In the comments to yesterday’s post about the true story behind Stack O’Lee / Stagger Lee, Michael M. hipped me to a whole lot more information about the story, including some excellent posts on his blog.

One of the most interesting chestnuts is that the house Lee Sheldon, aka ‘Stag’ Lee, lived in is still standing. Here’s a street view, courtesy of Google maps:

View Larger Map

And William Lyons is buried in St. Peter’s cemetary in Normandy, Missouri. Here’s a link to the grave:

FindAGrave.com

Check out Michael’s blog, Peripatetic Circumambulant, to dig deeper into what has become one of the most enduring ‘bad man’ songs in American music.

We’ve posted several versions of Stack O’Lee/ Stagger Lee here on the TweedBlog, so I’d like to give a little information on the true story behind one of American music’s more enduring songs. Lyons and Lee were real people and, according to news reports of the day, ‘Stag’ Lee really did shoot Lyons in an argument over a hat.

The St. Louis Globe Democrat, 1895

“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 Sheldon, a carriage driver. Lyons and Sheldon 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 Sheldon’s hat from his head. The latter indignantly demanded its return. Lyons refused, and Sheldon withdrew his revolver and shot Lyons in the abdomen. When his victim fell to the floor Sheldon 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 Sheldon is also known as ‘Stag’ Lee”

Lyons died the day after Christmas, 1895. Missouri has a searchable database of Coroner’s records. If you want to see the page for Lyons, visit Missouri Digital Heritage. You can even order a copy of the coroner’s report.

There’s more on the song and the legend here: Stagger Lee

The intersection of 11th and Morgan doesn’t really exist anymore. Morgan in that stretch has become Convention Plaza. Here’s a Google map of the crime scene:

View Larger Map

Related posts:
Mississippi John Hurt playing Stack O Lee Blues
The Down Home Boys singing Original Stack O’Lee Blues

…Of course, the word ‘Original’ in the title more or less ensures that it’s not the original, but what the heck. Originality notwithstanding, this is the rarest of the rare. There is only one known copy of this recording, and it’s in Joe Bussard’s collection.

This was recorded in Chicago in 1927, and issued on the revered Black Patti label. Black Patti was unusual among so-called ‘Race’ record labels of its era in that it was black owned.

The song is one of the most enduring ‘bad man’ ballads in American music, surviving well into the rock and roll era. The prominient III chord is a ragtime artifact.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Courtesy of Archive.org. This track is included on the Old Hat compilation CD Down in the Basement, which every American should own.

This 1924 session for Columbia is among the earlier examples of rural vernacular song on a commercial record. The song is not, as one might suspect, a minstrel song, but rather a Tin Pan Alley tune by George Cobb and Jack Yellen that passed into the oral tradition. Note that the song text is not in the mock dialect of many similar songs of that era, and the sheet music cover is rather dignified when compared to other contemporaneous publications with similar subject matter.

Are You From Dixie has since become an old-timey and bluegrass standard. Click the link at left for a high-resolution scan of the sheet music, courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Thompson sings and accompanies himself on guitar and harmonica.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Courtesy of Archive.org

This appealing side was cut on July 10, 1928 in Richmond, Indiana, for the Gennett label. It was paired with a tune from a session five days earlier (‘Somebody’s Waiting for Me’) on Gennett 6620.

The personnel:

• Herbert Sweet: fiddle;
• Earl Sweet: banjo, vocal;
• Ernest Stoneman: guitar, vocal

I don’t know much about the tune. The text seems to be a combination of verses unique to this song with commonplace stanzas. Nor do I know much about the Sweet Brothers, whose recorded output doesn’t seem to extend beyond these sessions in Richmond. I assume that they were fellow Virginians, given their work with Stoneman, but am far too lazy to verify this at the moment.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Courtesy of Archive.org. This is included on the Old Hat compilation Down in the Basement: Joe Bussard’s Treasure Trove of Vintage 78s, which I recommend unreservedly.

This side, recorded in Memphis in December, 1927, represents one half of the total recorded output of Weems String Band. It’s a pity, too, because it’s a rather extraordinary record. With more weemses than one could shake a stick at.

The personnel:

• Dick Weems, fiddle;
• Frank Weems, fiddle;
• Alvin Condor, banjo/ voc;
• Jesse Weems, cello

While the inclusion of the cello is unusual, the loose two fiddle and banjo sound is classic old-time country: multiple instruments playing simultaneous variations on a melody. There’s not really much accompaniment per se, just thick, glorious heterophony.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Courtesy of Archive.org

Before he was a singing cowboy, Gene Autry was a Jimmie Rodgers imitator, and a good one. His earliest recordings include several titles from the Rodgers canon, as well as new songs in Rodgers’ style, delivered in a vocal style remarkably similar to the Singing Brakeman’s.

Autry was a national radio star before he transitioned to films, performing on the WLS National Barn Dance in Chicago from 1930-1935.

This track was recorded in New York in October, 1931, and issued on a slew of cut-price labels: Banner, Oriole, Conqueror (one of the Sears house labels), Melotone, Perfect, Romeo, and Panachord. The tenor banjo accompaniment is by Roy Smeck, one of the most versatile instrumentalists of his era.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3

Courtesy of Archive.org

The Carter Family first cut this tune in 1928 for the Victor label, and it remains one of their most-loved performances. Though the lyrics border on doggerel, the singing and playing are gorgeous. This has long been required learning for all aspiring old-timey guitarists. Guitar tablature for the piece is easily found with teh Google, nearly all of it wildly inaccurate. This tab, while it doesn’t match the Carter Family version exactly, is a good arrangement.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download (MP3)

Courtesy of Archive.org