Stagger Lee

Stagger Lee
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lee Shelton (also known as Stagger Lee, Stagolee, Stackerlee, Stack O'Lee, Stack-a-Lee and by several other spelling variants) was a black cab driver and a pimp convicted of murdering William "Billy" Lyons on Christmas Eve, 1895 in St. Louis, Missouri. The crime was immortalized in a blues folk song that has been recorded in hundreds of different versions.

Lee Shelton was not just a common pimp, but as described by Cecil Brown, "Lee Shelton belonged to a group of pimps known in St. Louis as the 'Macks'. The macks were not just 'urban strollers'; they presented themselves as objects to be observed."

Shelton died in prison in 1912, of tuberculosis.

The Story:

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 Shelton, a carriage driver. Lyons and Shelton were friends and were talking together. Bo th 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 Shelton's hat from his head. The latter indignantly demand ed its return. Lyons refused, and Shelton withdrew his revolver and shot Lyons in the abdomen. When his victim fell to the floor Shelton 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 Shelton is also known as 'Stagger' Lee.

Lyons eventually died of his injuries. Shelton 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".

Stagger Lee as archetype:

Immortalized in song, Stagger Lee has become an archetype, the embodiment of a tough-guy black man -- one who is sly, streetwise, cool, lawless, amoral, potentially violent, and who often defies white authority.

Author and music critic Greil Marcus explicitly ties the Stagger Lee archetype to Sly Stone and his album There's a Riot Goin' On in his book Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock 'n' Roll Music.

The Songs:

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 morbid for his American Bandstand audience, and insisted that they be changed (with no murder taking place). The subject was changed from gambling to fighting over a woman, and instead of a murder, the two yelled at each other, and made up the next day. Despite the changes, it was the original version of the song that made #1 and was ranked #456 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

There is speculation that "Stag O Lee" songs predated even the 1895 incident, and Lee Shelton 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 "Stack O' Lee Blues" from 1928 was made by Mississippi John Hurt, a blues musician. 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".

Other well known artists who have recorded it include Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, Taj Mahal, Ma Rainey, Professor Longhair, Sidney Bechet, New Monsoon, Johnny Dodds, Duke Ellington, Memphis Slim, Bill Haley & His Comets, Neil Diamond, Wilson Pickett, Ike and Tina Turner, Fats Domino, Doc Watson, Dr. John, Huey Lewis and the News, James Brown, The Isley Brothers, Tom Rush, Travis MacRae, Tommy Roe, Modern Life is War and Ken Colyer. A version by The Fabulous Thunderbirds can be found on the Porky's Revenge soundtrack. Johnny Otis's Snatch and the Poontangs perform a version in which the violence is matched by the sex.

The Grateful Dead recorded a version of the tale which 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 "she shot him in the balls" in revenge for Billy's death.

Elton John's 1976 "Blue Moves" album included the song "Shoulder Holster", about a vengeful woman out to kill her cheating ex. The song begins with the lyrics "It was just like Frankie and Johnny, And it was just like Stagger Lee".

The 1979 album London Calling by The Clash includes a ska version (a cover of a song by the Jamaican rocksteady group The Rulers) titled "Wrong 'Em Boyo", in which Stagger Lee is explicitly the hero and Billy the villain. Another variant by Austin blues artist Steve James retells the story from Stagger Lee's perspective, as the underprivileged child of a prostitute and a steamboat worker, and as with the Clash's version, Billy is not innocent.

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, by contrast, present an even more violent and homo-erotic version of the song "Stagger Lee" on their 1996 album Murder Ballads. This version retakes a street "toast poem" on Stagolee. Toasts were 'pre-rap' poems and stories especially popular among those in the "life" and among prisoners. The song contains much swearing and shows the story from a neutral perspective..Stagger Lee refers to himself as "The Bad Motherfucker". The song also seems to set the story in the 1930's. This is evident in the opening line "It was back in '32 when times were hard".

More recently, the Black Keys recorded a song entitled "Stack Shot Billy" on their 2004 album Rubber Factory. In 2005, Chris Whitley and Jeff Lang recorded their own arrangement of the song, called "Stagger Lee", ultimately released on their 2006 CD Dislocation Blues.

A version of Staggolee performed by Pacific Gas & Electric was included on the soundtrack for Quentin Tarantino's film Death Proof, the second portion of the 2007 double-feature Grindhouse.

In the 2007 film Black Snake Moan, Samuel L. Jackson's character sings a boastful version of the song from Stagger Lee's perspective, titled "Stackolee". This version is based on R. L. Burnside's rendition which can be heard on the album Well, Well, Well.

In 2007, Iowa hardcore band Modern Life Is War recorded the song "Stagger Lee" which was released on the album Midnight In America.

Contemporary interpretations and notable allusions:

In the 1980s, pro wrestler Junkyard Dog used the name (and theme song) Stagger Lee to surprise his rival Ted DiBiase, returning from a "Loser Leaves Town" match under a mask during an infamous feud in Mid-South Wrestling.

Stagg R. Leigh is the assumed name under which Thelonious Ellison, the protagonist of Percival Everett's novel Erasure (2001) writes his parody of blaxploitation literature My Pafology (later changed to Fuck).

Contemporary artist Beck covered Mississippi John Hurt's interpretation, "Stagolee," on Hurt's tribute album "Avalon Blues," released by Vanguard Records in 2001.

Stagger Lee, a graphic novel both telling the history of the story and a fictionalized version of it with political themes, was published by Image Comics in May 2006, written by Derek McCulloch and drawn by Shepherd Hendrix (ISBN 1582406073).

Josh Ritter references Stagger Lee in his song "Folk Bloodbath". (2008)

The main character of Jacqueline Woodson's young adult novel The House You Pass on the Way (1997) names herself Staggerlee after the song.

Stagger Lee Lyrics
Lloyd Price Version

The night was clear, and the moon was yellow
And the leaves came tumblin' down. . .

I was standin' on the corner
When I heard my bull dog bark.
He was barkin' at the two men
Who were gamblin' 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," said Billy,
"I can't let you go with that.
"You have won all my money,
"And my brand-new Stetson hat."

Stagger Lee went home
And he got his .44.
He said, "I'm goin' to the ballroom
"Just to pay that debt I owe."

(bridge)
Go, Stagger Lee

Stagger Lee went to the ballroom
And he strolled across the ballroom floor.
He said "You did me wrong, Billy."
And he pulled his .44.

"Stagger Lee," said Billy,
"Oh, please don't take my life!
"I've got three hungry children,
"And a very sickly wife."

Stagger Lee shot Billy
Oh, he shot that poor boy so hard
That a bullet went through Billy
And broke the bartender's bar.

Go, Stagger Lee, go, Stagger Lee!
Go, Stagger Lee, go, Stagger Lee!
(to fade)




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