Stagger Lee Saturdays - Stack O' Dollars

Here's the post on Stack A Dollar I promised several weeks ago. Since I have three versions of this song, all recorded within five years of each other, I decided to go all out and put 'em all up.

Before I start, I need to note that, despite a similarity in title, this song is almost entirely lyrically unrelated to the story of "Stag" Lee Shelton and Billy Delions. (You'll note a "rumbling underground," which occurs in a lot of versions of "Stag" when Stag is in hell, turning Billy upside down, but that's about it.) With that said, Stagger Lee and Stack O'Dollars are both pimps and baaad men. (At least, Stack O'Dollars offers money for sex -- it's close enough for the sake of this argument, anyway. I own a 70's novel entitled Stack A Dollar, which I haven't yet read, but it's about a young pimp who presumably took his name from this legend. Also, see this.)

(For more lyrically unrelated versions, click here and here and here and here.)

In the late 1920's Sleepy John Estes (wiki AMG discography) teamed up with James "Yank" Rachell (wiki AMG) to play dances and parties, and they eventually went into a studio to record in 1929. In 1930, they laid down "Stack O'Dollars."

Rachell recorded his own solo version in 1934. One year later, Big Joe Williams (wiki AMG) (best known as the original artist of "(Baby) Please Don't Go") recorded his take on it.

All three men worked together decades later, as Yank Rachell's Tennessee Jug-Busters, though sadly they didn't include this song on their only album. (However, please note that Mike Bloomfield, who did his own version of Stag, also worked on this record.)

Sleepy John Estes - Stack O' Dollars
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James "Yank" Rachell - Stack O'Dollars Blues
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Big Joe Williams - Stack O'Dollars
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Silly Sundays - Rupert Holmes - Psycho Drama

Here's a bit of fun from Rupert Holmes' 1973 album, Widescreen, a collection of songs Holmes conceived of as "movies in sound." This is the fullest exploration of that idea from the album, and is more or less a full-blown radio play.

In the liner notes to the expanded collector's edition (where the buy link goes, natch), Holmes writes:

"Had I But Known (as they used to say on such [old-time radio] programs) that in the nineteen-nineties I'd have the chance to write four years worth of such programs for Remember WENN ... I'd probably have traded in this cut for two more ballads."

But if he'd done that, this album would feel a little less special to me.

Rupert Holmes - Psycho Drama
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Stagger Lee Saturdays - Lonnie Donegan and Chas McDevitt

It's skiffle week on Stagger Lee Saturdays! Skiffle is a genre of British jazz-rock-folk-blues, with a lot of instruments like washboard percussion and washtub basses. The King of Skiffle, Lonnie Donegan (official wiki AMG) recorded his version for the Pye label in 1956, and labelmate Chas McDevitt (official wiki AMG) laid his version down the next year.

Donegan's version is a slow, lazy rambling blues take (lyrically similar to Woody Guthrie's), with a few improvisations along the way. McDevitt's version is a rockin' version which, sadly, removes Billy from the story and changes Stag from a murderer into a simple hat thief. With that noted, McDevitt's version is peppy and upbeat -- I love just about any upbeat version of Stag.

I have a third skiffle version around here somewhere, but I'll save it for later. Next week is our final week of double-Stag posts for this month -- we'll be looking at the story of Stack A Dollar.

Lonnie Donegan - Stackalee
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Chas McDevitt - Badman Stackolee
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Silly Sundays - Rupert Holmes - Beef Lo Mein

Here's a track from the soundtrack to Rupert Holmes' 2006 mystery Swing. You can read more about the novel, and listen to the soundtrack, at Holmes' semiofficial site.

The novel is a murder mystery (and, like his first novel Where The Truth Lies, also serves as a metamystery) set in 1940's Golden Gate International Exposition. I won't summarize the plot here, but it's smart and complex, twisty and turny, and simultaneously hilarious and dead serious. Despite the grim, uncomfortable aspects of the plot, there's plenty of time for fun exploration of the World's Fair and 1940's pop culture.

And so, here is a 40's-style novelty song, proving once again that it's hard to write a song about food that isn't funny. (And, funny as this is, the song also turns out to be tragic in the novel. Just go ahead and click the buy link down there, okay?)

Rupert Holmes - Beef Lo Mein
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Stagger Lee Saturdays - Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway

Today we're going to hear two oldschool jazzy bandleaders, and their versions of Stag.

Duke Ellington (official wiki AMG)recorded his take in 1927, and it's an uptempo, bluesy little swing instrumental. That's right, an instrumental. I don't post a lot of instrumental takes on Stag (in fact, this is the first one), but Ellington's a big damn name. At the time, he was headlining The Cotton Club.

