Mr. Bojangles (song)

"Mr. Bojangles" is a popular song, originally written by Jerry Jeff Walker and covered since by many other artists.

It was about an obscure alcoholic but talented tap-dancing drifter, (not the famous stage and movie dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, as usually assumed). Bojangles is thought to have been a folk character who entertained informally in the south of the US and California, and some say he might have been one of the most gifted natural dancers ever. His actual name is not recorded, but he too, was a living part of what we celebrate in the American folk name, "Bojangles". Authentic reports of him exist from the 1920s through about 1965.

According to the original lyrics by Jerry Jeff Walker, he met Bojangles in a prison cell in New Orleans (the first precinct jail to be exact). The two began to converse about life in the philosophical way two men on the skids often do. Bojangles began to dance as Walker admired his skill.

Artists as diverse as the Byrds, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Harry Nilsson, Bob Dylan, Harry Belafonte, Arlo Guthrie, Nina Simone, John Denver, David Bromberg, Neil Diamond, Sammy Davis, Jr, Tom T. Hall, John Holt, Robbie Williams and David Campbell have all covered the song. Further the character is mentioned in Philip Glass's opera Einstein on the Beach.

The song has also been shown on The Simpsons episode "Milhouse Doesn't Live Here Anymore", where Homer Simpson sings (badly) as a Panhandler to get money to buy his wife a pair of diamond earrings.