Stagolee Shot Billy
- Author: Brown, Cecil
This entertaining book is the first to rigorously explore [the song's] origins in the St. Louis gang underworld. Brown paints a rich picture of the incident, traces the song's virus-like spread...
Stagolee Shot Billy
- Author: Brown, Cecil
Purchase product
This entertaining book is the first to rigorously explore [the song's] origins in the St. Louis gang underworld. Brown paints a rich picture of the incident, traces the song's virus-like spread...
About
Although his story has been told countless times--by performers from Ma Rainey, Cab Calloway, and the Isley Brothers to Ike and Tina Turner, James Brown, and Taj Mahal--no one seems to know who Stagolee really is. Stack Lee? Stagger Lee? He has gone by all these names in the ballad that has kept his exploits before us for over a century. Delving into a subculture of St. Louis known as "Deep Morgan," Cecil Brown emerges with the facts behind the legend to unfold the mystery of Stack Lee and the incident that led to murder in 1895.
How the legend grew is a story in itself, and Brown tracks it through variants of the song "Stack Lee"--from early ragtime versions of the '20s, to Mississippi John Hurt's rendition in the '30s, to John Lomax's 1940s prison versions, to interpretations by Lloyd Price, James Brown, and Wilson Pickett, right up to the hip-hop renderings of the '90s. Drawing upon the works of James Baldwin, Richard Wright, and Ralph Ellison, Brown describes the powerful influence of a legend bigger than literature, one whose transformation reflects changing views of black musical forms, and African Americans' altered attitudes toward black male identity, gender, and police brutality. This book takes you to the heart of America, into the soul and circumstances of a legend that has conveyed a painful and elusive truth about our culture.
Contents
- Introduction: The Tradition of Stagolee I. STAGOLEE AND ST. LOUIS
- 1. Stagolee Shot Billy
- 2. Lee Shelton: The Man behind the Myth
- 3. That Bad Pimp of Old St. Louis: The Oral Poetry of the Late 1890s
- 4. "Poor Billy Lyons"
- 5. Narrative Events and Narrated Events
- 6. Stagolee and Politics
- 7. Under the Lid: The Underside of the Political Struggle
- 8. The Black Social Clubs
- 9. Hats and Nicknames: Symbolic Values
- 10. Ragtime and Stagolee
- 11. The Blues and Stagolee II. THE THOUSAND FACES OF STAGOLEE
- 12. Jim Crow and Oral Narrative
- 13. Riverboat Rouster and Mean Mate
- 14. Work Camps, Hoboes, and Shack Bully Hollers
- 15. William Marion Reedy's White Outlaw
- 16. Cowboy Stagolee and Hillbilly Blues
- 17. Blueswomen: Stagolee Did Them Wrong
- 18. Bluesmen and Black Bad Man
- 19. On the Trail of Sinful Stagolee
- 20. Stagolee in a World Full of Trouble
- 21. From Rhythm and Blues to Rock and Roll: "I Heard My Bulldog Bark"
- 22. The Toast: Bad Black Hero of the Black Revolution
- 23. Folklore/Poplore: Bob Dylan's Stagolee III. MAMMY-MADE: STAGOLEE AND AMERICAN IDENTITY
- 24. The "Bad Nigger" Trope in American Literature
- 25. James Baldwin's "Staggerlee Wonders"
- 26. Stagolee as Cultural and Political Hero
- 27. Stagolee and Modernism Notes Bibliography Index
Awards and reviews
This entertaining book is the first to rigorously explore [the song's] origins in the St. Louis gang underworld. Brown paints a rich picture of the incident, traces the song's virus-like spread from blues to ragtime to pop, and figuring that it still moves people because, like most potent ancient black ballads, it is stark reportage with no moralising. Stagger Lee is not condemned, so he is free to live on in every badass to follow. -- Paul McGrath