Four years later, Ellington's replacement at The Cotton Club, Cab Calloway (official wiki AMG), took the same tune and put lyrics to it, which are all about crazy dancing. (I'd believe Cab a little more if he hadn't slowed the tune down so much.) Apparently, Calloway didn't know anything about the legend of Stag, or at least lyrics to fit the tune he liked so much.

Next week, we'll be back to songs about the Stagger Lee/Billy Lyons legend -- there are two more weeks of double posts left this month.

Duke Ellington and His Orchestra - Stack O'Lee Blues
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Cab Calloway - Stack O'Lee Blues
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Dr. John

Dr. John (previously here and here) is a N'awlins legend, who started his career as a voodoo hypnotist, turned mainstream funker, then a MOR standard jazz singer, and is currently a more political singer, whose albums include ties to all his previously visited styles.

I saw him in Atlanta two weeks ago, and he was desitively fan-tastic. Sadly, he held the opening slot, so I only got to see him play for a little over an hour (and also, no version of Stag), but he rocked my little world. (My concert companion, as is her wont, went in knowing little about him, but came out converted to fandom.)

Here are five of the songs I loved the most that night. Dr. John's version of "Saint James Infirmary" (like his version of "Goodnight Irene," which I haven't included here) is dirty and funky and swaggeringly rock-and-roll. His solo version (the studio cut includes Rickie Lee Jones) of "Makin' Whoopee" is outstandingly clean and crisp. Though, as it was played with his rock backup band, The Lower 911, it had a hefty backbeat to it as well.

Dr. John's only hit was "Right Place, Wrong Time," a funky 1973 confection that owes as much to its legendary NOLA producer, Allen Touissant, as it does to Mac himself. The live performance was an awful lot of fun -- we were all invited to stand up and dance, but the people waving their arms in the air at every "Whooo"? That was spontaneous.

My favorite Dr. John song is "I Walk On Guilded Splinters," from his first (and IMHO best) solo album, Gris Gris. Live, the rock band had to perform the backing vocals, and time has passed, so the live version didn't sound just like the record, but it was an excellent 8 minutes that also included an extended percussion-only break, along with a quick quote from "Danse Kalinda Da Boom," which pleased me no end.

After his scheduled onstage time was up, the audience refused to let Dr. John leave -- he played an encore of a song from his latest -- and angriest -- album, entitled The City That Care Forgot. "Save Our Wetlands," though it has an overtly enviro-political message, is as far from issue rock as you can get.

Sadly, I had to leave after the set, as I had to work. Dr. John's friends The Neville Brothers were the headliners (he's been working with them a lot lately). I haven't been able to find a review online anywhere, but if they had him return to the stage for a joint song, I'll kick myself all year.

I hadn't been to a live show in a long time (just click the "live shows" tag to see how long), and I'd forgotten how much fun live music is, how the bass kicks me in the belly and the crowd buoys me up. I need to get back in that habit. Thanks to Chris "CD" for prodding me to comb through concert listings for this show!

Dr. John - Saint James Infirmary
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Dr. John and Rickie Lee Jones - Makin' Whoopee
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Dr. John - Right Place, Wrong Time
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Dr. John - I Walk On Guilded Splinters
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Dr. John and Terrance Simien - Save Our Wetlands
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Silly Sundays - Rupert Holmes - Escape (The Pina Colada Song)

Here's our second post for Rupert Holmes month on Silly Sundays. In 1979, this was a massive #1 hit for Holmes, the song that really launched his career as a popular musician. The album, Partners in Crime, contains a lot of songs themed around unhealthy relationships and cheating, most with a tongue-in-cheek attitude belying the serious nature of the unhappiness chronicled therein.

Which is actually a clue to how Holmes works: he takes a truly unhappy situation and discusses it in a funny way, full of tiny, perfect details and human reactions, and makes you forget just how damned serious the subject can be. (For more, click here and scroll down about 3/5 of the way, for my review of his excellent first novel. In two weeks, we'll be hearing a song from the soundtrack of his excellent second novel.)

Which is why this was a pop hit: people listen to this song, hear the happy ending, and don't think about the fact that this relationship is clearly doomed. If both members of a relationship are trying to cheat, it doesn't matter if they end up cheating with each other -- that's not a very happy ending.

...

Well, that's a little serious for Silly Sundays. Maybe I should've posted something lighter instead. Anyway, come back next week for Holmes' first take on old-time radio, long before he got to create and write Remember WENN...

