Traditional / Arrangement Bob Dylan / 3:51
Musician
Bob Dylan: vocals, guitar, harmonica
Recording Studio
Bob Dylan Garage Studio, Malibu: May 1993
Technical Team
Producer: Bob Dylan
Sound Engineer: Micajah Ryan
“Stack a Lee” is another folk song inspired by the criminal history of the late nineteenth century in the United States. The song recounts the story of Lee Shelton, an African-American originally from Texas who worked as coachman in St. Louis. In reality, most of his income came from gambling and other immoral activities. In 1897, Shelton was charged, tried, and convicted of murder and sentenced to twenty-five years in prison for killing a man with whom he had a fight in a bar. He was prematurely released in 1909, after receiving a pardon from the governor of Missouri. He returned to prison the following year for killing the owner of a house he was robbing. He was pardoned again in February 1912 but died of tuberculosis in the hospital’s prison. In St. Louis, Lee Shelton was nicknamed “Stack Lee” or “Stagger Lee,” which explains the different titles of the song. In 1925, Ma Rainey (with Louis Armstrong on cornet) recorded “Stack O’ Lee Blues,” followed by Duke Ellington and Frank Hutchison in 1927, and by Mississippi John Hurt in 1928. Woody Guthrie, Lloyd Price, the Grateful Dead, James Brown, and dozens of other performers have covered the song.
The reason Shelton fought with and then murdered a man in the red-light district of St. Louis on a night in December 1895 varies from version to version of the song. Dylan’s version is based on a dispute involving a Stetson hat. Dylan picked up the idea from John Smith Hurt, known as Mississippi John Hurt, but the similarity ends there. Mississippi John Hurt played guitar by flatpicking, while Dylan played by strumming. In the liner notes to World Gone Wrong, the songwriter says that his inspiration came from bluesman Frank Hutchison’s version. “Stack a Lee” is one of the only songs on the album where Dylan respected the original arrangements, even playing, like Hutchison, harmonica in C.