Very interesting video. I think that this song exists in popular culture for the last sixty years due to the blockbuster hit done by Lloyd Price in 1958 ( its original, the best version of all, is on iTunes, marked Bandstand version )...fantastic orchestration, rockin' beat, great vocals and a scorching sax. An iconic hit that you never get tired of.
I think this video very neatly avoided speaking about race relations in America which is essentially the sticking point of the legend, the reason why it has been covered so many times with so many different iterations. The legend is a legend because it casts the black man as a fearsome criminal, the 'other' as opposed to the safe, white, civilised world. Have a read of James Baldwin's Staggerlee Wonders www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/88885/staggerlee-wonders and also I recommend watching the film - I Am Not Your Negro. This will cast the legend in a whole new light.
Wow! I guess it is possible to invest any story with "racism." Both Lee and his victim were black. There is an undercurrent of politics in some tellings of the story as Black voters were divided at that time between the Republican party (in memory of Lincoln) and rthe Democratic party which later became asociated with Black voters especially during the Depression. Racism did, and still does exist. The story of Stagger Lee as an entry in the sad history is a reach in my opinion.
Police and officers, how can it be? You can arrest everybody except cruel stagger lee. He’s a bad man, ol’ cruel stagger lee. That’s the American problem.
Very interesting video. I think that this song exists in popular culture for the last sixty years due to the blockbuster hit done by Lloyd Price in 1958 ( its original, the best version of all, is on iTunes, marked Bandstand version )...fantastic orchestration, rockin' beat, great vocals and a scorching sax. An iconic hit that you never get tired of.
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That a cronicull
Too cool. Thank you!
Billy lyons mustve been pretty hated
If they made a song over his death ppl would be singing over 100 years later
I'm fascinated by this story, piqued by the Dead.
I think this video very neatly avoided speaking about race relations in America which is essentially the sticking point of the legend, the reason why it has been covered so many times with so many different iterations. The legend is a legend because it casts the black man as a fearsome criminal, the 'other' as opposed to the safe, white, civilised world. Have a read of James Baldwin's Staggerlee Wonders www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/88885/staggerlee-wonders and also I recommend watching the film - I Am Not Your Negro. This will cast the legend in a whole new light.
Wow! I guess it is possible to invest any story with "racism." Both Lee and his victim were black. There is an undercurrent of politics in some tellings of the story as Black voters were divided at that time between the Republican party (in memory of Lincoln) and rthe Democratic party which later became asociated with Black voters especially during the Depression.
Racism did, and still does exist. The story of Stagger Lee as an entry in the sad history is a reach in my opinion.
Also, in American Fiction the author's pen name is Stagg R. Leigh
Pacific Gas did the best version. Plays on Tarantino’s Death Proof.
Lee Shelton, the writer of the song, went to prison for murder in 1895.
* Stetson hat
Police and officers, how can it be?
You can arrest everybody except cruel stagger lee.
He’s a bad man, ol’ cruel stagger lee.
That’s the American problem.