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Billy Lyons and Stack O'Lee/Stackolee/Stagolee/Stackerlee
Old-Time, Breakdown and blues song; USA
ARTIST: American Ballads and Folk Songs by Alan Lomax
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes
DATE: Murder was Dec. 25, 1895; In "A question of manhood: a reader in U.S. Black men's history and masculinity By Darlene Clark Hine," George Eberhart relates that the song can be traced to the late 1890s: Will Stark a sawmill worker and balladeer heard it in 1897 in a labor camp near St. Louis (Lomax interview 1940s).
The Ballad Index gives the 1903 date of the first documented version collected in Memphis;
RECORDING INFO: Stagolee [Laws I15/Me I-B122]
Laws, G. Malcolm / Native American Balladry, Amer. Folklore Society, Bk (1964/1950), p253
Dunson, Josh; & Ethel Raim (eds) / Anthology of American Folk Music, Oak, Sof (1973), p 54 (Stackerlee/Stackolee)
Leisy, James / Songs for Pickin' and Singin', Gold Medal Books, sof (1962), p 36
Taussig, Harry / Teach Yourself Guitar, Oak, Sof (1971), p135
Friedman, Albert B. (ed.) / Viking Book of Folk Ballads of the English-S, Viking, sof (1963), p381 [1920s]
Friedman, Albert B. (ed.) / Viking Book of Folk Ballads of the English-S, Viking, sof (1963), p382 [1920s]
Blood, Peter; and Annie Patterson (eds.) / Rise Up Singing, Sing Out, Sof (1992/1989), p104
Botkin, Benjamin / A Treasury of American Folklore, Crown, Bk (1944), p127 [1941] (Stackerlee/Stackolee)
Leisy, James F. (ed.) / Folk Song Abecedary, Bonanza, Bk (1966), p306
Baker, Mickey. Blues and Jazz, Kicking Mule KM 142, LP (1976), trk# 8 (Stack O'Lee [Blues])
Bluegrass Alliance. Newgrass, American Heritage AH10-30S, LP (1972), trk# B.02
Bookbinder, Roy. Ragtime Millionaire, Blue Goose 2023, LP (1977), trk# B.04 (Stack/Stag-O-Lee)
Cephas, John; and Phil Wiggins. Dog Days of August, Flying Fish FF 394, LP (1986), trk# A.04
Clayton, Paul. Bloody Ballads, Riverside RLP 12-615, LP (1956), trk# A.03 (Stackerlee/Stackolee)
Crooked Road. Generations, Spencer, CD (2004), trk# 15 (Stack/Stag-O-Lee)
Down Home Boys. Broke, Black and Blue. Blues Classics and Rarities, Properbox 7, CD (1999), trk# 1.08 [1927/05] (Original Stack O'Lee Blues)
Duffield, S. J.. Spaeth, Sigmund G. / Weep Some More My Lady, Doubleday, Bk (1927), p132 (Stackalee)
Fisher, Ella Scott. Lomax, J. A. & A. Lomax / American Ballads and Folk Songs, MacMillan, Bk (1934), p 93 [1910/02/09]
Fruit Jar Guzzlers. Paramount Old Time Tunes, JEMF 103, LP (1974), trk# A.04 [1928/03ca] (Stack/Stag-O-Lee)
Garvin, Bert. Kentucky Old-Time Banjo, Rounder 0394, CD (1999), trk# 19 [1997/05/05] (Stackerlee/Stackolee)
Haley, Ed. Parksburg Landing, Rounder 1010, LP (1976), trk# 3 [1946] (Stackerlee/Stackolee)
Haley, Ed. Forked Deer, Rounder 1131/1132, CD( (1997), trk# 2.12 (Stacker Lee)
Hall, Vera Ward. McNeil, W. K. (ed.) / Southern Folk Ballads, Vol 1, August House, Sof (1987), p 66 [1947/06/17]
Hoopii, Sol. Sol Hoopii, Vol. 1, Rounder 1024, LP (1977), trk# 9 [1926-30] (Stackerlee/Stackolee)
Hurt, Mississippi John. Mississippi John Hurt, Vol. 3. Sacred and Secular, Heritage (England) HT320, LP (1988), trk# 2 [1963/07/23] (Stackerlee/Stackolee)
Hurt, Mississippi John. Avalon Blues: The Complete 1928 Okeh Recordings, Columbia Legacy CK 64986, CD (1996), trk# 7 [1928/12/28] (Stack O'Lee [Blues])
Hurt, Mississippi John. Mississipi John Hurt, A Legacy, Piedmount CLPS-1068, LP (1975/1964), trk# B.03 (Stack/Stag-O-Lee)
Hurt, Mississippi John. Grossman, Stefan (ed.) / Country Blues Guitar, Oak, Sof (1968), p 26 [1928] (Stack O'Lee [Blues])
Hurt, Mississippi John. Garwood, Donald / Masters of Instrumental Blues Guitar, Oak, Fol (1967), p38 (Stack O'Lee [Blues])
Hurt, Mississippi John. Grossman, Stefan; Stephen Calt, Hal Grossman / Country Blues Songb, Oak, Sof (1973), p148
Hurt, Mississippi John. Broke, Black and Blue. Blues Classics and Rarities, Properbox 7, CD (1999), trk# 2.06 [1928/12/28] (Stack O'Lee [Blues])
Hurt, Mississippi John. D.C. Blues, Vol 2. Library of Congress Rec...,, Fuel 302 061 495 2, CD (2003), trk# 1.10 [1963/07] (Stackerlee/Stackolee)
Hutchison, Frank. Anthology of American Folk Music, Smithsonian/Folkways SFW 40090, CD( (1997), trk# 19 [1927/01/28] (Stackerlee/Stackolee)
Journeymen. New Directions, Capitol T 1951, LP (1963), trk# A.01 (Stackerlee/Stackolee)
Kweskin, Jim. Fire at Club 47, Talkeetna 25001, CD (1999), trk# 18
Mahal, Taj. Giant Step/De Old Folks at Home, Columbia CG 18, LP (197?), trk# 19 (Stagger Lee)
McCurdy, Ed. Blood, Booze 'n Bones, Elektra EKL 108, LP (1956), trk# B.05 (Stackerlee/Stackolee)
Miller, Dale. Miller, Dale / Dale Miller Tab Book, Kicking Mule, sof (1977), p20 (Stagger Lee)
Negro Prisoners. Lomax, Alan / Folksongs of North America, Doubleday Dolphin, Sof (1975/1960), p571/#306
New Lost City Ramblers. New Lost City Ramblers, Vol. 4, Folkways FA 2399, LP (1962), trk# 12 (Stackerlee/Stackolee)
Paley, Tom. Old Tom Moore and More, Global Village C 309, Cas (1991), trk# 18 (Stackerlee/Stackolee)
Paley, Tom. Traum, Happy (ed.) / Finger-Picking Styles for Guitar, Oak, Sof (1966), p22 (Stackerlee/Stackolee)
Patterson, Uncle John. Rosenbaum, Art (ed.) / Folk Visions & Voices. Traditional Music & So...., Univ. of Georgia, Bk (1983), p104 [1978/03/25] (Stagolee Was a Bully)
