The Real Story Behind the Song: Mr. Bojangles 

Love Mr Bojangles. 👍

In New Orleans, if you go to jail, you go to Orleans Parish Prison. This is in fact, the “ The House of the rising Sun”. It’s called that locally, or used to be, because the windowed cells faced east. I remember when you could stand on the street and throw contraband to the inmates. I also remember seeing Jerry Jeff play on the streets in New Orleans before he made it big. So, the song should have said: “ but most the time I spend behind these parish walls, cause I drinks a bit”. Louisiana has parishes and not counties. Orleans parish prison is really a county jail, or equivalent to a county jail. Not a prison. If you get sent to prison, you end up most likely at Angola. The “Big House”. New Orleans is not the ”B😢ig Easy”. that’s some kind of marketing bullshit that came out about the 80s. Before that you never heard it call that by the locals. The coon asses from around that area that could get to New Orleans called it ”Gros Ville”, (big town) for slang. In New Orleans on the street there were always some old black cats (when I live there) that would tap dance for change., and little kids too. That’s likely where this came from. The song was real enough. Jerry Jeff captured it pretty damn well, I knew exactly what he was talking about and where he was coming from. I remember after he got big, I recognized him from having been on the streets. Now that was real.

Every black neighborhood had someone like him.He was loved by the children and would dance.

Sounds like this is being narrated by a computer. Lol

Nice video and content on this channel, so I subscribed!!!!!👍👍👍

I like this song too!!!

Great story. i just subscribed and will be looking forward to more topics.

Hey. Just discovered your site. Bojangles one of my all-time fave songs. I'll be back!

I never had the impression that Mr. Bojangles was black. I always pictured him as an old shabby white man.

narrator voice makes this not listentable

What is up with the narration for this video.

the way David tells it Jerry met the right women at the right time in the wrong place... and her husband the bartender...

This was and by Sammy Davis Jr and he sang it perfectly