Stagolee Shot BillyAlthough 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. |
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Cecil Brown. Stagolee Shot Billy Stagolee Shot Billy Cecil Brown Harvard University Press Cambridge ,
Cecil Brown. Stagolee Shot Billy Stagolee Shot Billy Cecil Brown Harvard University Press Cambridge ,
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Cecil Brown. Stagolee Shot Billy Cecil Brown Harvard University Press Cambridge , Massachusetts , and London , England . This One OJ5B - F3P - 94TB To Alan Dundes , with great admiration Copyright © 2003.
Cecil Brown. Stagolee Shot Billy Cecil Brown Harvard University Press Cambridge , Massachusetts , and London , England . This One OJ5B - F3P - 94TB To Alan Dundes , with great admiration Copyright © 2003.
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African African-American ain't Alan Lomax American Folklore bad nigger bartender Billy Lyons Billy's blues Bluestein Bob Dylan Bobby Seale bordello called Cambridge Chestnut Valley City Coonjine culture David Democratic devil Dundes Eskew folklorist Four Hundred Club gang Gordon heard Henry Bridgewater hero Ibid Interzones jail James Baldwin Jim Crow John Lomax killed Lee Shelton legend levee lived looking Louis University Ma Rainey mack Mississippi Missouri Mumford murder Murphy musicians myth Negro nigger oral literature oral narrative oral tradition Orleans party performance pimp police political prison prostitution Records Reedy's Republican Richard Wright riverboat Rounder Records roustabouts saloon sang shack bully shot Billy sing singers slave Stack Lee Stack-o-Lee Stackalee Stackerlee Stag Stagger Lee Staggerlee Stagolee Stagolee ballad Stagolee's stanza Stetson story Street tion toast told Tragedy in Ragtime University Press version of Stagolee William Barlow William Marion Reedy woman women York young
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Page 91 - Alongside decayed roues with dubious means of subsistence and of dubious origin, alongside ruined and adventurous offshoots of the bourgeoisie, were vagabonds, discharged soldiers, discharged jailbirds, escaped galley slaves, swindlers, mountebanks, lazzaroni, pickpockets, tricksters, gamblers, maquereaus* brothel keepers, porters, literati, organ-grinders, ragpickers, knife grinders, tinkers, beggars — in short, the whole indefinite, disintegrated mass, thrown hither and thither, which the French...
Page 204 - There is their Westminster Abbey." "There is their library." And at once, while reading that passage, my mind stopped, teased, challenged with the effort to remember, to associate widely disparate but meaningful experiences in my life. For a moment nothing would come, but I remained convinced that I had heard the meaning of those words sometime, somewhere before. Then, with a sudden glow of satisfaction of having gained a little more knowledge about the world in which I lived, I'd end up by saying:...
Page 78 - ... I'll put my life in pawn. She hurried and got Stackalee out on a five thousand dollar bond. Stackalee said, ain't but one thing that grieves my mind, When they take me away, babe, I leave you behind. But the woman he really loved was a voodoo queen From Creole French market, way down in New Orleans. He laid down at home that night, took a good night's rest, Arrived in court at nine o'clock to hear the coroner's inquest. Crowds jammed the sidewalk, far as you could see, Tryin to get a good look...
Page 205 - ... feeling and understanding so much, and yet living on a plane of social reality where the look of a world which one did not make or own struck one with a blinding objectivity and tangibility, that made me grasp the revolutionary impulse in my life and the lives of those about me and far away. I remember reading a passage in a book dealing with old Russia which said: "We must be ready to make endless sacrifices if we are to be able to overthrow the Czar.
Page 255 - I believe that the poet naturally prefers to write for as large and miscellaneous an audience as possible, and that it is the half-educated and ill-educated, rather than the uneducated, who stand in his way : I myself should like an audience which could neither read nor write.
Page 205 - His kinsmen are quite right to weep and be frightened, even to be appalled: for it is not his love for them or for himself which causes him to die, but his hatred and his selfhatred ; he does not redeem the pains of a despised people, but reveals, on the contrary, nothing more than his own fierce bitterness at having been born one of them. In this also he is the "native son...
Page 91 - ... brothel keepers, porters, literati, organ-grinders, ragpickers, knife grinders, tinkers, beggars — in short, the whole indefinite, disintegrated mass, thrown hither and thither, which the French term la boheme; from this kindred element Bonaparte formed the core of the Society of December 10. A "benevolent society...
Page 199 - Showed him bawdy houses An" cabarets, Slim thought of New Orleans An' Memphis days. Each devil was busy Wid a devilish broad, An' Slim cried, "Lawdy, Lawd, Lawd, Lawd." Took him in a room Where Slim see De preacher wid a brownskin On each knee. Showed him giant stills, Going everywhere, Wid a passel of devils Stretched dead drunk there. Den he took him to de furnace Dat some devils was firing, Hot as hell, an' Slim start A mean presspirin'.
Page 86 - St. Louis woman, wid her diamon' rings, Pulls dat man roun' by her apron strings. 'Twant for powder an' for store-bought hair, De man ah love would not gone nowhere, nowhere.
Page 1 - There is, however, a culture of the Negro which is his and has been addressed to him; a culture which has, for good or ill, helped to clarify his consciousness and create emotional attitudes which are conducive to action. This culture has stemmed mainly from two sources: 1) the Negro church; and 2) the folklore of the Negro people.