Sonny Boy Williamson - One Way Out

First performance: 15/05/1971


Coverinfo

Bruce covered the song only once:
 
"Last Night In Texas" is a rewrite of Sonny Boy Williamson II's "One Way Out" .
 
1971-05-15 NEWARK STATE COLLEGE, UNION, NJ
  
The second (and final) performance of Dr. Zoom & The Sonic Boom at the first annual "Ernie the Chickin' Festival". The show opens with the Bob Dylan penned "It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry", sometimes incorrectly labelled "Group Therapy". Steven Van Zandt can be heard jokingly warning the campus ambulances (who were parked nearby) to get ready as Bruce opens the show with some screeching guitar! It was long thought that this statement was made by Kevin "Bird" Connair but Albee Tellone has confirmed that Connair was not at this show. "Zoom Theme" is a rewrite of Irving Berlin's "Alexander's Ragtime Band". "Lady Of Boston" includes an interpolated section of The Rolling Stones' "One More Try". 
 
 
 
Dr. Zoom & The Sonic Boom- LAST NIGHT IN TEXAS

I said its the last night in Texas
And I'm down to San Antoine
It's my last night in Texas
And I'm down to San Antoine
???
Going to leave old Texas and me alone

Well in South Dakota yeah yeah
Well I met ???
South Dakota yeah yeah
???
Have myself a big old ???
Spend the nights just ???

Well I'm moving on the west bound
Moving on the west bound train
Said I'm moving on the west bound
I'm on the west bound train
Once I get out of this town
I'm never gonna come back to Texas again

Last night in Texas and I'm on to San Antoine
Got no woman to kick me, no woman to call my own
???
God knows she won't leave it alone

source:  Springsteenlyrics
 

Songinfo

"One Way Out" is a blues song first recorded and released in the early-mid-1960s by Sonny Boy Williamson II and Elmore James, an R&B hit under a different name for G.L. Crockett (who also recorded as "G. Davy Crockett") in the mid-1960s, and then popularized to rock audiences in the early 1970s and onward by The Allman Brothers Band. As with many blues songs, the history of "One Way Out" falls into murk. It seems to have been originally recorded by Elmore James at Beltone Studios in New York City in late 1960 or early 1961, as part of James' Fire/Fury/Enjoy recording sessions. It features a full band arrangement with a four-piece horn section, but a completely different melody from later versions. James appears not to have released it at that time. Instead, Sonny Boy Williamson II reworked and recorded it for Chess Records in Chicago in September 1961, releasing it shortly thereafter. He would then return and re-record a different working of it in September 1963, again for Chess in Chicago, this time with Buddy Guy on guitar and Lafayette Leake on piano. The two efforts were substantially different, with one dominated by harmonica playing while the other has the vamp and arrangement that would become familiar with the Allman Brothers' rendition. Subsequently, the initial Elmore James version of "One Way Out" was posthumously released in 1965, using it as the B-side of his single "My Bleeding Heart" for Sphere Sound Records. But by now, the song was associated with Sonny Boy not him. Writing credits for "One Way Out" have varied over the years, with some recordings crediting Sonny Boy alone, then others giving Marshall Sehorn and Elmore James the nod, and finally some naming all three. Furthermore, Sehorn was a recording engineer, record producer, and all-around "record man" at Fire/Fury Records in New York, who likely engaged in the then-common practice of adding himself onto composer credits of songs that he was not actually involved in writing, to get a cut of subsequent royalties. And of course no confusion is complete without mentioning that there are two different Sonny Boy Williamsons − I and II; "One Way Out" pertains to the second one. Whatever its origins, the song's narrative captures the classic tale of a man having an affair with another man's woman in an upstairs apartment. Another man shows up downstairs, and an alternate exit route must be found.
 
 
 

Other cover versions

Bruce on the artist

Lyrics

Sonny Boy Williamson - ONE WAY OUT 
 
Ain't but one way out baby, Lord I just can't go out the door
Ain't but one way out baby, and Lord I just can't go out the door
'Cause there's a man down there, might be your man I don't know
Lord you got me trapped a woman, up on the second floor
If I get by this time I won't be trapped no more
So raise your window baby, I can ease out soft and slow
And Lord, your neighbors, no they won't be
Talking that stuff that they don't know
Lord, I'm foolish to be here in the first place
I know some man gonna walk in and take my place
Ain't no way in the world, I'm going out that front door
'Cause there's a man down there, might be your man I don't know
'Cause there's a man down there, might be your man I don't know
'Cause there's a man down there and Lord, it might just happen to be your man
Lord, it just might be your man
Lord, it just a might be your man
Oh baby, I just don't know