POTD: Jerry Jeff Walker

Picture Of The Day: The song “Mr. Bojangles” was a hit for the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and Sammy Davis Jr., and was recorded by dozens of other artists. But here’s the guy who wrote it in 1968, Jerry Jeff Walker, who died Friday at 78.

Contrary to public belief, the song is not about Bill Robinson, the legendary hoofer who was nicknamed “Bojangles,” but about a homeless guy Walker met in the drunk tank in a New Orleans jail.

In that performance, Walker was accompanied by David Bromberg, who spent many years in his touring band, and later made the song part of his own shows. Here’s his version, from a performance at Bryn Mawr in 2018 (50 years after Walker penned it).