1940 Xmas eve with a full moon over town
Stagger Lee met Billy DeLyon
and he blew that poor boy down
Do you know what he shot him for?
What do you make of that?
’Cause Billy DeLyon threw lucky dice,2
won Stagger Lee’s Stetson hat3
Baio, Baio, tell me how can this be?4
You arrest the girls for turning tricks
but you’re scared of Staggerlee
Stagger Lee is a madman and he shot my Billy dead
Baio you go get him or give the job to me
Delia DeLyon, dear sweet Delia-D
How the hell can I arrest him when he’s twice as big as me?
Don’t ask me to go downtown—I won’t come back alive
Not only is that mother big but he packs a .45
Baio Delia said just give me a gun
He shot my Billy dead now I’m gonna see him hung
She waded to DeLyon’s Club through Billy DeLyon’s blood
Stepped up to Stagger Lee at the bar
Said Buy me a gin fizz, love5
As Stagger Lee lit a cigarette she shot him in the balls
Blew the smoke off her revolver, had him
dragged to city hall
Baio, Baio, see you hang him high
He shot my Billy dead and now he’s got to die
Delia went a-walking down on Singapore Street
A three-piece band on the corner played “Nearer My God to Thee”6
But Delia whistled a different tune . . . what tune could it be?
The song that woman sung was
Look out Staggerlee
The song that Delia sung was
Look out Staggerlee
The song that woman sung was
Look out Staggerlee
The song that Delia sung was
Look out Staggerlee
Words by Robert Hunter
Music by Jerry Garcia
A number of tunes titled “Stagger Lee” have been recorded over the years. They all derive from a series of tales and songs in African American folklore.
Cecil Brown’s definitive study Stagolee Shot Billy should serve as a model for anyone wishing to do in-depth research into the factual background of traditional material. But Brown goes beyond historical research, exploring the cultural significance and influence of the Stagolee material since it was born, of actual events, in 1895. The ballad documents the historical fact of the murder, on Christmas Day, of Billy Lyons by Lee “Stack Lee” Shelton in a St. Louis bar. Brown tells the story compellingly, with sense and color. He examines dozens of versions of the ballad (including Hunter’s) and discusses the variations and their implications.
Here’s a partial list of other “Stagger Lee”s, in alphabetical order by performer:
Archibald: Imperial X5358
Bechet, Sidney: “Old Stack O’Lee Blues” on The Best of Sidney Bechet (Blue Note, CDP 7243 8 28891 2 0, 1994)
Bookbinder, Roy: “Stack O Lee” on Ragtime
Millionaire (Yellow Bee Productions, 5BG-2023, 1977)
Brozman, Bob: “Stack o Lee Aloha” on A Truck-load of Blues (Rounder, CD 3119, 1992)
Calloway, Cab: “Stack O’ Lee Blues” on Cab Calloway and His Orchestra, 1931–1932 (Classics 526, 1990)
Clayton, Paul: Bloody Ballads, (Riverside RLP 12-615)
Dodds, Johnny: “Stack O’Lee Blues” on side B of Melancholy (Decca, 1676, 1938)
Domino, Fats: “Stack & Billy” on Let’s Play (Imperial, LP-9065, 1959)
Dylan, Bob: “Stack a Lee” on World Gone Wrong (Columbia, CK 57590, 1993)
Edwards, Cliff: “Stack O’ Lee, Part 1” and “Stack O’ Lee, Part 2” (ca. 1924) on I’m a Bear in a Lady’s Boudoir (Yazoo, L-1047, 1975)
English, Logan: (Riverside 12-643)
Fuller, Jesse: “Stagolee” on Jazz, Folk Songs, Spirituals, and Blues (Original Blues Classics, 2530 564 2, 1958)
The Green Mountain Boys: “Stagolee” on The Green Mountain Boys (Green Mountain Records, GMS 1053, 197?)