Pine Ridge Boys. New River Jam: One, Mountain 308, LP (1976), trk# 1
Pine Ridge Boys and Patsy. Stringband Music from Mt. Airy, Heritage (Galax) 029 (XXIX), LP (1981), trk# A.03 (Stag-A-Lee)
Rooftop Singers. Walk Right In, Vanguard VSD 2136, LP (196?), trk# 9
Round Peak Band. Round Peak Band, Marimac 9044, Cas (1992), trk# A.06 (Stagger Lee)
Rucker, Sparky (James). Heroes and Hard Times, Green Linnet SIF 1032, LP (1981), trk# A.04 (Stagger Lee)
Rush, Tom. Tom Rush, Fantasy 24709, LP (1972), trk# 24 (Stackerlee/Stackolee)
Russo, Mike. Mike Russo, Arhoolie 4003, LP (1969), trk# B.05 (Stack O'Lee [Blues])
Seeger, Pete. Seeger, Pete / American Favorite Ballads, Oak, Fol (1961), p51
Stanley, Peter. At the Sidekick, Talkeetna 25003, CD (1999), trk# 2 [1965/03]
Stuart, Alice. All the Good Times, Arhoolie 4002, LP (1964), trk# B.02 (Stackerlee/Stackolee)
Taussig, Harry. Taussig, Harry / Folk-Style Guitar, Oak, Sof (1973), p 71 (Stackerlee/Stackolee)
Taussig, Harry. Taussig, Harry A. (ed.) / Instrumental Techniques of American Folk Guita, Trad. String Instr., fol (1965), p72
Taussig, Harry. Taussig, Harry / Advanced Guitar, Oak, Sof (1975), p107 (Stackerlee/Stackolee)
Travis, Merle. Rough, Rowdy and Blue, CMH 6262, LP (1986), trk# 7 (Stackerlee/Stackolee)
Van Ronk, Dave. Dave Van Ronk, Folksinger, Prestige Folklore 14012, LP (1967), trk# 3 (Stackerlee/Stackolee)
Van Ronk, Dave. Dave Van Ronk, Fantasy 24710, LP (197?), trk# 2.03 (Stackerlee/Stackolee)
Van Ronk, Dave. Your Basic Dave Van Ronk, Kicking Mule KM 177, LP (1983), trk# A.04
Watson, Doc and Merle. Ballads from Deep Gap, Vanguard VSD 6576, LP (1971), trk# 6 (Stack O'Lee [Blues])
Wayside Trio. Winners. California State Fair Exposition, Ikon IER 106, LP (1964), trk# B.02
Weissman, Dick. Weissman, Dick / Five String Banjo. Vol. 3, Advanced Techniques, United Artists, Sof (1977), p 5 (Stackerlee/Stackolee)
Wells, Alexander ("Little Alex"). Lomax, J. A. & A. Lomax / American Ballads and Folk Songs, MacMillan, Bk (1934), p 96 [1930s]
White, Ivy Joe. Lomax, J. A. & A. Lomax / American Ballads and Folk Songs, MacMillan, Bk (1934), p 96 [1930s]
RECORDINGS ballad index:
Senter Boyd [or Boyd Senter] "Original Stack O'Lee Blues" (OKeh 41115, 1928; Vocalion 03015, 1935)
Cab Calloway & his Orchestra, "Stack O'Lee Blues" (Banner 32378, 1932; rec. 1931)
Johnny Dodds, "Stack O'Lee Blues" (Decca 1676, 1938)
Cliff Edwards ('Ukulele Ike'), "Stack O' Lee, Part 1/Part2" (Columbia 1551-D, 1928; Columbia 1820-D, 1929; Clarion 5449-C/Harmony 1408-H/Velvet Tone 2509, 1932; Vocalion 03324, 1936)
Tennessee Ernie Ford w. Joe "Fingers" Carr, "Stack-O-Lee" (Capitol 1348 or 1349, c. 1951)
Fruit Jar Guzzlers, "Stack-O-Lee" (Paramount 8199, 1928; on RoughWays1)
Vera Hall, "Stagolee" (AFS 1323 A2, 1937)
Sol Hoopii Novelty Trio, "Stack O'Lee Blues" (Columbia 797-D, 1926) (Decca 2241, 1938) [instrumental versions of Cliff Edwards version]
Ivory Joe Hunter, "Stackolee" (AFS CYL-8, 1933)
Mississippi John Hurt, "Stack O'Lee Blues" (OKeh 8654, 1929; rec. 1928; on MJHurt01, MJHurt02)
Frank Hutchison, "Stackalee" (OKeh 45106, 1927; on AAFM1)
King Queen and Jack, "Stack-O-Lee Blues"(Gennett 6633/Champion 15605, 1928; Champion 40014, 1935)
Furry Lewis, "Billy Lyons and Stack O'Lee" (Vocalion 1132/Brunswick 80092, 1927)
David Miller, "That Bad Man Stackolee" (Champion 15334/Herwin 75564/Challenge 327 [as Dan Kutter], 1927; on RoughWays2)
Uncle John Patterson & James Patterson, "Stagolee Was a Bully" (on FolkVisions2)
Lloyd Price, "Stagger Lee" (Sparton 679-R, 1958)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Stackerlee" (on NLCR04)
[Gertrude] "Ma" Rainey, "Stack O'Lee Blues" (Paramount 12357, 1926 [rec. 1925])
Clive Reed, "Original Stack O Lee Blues" (Black Patti 8030, 1927; on StuffDreams1 [as Long 'Cleve' Reed & Little Harvey Hull])
Pete Seeger, "Stagolee" (on PeteSeeger18)
Will Starks, "Stackerlee" (AFS 6652 B2, 1942)
Art Thieme, "Stackerlee" (on Thieme05)
Evelyn Thompson, "Stack O'Lee Blues' (Vocalion 1083, 1927)
Waring's Pennsylvanians, "Stack O'Lee Blues" (Victor 19189, 1923)
Washingtonians, "Stack O'Lee Blues" (Harmony 601-H, 1928)
Frank Westphal & his Orchestra, "Stack O'Lee Bllues" Columbia 32-D, 1924; rec. 1923)
Herb Wiedoeft's Cinderella Orchestra, "Stack O'Lee Blues" (Brunswick 2660, 1924)
SAME TUNE: Frank Hutchison, "Stackalee No. 2" (OKeh 45106, 1927)
List of 226 recordings:
Andrews, Ben - Staggerlee - Gallow's Pole - 2001
Angola Prisoners - Stackerlee - Murderer's Home (Compilation)
Archibald (Leon T Gross) - Stack-A-Lee Pt 1& 2 - 1950
Baker, Mickey - Stack O'Lee - 1976
Ballero, Jimmy - Staggerlee - Jimmy Balllero & the Renegade Band - 1994
Barnes, Jimmy - Stagger Lee - Soul Deep
Stagger Lee - (Live) Mushroom CD - Mush - 1991
Bartholomew, Dave - Son of Stagger Lee - 1998
Bassholes - Stack O’ Lee and Billy Lyons - Blue Roots [CD]
Bechet, Sidney - Old Stack O'Lee Blues - 1946
Beck - Stagolee - John Hurt tribute album
Bell, Tom - Stagolee - LOC - 1937
Bibb, Eric - Stagolee - Up Close with Eric Bibb - ABC - 2007
Black Keys - Stack Shot Billy - Rubber Factory
Block, Rory - Stackerlee - 1988?
Blind Pete & partner - Stagolee - 1934
Bloomfield, Mike - Staggerlee - 1977
Blues Rider Trio with Ben Andrews - Staggerlee - Harp Steel And Guts - Mapleshade Records - 2000
Blue Stuff [Italian group] - Stagger Lee - 1990?
