She Caught The Katy Taj Mahal

She Caught the Katy (And Left Me a Mule to Ride) Album: The Natch'l Blues (1968)
by Taj Mahal

"She Caught the Katy (And Left Me a Mule to Ride)" is an upbeat blues written by Taj Mahal and James Rachell. It was first released on Taj Mahal's 1968 album The Natch'l Blues, and is one of Mahal's most famous compositions.

Henry Saint Clair Fredericks (born May 17, 1942), who uses the stage name Taj Mahal, is an American Grammy Award winning blues musician. He often incorporates elements of other music into his. A self-taught singer-songwriter and film composer who plays the guitar, banjo and harmonica (among many other instruments), Mahal has done much to reshape the definition and scope of blues music over the course of his almost 50 year career by fusing it with nontraditional forms, including sounds from the Caribbean, Africa and the South Pacific.

The song has since become a blues standard and has been covered many times. It was used on the soundtrack for the 1980 movie The Blues Brothers (the song plays over the opening credits as Jake Blues leaves prison). According to John Belushi's widow, it was Belushi's favorite blues song.

The "Katy" refers to the Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad.

In a story about former Florida governor and likely presidential contender Jeb Bush's early Texas years, we learned that in college Bush and his roomies listened to jazz and Taj Mahal records on their stereo. "The roommates played poker, set up miniature golf courses in the hallway, and listened to jazz and Taj Mahal records on their stereo."

She caught the Katy and left me a mule to ride
She caught the Katy and left me a mule to ride

Well, my baby caught the Katy, she left me a mule to ride
The train pulled out and I swung on behind
I'm crazy 'bout her that hard headed woman of mine

Man, my baby's long, great gosh almighty, she's tall
And you know my baby's long great gosh almighty my baby's tall

Well, you know my baby, she's long, my baby she's tall
She's sleeps with her head in the kitchen and her feet kicks out in the hall
And I'm still crazy 'bout her, that hard headed woman of mine

I love my baby, she's so fine, I wish she'd come to see me some time
Guess she don't believe in our love, look whatta hole I'm in
Guess she don't believe what I'm sayin', look whatta shape I'm in

She caught the Katy and left me a mule to ride
She caught the Katy and left me a mule to ride

Well, my baby caught the Katy, left me a mule to ride
The train pulled out and I swung on behind
Well, I'm crazy 'bout her, that hard headed woman
Hard headed woman of mine