Guthrie, Woody: “Stagolee” on Bound for Glory (Smithsonian/Folkways Records, 02481, 1992; originally recorded 1956)
Houston, Cisco: “Stagolee” on Hard Traveling (Folkways, FA 2042, 1954)
Hull, Papa Harvey, Long “Cleve” Reed, and the Down Home Boys: “Original Stack O’Lee Blues” (ca. 1927) on The Songster Tradition: Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order (1927–1935) (Document Records, DOCD- 5045, 1991)
Hurt, Mississippi John: “Stack O’ Lee Blues” on 1928 sessions (Yazoo, 1065, 1990)
Hutchinson, Frank: on American Folk Music, vol. 1: Ballads (Folkways, FP 251, 1927)
Johnson, Tex: “Stack o Lee” on Gunfighter Ballads (Promenade, 2239, 1961)
Lester, Julius: “Stagolee” on Julius Lester Accompanying Himself on the Guitar (Vanguard, VRS- 9199, 1965)
Lewis, Furry: “Billy Lyons and Stack O’Lee” on Furry Lewis (1927–1929): Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order (Document Records, DOCD-5004, 1990); recording also includes “Kassie Jones, Part 1 and 2.”
Lomax, Alan (comp.): “Stackerlee,” by an unknown performer on Negro Prison Songs from the Mississippi State Penitentiary (Tradition, TLP 1020, 1947; recorded by Alan Lomax in 1947 at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, Mississippi
Lomax, Alan: Listen to Our Story (BR-1024)
McCurdy, Ed: (Elektra 108)
Memphis Slim: “Stack Alee” on Broken Soul Blues (United Artists, UAL3137, 1961)
New Lost City Ramblers: “Stackerlee” on The New Lost City Ramblers (Folkways Records, FA 2399, 1962)
Noble, Ray: “Stack O’ Lee” (ca. 1935) on Ray Noble and His American Dance Orchestra (Jazz Archives, JA-22, 1975)
Paley, Tom: “Stackerlee” on Old Tom Moore and More (Global Village, C 309, 1991)
Price, Lloyd: “Stagger Lee” by Harold Logan and Lloyd Price (based on traditional material) (1958)
Rainey, Ma: “Stack O’Lee Blues” on Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and on The Complete Madam Gertrude “Ma” Rainey Mastertakes’ Collection, 1923/28 (King Jazz, KJ-182 FS, 1994)
Senter, Boyd: “Original Stack O’Lee Blues” on Solos and Senterpedes: 1927–1928 (Harlequin, HQ 2044, 1986)
Sol Hoopii’s Novelty Trio: “Stack O’Lee Blues” on side B of Farewell Blues (Columbia, 797-D, 1926)
Stuart, Alice: “Stackerlee” on All the Good Times (Arhoolie, F 4002, 1964)
Travis, Merle: “Stack O’Lee” on Rough, Rowdy, and Blue CMH (CMH-C-6262, 1986.)
Turner, Titus: Return of Stagolee (King, 45- 5186, 1959)
The Washingtonians (a pseudonym for Duke Ellington and his Orchestra): “Stack O’Lee Blues” on side B of Red Head Blues (Velvet Tone, 1601-V, 1927)
Watson, Doc: “Stack O’Lee” on Ballads from Deep Gap (Vanguard, VMD-6576, 1988)
Wheeler, Mary (comp.): “Stacker Lee” (Bertha Wenzel, singer; Bill Small, guitar) on Folk Songs of the River (Century Custom Recording Service, 20074, ca. 1982)
Three versions of “Stagger Lee”:
STAGOLEE
Stagolee was a bad man,
Ev’rybody knows.
Spent one hundred dollars
Just to buy him a suit of clothes.
That mean old Stagolee
Stagolee shot Blly de Lyons
What do you think about that?
Shot him down in cold blood
Because he stole his Stetson hat;
He was a bad man
That mean old Stagolee
Billy de Lyons said, Stagolee
Please don’t take my life
I’ve got two little babes
And a darling, loving wife;
You are a bad man
You mean old Stagolee.
What do I care about your two little babes,
Your darling, loving wife?
You done stole my Stetson hat
I’m bound to take your life;
He was a bad man,
That mean old Stagolee.
The judge said, Stagolee,
What you doing in here?
You done shot Mr. Billy de Lyons,
You going to die in the electric chair;
He was a bad man
That mean old Stagolee.
Twelve o’clock they killed him
Head reached up high
Last thing that poor boy said,
“My six-shooter never lied.”