Bogan, Lucille - Jim Stack O'Lee Blues - 1934
Bookbinder, Roy - Stack O'Lee
Booker, James - Tubby pt 1 & 2 - All the 45s and More - Night Train
Boone, Pat - Stagger Lee
Bradshaw, Tiny- Stack of Dollars - Great Composer [CD]
Bray, John (Big Nig) - Stagolee- 1934
Bridges, Curley - Stagger Lee - Keys to the Blues [CD]
Bromberg, David - Mrs Delion's Lament
Broonzy, Big Bill; Sonny Boy Williamson(III); Memphis Slim - Bama's Stacker Lee
Broussard, Mike - Stagger Lee - South Louisiana Style Music, Vol. 1 - 1999
Brown, Angela - Stagger Lee - 1988?
Brown, James - Stagger Lee - Cold Sweat - King LP KS-1020 - 1967
Brown, Richard Rabbit - Stack O' Lee Blues
Brozman, Bob - Stack O Lee Aloha - 1992
Burnside, RL - Staggolee - Well, Well, Well - MC Records - 1986
Burt Garvin, Danielle Fraley, & J.P. Fraley - Stack-O-Lee
Byrd, Jonathan - Stackalee
Calloway, Cab - Stack O' Lee Blues - 1931
Cave, Nick and the Bad Seeds - Stagger Lee - Murder Ballads - Reprise- 1996
Cephas, John & Phil Wiggins - Stagolee - 1984
Stagger Lee - Dog Days of August - 1986
Stack And The Devil - Somebody Told The Truth - 2002 - Alligator
Clash - Wrong Em Boyo
Clayton, Paul - Stackolee - Riverside
Colyer, Ken - Stack-O-Lee Blues - 1958
Compton Bros - Stagger Lee
Cortez, Dave "Baby" - Stagger Lee
Curtis, Lucius - Stagolee - Mississippi Blues [Various artists-CD] - 1940-1942
Deals Gone Bad -Stack-O-Lee - Everything Off-Beat, Vol.2
Devlin, Johnny - Staggerlee
Diamond, Neil - Stagger Lee - September Morn -1979
Dion - Stagger Lee - Lovers Who Wander - Laurie lp 2012 - 1962
Dodds, Johnny (O'Neil Spencer vocalist) - Stack O'Lee Blues - 1938
Domino, Fats - Stack and Billy - 1957
Lonnie Donegan Skiffle Group: - Stackalee - Pye EP - 1957 (?)
Domino, Fats - Staggerlee - 1973?
Downchild Blues Band - Staggerlee
Dorsey, Lee - Stagger Lee - 1966
Dr John - Stack-A-Lee - 1972
Stakalee - N'awlins Dis Dat or D'udda - EMI - 2004
Dr. Hook- Stagolee - Pleasure & Pain
Dukes, Little Laura - Stack O'Lee
Dupree, Champion Jack - Stack-O-Lee - 1958
Dylan, Bob - Stack A Lee - World Gone Wrong - 1993
Ealey, Theodis - Stagger Lee - Raw
Edwards, Clarence & Cornelius - Stack O’ Dollars -Country Negro Jam Sessions
Edwards, Cliff - Stack O'Lee - (Part 1) - 1928
Edwards, Cliff - Stack O'Lee - (Part 2) - 1928
Edwards, Honeyboy - Stagolee - Delta Bluesman- 1942
Ellington, Duke - Stack O'Lee Blues - 1927
Ellis, Shirley - Stagger Lee - The Name Game - Congress LP CGL/CGS-3003 - 1965
English, Logan - Stackerlee - Riverside
Estes, Sleepy John - Stack O’ Dollars
Fabulous Thunderbirds - Staggerlee
flathead - Stagger Lee
Flynn, Buena - Stagolee - LOC - 1936
Ford and Ford - Skeeg-a-Lee Blues - 1924
Ford, Tennessee Ernie - Stack-o-Lee - 1951
Frank Westphal & His Regal Novelty Orchestra - Stack O'Lee Blues - 1923
Fruit Jar Guzzlers - Stack-O-Lee - My Rough & Rowdy Ways, Vol.1
Fuller, Jesse - Stagolee - 1958 - Good Time Jazz
Tony Furtado Band - Stagger Lee - 2002
Gant, Foy - Stackerlee - 1934
Garland, Terry - Stagger Lee - 1995?
Grateful Dead - Staggerlee - Shakedown Street - Arista - 1978
Gray, Henry - Staggerlee - Blues Won't Let Me Take My Rest - 1999
Griffin, George - Stackerlee - Time Has Come
Guthrie, Woody - Stack-o-Lee - 1944 - The Essential Woody Guthrie (Union Square Music Ltd, 2006: METRCD181)
Haley, Bill - Staggerlee
Hardin, Tim - Stagger Lee - This Is Tim Hardin -1967
Harrison, Wilbert - Stagger Lee - 1969
Haley, Ed - Stacker Lee - Forked Deer, Vol.1
Hall, Bob - Stagolee - Down the Road Apiece
Hall, Vera - Stagolee - LOC - 1937
Hardin, Tim - Stagger Lee - 1967
Harris, Blind Jesse - Stagolee - 1937
Harrison, Wilbert - Stagger Lee
Herb Wiedoeft's Cinderella Roof Orchestra - Stack O'Lee Blues - 1924
Hill, Michael - Stagolee - Perspective - 1996 - Alligator
Hodes, Art - Stack O'Lee Blues - 1987
Holt, John - Staggerlee - John Holt: Anthology 1962 to 1979
Hoopii, Sol - Stack O’ Lee Blues - Master of the Hawaiian Guitar, Vol.1
Hot Tuna - Staggerlee
Houston, Cisco - Staggerlee - Folkways
Hull, Papa Harvey (Long Cleve Reed) - Original Stack O'Lee Blues - 1927
Hunter, Ivory Joe - Stackolee - 1933
Hunter, Robert - Billy de Lyons and Stagger Lee
Hurt, Mississippi John - Stack O'Dollars (Stagolee's girlfriend) - 1930
Hurt, Mississippi John - Stack O'Lee Blues - 1928
there are 8 different recordings by Hurt from 1963-1965 (issued under four different titles - Stackolee, Stagolee, Stack-O-Lee, Staggerlee)
Hutchison, Frank - Stackalee - 1927
Isley Bros - Staggerlee - The Fabulous Isley Brothers - UAL-3313/UAS-6313 - 1963
Jack Linx & His Society Serenaders - Stack O'Lee Blues - 1927
Jacobs, Bryan - Staggerlee
Jackson, Albert - Stagolee - 1934
Jackson, Bruce - Stack-O-Lee
Jackson, Samuel - Staggerlee - Black Snake Moan Soundtrack - 2006
James, Steve - Stack Lee's Blues - Boom Chang - Burnside Records - 2000
Jansch, Bert - Stagolee -Young Man Blues: Live in Glasgow 1962-1964
Johnson, Stella - Trial of Stagger Lee - Night Train
Johnson, Tex and his Six Shooters - Stack O' Lee - Gun Fighter Ballads - 1958
Jones, Bob & The Range Hands - Stack O'Lee - 1971 - Cornet
Jones, Tom - Stagger Lee
Jordan, Charley - Stack O'Dollar Blues - 1930
Journeymen - Stackolee - Capitol LP ST 1951 - New Directions In Folk Music - 1963
Kruger Brothers - Stagolee
