Stagger Lee Saturdays: Fruit Jar Guzzlers

I apologize for the silliness of the picture to the right there, but we know pretty much nothing about Fruit Jar Guzzlers (wiki AMG), except that they recorded their version of Stag in about 1928. I read about this version in Cecil Brown's excellent book Stagolee Shot Billy, which you should all buy immediately. The book is excellent, painstakingly researched, and for the most part easy going, even for the folkloric layperson such as myself. (The book was published by Harvard University Press, but the references to obscure folklorological and sociological terms are kept to a minimum, and the storytelling to a maximum.)

Anyway, here's this week's version of Stag, complete with authentic 1920's static.

Fruit Jar Guzzlers - Stack-O-Lee
mirror 1 -- mirror 2
Buy from Amazon

Stagger Lee Saturdays - Mississippi John Hurt

Mississippi John Hurt was born in either 1892 or 1893, in Mississippi. He recorded Stag several times (with variant spellings to boot, and the last version he put to wax was the year of his death, 1966) but this is his original version from 1928.

After two recording sessions in 1928, John Hurt left the music profession and returned to sharecropping, though he continued to play at barn dances and for friends. In 1963, a blues scholar tracked him down and convinced him to give the music industry another try, which led to widespread acclaim and fame for Hurt in the last four years of his life: three full albums, a college concert tour, and an appearance on The Tonight Show. The Wikipedia page for Stagger Lee calls this recording "definitive," and it's still inspiring musicians to this day.

The buy link goes to Amazon, but you can also download five songs (including Stag and his version of "Frankie (and Johnny/Albert)" at The Internet Archive.

Mississippi John Hurt - Stack O Lee Blues
Buy from Amazon

Stagger Lee Saturdays - Cliff Edwards

Okay, so I couldn't find a Disney version of Stag. But how about this? Cliff Edwards (nicknamed "Ukulele Ike") voiced Jiminy Cricket in Pinocchio, and even sang "When I See An Elephant Fly" in Dumbo. But long before that, in 1928, he recorded a double-sided 78 about Stag. (This record, in fact, features instructions, sung to the tune, to "turn the record over" so you can hear the second half of the story. I love that.)

This is an extremely extended version of the story, which focuses just as much on Stag's "sweet-lovin' wench" as on the bad man himself. (In fact, Stag dies before the second half of the record even starts! We don't even get to hear about his adventures in hell.) It's also interesting that Edwards is from St. Louis (Missouri), the city where the real-life shooting took place, just six months after Edwards was born.

Cliff Edwards - Stack O'Lee
Buy from GEMM

(This record hasn't been reissued since 1975, except a very rare CD in Japan, so the buy link is wishful thinking, really.)