He was a bad man,
That mean old Stagolee.
STAGALEE
Bad man Stagalee when he bad
He bad wid a gun
Stagalee, Stagalee—-you must-a been a sinner
Ev’ry Christmas Eve they give Stagalee a dinner
Bad man Stagalee, when he bad
He bad wid a gun.
Don’t you remember you remember
One dark stormy night
Stagalee and Bill O. Lion
Dey had dat noble fight.
Bill O. Lion tole Stagalee
Please don’t take my life
I got three little children
And a dear lil’ lovin’wife
Stagalee told Billy O. Lion
I don’t care for your three lil’ children
Or even your lovin’ wife
You stole mah Stetson hat
And I’m goin to take yo’ life
Stagalee pulled out his forty-four
It went boom boom boom
It wasn’t long’ fore Bill O. Lion
Were layin’ on de flo’
Stagalee’s woman she went to her boss
Said, “Please give me some change.
Dey got my baby in de station house
An’ mah business mus’ be ‘ranged.”
Stagalee asked his woman
“How much change has you got?”
She run her han’ in her stocking feet
And pulled out a hundred spot.
She had to get mo’money.
From Southern Folk Ballads, McNeill Collected from Vera
Hall, AL 1947
This variation of Stagalee was collected February 9, 1910, from a Miss Ella Scott Fisher, San Angelo, Texas, and appears in A Compilation of American Ballads and Folk Songs (1934) by John and Allan Lomax. It was sung as a work song on the levees while loading and unloading the river freighters.
STAGALEE
’Twas a Christmas morning,
The hour was about ten,
When Stagalee shot Billy Lyons
And landed in the Jefferson pen.
O Lordy, po’ Stagalee!
Billy Lyons’ old woman
She was a terrible sinner
She was home that Christmas mornin’
A-preparin’ Billy’s dinner.
O Lordy, po’ Stagalee!
Messenger boy came to the winder,
Then he knocked on the door
An’ he said “Yer old man’s a lyin’ there
Dead on the barroom floor.”
O Lordy, po’ Stagalee!
(Billy’s old woman:)
“Stagalee, O Stagalee,
What have you gone and done?
You’ve gone and shot my husband
With a forty-four Gatlin’ gun?”
O Lordy, po’ Stagalee!
(Stagalee’s friend:)
“Stagalee, O Stagalee
Why don’t you cut and run
For here comes the policeman
And I think he’s got a gun.”
O Lordy, po’ Stagalee!
(Policeman, a little scared of Stagalee:)
“Stagalee, O Stagalee
I’m ‘restin’ you just for fun
The officer jest wants you
To identify your gun.”
(Stagalee in jail:)
“Jailer, O Jailer
I jest can’t sleep
For the ghost of Billy Lyons
Round my bed does mourn and weep.”
O Lordy, po’ Stagalee!
(Council for the defense:)
“Gentlemen of this jury
You must let poor Stagalee go
His poor and aged mammy
Is lyin’ very low.”
O Lordy, po’ Stagalee!
(Counsel for the Prosecution:)
“Gentlemen of this jury
Wipe away your tears.
For Stagalee’s aged mammy
Has been dead these ‘leven years.”
O Lordy, po’ Stagalee!
Stagalee’s old woman
She hung around the jail
And in three days she had him out
On a ten-thousand-dollar bail
O Lordy, po’ Stagalee!
Mary Wheeler’s collected version of the tune is included in her collection of songs Roustabout Songs: A Collection of Ohio River Valley Songs:
Stacker Lee is lookin’ fo’ de bully, de bully cain’t be foun’,
Now we gonna walk dis levee roun’, roun’,
Gonna walk dis levee roun’,
I’m lookin’ fo’ de bully of dis town!
I’m lookin’ fo’ de bully, de bully mus’ be foun’!
I’m lookin’ fo’ de bully boys, to lay de body down,
I’m lookin’ fo’ de bully of dis town!
Dice references are plentiful in Grateful Dead lyrics, being part of the overall gambling motif.