Kweskin, Jim - Staggerlee - Vanguard- 1967
LaBeef, Sleepy - Staggerlee - 1994
Lester, Julius - Stagolee
Lewis, Furry - Billy Lyons and Stack O'Lee (aka Stackerlee) - 1927
Lewis, Jerry Lee - Stagger Lee - 1959
Lewis, Huey - Stagger Lee -Four Chords & Several Years Ago
Lopez, Trini - Stagger Lee - Live At Basin St. East - Reprise LP 6134 - 1964
Lords, The - Staggerlee
New Lost City Ramblers - Staggerlee - Vol 4 - 1962
Lucious Curtis & Willie Ford- Stagolee - Flyright- 1940
Martin, Bert - Stagolee - LOC- 1937
Mayall, John & The Bluesbreakers with Eric Bibb - Staggerlee - bootleg of Rockin' Blues Revue 2005
Maxey, Matthew "Hogman" - Stagolee - 1959
McCoys - Staggerlee
McCurdy, Ed - Stackerlee - Elektra
McLean, Roscoe - Stagolee - LOC - 1936
Melcher, Terry - Stagger Lee
Miller, Dale - Stagger Lee - Fingerpicking Rags and Other Delights
Miller, Dave - That Bad Man Stackolee - My Rough & Rowdy Ways, Vol 2 Yazoo 2040
Modern Life is War - Stagger Lee - 2007
Moeller, Johnny - Stagger Lee - Johnny's Blues Aggregation - 2001
Morey, Frank - Stagger Lee - delmark records - 2002
Mr. Boogie Woogie & the Firesweep Bluesband - Stagger Lee - Boogie Trap -1996
Muddy Waters/Memphis Slim - Stack Alee
My Dad Is Dead- Stack O’ Lee Blues -Let’s Skip the Details
Nelson, Sandy - Stagger Lee
O'Brien, Tim & Mollie - Stagger Lee
Kevin O’Donnell’s Quality Six- Stack O’Lee - Heretic Blues
Otis, Johnny - Stack-a-Lee
Pacific Gas & Electric- Staggolee
Papa Blue’s Viking Jazzband- Stack O’ Lee Blues - Down by River
Pickett, Wilson - Stagger Lee - Heart And Soul Of Wilson Pickett - 1967
Powers, Jett - Stagger Lee -California License
Price, Lloyd - Stagger Lee - 1959
Price, Leo - Stagger Lee - Instrumental
Pride, Charlie - Stagger Lee
Proby, PJ - Staggerlee - 1964
Professor Longhair - Stag O Lee - 1974
Stagger Lee - 1975
Stagger Lee - 1978
Stag-o Lee - 1978
Q65, The - Staggerlee
The Quintet- Stagger Lee -Future Tense
Rachell, Yank - Stack O'Dollar Blues - 1934
Rainey, Ma - Stack O'Lee Blues - 1925
Lee Rand - Stagger Lee - 45 rpm -Diamond #359 - 1963
Rea, David - Stack-O-Lee - 1997
The Rhythm Kings - Staggerlee - Official Bootleg - 2000
Righteous Bros - Staggerlee - Go Ahead & Cry - 1966
Ringer, Jim - Mrs. DeLion's Lament- Any Old Wind That Blows Philo 1021- 1975
Rivers, Johnny - Staggerlee
Robertson, Lonnie - Stagolee - LOC - 1936
Robison, Carson - Stack O'Lee Blues - 1932
Roe, Tommy - Staggerlee - 45 rpm - ABC 11307 - 1971
Rooftop Singers - Stagolee
Rovensky, Jaron & Friends - Stagerlee - Live in Camrose
Rulers - Wrong Em Boyo - Trojan's Ska box set volume 1
Russo, Mike - Stack O'Lee - Arhoolie (self titled) lp #4003 - 1969
Rush, Tom - Staggerlee - Prestige (Blues Songs & Ballads) - 1963
Rydell, Bobby - Stagger Lee
Sahm, Doug - Stagger Lee - 1984
Sam The Sham - Stagger Lee - 1968 - Ten Of Pentacles - MGM LP SE-4526
Saragossa Band- Stagger-Lee -Das Totale Zazazabadak
Satan and Adam - Stagga Lee - 1996
Seeger, Pete - Stagolee - 1958 - Folkways
Sedaka, Neil - Staggerlee - 1984
Senter, Boyd - Stagger Lee - 1928
Shelton, Roscoe - Stagger Lee -Tennessee R&B Live
Shizzoe, Hank - Stagger Lee - 1995?
Sir Douglas Quintet - Staggerlee - Soul Jam - 2000
Sleepy LeBeef - Staggerlee
Smith, Bennie - Stagger Lee - Urban Soul - 1993?
Snatch and the Poontangs (Johnny Otis) - The Great Stack-a-Lee
Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes- Stagger Lee - 1981
Spencer & Spencer - Stagger Lawrence - 1959? - Gone
The Staggers - Stagger Lee - 2001
Stanley, Ralph - Stack O'Lee - Down From The Mountain: O Brother Where Art Thou
The Starlites- Stagger Lee - Eastern PA Rock
Storks, Willie - Stackerlee - 1942 - LOC
Taj Mahal - Stagger Lee
There are at least 3 or 4 other Taj Mahal versions (from 1969 - 1996)
Terry, Dewey - Stag-o-Lee - 1973?
Terry, Sonny - Stackolee - 1946
Thompson, Evelyn - Stack O'Lee Blues - 1927
Threadgill Troubadoors - Stagger Lee - 1991
The Trojans - Stack o' Lee - 12" record - 1989
Turner, Ike and Tina - Stagger Lee and Billy - 45 rpm - Sue #139 - 1965
Turner, Titus - (Return Of) Stagger Lee - 1959
Van Ronk, Dave - Stackalee
Ventures - Staggerlee
Walker, Robert "Bilbo" - Stagg-o-Lee - 2001- Rock the Night - Rooster Blues
Washboard Chaz Trio - Staggerlee - 2004 - Dog Days
Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians - Stack O'Lee Blues - 1923
Watson, Doc; Haggard, Merle - Stack O'Lee
Weller, Freddy - Stagger Lee -The Promised Land - 1972
Wells, Mary - Stag-O-Lee - Complete Jubilee Sessions
West, Sam Ku - Stack O' Lee Blues
Weston, Arthur - Stack O’ Dollars -Pea Vine Whistle
Whitley, Chris - Stagger Lee Dislocation Blues
Willie and The Poor Boys - Stagger Lee - 1992
Williams, Joe - Stack O' Dollars - 1935
Wilson, Larry Jon - Stagger Lee - Sojourner - Monument - 1976
Youngbloods - Stagger Lee - 1971
Zim Zemarel & His Orch - Stagger Lee - 1992
RELATED TO: Mrs. DeLion's Lament; Billy Lyons and Stack O'Lee; Stagolee Was a Bully [Laws I15/Me I-B122]
OTHER NAMES: Stack O'Lee; Stagolee; Stackerlee
SOURCES: "Stagolee Shot Billy" By Cecil Brown; Kuntz; The title appears in a list of traditional Ozark Mountain fiddle tunes compiled by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph, published in 1954. Chubby Dragon CD1008, Brad Leftwich, Bruce Molsky et al – “Mountairy.usa” (2001).
