Some stand up comedy:
I first heard this tune interpreted by the Youngbloods in 1971.
There have been many versions of this song since it was written in 1923.
For some reason, I still prefer the Youngbloods version, although I havenât listened to all of the hundreds of others.
The Song and Myth of Stagger Lee
There is a song that has been recorded by James Brown, Nick Cave and Neil Diamond. The Clash, Pat Boone, Fats Domino and Bob Dylan. Duke Ellington, The Grateful Dead, Woody Guthrie, The Ventures, Ike & Tina Turner, Ma Rainey and Jerry Lee Lewis. Tom Jones did it. So did Beck, Mississippi John Hurt, the Black Keys and Elvis Presley.
Over 400 different artists have recorded this song since the first recording in 1923.
Margaret Walker and James Baldwin wrote poems from the song. Itâs been refashioned as a musical, two novels, a short story, an award-winning graphic novel, Ph.D. dissertations, a pornographic feature film and a hard cider.
The song has lived as Ragtime, a Broadway showtune, Blues, Jazz, Honky Tonk, Country, 50s Rock and Roll, Ska, Folk, Surf, 70s punk, Heavy Metal, 90s punk, Rap. Even Hawaiian. The songâs character lives large in Gangsta Rap.
Listen to it and we hear the evolution of modern music.
The song is âStagger Lee.â
Mississippi John Hurt
The song tells the story of a murder. On Christmas Eve, 1895, in a St. Louis saloon, âStagâ Lee Shelton, a black pimp, shot William âBillyâ Lyons. Eyewitnesses say Billy snatched Stagâs Stetson hat. Boom, boom, boom, boom went Stagâs forty-four. You donât mess with a manâs hat.
The events of that night were immediately cast into song. Like a game of Chinese Whispers it swept through the South, following railway lines and paddle steamers of the Mississippi. Told and retold. Sung and resung. Changing a little bit each time. Reality slipped away and the myth was created.
" Stagolee was, undoubtedly and without question, the baddest nigger that ever lived. Stagolee was so bad that the flies wouldnât even fly around his head in the summertime, and snow wouldnât fall on his house in the winter ."
â Julius Lester, âBlack Folktales.â
Like any great myth, the true origins are shrouded. We must delve beyond recorded history.
The history of the song tells many stories. It is an anthem of the dispossessed. It expresses fear of the scary black man, the evolution of modern music, culture theft from black to white, hero worship of the outlaw, the origins of a legendary character and the writing of a Myth.
No other song has so transcended its humble beginnings and been re-invented in so many genres, in so many media and by so many artists.
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Well, thanks for the kind words. However, I know from experience that musical tastes are very subjective. I have been made aware for decades that my tastes run well outside of the mainstream of so called popular preferences. I will try out anything new to my ears, but I only like what I like, however much it may deviate from popular consumption. Music appreciation is a vital part of my existence, and indeed, a driving, defining passion of my very being.
And since I am old, I have concluded that there is no such thing as bad music, there is only music which I like or love, or donât. Music that I do not like is not bad, it is simply for other tastes to enjoy. I still find great excitement and joy in discovering new music which affords new vistas of pleasure to my ears. I am constantly searching for new aural titillation.
Dude! Make a comedy thread!