[Dixielandjazz] Versions of "Oh Didn't He Ramble"

[Bruce Stangeland]

I am working on a lead sheet for "Oh Didn't He Ramble" and have run into 
multiple versions of the lyrics and roadmap.

Two typical versions are:
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1. Louis Armstrong (Oh)Didn't He Ramble Lyrics

http://www.metrolyrics.com/ohdidnt-he-ramble-lyrics-louis-armstrong.html

(Oh)Didn't He Ramble

Didn't he ramble.... he rambled
Rambled all around.... in and out of town
Didn't he ramble....didn't he ramble
He rambled till the butcher cut him down

His feet was in the market place..his head was in the street
Lady pass him by, said..look at the market meat
He grabbed her pocket book..and said I wish you well
She pulled out a forty-five..said I'm head of personnel

Didn't he ramble...I said he rambled
Rambled all around...in and out of town
Didn't he ramble...oh didn't he ramble
He rambled till the butcher shot him down

(instrumental break)

He slipped into the cat house..made love to the stable
Madam caught him cold..said I'll pay you when I be able
Six months had passed ..and she stood all she could stand
She said buddy when I'm through with you
Ole groundhog gonna be shakin yo' hand

And didn't he ramble...he rambled
Rambled all around...in and out of town
Oh didn't he ramble......he rambled
You know he rambled...till the butcher...cut him down

I said he rambled..lord...'till the butcher shot him down

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2. Didn't He Ramble

http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/folk-song-lyrics/Didnt_He_Ramble.htm

Didn't He Ramble
(Will Handy)

Old Beebe had three full grown sons, Buster, Bill and Bee,
And Buster was the black sheep of the Beebe family;
They tried their best to break him of his rough and rowdy ways,
At last they had to get a judge to give him ninety days.

Cho: Oh! didn't he ramble, ramble?
     He rambled all around, in and out of town,
     Oh! didn't he ramble, ramble,
     He rambled till the butchers cut him down

This black sheep was a terror, oh! and such a ram was he,
That every "copper" knew by heart his rambling pedigree
And when he took his ladder out to go and paint the town,
They had to take their megaphones to call the rambler down.

He rambled in a swell hotel, his appetite was stout,
When he refused to pay his bill the landlord kicked him out.
He reached to strike him with a brick but when he went to stoop,
The landlord kicked him in the pants and made him loop the loop.

He rambled in a gambling house, to gamble on the green,
But there they showed the ram a trick that he had never seen.
He lost his roll and jewelry and nearly lost his life,
He lost the car that took him home, and then he lost his wife.

He rambled to an Irish wake on one St. Patrick's night,
They asked him what he'd like to drink, they meant to treat him right.
But like the old Kilkenny cats, their backs began to arch,
When he called for orange phosphate, on the seventeenth of March.

He rambled to the races, to make a gallery bet,
He backed a horse named Hydrant, and Hydrant's running yet.
He would have had to walk back home, his friends all from him hid
By luck he met old George Sedam, it's a damn good thing he did.

He rambled through the tunnel once on board a moving train,
Another train came rumbling in, and rammed him out again.
It rammed him just a block, and then, they caught him on the fly
And with a ton of dynamite, they rammed him to the sky.

DT #312

from Folksingers Wordbook

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 3. The Firehouse Jazz Band Commercial Dixieland Fake Book has still a 
third version, with fewer words and a 4-bar drum roll.

4. The version in the Anderson collection is similar to #2, in G with 
only verse 1 and the refrain, but then a key change to a "jazzed up 
processional" in Bb.

What is considered a good OKOM version?

Thanks,
Bruce Stangeland
Berkeley banjoist