PRINT SOURCES: Laws I15, "Stagolee (Stackerlee)"
Brown, Cecil. Book: Stagolee Shot Billy
Leach, pp. 765-766, "Stagolee" (2 texts)
Friedman, p. 381, "Stagolee (Stackerlee)" (2 texts)
Cray, pp. 149-154, "Stackolee" (2 texts, 1 tune)
McNeil-SFB1, pp. 66-68, "Stagolee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 92-93, "Stagolee" (2 texts)
Lomax-FSNA 306, "Stagolee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-ABFS, pp. 93-99, "Stagolee" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Asch/Dunson/Raim, p. 54 "Stackalee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepMore, pp. 131-133, "Stackalee" (1 text)
PSeeger-AFB, p. 51, "Stagolee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NFM, pp. 78-79, "(Stagolee)" (assorted fragments)
MWheeler, pp. 100-102, "Stacker Lee #2" (1 text, 1 tune); also perhaps pp. 102-103, "Stacker Lee #3" (1 text, 1 tune, with references to Stacker Lee though the plot elements seem to have disappeared)
Burt, pp. 202-203, "(Stackalee)" (1 text)
Darling-NAS, pp. 243-244, "Stackerlee" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 198, "Stagolee" (1 text)
NOTES: Stagolee is an African-American badman ballad in the vein of Uncle Bud, Bad Lee Brown (Little Sadie) and Railroad Bill that was in the repertiore of fiddler Ed Haley and has become a blues/bluegrass/old-time fiddle tune. The ballad is based on an actual murder in 1895. Certainly it's best known as a blues song, perhaps known best by two blues versions; one by Mississippi John Hurt and the other Furry Lewis.
The song was also a jazz hit for Cab Calloway in 1932. It was recorded numerous times in the 1920s as a jazz standard either as an instrumental or as in Ma Rainey's 'Stack O'Lee Blues' (ca Dec 1925) with lyrics. Rainey's version as many of the early versions are based on the chords and melody of Frankie and Johnny with Stagolee/Stakolee lyrics. The other ballad-type versions were usually two lines with a third line as a tag.
Surprisingly, there were only three commercial recordings of the song by old-time performers: Frank Hutchison, 'Stackalee' (Jan 1927); David Miller, 'That Bad Man Stackerlee', (ca May 1927); and Fruit Jar Guzzlers, 'Stack-O-Lee' (ca March 1928).
The Hutchison and Miller recordings preceded Furry Lewis' 'Billy Lyons and Stack O'Lee' (Oct 1927) and Mississippi John Hurt's 'Stack O'Lee Blues' (Dec 1928). There were also skiffle versions: Stakalee (Stack O' Lee) by Dick Bishop (vocal/guitar), Lonnie Donegan (lead guitar) and Chris Barber (bass); 1956 and Stack O Lee Blues by The Ken Colyer Skiffle Group; 1956
A story appearing in the St. Louis, Missouri Globe-Democrat in 1895 read:
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. 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 Shelton's hat from his head. The latter indignantly demanded 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. He died in prison in 1912. There is a book "Stagolee Shot Billy" by Cecil Brown that documents the events and provides some lyrics.
The first documented lyrics collected in Memphis, date 1903 are bawdy:
Poor old Nellie Sheldon, when she heard the news,
She's sittin' on the bedside, lacin' up her high-heeled shoes,
Bulls got mt sweet-f...in' Papa Stackerlee.
ARTICLE: "Godfather of Gangsta"
by Cecil Brown The Guardian, Friday 9 May 2003
In the red-light district of St Louis in 1895, a pimp shot a man dead in an argument over a hat. The ballad telling the story has been recorded by hundreds of bluesmen and jazzers - and even the Clash. It also helped create modern-day rap. Cecil Brown tells the remarkable tale of Stagolee:
I was standin' on the corner
When I heard my bulldog bark;
He was barkin' at the two mens
Who gamblin' in the dark.
It was Stagolee and Billy,
Two men who gamble' late,
Stagolee throw seven,
Billy swore that he throwed eight.
Stagolee told Billy,
"I can't let you go with that;
You have won my money
And my brand new Stetson hat."
Stagolee went home,
And got his forty-four,
Says, "I'm goin' to the bar room,
To pay the debt I owe."
Stagolee went to the bar room,
Stood four feet from the door
Didn't nobody know when he
Pulled his forty-four.
Stagolee found Billy,
"Oh please don't take my life!
I got three little children,
And a very sick little wife."
Stagolee shot Billy,
Oh he shot that boy so fas'
That the bullet came through him,
And broke my window glass.
Some folks don't believe,
Oh Lord that Billy dead
You don't believe he gone,
Jus' look what a hole in his head.
These are the words sung by the black prisoner Hogman Maxey to the song collector Dr Harry Oster at Angola state penitentiary in Louisiana in 1959.
I first heard the ballad of Stagolee around the same time, sitting under the shade of a tree at the end of the tobacco road in North Carolina. The way my Uncle Lindsey recited the legend, Stagolee was a young god of virility, as impulsive, as vulgar, as daring and as adventurous as the young black field hands wanted him to be. My uncles and their friends recited their rhyming, obscene praise of Stagolee's badness and, at the day's end, gathered in JC Himes's jook joint to dance with girls, drink whiskey and fight. Their nocturnal activities seemed to me to be merely an extension of Stagolee's.
The origins of Stagolee coincide with those of the blues, which sprang up in the 1890s. The first expression of it was as a field holler of former plantation slaves, who carried it with them as they migrated to the work camps along the Mississippi.
Since then, it has taken musical shape as ballad, as blues, as jazz, as epic and as folk song. Its influence can be found in every 20th-century American cultural form, from rock'n'roll to literature to politics to cinema to hip-hop. There are at least 20 jazz recordings, by musicians ranging from Cab Calloway, Jimmy Dorsey and Peggy Lee to Duke Ellington. More than 100 bluesmen, from Champion Jack Dupree and Sonny Terry to Mississippi John Hurt, have recorded it.
During the 1930s and 1940s, the widely respected folklorist John Lomax and his son collected it from prisoners across the south, in the form of a strictly folk protest music; at least a dozen recordings survive in the Library of Congress.
Stagolee - or Stack Lee, or Stagger Lee - has thrived as a soul tune rendered by James Brown, Neil Diamond, Fats Domino and Wilson Pickett. Performers of Stagolee have ranged from levee camp workers to white female "coon-shouters" (white performers who sang as black-face minstrels); from whorehouse pianists to black female blues shouters; from black convicts to Huey Lewis and the News, Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead; and from 1920s Hawaiian guitarists to 1970s English punks like the Clash, who recorded it in 1979. The earliest recordings, in 1923, were made by two white dance bands, Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians and Frank Westphal and His Orchestra. Australian rocker Nick Cave recorded it in 1996, in Murder Ballads.
Then there are the songs in which Stagolee appears disguised. As Greil Marcus observed, Stagolee was "Muddy Waters's cool and elemental Rollin' Stone; Chuck Berry's Brown-Eyed Handsome Man; Bo Diddley with a tombstone hand and a graveyard mind; Wilson Pickett's Midnight Mover, Mick Jagger's Midnight Rambler... When the civil rights movement got tough, [Staggerlee] took over. And Staggerlee would come roaring back to the screen in the 1970s, as Slaughter, Sweet Sweetback, Superfly."
Though my interest in the legend began in my childhood, it was many decades later, researching a book on the phenomenon, that I discovered the myth's origins, in a murder in 1895 in St Louis, then one of the largest cities in the US. The killer was a man named Lee Shelton.
