiffle musician, with more than 20 UK Top 30 hits to his name. He is known as the "King of Skiffle" and is often cited as a large influence on the generation of British musicians who became famous in the 1960s...

 released a version of "I'm Alabamy bound" on the 1956 Pye 10" LP Showcase, which reached no. 26 in the UK singles charts. The chorus, which feature a rare echoing vocal by guitarist Denny Wright

Denny Wright

Denny Wright was a jazz and skiffle guitarist, who performed with Stephane Grappelli, Lonnie Donegan, Johnny Duncan , Digby Fairweather, Ella Fitzgerald, Billy Eckstine, Fapy Lafertin and many other musicians, including young rising stars such as Bireli Lagrene and Nigel Kennedy...

 goes as follows.

If this train don't stop and turn around

I'm Alabamy bound, I'm Alabamy bound

Versions

John W. "Blind" Boone

John William Boone

John William "Blind" Boone was an American pianist and composer of ragtime music.- Early life :Boone was born in a Federal militia camp near Miami, Missouri, May 17, 1864, to a contraband slave, Rachel Carpenter, who had been owned by descendants of Daniel Boone. His father was a bugler in the 7th...

 included a short section of "I'm Alabama Bound" in his "Southern Rag Medley No. Two (Strains from Flat Branch)." The sheet music, published by Allen Music Co., Columbia, Missouri, (copyright 1913), was transcribed from Boone's piano roll which he recorded for the QRS company in 1912.

Recording artists

Date	Artist	Title	Label
1909	Prince's Band	I'm Alabama Bound	Columbia A-0901
1924	Paul Whiteman & His Orchestra	Alabamy Bound (instr.)	Victor 19557
1925	Charlie Jackson Papa Charlie Jackson Papa Charlie Jackson was an early American bluesman and songster. He played a hybrid banjo guitar and ukulele, his recording career beginning in 1924...	I'm Alabama Bound	Paramount 12289
1925	Trixie Smith	Railroad Blues †	Paramount 12262
1938	Delmore Brothers	I'm Alabama Bound	Bluebird 8264
1939	Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton	Don't You Leave Me Here	Bluebird 10450
1940	Louis Jordan Louis Jordan Louis Thomas Jordan was a pioneering American jazz, blues and rhythm & blues musician, songwriter and bandleader who enjoyed his greatest popularity from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as "The King of the Jukebox", Jordan was highly popular with both black and white audiences in the...  & His Tympani 5 Tympany Five Tympany Five was a successful rhythm and blues and jazz dance band founded by Louis Jordan in 1938. The group was composed of a horn section of three to five different pieces and also drums, double bass, guitar and piano. After playing in Chicago at the Capitol Lounge in 1941, Jordan and his band...	I'm Alabama Bound	Decca 7723
1940	Huddie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter & The Golden Gate Quartet The Golden Gate Quartet The Golden Gate Quartet is an American vocal group. It was formed in 1934 and, with changes in membership, remains active. It is the most successful of all of the African-American gospel music groups who sang in the jubilee quartet style...	Alabama Bound	Victor 27268
† "Railroad Blues" is only partly "I'm Alabama Bound."