Re: Stagolle Story in print (Reviewed by Thumper) ( interesting read.)

Posted by Delta Dan on January 15, 2004, 11:45 am, in reply to "Stagolle Story in print (Reviewed by Thumper) ( interesting read.)"
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This account is very interesting and I will be buying the book. Thanks. The account of Stackolee in the interview with Mississippi John Hurt (Stefan Gorossmans's web site) is another interesting side of the story. Dan --Previous Message-- : : : : Stagolee Legend Comes Alive in New Book : : Stagolee Shot Billy : by Cecil Brown : ISBN: 0674010566 : Format: Hardcover, 296pp : Pub. Date: April 2003 : Publisher: Harvard University Press : Reviewed by Thumper : It was because of my mother's and aunt : Janice’s love of 60’s soul music that I first : encountered and fell in love with Wilson : Pickett singing "Stagger Lee". : Decades later when I started buying my own : music, I bought the Wilson Pickett's Greatest : Hits CD package that contained "Stagger : Lee". I can't say why I was so : fascinated with a song that described a man : begging for his life, and how the bullet : killing him broke the bartender’s glass. But, : I was. The legend of "Stagger Lee" : captured and held my attention for many : years. : The night was clear and the moon was yellow, : And the leaves came tumbling down. : I was standin' on the corner when I heard my : bulldog bark; : He was barkin' at the two men who gamblin' in : the dark. : It was Stagger Lee and Billy, two men who : gambled late. : Stagger Lee threw seven, Billy swore that he : threw eight. : Stagger Lee told Billy, "I can't let you : go with that. : You have won all my money and my brand new : Stetson hat." : Stagger Lee started off goin’ down that : railroad track. : He said, “I can’t get you Billy, but don’t be : here when I come back.” : Stagger Lee went home and got his forty-four : Said, "I'm goin' to the barroom just to : pay that debt I owe.” : Stagolee went to the barroom and he stood : across the barroom door : He said, “Nobody move,“ and he pulled his : forty-four. : Stagger Lee shot Billy, oh he shot that poor : boy so bad : Till the bullet came through Billy and it : broke the bartender’s glass. : -- "Stagolee Shot Billy" by Cecil : Brown : Earlier this year when I became aware that : Cecil Brown would soon be publishing a book : titled Stagolee Shot Billy, I was intrigued. : Finally, I thought, someone was going to : deliver a fictional account of ol' Stagolee : and Billy Lyons. I was wrong. Stagolee Shot : Billy is not a fictionalized account of the : soul- folktale that Wilson Pickett sang years : ago. Stagolee Shot Billy is the history of : the folk song, from its origin in 1895, up to : and including its many transformations and : names over the past century. : Brown examines the social effects of the : Stagolee legend; how the ballad benefited : from the African American oral tradition and : became its finest example; what Stagolee as : an antihero meant to African Americans : through the years; and how the song was one : of the predecessors to gangsta rap. The book : also establishes Stagolee's rightful place in : American history and folk myths along with : John Henry, Paul Bunyan, and others. : Stagolee Shot Billy was a joy that went down : nice and easy. I savored the book like ice : cream on a hot summer day. Brown began by : addressing the most obvious question: Were : Stagolee and Billy Lyons real people, or : mythical creations? Surprisingly, they : actually existed. In St. Louis, Missouri, on : Christmas Eve 1895, "Stack" Lee : Shelton shot and killed Billy Lyons at a bar : after Lyons had taken Shelton's Stetson hat. : Brown meticulously, remarkably, brings : "Stack" Lee Shelton, and Billy : Lyons to life by piecing together the known : aspects of their lives, the murder, the : social and political environment surrounding : the murder, possible motives behind the : shooting and the final outcome of the : principals after the murder. I was : enthralled. : When Brown turned his attention to the song : and its many transformations and versions -- : as the oral tradition wove its way through : time and across miles of fields, rivers and : highways -- his skills as a writer shone : through like a diamond. Brown was informative : without being boring. I couldn't believe my : luck that a literary analysis of this depth : was actually enjoyable. Then I got nervous, : waiting for the pleasant flow to come to an : end and for the boring part to start. : Fortunately, the book was entrancing from : beginning to end. : I was equally captivated when Brown expounded : on what Stagolee, the anti-hero, meant to : blacks who labored under inhumane conditions, : from the backbreaking sharecropper fields and : section gangs, to work camps. Brown argues : that ballads such as Stagolee and Frankie and : Johnny laid the musical foundation for : gangsta rap, and his logic is air tight and : waterproof. : Stagolee Shot Billy is a book of considerable : historical importance. While it is written in : a style and tone that belies an academic : examination, it offers impeccable scholarly : worth by explaining the merit and relevance : of the folk song. I couldn't put it down. : Stagolee Shot Billy accomplishes the dual : feats of being both educational and : entertaining. It is an outstanding book! : : :

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