Shelton was born on March 16 1865, in Texas. Like New York, San Francisco and New Orleans, during the 1890s St Louis had a large red-light district. Most of the ballads say Stagolee was a gambler, but as I dug deeper it appeared that he was also a "maquereau", a French term for pimp often abbreviated to "mack". St Louis, which was founded by the French, still used the term to describe men who were kept by women.
In folk poetry, we find songs praising him:
Stackolee was a good man
Everybody he did love
The pimps and whores all swore by Stack -
By the everlasting stars above
They all loved Stackolee!
As a pimp and leader of a group called the Stags, Shelton was a slum hero, reigning in an area called Deep Morgan, one of the few places in the city where blacks and whites could commingle, and where blues, ragtime and "coon songs" had their origins. It was in a bar in this area that Shelton shot and killed Billy Lyons.
According to eyewitness George McFaro, on Christmas night, 1895, around 10 o'clock, Shelton walked into the Curtis saloon, in the heart of Deep Morgan, and asked the bartender: "Who's treating?" In reply, someone pointed out William Lyons. Apparently, the two men drank and laughed together for some time until the conversation turned to politics.
Soon, they began to exchange blows by striking each other's hats. Shelton grabbed Lyons's derby and knocked it out of shape. Lyons said he wanted payment of "six bits" from Stagolee for damaging his derby. Then Lyons grabbed Shelton's hat. At this point, everything changed. The argument turned on Shelton's Stetson, and whether Billy would give it back to him. In an attempt to make him give it back, Shelton pulled his .44 Smith & Wesson revolver from his coat, and hit Lyons on the head with it. Still Lyons would not relinquish the hat. Shelton demanded it again, saying that if Lyons didn't give him his hat immediately, he was going to kill him.
Then Lyons reached into his pocket for a knife and approached Shelton, saying: "You cock-eyed son-of-a-bitch, I'm going to make you kill me." Stagolee backed off and took aim. The 25 people in the saloon flew for the door. Only bartenders and a few others drinking at the bar stayed. Witnesses later testified to the coroner that they then saw Shelton shoot Lyons.
Leslie Stevenson, one of the witnesses, claimed that after he was shot, Billy "staggered against the side of the bar, leaned against the railing, holding the hat in his fingers like that, and it seemed he was getting weak, and he let the hat drop out of his hands. About that time, Stagolee says, 'Give me my hat, nigger' . . . and he picks it up and walks out into the brisk air."
A newspaper account also described Stagolee as walking over to the dying man still holding on to the bar and snatched his hat from Lyons's hand, put it on his head, and walked out "coolly" into the night air.
The murder had serious political consequences. Lyons, it turned out, was a staunch Republican, as were nearly all of St Louis's 25,000 black people. Lyons's stepmother, Marie Brown, owned the famous Bridgewater saloon. Her son-in-law, Henry Bridgewater, was reputed to be the richest black man in St Louis. Lyons belonged to this powerful clan loyal to the Republican party, which had freed the slaves. A new generation, represented by Stagolee, was anxious to vote for the Democrats. Stagolee had gained the support of the Democrats and so was hated by most of the black bourgeoisie, who were represented by Billy Lyons.
In the 1890s in St Louis, black people sought political protection with their right to vote. Both the Republican and the Democratic parties thought they could win if they got the black vote. The majority of black St Louisans voted Republican, but during the Republican convention, in the summer of 1896, many - unhappy that the national Republican party ignored their interest - broke with the party.
This break owed much to the black pimps in St Louis. Under the guise of "sporting" clubs, frequently called the 400 Clubs, pimps, saloon-keepers, and gamblers exerted voting power for the Democratic party. Some saloon-keepers represented the "unofficial" Democratic party.
They took him to the courthouse
Judge Murphy sat on the bench
An' the first one to put her can in a chair
Was Stack-o-Lee's lovin' wench
Down at the trial, down at the trial of Stack-o-Lee.
Many of the figures in the ballad - Judge Murphy, Stagolee's defence lawyer Nat Dryden, Stagolee's wife - were well known figures in the area. Other versions of the ballad make references to historical places and people, like St Louis Chestnut Valley, Lillie Shelton, and bartenders Tom Scott and Frank Boyd. We can assume, therefore, that the hero Stagolee who is the centre of the poem is a reference to the real man Lee Shelton.
Shelton's white lawyer, Dryden, may have been brilliant, but he also was a bohemian with an opium addiction. In the first trial, Dryden got Stagolee off with a hung jury. After two years in the courts, at the retrial in 1897, with a new judge and in the absence of Dryden, Stagolee was sentenced to 25 years in the Jefferson penitentiary. After being released by the Democratic powers that be, he was out for a few years and then returned for pistol-whipping another man. He died in the state prison in 1912, aged 46.
After the murder, the ballad telling of Stagolee's exploits began to spread across the American south and west. A circus performer heard it in the Indian territory in 1913. Early folklorists took an interest in the ballad as early as 1911, when Guy B Johnson published the first version in the prestigious Journal of American Folklore. John Lomax went around the southern states collecting the songs for the Library of Congress during the 1930s. During this time, most black men were either in prison or exploited on farms as sharecroppers. They sang about Stagolee and the Devil. The Devil was the white man.
In 1959, the song Stagger Lee became a number one for the rock'n'roller Lloyd Price, selling a million copies and topping the charts. In the 1960s, the civil rights movement took to Stagolee. At the height of the Black is Beautiful era, James Brown and Wilson Pickett recorded the Stagolee song. Bobby Seale, the leader of the Black Panthers, used it to recruit young black men to the party. I once got the opportunity to ask him why. He replied that Stagolee represented a template for black resistance to whites that just needed to be organised. "Stagolee was a bad nigger off the block and didn't take shit from nobody," he said. "Malcolm X at one time was an illegitimate hustler. Later in life Malcolm X grows to have the most profound political counsciousness... So symbolically, at one time he was Stagolee... To me, Stagolee was the true grassroots."
During this period, Stagolee also took the evolutionary leap that would go on to produce rap music and hip-hop. The connection between the bad man ballads and hip-hop was the form known as the "toast" - a recited story in verse. In telling the Stagolee legend as a toast, the speaker takes on the role of Stagolee. He begins to take on the character of the hero he is singing about. Asserting themselves as bullies and bad men, young black men "perform" Stagolee. The toast became an instrument that allowed them to be powerful and charismatic.
Shedding itself of the musical accompaniment that came with the ballad, Stagolee took his first step to being the basic form that the oral poets, the first hip-hoppers, utilised. During the 1980s, the first rhymers of rap took Stagolee to heightened levels. They used the Stagolee narrative structure as their own personal narratives.
In the development of rap music and hip-hop culture, Stagolee's influence is very clear. It persists in rap in the use of the first-person narrator, the performers' adoption of nicknames, the social drama, the humour, and participation in the commodity culture. From the 1930s to the 1950s, most reciters of Stagolee told the story in the third person. After the rise of the toast tradition in the 1960s, most reciters told the story in the first person. The audience sees through the eyes of the character the rapper creates. The "I" is the bridge between the "I" of the rapper and the "I" of the character.
A reciter of Stagolee associates himself with the hero, but he also makes clear that he is not Stagolee. He can effectively change himself in the eyes of his spectators and listeners. In gangsta rap, the performers are acting out the lives of the criminals in an effort to dispel the criminal from their midst, as a way to get rid of the negative energy.
