{"id":136,"date":"2016-02-27T07:00:21","date_gmt":"2016-02-27T12:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/?p=136"},"modified":"2021-06-26T10:35:36","modified_gmt":"2021-06-26T14:35:36","slug":"stagolee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/stagolee\/","title":{"rendered":"Stagolee (Woody Guthrie\/John Hurt\/folk legend)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Stagolee\" width=\"474\" height=\"267\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/HHENe24Lhcg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p data-wp-editing=\"1\">I&#8217;ve heard dozens of versions of this ballad over the years, and play three distinctly different ones, but the first I heard was by Woody Guthrie. A<img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-138 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/guthrie-bound-for-glory.jpg?resize=250%2C243&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"243\" \/>s best I can tell, his version derived from Mississippi John Hurt&#8217;s recording, but if so it had changed a lot in the interim, just keeping a few verses and the tag line. A few years later I learned Hurt&#8217;s guitar part, with the help of Stefan Grossman&#8217;s <em>Country Blues Guitar<\/em> book, and have continued to sing a mix of Woody&#8217;s and Hurt&#8217;s verses, with a few added from Dave Van Ronk. Dave played Furry Lewis&#8217;s version, but likewise mixed and matched verses from elsewhere, and I just noticed that Cisco Houston did Lewis&#8217;s version as well.<\/p>\n<p>That isn&#8217;t surprising, because African American blues records were very popular with white listeners in the 1920s and &#8217;30s, especially in the Southwest.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-139 size-full alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/john-hurt.jpg?resize=200%2C218&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"218\" \/><\/p>\n<p>When I was researching <em>How the Beatles<\/em><em> Destroyed Rock &#8216;n&#8217; Roll<\/em>, I came across a letter to <em>Billboard<\/em> from a jukebox operator in Beaumont, Texas, saying, &#8220;When we get a Race number that proves a hit we just leave it on the machine until it wears out. They don\u2019t get old and lose play like other records.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Stagolee&#8221; was based on a real event, the killing of Billy Lyons by &#8220;Stack Lee&#8221; Shelton in St. Louis on Christmas night in 1895, and the killing was truly over a hat &#8212; or actually two hats. As John Russell David writes in his dissertation, <em>Tragedy in Ragtime<\/em>, quoting from the transcript of the inquest:<\/p>\n<p>[A] quarrel over politics soon turned to an exchange of blows. The two men began striking each other\u2019s hats. Lee grabbed Lyons\u2019 derby and broke it. In return Lyons grabbed Lee\u2019s hat\u2026<br \/>\n\u201cGive me my hat,\u201d said Lee.<br \/>\n\u201cI ain\u2019t going to give it to you, I want pay for this,\u201d Lyons replied pointing to his derby.<br \/>\n\u201cHow much do you want?\u201d Lee asked.<br \/>\n\u201cI want six bits,\u201d Lyons demanded.<br \/>\n\u201cSix bits will buy a box of those kind of hat,\u201d Lee replied.<br \/>\n\u201cI want six bits,\u201d Lyons shouted.<br \/>\n\u201cGive me my hat,\u201d Lee demanded. \u201cIf you don\u2019t give me my hat, I\u2019ll blow your brains out.\u201d<br \/>\n\u201cI ain\u2019t going to give you the hat, you can kill me,\u201d said Lyons putting his hand into his pocket as if reaching for a knife or some other weapon. Then Lyons demanded pay again from Shelton and approached him saying, \u201cYou cock-eyed son-of-a-bitch, I am going to make you kill me\u2026.\u201d<br \/>\nAs Lyons approached, Stack fired once. The impact of the bullet, fired at close range, carried Lyons back against the railing of the bar. He staggered momentarily, still clutching Lee\u2019s hat in his fingers. Then he slumped onto the saloon floor. As he fell, Lee\u2019s hat rolled from his grasp. \u201cGive me my hat, nigger,\u201d said Stack Lee. He picked up his hat beside Lyons\u2019 outstretched hand and walked coolly out of the saloon into the brisk night air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The classic badman ballad, compiled from versions by John Hurt, Woody Guthrie, and Dave Van Ronk, with a transcript of apparently authentic dialogue from the trial of Stack Lee Shelton.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - 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This is the Lewis version, which turns out to be a reworking of a ballad from the same period about\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Ollie-Jackson-in-Adventure-Mag-1924.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1143,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/spike-drivers-blues\/","url_meta":{"origin":136,"position":1},"title":"Spike Driver&#8217;s Blues (John Hurt\/Dave Van Ronk)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"May 22, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The first song Dave Van Ronk taught me was John Hurt's powerfully understated meditation on the John Henry legend.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"dave van ronk7","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/dave-van-ronk7.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":765,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/see-see-rider\/","url_meta":{"origin":136,"position":2},"title":"See See Rider (Mississippi John Hurt and others)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"April 7, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I don't remember where, when, or how I first heard Mississippi John Hurt, but like a lot of people, I fell instantly in love with his gently expressive voice and the perfect swing and precision of his guitar playing. In retrospect, I think I misunderstood a lot of things about\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"Masters of Instrumental Blues","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Masters-of-Instrumental-Blues-229x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4111,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/candy-man-john-hurt\/","url_meta":{"origin":136,"position":3},"title":"Candy Man (John Hurt)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"November 10, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"This may well be the first song I ever heard from Mississippi John Hurt, because it was his first track on the Blues at Newport LP from 1963. That was one of the defining albums for me, the first place I heard Dave Van Ronk, John Hammond, John Lee Hooker...\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Blues-at-Newport-LP-295x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1824,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/bad-dream-blues\/","url_meta":{"origin":136,"position":4},"title":"Bad Dream Blues (Dave Van Ronk)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"July 25, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Though Dave Van Ronk was not principally known as a songwriter, he wrote some damn good songs. But before he got into songwriting in more ambitious ways, he recorded a handful of blues songs for which he took author credit. He didn't consider these fully original compositions, since they had\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"blues project","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/blues-project-300x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":641,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/going-down-the-road\/","url_meta":{"origin":136,"position":5},"title":"Going Down the Road Feeling Bad (Samantha Bumgarner\/proto-blues)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"March 23, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the oldest proto-blues songs, sung all across the South. I got it from Woody Guthrie, but everyone had a version of it.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"Samantha Bumgarner","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Samantha-Bumgarner-189x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4404,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136\/revisions\/4404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}