Cocaine Bill and Morphine Sue

DESCRIPTION: "Cocaine Bill and Morphine Sue, Strolling down the avenue two by two," decide that a shot will do them no harm. They try to find cocaine, though it is no longer sold in the stores. Now they are dead and buried; no one knows where they went
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (recording, anonymous singers)
KEYWORDS: drugs death
FOUND IN: Britain(England) Canada
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Hopkins-SongsFromTheFrontAndRear, p. 115, "Cocaine Bill and Morphine Sue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-BarroomBallads/PiousFriendsDrunkenCompanions, pp. 150-151, "Cocaine Bill and Morphine Sue" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 75, "Cocaine Bill and Morphine Sue" (1 text)
Roud #4790
RECORDINGS:
Anonymous singers, "Cocaine Bill and Morphine Sue" (on Unexp1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cocaine Blues (I)" (subject) and references there
NOTES [105 words]: Cocaine was outlawed in the early part of this [the twentieth] century, which is probably why Bill and Sue couldn't get it at the drugstore.
This is clearly related to the cross-referenced pieces, but it includes more narrative than "Cocaine Blues", and lacks the "drug-afflicted possessions" so characteristic of "Cocaine Lil". I call it a separate song. - PJS
This is clearly so; even if it arose from one of the other cocaine songs (all of which have a certain sameness), it has gone its own way. For the effects of cocaine, and its history in the United States (it was banned in 1914), see the notes to "Cocaine Blues (I)." - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: FSWB075A

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