Stagolee is also present in rap music in the use of cliche: Stagolee is composed of cliche lines that are easy to remember. In rap music, performers found it necessary to use such cliches to keep the rap going.
The final influence that Stagolee has on rap was participation in commodity culture. In the 1890s, the Stetson became a symbol of black male status; in the late 1990s, baggy pants became a signifier of status. As in ear lier generations, ghetto blacks fight against a white appropriation through weird dress. To be able to purchase these commodities, young people in the ghettos resort to hustling, as their parents and grandparents did. They can't afford to believe that a nine-to-five job would solve their problems, because they could never get those jobs.
So gangsta rappers use the lifestyle commodities - cars, clothes, girls - as signifiers of success and wealth. They scrap the old cliche of the ghetto hustler with a slick suit and a truckload of hot goods for the new archetype of the rapper. The term and the concept of the modern-day "mack" are a retrieval of the old cliche of the St Louis mack that Lee Shelton once embodied. And it is not just the mack who is revived, but the women who will do anything for him, including sell their bodies. The girls rappers talk about are whores, or "ho's", just as they were back in the pre-industrial ballads of Stagolee.
Except as appearing in nearly every gangster rap, how does the ballad survive today? What made Stagolee survive for over 100 years? One of the reasons is that performers keep reinventing the song in their own image. Apart from such interpretation from black singers, like Mississippi John Hurt, whites keep reinventing it too.
While he was waiting to record an album, Nick Cave was reading a book on urban black folklore and came across a version of the Stagolee toast. Cave decided to record it for two reasons. He was fascinated, in the first place, by the homosexuality of this particular version. In the toast, Stagolee makes Billy "drop down and slobber on his head". "The final act of brutality, where the great Stagger Lee blows the head off Billy . . . while he is committing fellatio [was] especially attractive," said Cave.
Cave went further, adding lines from another blues ballad. "There's a verse to our version that goes, 'I'm the kind of cocksucker that would crawl over 50 good pussies to get to one fat boy's asshole,' which I heard on an amazing talking blues song by a guy who, in the song, introduces himself as Two-time Slim. I've always thought that was a groovy line so I just threw it in for good measure."
William L Benzon wrote that European-American racism has used African-Americans as a screen on which to project repressed emotions, particularly sex and aggression. We can see this when we look at how white people have used Stagolee. The key to this insight is the concept of projection. "One aspect of this projection," Benzon says, "is that whites are attracted to black music as a means of expressing aspects of themselves they cannot adequately express though music from European roots."
The screen Cave adds to Stagolee tradition tells us more about the culture of the singer than it does of the culture of the song. Stagolee as African-American tradition is the screen that allows the projection to take place. "The reason why we [recorded it] was that there is already a tradition," said Cave. "I like the way the simple, almost naive traditional murder ballad has gradually become a vehicle that can happily accommodate the most twisted acts of deranged machismo. Just like Stag Lee himself, there seems to be no limits to how evil this song can become."
How long will Stagolee get passed on? On a Sunday afternoon late last year, Taj Mahal appeared on stage at Yosi's, a nightclub in Oakland, California. At 60, he is as energetic and solid as he was when I last saw him perform, 20 or so years ago. That afternoon, he had asked that parents come and bring their children. As Taj sang and strummed his big guitar, kids as young as five and as old as 17 were bobbing their heads to the rhythms of the blues.
"Now how many of you kids have heard of bandits," he asked as he stood on the edge of the stage, staring out at the young, white faces. Bandits? Sure. They had heard of bandits. "Okay," Taj said. "And you've heard about gambling? Well, this ballad is about a bandit who gambles! This song is about Stagolee!"
Backstage, sitting in a folding chair, Taj told me how he came across the legend. "The first I heard of Stagolee was from Lloyd Price," he said. "I was a Lloyd Price fan. I was always dancing to him. Then by the 1960s, I kept hearing it on blues anthologies - Mississippi John Hurt, and Furry Lewis's versions. As a child, I'd heard these stories about the bad man - bad man Stagolee - from my mother, who was from the low country in South Carolina. Then there was the other side of my family, my father is from the Caribbean, and from him I heard about 'bad John'. They would say, 'Bad John, stay out he way, man!' "
Taj laughed. This was great fun for him. He was Stagolee. As long as there are living historians like him, Stagolee will never die.
Kuntz, A Fiddler's Companion: In the repertoire of the regionally famous fiddler Ed Haley. It was the only track on the Rounder LP that the late Rector Hicks thought sounded like Haley at his best, according to Kerry Blech. See also note for “Stagolee.” Rounder Records, Ed Haley.
The blues ballad about Stagolee (or Stackerlee) and his fight with Billy Lyons has been a blues classic for generations and can be found in most volumes of American folksongs. There actually was such a person, finds George M. Eberhart (in an article entitled "Stack Lee: The Man, the Music, and the Myth, in the journel Popular Music and Society, Spring, 1997), one Stack Lee Shelton who murdered William “Willie” Lyons on Christmas Day, 1895, in a saloon on 11th & Morgan (now Delmar) in (east) St. Louis. Lyons and Shelton were actually friends but an argument arose between them, some say over a dispute about hats. The result was that Shelton shot and killed Lyons, who now rests in an unmarked grave in Saint Peter’s Cemetery, St. Louis.
Notes from Ballad index: On Dec. 29, 1895, William Lyons (levee hand) and Lee Sheldon (coach driver, nicknamed "Stag" Lee) were drinking together at a tavern in St. Louis, Missouri. A political discussion began; in the heat of the argument Lyons knocked off Sheldon's hat, and Sheldon promptly pulled a pistol and shot him dead. He was arrested and tried; the first trial ended in a hung jury, but he was convicted in a second trial and served time in prison, dying in 1916 [the correct date is 1912].
A St. Louis judge who has researched the case suggests that Sheldon had received a spell from a hoodoo woman giving him exceptional sexual potency. The talisman for that spell was his hat, so knocking it from his head was no ordinary insult. It is noteworthy that the first recordings of this ballad (Waring, Westphal, Wiedoeft) are by popular dance bands, not blues or hillbilly artists. - PJS
STAGOLEE-American Ballads and Folk-Songs (Lomax)
"His real name was Stack Lee and he was the son of the Lee family of Memphis who owned a large line of steamers that ran up and down the Mississippi.". . . "He was de *feller what fired the engines of one of the Lee steamers.". . . "They was a steamer runnin' up an' down de Mississippi, name de Stacker Lee, an' he was one o' de roustabouts on dat steamer. So dey called him Stackerlee." Whoever he was, he was a bad man and he killed Billy Lyons, probably in Memphis some thirty or forty years ago. The A version presents the ballad as it was sung when the tale was new5 the B version, the "Stagolee" that is sung in the honky-tonks and barrel-houses throughout Texas and Louisiana today. Ivy Joe White, barrel-house pianist extraordinary of Wiergate, Texas 5 Alexander Wells, "Little Alex" of the Louisiana State Prison at Angola j and Sullivan Rock, rounder and roustabout on the docks of New Orleans, furnished the words for the B version. Windy Billy of the Louisiana State Prison at Angola sang the air.
Version A—sent, February 9, 1910, by Miss Ella Scott Fisher, San Angelo, Texas: "This is all the verses I remember. The origin of this ballad, I have been told, was the shooting of Billy Lyons in a barroom on the Memphis levee, by Stack Lee. The song is sung by the Negroes on the levee while they are loading and unloading the river freighters, the words being composed by the singers.* The characters were prom-
inently known in Memphis, I was told, the unfortunate Stagalee belonging to the family of the owners of the Lee line of steamers, which are known on the Mississippi from Cairo to the Gulf. I give all this to you as it was given to me. The effect of the song with its minor refrain is weird, and the spoken interpolations add to the realism. It becomes immensely personal as you hear it, like a recital of something known or experienced by the singer."
