Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

FRANKIE AND JOHNNY by ANONYMOUS - AFRICAN AMERICAN

First Line: FRANKIE AND JOHNNIE WERE LOVERS
Last Line: "HE WAS MY MAN, BUT HE DONE ME WRONG"
Subject(s): AFRICAN AMERICANS - SONG & MUSIC;
Frankie and Johnny were lovers,
O lordy how they could love,
Swore to be true to each other,
True as the stars above;
He was her man but he done her wrong.

Frankie went down to the corner,
To buy her a bucket of beer,
Frankie says "Mister Bartender,
Has my lovin' Johnnie been here?
He was my man but he's done me wrong."

"I don't want cause you no trouble
Don't want to tell you no lie,
I saw your Johnnie half-an-hour ago
Making love to Alice Bly.
He is your man, but he's doing you wrong."

Frankie went down to the pawn shop,
She bought herself a little forty-four,
She aimed it at the ceiling,
Shot a big hole in the floor;
"Where is my man, he's doin' me wrong?"

Frankie went down to the hotel,
Looked over the transom so high,
There she saw her lovin' Johnnie
Making love to Alice Bly;
He was her man but he done her wrong.

Frankie threw back her kimono,
She took out her big forty-four.
Root-a-toot-toot, three times she shot,
Right through that hotel door.
She shot her man, who was doing her wrong.

Johnny grabbed off his Stetson,
"O good Lawd, Frankie, don't shoot!"
But Frankie put her finger on the trigger,
And the gun went root-a-toot-toot,
He was her man, but she shot him down.


"Roll me over gently,
Roll me over slow,
Roll me over on my right side,
Cause these bullets hurt me so,
I was your man, but I done you wrong."

Bring all your rubber-tired hearses
Bring all your rubber-tired hacks,
They're carrying poor Johnny to the burying ground
And they ain't gonna bring him back,
He was her man, but he done her wrong.

Frankie says to the sheriff,
"What are they doing to do?"
The sheriff said to Frankie,
"It's the 'lectric chair for you.
He was your man, and he done you wrong.

"Put me in that dungeon,
Put me in that cell,
Put me where the northeast wind
Blows from the southeast corner of hell.
I shot my man, 'cause he done me wrong."

Frankie mounted to the scaffold as calm as a girl can be,
And turning her eyes to heaven, she said, "Good Lord, I am coming to Thee.
He was my man, but he done me wrong."




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