Stagger Lee Saturdays - Sleepy LaBeef

Hi there, folks. I'm worn out. In real life, I've been moving boxes full of books all morning, but in the interest of pretending this blog is my only life, let's say It's from cleaning up behind all those pirates. They can mess up anything. I've never seen so many apple cores and bones from various meats piled up before.

Since I'm tired, here's Sleepy LaBeef (official wiki AMG). Born to a Houston family of melonfarmers in 1935, he started recording in 1957, which means he's in his fifth decade as a professional musician. If you had to classify LaBeef, most people would call him either country or rockabilly, but he's got a lot of blues and straightforward rock in him too.

This is a great, full-steam-ahead rocking cover of Lloyd Price's take on Stag. Though LaBeef is a guitarist, his piano player is really high in the mix, which is a trait of a lot of great versions of Stag (for example, see here).

Sleepy LaBeef - Stagger Lee
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Aye, Pirate Week: Thurl Ravenscroft's POTC LP

Ye come seekin' adventure and salty old pirates, eh? Sure, ye've come to the proper place. Aye, har be the final post o' Pirate Week. Forty-some years ago, the Disneyland ride Pirates O' The Caribbean opened. Soon after they called on our patron saint, Thurl Ra'enscroft, t' narrate a record tellin' the story o' the attraction. I posted that record on Thurl's birthday this year, and ye may find it har.

The flipside o' the record war a bunch o' sea shanties, performed by Thurl, which I done uploaded today. (Ye can see the back co'er o' the disc har.) If ye can only lis'en to one o' these, I heartily suggest "Asleep In The Deep," which be the deepest Thurl has e'er sung. This disc be long out o' print, so the buy link'll send ye to a used copy.

I hope t' do Pirate Week again next year, but until then, mark well my words, mateys: Dead Men Tell No Tales.

...Dead Men Tell No Tales...

1) A Life On The Ocean Waves m1 m2
2) Asleep In The Deep m1 m2
3) A Capital Ship m1 m2
4) Shenadoah m1 m2
5) Tarpaulin Jacket m1 m2

Buy from GEMM

Aye, Pirate Week: Barrett's Privateers

Arrr, har be the next t' last post o' Pirate Week. Stan Rogers (official wiki AMG) were a Canadian folk singer, and the year were 1976 when he released this shanty about plunderin' American merchant ships, with extensi'e loss o' life and limb, largely from th' shabbiness o' the pirates' own ship.

Ahoy, sadly, Rogers suffered an ironic death several years later -- he too died in an untrustworthy craft: Air Canada Flight 797. (Hist'ry do not record whether Rogers called that plane the scummiest 'essel he'd e'er seen.)

Thar be an extremely detailed line-by-line notation on the song har, so simply steer your browser thar, and read yer fill. Meself, I done read all I can, and now I have a hankerin for a fine pork loin. I hope that pilferin pussycat ain't taken it!

(Lubbers beware: this song do contain a wee bit o' profanity.)

Stan Rogers - Barrett's Privateers
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Buy from Rogers' official site

Aye, Pirate Week: The Derelict

Ahoy, thar be no Stagger Lee today -- Stag will return next Saturday. (He who complains'll walk the plank! Be that clear, señor?)

Away back in 1883, Robert Louis Ste'enson published Treasure Island, and it contained parts o' a new shanty, "Dead Man's Chest." In 1891, poet Young Allison adapted and expanded the shanty int' a full-length poem, "The Darlict."

One hundred six years later, a band o' young musicians first recorded their 'ersion o' the poem, beginnin' with a quote from Ste'enson's no'el. The Jolly Rogers (official Myspace) be currently plyin' their trade at the Kansas City Renaissance Festi'al -- navigate festwards if ye be in a flat square state nearby.

The Jolly Rogers - The Derelict
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Buy from the band, matey

Aye, Pirate Week: Hoist The Colours

Aye, speakin' o' pirate mo'ies, har's the theme song t' ...At World's End, the third (but not last) POTC film. It war orchestrated by Hans Zimmer, who not coincidentally orchestrated that Tim Curry song we heard Sunday.

The lyrics war written by the film's writers and director, if this har 'pedia have any truth t' it. This be a fine shanty to sing whilst ye hoist yer own colours, ye blooming cockroachers!

More t'morrow, mateys.

Hans Zimmer - Hoist The Colours
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Buy from Amazon, matey -- Buy from Deep Discount, yarr.

Aye, Pirate Week: Nick Ca'e and Lou Reed.

Aye, ahoy, mateys. I been nearly swallowed up by Da'y Jones himself, but emerged t' send you more tunes from the likes o' some swank-bellied pirates like meself. Gar.

Arrr, in 2004, Johnny Depp and Gore 'erbinski, while workin' on the second and third Pirates o' the Caribbean mo'ies, thought it would be nice t' have some contemp'ry albums o' sea shanties t' help set the mood. Thar warn't any.

So they produced some.

Har be two tracks from Rogue's Gallery... (wiki liner notes), with two personal fa'orite artists o' mine (but just look at that tracklistin' -- if ye like She'll Grow Back, surely ye'll appreciate the talent har).

Nick Cave - Pinery Boy
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Lou Reed feat. Antony - Leave Her, Johnny
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Buy from Amazon -- Buy from Deep Discount

Aye, Pirate Week :Tim Curry and The Muppets - A Professional Pirate

Psst! Avast there! It be too late to alter course now, mateys.

Aye, greetin's, friends. Welcome t' Pirate Week har on She'll Grow Back. Ahoy, in celebration o' International Talk Like A Pirate Day, I'll be pro'idin' some nautically-themed music all week. So keep your ruddy hands inboard -- that be the best way t' repel boarders!

Aye, as tis' Sunday, har's one o' the silliest thin's we'll lis'en at all week. Tis' Tim Curry and The Muppets, from Muppet Treasure Island. The song be written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, who also enscribed "On Broadway" and "We Gotta Get Out O' This Place," among others. Arrr, as the soundtrack be impossible t' find, the buy link today steers ye t'wards the movie.

Download with care -- thar be squalls ahead, and Davy Jones waitin' for them what don't obey. Aye.

Tim Curry and The Muppets - A Professional Pirate
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Buy from Amazon, Matey -- Buy from Deep Discount, Arr

Stagger Lee Saturdays - James Brown

James Brown was the Hardest-Working Man In Show Business -- you all know that, so I won't bother with the introductory links this week.

This is a tasty, horn-driven version from 1967, a perfect slab of Famous Flame-broiled goodness. This song is almost out of print on CD, but luckily I found a cheapish import for your buy link down there. Enjoy!

(I apologize for the peremptory nature of this post, but I have another theme week up my sleeve, which starts tomorrow morning.)

James Brown - Stagger Lee
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Stagger Lee Saturdays - Henry Gray

Henry Gray (official wiki AMG) has been playing professionally for almost 70 years -- he's worked for Bo Diddley, Howlin' Wolf, Jimmy Reed, Sonny Boy Williamson, Taj Mahal and so on. He was born in Louisiana, like so many of the best performers of Stag, and now lives there again.

This is a great, rockin electric blues version of Stag -- one of the few in my collection which include both fiddle and harmonica, come to think of it. Since Gray is a pianist by trade, the piano is nice and high in the mix -- lots of fun.

This is a live version from 1999, and five years later he'd record the song again; both albums include his cover of "Sweet Home Chicago," among others.

Henry Gray and The Cats - Stagger Lee
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