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.


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External links

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