| • Science | • People | • Locations | • Timeline |
According to some sources, Stag Lee was apparently a person named Lee Sheldon. A story appearing in the St. Louis, Missouri Globe-Democrat in 1895 says:
Lyons eventually died of his injuries. Sheldon was tried, eventually convicted, and served prison time for this crime. This otherwise unmemorable crime is remembered in a song. In some older versions of the song, the name of the other party is given as "Billy Deslile" or "De Lion".
There is speculation that "Stag O Lee" songs predated even the 1895 incident, and Lee Sheldon may have gotten his nickname from earlier folk songs.
Other sources say that black roustabouts on Mississippi River docks were called "stack o lees" as they would stack cargo on the lee side of the docks.
The first published version of the song was done by folklorist John Lomax in 1910. The song was well known in African American communities along the lower Mississippi River by the 1910s.
Before World War II, it was almost always known as "Stack O'Lee". W.C. Handy wrote that this probably was a nickname for a tall person, comparing him to the tall smoke-stack of the large steamboatpaddlewheel from a paddle steamer on the lake of Lucerne. Right: detail of a steamer PS Waverley leaving Dunoon on the Firth of Clyde. A steamboat or steamship sometimes called a steamer is a boat or vessel that is propelled by steam power driving a prope Robert E. Lee. By the time that W.C. Handy wrote the explanation in the 1920sCenturies: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s Years: 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 Events and trends Technology John Logie Baird invents the first working t, "Stack O' Lee" was already familiar in United States popular culture, with recordings of the song made by such pop singers of the day as Cliff EdwardsCliff Edwards ( 14 June, 1895 17 July, 1971), also known as Ukelele Ike was a United States singer and musician who enjoyed considerable popularity in the 1920s and early 1930s, and also did voices for animated cartoons later in his career. Clifton A..
An early Blues recording of the song from 1928Centuries: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s Years: 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 See also 1928 in aviation 1928 in film 1928 in literature 1928 in mu was made by Mississippi John HurtMississippi John Hurt ( July 3, 1893, Teoc, Carroll County, Mississippi November 2, 1966, Grenada, Mississippi) was an influential blues singer and guitarist. Raised in Avalon, Mississippi, he learnt to play guitar at age 10, and spent much of his youth p, a Delta Blues musician. His lyrics were,
As in all such pieces, there are many (sometimes anachronistic) variants on the lyrics. Several older versions give Billy's last name as "De Lyons" or "Deslile".
One variation, credited as "traditional," as originally recorded and performed by Lloyd PriceLloyd Price (born March 9, 1933 in Kenner, Louisiana) was an early rock and roll musician Along with his brother, Leo Price, Lloyd Price put together a band. Dave Barthomolew, who had connections with Specialty Records, put together a meeting between the, goes:
The song has been recorded hundreds of times by a great variety of performers. A different version was a chart hit for Lloyd Price in 1959. The version best known by Price has somewhat different lyrics; Dick Clark felt that the original tale of murder was too lowlife for his American Bandstand audience, and insisted that they be changed. Other performers who have recorded it include: