It's 1895, Christmas night. You're wandering confused down a street you've never seen before, but somehow you know the day, the year.
The city. You're in St. Louis.
How? Are you dreaming? Maybe you are, because you keep on sighting images and scenes that make no sense, that shouldn't be in this world. You see a man by an open grave pulling the rings from a dead woman's fingers. A heavyset speaker on a podium is declaiming his views on tariff laws when an assassin dashes up and shoots him in the belly.
There's a track parallel to the street, and a freight train suddenly appears, moving much too fast, the half-seen engineer pulling down the whistle cord in a long, piercing scream. It disappears back into the night. A few seconds later the street is shrouded in fog, and you glimpse what looks like the prow of an enormous ship passing by, even though there isn't any body of water that could float it within a thousand miles. The fog conceals the ship again before you can see any more than the last few letters of its name -"ANTIC."
You step out of the street, out of the madness, into the welcome lights of a bar, although it has the ominous name of
The Bucket of Blood. But by this time you don't care, you just want a drink, company, voices, music.
There's a piano with a player banging out fast ragtime. The room is crowded, loud, filled with smoke. You push your way to the bar, order a beer, and turn as you hear voices raised, chairs pushed away, the crowd scattering to open a space for two men. One is holding a Stetson hat away from another, larger man.
"Give me back my damn hat!" he shouts.
"You son of a bitch, I'm going to make you kill me," the smaller one replies, reaching into his jacket. And the tall man dips into his coat too, bringing out a pistol, and shoots four times.
"I told you to give me my hat," Lee Shelton says to the lifeless body as he reaches down to retrieve his Stetson.
[
Stackalee - Frank Hutchinson]
***
Billy DeLyon told Stagolee, "Please don't take my life
I got two little babes and a darling, loving wife"
That bad man, oh cruel Stagolee
"What'd I care about your two little babes and darling, loving wife?
You done stole my Stetson hat, I'm bound to take your life."
That bad man, oh cruel Stagolee - Stagolee by Mississippi John Hurt
Greil Marcus calls it the
Old, Weird America. Ted Anthony calls it
the Village. I think of it as an interzone, a place where reality and legend collide, a place where a pretty young woman named Polly, the 25th President of the United States, and train engineer John Luther Jones all live out their days and meet their deaths, and the Old 97 and the Unsinkable Ship are the usual mode of transportation.
It's a place where a briar and a rose grow together in a graveyard, and eventually entwine into a lover's knot. It's where a boy and girl - neither much more than children - throw a bundle from a bridge each day. The boy returns later in the night and will follow it into the dark waters.
The interzone. It's where all the songs start.
***
According to the records Lee Shelton, both known as "Stag" and "Stack" Lee, walked into the Bill Curtis Saloon, located in the epicenter of what was then St. Louis's thriving vice district. The saloon was a few blocks away from a notorious bordello called
The Bucket of Blood.
Lee Shelton was a pimp, and reportedly something of a loner, either of which may have earned him the "Stag" nickname. But there's some evidence that he called himself "Stack" after the riverboat
Stack Lee, part of the Lee Line of riverboats, known as Cecil Brown relates in
Stagolee Shot Billy, "...for speed, sumptuous cabins, elaborate cuisine - and prostitution."
At the bar, Shelton asked "Who's treating?" Someone pointed to Billy Lyons. Shelton sat at his table, where, according to several witnesses, they drank companionably until the talk turned to politics. They started throwing blows at each other's hats, Shelton eventually breaking the brim of Lyon's derby.
In turn, Lyons grabbed Shelton's Stetson, saying he wouldn't return it until he was paid for his damaged hat.
Shelton pulled a .44 Smith & Wesson revolver, shot Lyons, took the Stetson from his hand, and walked out of the bar back to his boarding house. He was arrested the next morning.
[
Stagolee - Mississippi John Hurt]
***
There are hundreds of different versions of the song, variously called
Stagger Lee,
Stagolee,
Stackerlee,
Stack O'Lee,
Stack-a-Lee and several other spellings, sung by musicians as far apart in style as W.C. Handy (
Stack O'Lee) and The Clash (
Wrong `Em Boyo).
Here's a cowboy swing version from 19 and 51, this one with the title of
Stack-O-Lee, sung by Mr.
Sixteen Tons himself, Tennessee Ernie Ford.
[
Stack-O-Lee - Tennessee Ernie Ford]
Tennessee Ernie started off his career as a disc jockey in California in the `40s, and ended up with several chart hits under his belt, including
I'll Never Be Free, a duet with Kay Starr, and his signature tune...
[
Sixteen Tons excerpt]
Other artists who have recorded
Stagger Lee under various titles include Bob Dylan, Taj Mahal, Duke Ellington, Woody Guthrie, Bill Haley & His Comets, Ike and Tina Turner, Fats Domino, Doc Watson, Dr. John, The Isley Brothers, and Huey Lewis And The News. One of the more notable alternate universe versions of the story was written by Robert Hunter for the Grateful Dead, where Billy's wife, Delia, hunts down down Stagger Lee and has her revenge.
[
Stagger Lee - Lloyd Price]
In 19 and 59,
Stagger Lee became a number one hit for Lloyd Price, selling million of copies and topping both the pop and R&B charts for a full month. At one point the single sold over 200,000 copies in one day.
Lloyd Price recorded his first
Stagger Lee on September 11th, 19 and 58 as the B side of what he thought would be a hit single,
You Need Love. But
You Need Love flopped, while deejays thought
Stagger Lee was a gas, especially with its novelty of having white backup singers behind a black lead.
Stagger Lee was on the charts by December 8th 19 and 58, and was heading nowhere but up. But Price had gone back into the studio four days earlier to record another version. Why? The story gets a little fuzzy at this point, but like Stagger Lee's nemesis, Billy, there's always one name associated with Lloyd Price's alternate version of
Stagger Lee - Dick Clark.
[
American Bandstand theme]
Most stories have it that Clark felt lyrics like
the bullet went through Billy and it broke the bartender's glass inappropriate for
American Bandstand's teen audience, and that he was the one who requested - or commanded - that Price castrate ol' Stagger Lee if he wanted to appear on the show. But at least one report has it that Price had
already sung the original version at least twice earlier on both
Bandstand and
The Dick Clark Show with no objection from Clark.
It may have been that as the song's popularity and airplay increased, Price and/or his label, and/or Dick Clark (and/or the ABC network) may have become nervous about the complaints - many organized by the then very powerful "League of Decency"- that were pouring into radio stations about
Stagger Lee's content, and someone may have decided that Price's next
Bandstand appearance was the perfect time to roll out a more kid-friendly version.
What we do know is that Price rewrote and recorded the alternate version on December 4th, 1958, possibly with tongue firmly in cheek. In the new song Stagger Lee and Billy just exchange harsh words rather than gun play, Stagger retires with hurt feelings, and the two later make up. The song also includes the memorable closing lines...
Stagger Lee and Billy never fuss or fight no more
Because he got back his girlfriend and Stagger Lee was no more sore
[
Stagger Lee (Bandstand Version) - Lloyd Price]
The reworked track, officially titled
Stagger Lee (Bandstand Version), was reportedly intended for use only on the show, as Price gamely lip-synched the changed lyrics without breaking up. However, while never officially released, the revised single did somehow make its way out to radio stations, lending credence to the theory that it had always been intended as an alternative version for airplay. "So, you say you're getting complaints about
Stagger Lee? Play this version instead. Hell the kids don't listen to the words anyway... just as long as its got a good beat, and you can dance to it."
[A Word from Our Sponsor]
There are many strange versions of
Stagger Lee, but one of the strangest may be one from 19 and 28, recorded by Cliff Edwards, better known then as "Ukulele Ike," and best remembered now as the voice of Jiminy Cricket in Walt Disney's
Pinocchio. Whether you realized it or not, you've almost certainly heard Edwards at least once, singing
When You Wish Upon a Star.
Here's Ukulele Ike with
Stack O'Lee.
[
Stack O'Lee - Ukulele Ike (Cliff Edwards)]
A forgotten son of Hannibal Missouri; the man who introduced the song S
inging in the Rain on screen in 19 and 29; featured in more than 100 movies; star of his own radio show and frequent guest on
The Mickey Mouse Club, Cliff Edwards would die alone and penniless in California in 1971. His unclaimed body was first donated to the UCLA hospital, but - in a semi-happy ending - was later purchased and buried by the Walt Disney Company.
[
When You Wish Upon a Star (excerpt) - Cliff Edwards]
The Stagger Lee story is also popular in the black community as a "toast." Not the type the white community is familiar with hearing at weddings - but a ribald, recited story in verse, precursor to rap, and usually performed solely for family and friends at stag parties. The speaker takes on the role of Stagger Lee, boasting about his badness and exploits with women, and always ending with Billy Lyons dead on the floor, victim of the speaker's still-smoking .44. Samuel L. Jackson performs a cross between song and toast in the movie
Black Snake Moan, in a version of
Staggolee based on R.L. Burnside's original.
[
Stack-O-Lee - Samuel L. Jackson]
Recommended Reading:
Stagolee Shot Billy by Cecil Brown; the definitive book on the song and the real people behind the song. Highly recommended to all who love music history.
Stagger Lee written by Derek McCulloch and drawn by Shepherd Hendrix. Largely based on Brown's non-fiction book, McCulloch and Hendrix blend fact and fiction to tell one and more possible stories about Lee Shelton. Also highly recommended, especially for those that still feel graphic novels are just "comic books." Also worth checking out are Derek's blog
largehearted boy and the graphic novel's "official" blog,
Stagger Lee.
Top image: "John Canoe (with guitar) and friends," July 1935, by Alan Lomax. Public domain via the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Lomax Collection.
***
[Background -
Stack O Lee Aloha - Bob Brozman]
You've been listening to the
Dreamtime podcast – occasional commentary on Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour.
Dreamtime is researched and written by Fred Bals, and is a
Not Associated With production. As the name says, we're not associated with XM Radio, Bob Dylan, or much of anything else.
Some of the music on Dreamtime is provided via the Podsafe Music Network. Check it out at
music.podshow.dot com. The background music for the opening segment was
eve, performed by Josh Roydhouse.
Remember that the Dreamtime team loves to get email. You can write us at
dreamtimepodcast@gmail.com
The
Dreamtime top cats are Curly Lasagna and Shaggy Bear. Our announcers are the notorious honky-tonkin' sisters, Jailbait and Joyride.
Until next time, dream well.