“Roll those laughing bones”—“Candyman”
“They say that Cain caught Abel / rolling loaded dice”—
“Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo”
“Rat cat alley, roll them bones”—“Throwing Stones”
“Commissars and pinstripe bosses / Roll the dice”—“Throwing Stones”
The archetypal Western hat. Patrick Bousquet’s article “The Hat of the West: John B. and His Stetson,” tells the history of the hat and of its creator, John B. Stetson. Stetson was born in 1830 to a “master hatmaker, Stephen Stetson, of Orange, New Jersey.” In about 1850, he invented what is now thought of as the classic Stetson, “a large hat with a broad brim for protection from the sun and rain, and it had a high crown.” When he went into production with this hat, he christened it “Boss of the Plains.”
Botkin has this story:
THE MAGIC HAT
You see, it happened like this: Stack was crazy about Stetson hats; specially them great big five-gallon hats with dimples in the crown. And he had a whole row of ’em hangin’ on pegs, and you could look at em along the wall of his rickety shanty on Market Street, in St. Louis, where he lived with his woman, Stack o’ Dollars, that I’m goin to tell you about later.
He had a dimpled and lemon-colored yaller hat, and a black Sunday one with two white eyes to wear to funerals with his new brogans, and lots of other ones, all kinds and colors.
But his favorite one was an oxblood magic hat that folks claim he made from the raw hide of a man-eatin’ panther that the devil had skinned alive. And like I told you, how come Stack to have it was because he had sold his soul to old Scratch. You see, Satan heard about Stack’s weakness, so he met him that dark night and took him into the grave yard, where he coaxed him into tradin’ his soul, promisin him he could do all kinds of magic and devilish things long as he wore that oxblood Stetson and didn’t let it get away from him. And that’s the way the devil fixed it, so when Stack did lose it he would lose his head, and kill a good citizen, and run right smack into his doom.
Brown, quoting Nathan Young, describes the style of Stetson favored by the St. Louis underworld in 1895:
The hats had “a special high felt crown” but “were not as tall as the regular toppers. They came in colors, seldom black. The brims were slightly rolled with a silk binding. They had to be Stetsons, and no other brand!”
This name seems to be unique to Hunter’s version of the story. However, Brown appears to have spoken with Hunter about the lyric, and he cites the passage as “Bail, Bail,” Perhaps Garcia changed the name in his singing, leading Hunter to alter his original name for the song’s representative of the law; bail could be short for “bailiff,” and hence be a nickname relating to the job.
Blend:
5 oz gin
5 heaping teaspoons sugar
juice of a lemon
one egg
one tablespoon Cointreau
one teaspoon orange rind or one teaspoon orange flower water
Add 4 ice cubes—mix till they’re gone
Add equal amount of milk and mix
Serve in chilled glasses. 82
The title of an old hymn (1859), by Sarah Adams and Lowell Mason, famously played by the ship’s band on the Titanic as the boat sank.
Nearer, my God, to Thee,
Nearer to Thee!
E’en tho’ it be a cross
That raiseth me;
Still all my song shall be—
Nearer, my God, to Thee,
Nearer, my God, to Thee,
Nearer to Thee!
Tho’ like the wanderer,
The sun goes down,
Darkness be over me,
My rest a stone;
Yet in my dreams
I’d be nearer, my God, to Thee,
Nearer, my God, to Thee,
Nearer to Thee!
There let my way appear,
Steps unto heaven;
All that Thou sendest me,
In mercy given;
Angels to beckon me
Nearer, my God, to Thee,
Nearer, my God, to Thee,
Nearer to Thee!
Then with my waking thoughts,
Bright with thy praise,
Out of my stony griefs,
Bethel I’ll raise;
So by my woes to be,
Nearer, my God, to Thee,
Nearer to Thee!
And if on joyful wing,
Cleaving the sky,
Sun, moon, and stars forgot,
Upward I fly;
Still all my song shall be—
Nearer, my God, to Thee,
Nearer, my God, to Thee,
Nearer to Thee!
Studio recording: Shakedown Street (November 15, 1978).
First performance: August 30, 1978, at Red Rocks Amphitheater in Morrison, Colorado. The song has had a fairly consistent place in the repertoire over the years, disappearing now and then for extended periods.
In Hunter’s A Box of Rain, the lyric is titled “Delia Delyon and Staggerlee.”