WATCH YOUR HAT
Written: Feb 19 '00 (Updated Mar 07 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: So many versions, so little time
Cons: So many versions, so little time
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| M_Lee_Williams's Full Review: St Louis |
At 911 N. 12th Street in St. Louis, you will find a house that once belonged to none other than Stag Lee Sheldon. If you know anything about music, you know Stag Lee was the one who shot and killed another man during a barroom dispute.
On the night of the murder:
“The night was clear and the moon was yellow
And the leaves came tumbling down.”
Few other facts are agreed upon, except that there was a murder, and that murder has been the subject of over 100 songs sung by over 150 artists.
The shooting of one man by another man in a barroom doesn’t seem to be the kind of event that inspires singers for nearly a century to relive the event in song. Yet artists such as James Brown, Cab Calloway, Fats Domino, Jim Croce, Woody Guthrie, Tom Jones, Jerry Lee Lewis, Neil Sedaka, Ike and Tina Turner, Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead , recorded their versions of a song about that murder.
The facts in this murder, like most murders, are controversial and debated. The first thing debated is who is the killer and who did he kill.
The St. Louis Globe Democrat, circa 1895, reports that a man named Lee Sheldon shot William Lyons in the abdomen, wounding him. The men had been drinking “in the saloon of Bill Curtis at Eleventh and Morgan Streets” in St. Louis, and “were feeling in exuberant spirits” when they began to argue politics. One thing led to another, and “Lyons snatched Sheldon’s hat from his head.” Sheldon demanded his hat, and when Lyons refused Sheldon pulled his gun and shot Lyons. The Globe Democrat further reports that “When his victim fell to the floor Sheldon took his hat from the hand of the wounded man and coolly walked away.” Lee Sheldon was known around St. Louis as “Stag” Lee Sheldon.
Lyons later died and Stag Lee Sheldon was tried for the murder, and convicted in his second trial—the first trial ending in a hung jury—and was sent to the penitentiary where he died, reportedly before 1920.
That’s one version of the source of this song. There are others. Research by Richard E. Buehler reveals that there was a Confederate officer named Stacker Lee. In a 1967 article by Buehler in the Keystone Folklore Quarterly, he explains that Stacker Lee was a decent, upstanding citizen, and as such was never involved in a barroom shooting, and therefore the unlikely villain of the song.
In her book, Show Boat, Edna Ferber named the boat Stacker Lee, and that has led some folks to believe that this information is important in discovering who the barroom killer is in the song. The family of the aforementioned Confederate officer owned the Lee Line of boats that traveled the Mississippi River, and one of the boats in that Line was called Stacker Lee. Francis Davis surmises in his book The History of the Blues, that the cold-blooded killer who inspired various versions of this song by various artists may have been the son of the Confederate officer.
Then there are those who claim that blues singers in the Mississippi Delta were singing about this murder as early as 1895, and that Lee Sheldon may have known of the song and chose to refer to himself as Stag Lee in order to enhance his reputation.
Another debatable aspect of this song is the names of the characters. In different versions the killer has been called Stag Lee, Stack-A-Lee, Stack O’Lee, Stackerlee, Staggerlee, Stagolee, Skeeg-A-Lee, and Stack O’Dollars. The victim has been called Billy Lyons, Billy O’Lyons, Billy Delyon, and Billy DeLions.
So what is it that makes this song so popular? It seems to be that it has mythical qualities—or at least the killer and his victim took on mythical, mystical qualities once the song writers finished with them. Though “Stag” Lee Sheldon was tried, convicted and served time, the killer in the song is the baddest man in town. The cops are frightened of him. Afraid to arrest him. Once arrested they quickly hang him. That’s the way it is in most versions, however, there is a version or two that has Stag Lee going to hell and running the devil out because he’s meaner than the devil.
In most of the versions Billy Lyons begs for his life, but cold-hearted Stag Lee ignores his pleas. Some versions have as the motive Billy Lyons’ wife, who Stag Lee wants as his woman. Many of the songs have a line or two about Stag Lee’s hat. Most of them say it was a Stetson.
The words to this song were first published in 1910 by John Lomax, and this version places the murder in Memphis around 1900.
The first version of the song to be in the R & B Top Ten was performed by Leon T. Gross, also known as “Archibald” Gross. It hit the top of the charts in 1950, and it was Archibald’s only big hit.
In 1959 Lloyd Price sang about Stag Lee and Billy Lyons gambling and arguing. In this version it seems that Price lost his Stetson in a dice game with Stag Lee, and that loss was the motive for Stag Lee going home for his forty-four and returning to the barroom to shoot Billy. This is the version that begins: “The night was clear and the moon was yellow. And the leaves came tumbling down.”
Later Dick Clark demanded that Lloyd Price clean up his version of Stagger Lee, and cut out all the violence and death, before singing it on American Bandstand. In that new version ol’ Stag Lee and Billy settle their differences and become friends. (You may remember Price’s other Top Ten song, Lawdy Miss Clawdy.)
In the 1960s it was the Grateful Dead’s turn to tell the murder tale. They have Stagger Lee and Billy DeLyon coming to no good end, but the significance of their version is that it is set in 1940. The Dead’s version introduces Delia, the wife of Billy, who seeks revenge after Billy’s death. Not surprisingly this version provides that “As Stagger Lee lit a cigarette, she shot him in the balls.” (Certainly a little too risque for Dick Clark and American Bandstand.)
Stag Lee and Billy are still being remembered today. In 1998 Dave Bartholomew sang of Son of Stagger Lee. And I’m sure somewhere in the Mississippi Delta or down New Orleans way—maybe in Chicago or LA, someone is singing about poor Billy and evil Stag Lee and everybody is having a good time—so long as nobody messes with anybody’s Stetson hat.
Stag Lee's old house shouldn't be difficult to find. It's the only one still standing on that block across from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Perhaps it's been torn down by now, but surely the spirit of Stag Lee lives on.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
M_Lee_Williams
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Member: M. Lee Williams
Reviews written: 17
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