Stagger Lee
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Stagger Lee, also known as Stagolee, Stack O'Lee, Stack-a-Lee and by several other spelling variants, was an African American murderer whose tawdry crime was immortalized in a blues folksong. According to some sources, Stag Lee was apparently a person named Lee Sheldon. A story appearing in the St. Louis, Missouri Globe-Democrat in 1895 says:
- William Lyons, 25, a levee hand, was shot in the abdomen yesterday evening at 10 o'clock in the saloon of Bill Curtis, at Eleventh and Morgan Streets, by Lee Sheldon, a carriage driver. Lyons and Sheldon were friends and were talking together. Both parties, it seems, had been drinking and were feeling in exuberant spirits. The discussion drifted to politics, and an argument was started, the conclusion of which was that Lyons snatched Sheldon's hat from his head. The latter indignantly demanded its return. Lyons refused, and Sheldon withdrew his revolver and shot Lyons in the abdomen. When his victim fell to the floor Sheldon took his hat from the hand of the wounded man and coolly walked away. He was subsequently arrested and locked up at the Chestnut Street Station. Lyons was taken to the Dispensary, where his wounds were pronounced serious. Lee Sheldon is also known as 'Stag' Lee.[1]
Lyons eventually died of his injuries. Sheldon was tried, convicted, and served prison time for this crime. This otherwise unmemorable crime is remembered in a song. In some older versions of the song, the name of the other party is given as "Billy Deslile" or "De Lion".
There is speculation that "Stag O Lee" songs predated even the 1895 incident, and Lee Sheldon may have gotten his nickname from earlier folk songs. Other sources say that black roustabouts on Mississippi River docks were called "stack o lees" as they would stack cargo on the lee side of the docks. The first published version of the song was done by folklorist John Lomax in 1910. The song was well known in African American communities along the lower Mississippi River by the 1910s.
Before World War II, it was almost always known as "Stack O'Lee". W.C. Handy wrote that this probably was a nickname for a tall person, comparing him to the tall smoke-stack of the large steamboat Robert E. Lee. By the time that W.C. Handy wrote the explanation in the 1920s, "Stack O' Lee" was already familiar in United States popular culture, with recordings of the song made by such pop singers of the day as Cliff Edwards.
An early Blues recording of the song from 1928 was made by Mississippi John Hurt, a Delta Blues musician. His lyrics:
- Police officer, how can it be?
- You can arrest everybody but cruel Stagolee
- That bad man, cruel Stagolee
- Billy Lyons told Stagolee, "Please don't take my life
- I got two baby children and a darling, loving wife"
- That bad man, cruel Stagolee
- "Would I care about your two babes and darling, loving wife?
- You done stole my Stetson hat, I'm bound to take your life."
- That bad man, cruel Stagolee
- Stagolee stood on the gallows, head way up high
- Twelve o'clock, they killed him, we were all glad to see him die
- That bad man, cruel Stagolee
As in all such pieces, there are many (sometimes anachronistic) variants on the lyrics. Several older versions give Billy's last name as "De Lyons" or "Deslile".
A 1959 variation, credited as "traditional", as originally recorded and performed by Lloyd Price, goes:
- (intro) The night was clear, and the moon was yellow
- And the leaves came tumblin' down. . .
- I was standing on a corner
- When I heard my bull dog bark
- He was barking at two men
- Who were gambling in the dark
- It was Stagger Lee and Billy
- Two men who gambled late
- Stagger Lee threw a seven
- Billy swore that he threw eight
- Stagger Lee he told Billy
- "I can't let you go with that
- You won all o' my money
- And my brand new Stetson hat."
- Stagger Lee started off walking
- Down that old railroad track
- He turned and told Billy
- "Don't be here when I come back"
- Then old Stagger Lee, he went home
- And he got his forty-four
- He said "I'm going down to the barroom
- To pay that debt I owe"
- bridge: Go, Stagger Lee!
- Stagger Lee went to the barroom
- Walked across that barroom floor
- He said, "Now, nobody move"
- And he pulled out his forty-four
- "Oh, Stagger Lee," cried Billy
- "Please don't take my life
- I got three young children
- And a very sickly wife"
- Stagger Lee... shot Billy
- Oh, he shot that poor boy so bad
- Till the bullet went through Billy
- And it broke the bartender's glass.
The song has been recorded hundreds of times by a great variety of performers. The version recorded by Mississippi John Hurt is considered by some commentators to be definitive, containing all of the elements that appear in other versions. A cover with different lyrics was a chart hit for Lloyd Price in 1959; Dick Clark felt that the original tale of murder was too lowlife for his American Bandstand audience, and insisted that they be changed.
Other well known artists who have recorded it include Duke Ellington, The Grateful Dead, Woody Guthrie, and The Isley Brothers.
The Grateful Dead's version of the tale actually focuses on the fictionalized hours after the death of "Billy DeLion", when Billy's wife Delia tracks down Stagger Lee in a local saloon and shoots him in revenge for Billy's death.
The 1979 album London Calling by the Punk band The Clash includes a version (a cover of a song by the Jamaican rocksteady group The Rulers) titled "Wrong 'Em Boyo," [2] in which Stagger Lee is explicitly the hero and Billy the villain:
- Billy Boy has been shot
- And Stagger Lee's come out on top
- Don't you know it is wrong
- To cheat the trying man?
- Don't you know it is wrong
- To cheat Stagger man
- You'd better stop
- It is the Wrong 'Em Boyo
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, by contrast, present an even more violent and profane version of the song "Stagger Lee" [3]on their 1996 album Murder Ballads:
- Just then Billy Dilly rolls in and he says, "You must be
- That bad motherfucker called Stagger Lee,
- Stagger Lee"
- "Yeah, I'm Stagger Lee and you better get down on your knees
- And suck my dick, because If you don't you're gonna be dead"
- Said Stagger Lee
- Billy dropped down and slobbered on his head
- And Stag filled him full of lead
More recently, the Black Keys recorded a song entitled "Stack Shot Billy" on their 2004 album Rubber Factory:
- Stack shot Billy in the back
- Of the head
- Stack made sure Billy Lyons
- Was dead
- .45 pistol down in Stack's right hand
- Sent him away to the promised land
- Stack shot Billy .45
- Billy laid down and died
- Stack Lee had himself an
- Evil brain
- Loved his gun and his
- Sweet cocaine
- But Stack got quiet when
- Shadows fell
- Cause he knew soon enough
- He'd burn in hell
A comprehensive list of Stagger Lee recordings can be found below.
External links
- Lengthy Guardian article about the legend of Stagger Lee
- Liner notes to Frank Hutchison's classic version titled "Stackalee" plus a long list of Stagger Lee records
- Stagger Lee/Stag-O-Lee/Stagolee/ Stack-A-Lee/Stack O'Lee
- The Stagger Lee Files
- Comprehensive list of Stagger Lee recordings
- Cecil Brown's Stagolee pagesv:Stagger Lee