{"id":36,"date":"2015-01-07T21:42:02","date_gmt":"2015-01-07T21:42:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stories.kera.org\/staggerlee\/?p=36"},"modified":"2015-01-21T17:51:18","modified_gmt":"2015-01-21T17:51:18","slug":"stagger-lee-in-music-over-the-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stories.kera.org\/staggerlee\/stagger-lee-in-music-over-the-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch Great Singers Make “Stagger Lee” Their Own"},"content":{"rendered":"

The classic number “Stagger Lee” inspired the Dallas Theater Center’s new, original musical, Stagger Lee<\/em>. Belonging to the genre known as a “murder ballad,” the song details what supposedly happened on December 28, 1895 between a black Texas gambler named Lee Shelton, known as Stagger Lee, and William “Billy” Lyons. The two men were rolling dice late at night in St. Louis. According to the best-known versions, Billy won Stagger Lee’s money and his beloved Stetson hat, and for that, Stagger Lee fatally shot him.<\/p>\n

Beyond that, almost all the details and context have been embellished, flipped, denied or completely altered. In some, Stagger Lee gets convicted and hanged. In others, he escapes, he’s killed by Billy’s widow, he even goes to hell and takes over from Satan.<\/p>\n

But it was that shooting — and the songs it inspired — that made Stagger Lee’s name in American folklore, regardless of how the name is spelled (Stack-O-Lee, Stackerlee, Stagolee). The song has been covered dozens of times, by the artists below as well as by Bob Dylan, Nick Cave, Fats Domino, Lorenzo Antonio and Amy Winehouse.<\/p>\n

Mississippi John Hurt<\/h3>\n