In August, 1933, a visit to the Memphis levee district and the renowned Beale's Street region failed to uncover the tune of this text of "Stagalee" or any additional stanzas that would fit the particular rhythm. What echoes of "Stagalee" remained were badly mixed with the Blues and jazzed almost beyond recognition. A special inquiry among several thousand Negro convicts in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee was likewise fruitless.
[Version A]
Twas a Christmas morning, The hour was about ten,
When Stagalee shot Billy Lyons And landed in the Jefferson pen.
O Lordy, po' Stagalee!
Billy Lyons' old woman, She was a terrible sinner,
She was home that Christmas mornin' A-preparin' Billy's dinner.
O Lordy, po' Stagalee!
Messenger boy came to the winder, Then he knocked on the door,
An' he said, "Yer old man's lyin' there Dead on the barroom floor."
O Lordy, po' Stagalee!
[Billy's Old Woman:] "Stagalee, O Stagalee, What have you gone and done?
You've gone and shot my husband With a forty-four gatlin' gun."
O Lordy, etc.
[Stagalee's Friend:] "Stagalee, O Stagalee, Why don't you cut and run?
For here comes the policeman, And I think he's got a gun."
O Lordy, etc.
[Policeman, scared of Stagalee:] "Stagalee, O Stagalee, I'm 'restin' you just for fun, The officer jest wants you To identify your gun."
O Lordy, etc.
[Stagalee in fail:] "Jailer, O Jailer,, I jest can't sleep;
For the ghost of Billy Lyons Round my bed does mourn and weep."
O Lordy, etc.
[Counsel for the Defense:] "Gentlemen of this jury, You must let poor Stagalee go,
His poor and aged mammy Is lyin' very low."
O Lordy, etc.
[Counsel for the Prosecution:] "Gentlemen of this jury, Wipe away your tears,
For Stagalee's aged mammy Has been dead these 'leven years."
O Lordy, etc
Stagalee's old woman, She hung around the jail,
And in three days she had him out On a ten-thousand-dollar bail.
O Lordy, po' Stagalee!
[Version B]
Stagolee, he was a bad man, and ev'body know,
He toted a stack-barreled blow gun an' a blue steel 44.
Way down in New Orlean', called de Lyon club,
Ev'y step you walking you walkin' in Billy Lyon blood.
It was early one mornin' when I heard my little dog bark,
Stagolee and Billy Lyon was arg'in' in de dark.
Stagolee and Billy Lyon was gamblin' one night late,
Stagolee fell seven, Billy Lyon, he fell cotch eight.
Slowly Stack walked from de table, he said, "I can't let you go wid dat.
You win all of my money an' my milk-white Stetson hat."
Stagolee, he went walkin' right down dat I.C. track,
"I am' gonna hurt you now, Billy, bet' not be here when I get back!"
Next day Stack went runnin' in de red-hot broilin' sun,
"Look in my chiffro drawer, Alberta, han' me my smokeless 41."
Alberta looked at Stack, said, "Babe, you all out of breath,
You look like you gonna be de cause of somebody's death."
Stack took out his Elgin, looked direc'ly at de time,
"I got an argument to settle wid dat bad man, Billy Lyon."
"Kiss me, good woman, you may not see me when I come back."
And Stack went runnin' up dat Great Northern track.
Well, he got outside in front of de barroom, an' he eased up to de door,
Billy Lyon had his 44 special, pacin' up an' down de floor.
Billy Lyon began to scream, "Stack, don't take my life,
I've got five lil helpless chilluns an' one po' pitiful wife."
He shot him three times in the forehead an' two times in de side,
Said, "I'm goin' keep on shootin' till Billy Lyon died."
Billy Lyon got glassy, an' he gapped an' hung his head,
Stack say, "I know by expression on his face dat Billy Lyon dead."
Mrs. Billy she went runnin' an' screamin': "Stack, I don' b'lieve it's so.
You an' my lil Billy been frien's since many long years ago."
Stagolee tol' Mrs. Billy, "Ef you don't b'lieve yo' man is dead,
Come to de barroom, see de hole I shot in his head."
Mrs. Lyon fell to her knees, an' she said to her oldes' son,
"When you git lil bit bigger, gonna buy you a 41."
"Mama, mama, oh, mama, you sho ain't talkin' to me,
He killed po' papa, now you gonna let him kill me."
It was early one mornin', Stagolee looked at de clouds an' say,
"Baby, it look mighty cloudy, it mus' be my jedgment day."
Chief Maloney tol' his deputies: "Git yo' rifles an' come wid me,
We got to arres' dat bad nigger, Stagolee."
Oh, de deputies took dey shiny badges, an' dey laid 'em on de shelf,
"Ef you wants dat *feller, go git him by yo' own damn self."
Slowly Chief Maloney, he walked to de barroom door,
Po' Stagolee was drunk an' layin' on de barroom floor.
Chief Maloney said to de bartender, "Who kin dat drunk man be?"
"Speak softly," said de bartender. "It's dat bad *man Stagolee."
Chief Maloney touch Stack on de shoulder, say, "Stack, why don' you run?"
"I don't run, white folks, when I got my 41."
Stagolee, he tried to get up, staggered, pulled his pistol, could not get it out,
Chief Maloney pulled his pistol, shot de po' boy in de mouth.
Stagolee,he went runnin' an' st'agglin' down Dumaine Street,
Boy, don' you know de blood was runnin' from his head down to his feet.
De jedge, he found Stack guilty, de clerk, he wrote it down,
Nex' col' winter mornin' Stack was Angola bound.
It was early one mornin', one bright summer day,
Chief Maloney 'ceived a wireless—Stack had runned away.
Chief Maloney got his men, an' he put dem roun' de town,
"Nex' time you see Stagolee, be sho to shoot him down."
* * *
De hangman put de mask on, tied his han's behin' his back,
Sprung de trap on Stagolee, but his neck refused to crack.
Hangman, he got frightened, he said: "Chief, you see how it be,
I cain' hang this man, you better let him go free."
Chief Maloney said to de hangman, "Befo' I'd let him go alive—"
He up wid his police special an' shot him six times in de side."
All de mans dey shouted, but de womens put on black an' mourned
Dat de good man Stagolee has laid down, died, an' gone.
Dey come a-slippin' an' a-slidin' up an' down de street,
In deir big mother hubbards an' deir stockin' feet.
He had a three-hundred-dollar funeral and a thousand-dollar hearse,
Satisfaction undertaker put him six feet under earth.
When de devil wife see Stack comin' she got up in a quirl,—
"Here come dat bad nigger an' he's jus' from de udder worl'."
All de devil' little chillun went sc'amblin' up de wall,
Say, "Catch him, pappa, befo' he kill us all."
Stack he tol' de devil, "Come on, le's have a lil fun,
You stick me wid yo' pitchfork an' I'll shoot you wid my 41."
Stagolee say, "Now, now, Mister Devil, ef me an' you gonna have
some fun, You play de cornet, Black Betty beat de drum."
Stagolee took de pitchfork an' he laid it on de shelf—
"Stand back, Tom Devil, I'm gonna rule Hell by myself."
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