Rupert Holmes - Escape (The Pina Colada Song)
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Stagger Lee Saturdays - Bruce Jackson and Snatch and the Poontangs

This week we have two variations on the toast version of Stag. First, we'll listen to Bruce Jackson (official) read a transcription. Bruce Jackson is the compiler of Get Your Ass In The Water and Swim Like Me!, a book first published in 1974. (You can click on this link to read part of the book on Google Books.) The book was reissued in 2004 with a CD of readings; since this is just basically a book on tape, Jackson doesn't expend a lot of energy acting the toast. (For more energetic readings, click and listen to R. L. Burnside and Samuel L. Jackson do two VERY similar rockin' versions.)

Snatch and the Poontangs (myspace AMG wiki) are actually Johnny "Willie and the Hand Jive" Otis (official) and his son Shuggie "Strawberry Letter 23" Otis, along with The Johnny Otis Show's vocalist Delmar Evans. In 1969, they were releasing mainstream funk/rock/soul records, but they also pseudonymously released this gem of profane, obscene rants. As you might guess from the band's name, today's two tracks are totally NSFW. In fact, they're probably NSFHome too. Listen with headphones first.

Bruce Jackson - Stackolee
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Snatch and the Poontangs - The Great Stackalee
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Silly Sundays - The Buoys - Timothy

For the month of August, Silly Sundays will be devoted to some tracks written and performed by renaissance man Rupert Holmes (official wiki AMG), the only man to win a Tony and an Edgar for the same work. (We'll be hearing a song from that work later this month, methinks.)

In 1971, Holmes was writing and recording and producing songs with his friend Ron Dante (of The Archies fame/infamy), and his friends The Buoys (official wiki interview). The Buoys were signed for a major label single, but the label wouldn't set aside even a penny for promotion. As such, Holmes had to promote the single himself. He set out to write a song so offensive it would be banned and censored, thereby achieving fame. Inspired partially by Tennessee Ernie Ford's "Sixteen Tons," what he came up with was "Timothy," a dark tale of implied cannibalism.

Holmes' plan worked -- the song was quickly banned by some stations, and the record label issued two different censored versions (boo hiss for censorship!), but it slowly moved up the charts. Which means at one point Casey Kasem introduced the song when it entered the Top 40. The label also tried to defuse the controversy by announcing that Timothy was a mule, which claim was immediately denied by Holmes and the band. The Buoys went on to record two more albums, only one of which was released. The members have occasionally reunited in different formations, and here's a live video of the song from 2005. Holmes went on to record many more albums, write Broadway shows and novels and work with Barbra Streisand, of all people.

Most weeks, I provide a buy link for anything in print, but apparently the available commercial release is unofficial, and The Buoys, and Holmes, aren't getting any royalties, so I won't do it this week. Shame.

The Buoys - Timothy
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PS -- It's my mom's birthday today. She doesn't read this blog, but it's worth pointing out that once, she made the creepiest Donner Party joke I've ever heard. Happy birthday, Mom!

Stagger Lee Saturdays - Dr. John, Part Two

Sorry I crapped out on y'all last week -- it was just too busy for me to get anything done here. Luckily, I've got a lot lined up all this month. (Also, you'll wanna go back to the post of two weeks ago and read the comments -- new stuff has come to light.)

It's been a while since I did a month of double Stag posts, but it's time again, so I can keep the numbers up. Today, we're gonna hear two more takes from Dr. John (learn a little about Dr. John and find his first version here, or on this compilation).

In 1973, the year after his first release of "Stagger Lee," Dr. John recorded a live show on radio, which luckily is in wide circulation. (You can get the whole marvelous thing at Captains Dead -- don't forget to click the link at the bottom for the second half.) This live track is similar lyrically and musically to the version on Dr. John's Gumbo. We're going "tee-na, na-na!"

Thirty-one years later, Dr. John mixed up a new version of the Stag legend for his album N'Awlinz: Dis Dat or D'udda (which album includes guest performances from B. B. King, Randy Newman, Willie Nelson, etc etc). He wrote in the liner notes:

"There was a many a pimp named Stak, and many a card hustler named Stakdollar ... An epic saga of death and char-ack-ters."

As befits the new version, this song has an (apparently) original title spelling. We'll hear more about Stack A Dollar next week, too...

Now, before I give you links, here's what I have planned for the rest of this month. If I can manage it, each Saturday this month will have two versions of Stag for your listening enjoyment. Download 'em, trade 'em, collect 'em all! Each Sunday this month will feature a Silly Sunday track from the same artist -- swing by tomorrow to find out who it'll be! Finally, I got to see Dr. John live last week, and the show blew my ears off. Come by Tuesday or Wednesday, and I'll post a review and some more tracks from Mac. Now, those MP3s:

Dr. John - Stagger Lee (live 1973)
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Dr. John - Stakalee
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