I played guitar with Jerry Jeff Walker for about two years and we... we did this song every night for two years., and I never got tired of it. Jerry got a little tired of it -- at night, after the clubs would close, we'd do horrible things to it...
'Twas a true story, he... this guy, Bojangles, was a... he was a street dancer in New Orleans, and what he'd do, he'd go from bar to bar and... he'd put money in the juke box, or get somebody else to do it... And then he'd either dance or pantomime the tune. And for that, people would buy him drinks and get him pretty drunk, and then he'd go on to the next bar, and the next one, until it was closing time... and then he'd go on, the next night. After a few nights of this, he'd end up on the corner, and the cops would pick him up and then take him to the drunk tank -- this is where Jerry Jeff met him.
Jerry Jeff wasn't there on a research project -- I mean, the way I got that story, I may have that wrong, but the way I got that is that he propositioned the right woman at the right time and the wrong place -- and her husband, the bartender... called the cops, and they took Jerry to the... Parish jail. And he and this guy just talked for three days in the cell about what've you got...
Thanks for the background BlueDragon
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band - Mr. Bojangles
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-LVXR6rjXs