Also learn how She earned most of networth at the age of 43 years old? They include such exalted artists as Ma Rainey, Cab Calloway, Jimmy Dorsey, Duke Ellington, James Brown, Fats Domino, Peggy Lee, Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, Carl Sandburg, Mississippi John Hurt, Doc Watson, Pete Seeger, Ike and Tina Turner, Nick Cave, Amy Winehouse, Taj Mahal, Wilson Pickett, Elton John, Leon Russell, the Grateful Dead, Huey Lewis, Beck, the Black Keys, and the Clash. The latter indignantly demanded its return. Billy "Spacey" Lyons is an Actor, Musician, Tattoo Artist and Motorcycle Enthusiast. Nuno Marques Planeamento e Atividades Econmicas at Municpio de Setbal . Here they tak. Director Billy Lyons Producer Billy Lyons Why did this seemingly unexceptional crime enter our folklore, and remain there, when a million others faded from memory? The scholar John W. Roberts says that such figures exist more as a projection than a role model, providing an expression of wish-fulfillment a safety valve or release. Into this historical moment strode Stack Lee Shelton, a notorious bad man with a memorable name who would leave your children fatherless if you tried to steal his Stetson hat. However, practically all the various iterations of the song have Stagger Lee executed for his crime: In reality, Lee Shelton was paroled in 1909 but found himself in trouble again just two years later. Lyons was taken to the Dispensary, where his wounds were pronounced serious. However, the definitive version of the song came out in 1959 when rhythm-and-blues singer Lloyd Price topped the charts with his snappy, horn-drenched version. The song exploded in popularity and became #1 on the Billboard Pop Charts. He was a native . 1,431 likes. He played Sebastian "Bas" Monroe, a former US Marine Corps sergeant who served with Miles Matheson . A Brief History of Stagger Lee and Billy Lyons, The 28th Sandy Beaches Cruise to Set Sail in 2024 With Initial Lineup Announcement, An Q&A with Otis Taylor, New Album BANJO Out Now, Watch: Animated Video for John Lee Hooker Hit Boom Boom, River Crests in Memphis, Downstream Still Faces Dangers, Bluescentric.com the shop for Blues, Soul, and Rock n Roll, Mick Kolassa Announces Essentials Series, Kicks Off With Babys Got Another Lover, Listen: New Bob Corritore & Friends Single What Kind of Man is This ft. Koko Taylor. Whats been missing is any corroborating evidence that isnt a song lyric. Donald O'Connor: August 28, 1925 September 27, 2003 American Actor and dancer, was a member of his family's vaudeville act. [15][16], Within thirty years of Shelton's death, Benjamin Botkin records stories among the superstitious of his having been born with a caul over his face (signifying one with the power to see spirits and destined for trouble), or of having sold his soul to the Devil (in exchange for the hat, said to be magic, over which he killed Billy Lyons). Or, as Mississippi John Hurt puts it. All of his Stagolee researchboxes of criminal complaints, prison records, clippings, correspondence, photographs, floppy disks, and audio tapeshad been sitting in a St. Louis basement ever since. The events of the murder were fairly commonplace; two friends, Billy Lyons and Stagger Lee Shelton, were drinking at Bill Curtiss saloon and became enthralled in a conversation about politics. Crowning it all was an expensive highroller, white Stetson, its hatband adorned with an embroidered image of his favorite girl, Lillie. There's even a love song, "Train In Vain," which the group cut on its . All rights reserved, The Real Story Behind That Bad Man "Stagger Lee". Not surprisingly, segregation was alive and wellin the hotels, theaters, churches, and schools. That night, a man died and a legend was born. Stagolee and John Henry: Two Black Freedom Songs? Another version was recorded later that year by Frank Westphal & His Regal Novelty Orchestra, and Herb Wiedoeft and his band recorded the song in 1924. Police officer, how can it be And that same Lizzie Ware, per the 1880 census, was a young African-American widow with two daughters: Ada (age five) and Estella (age eight). But in 1979, shortly after the St. Louis Post-Dispatch published an article about his research, David was contacted by Susie Mae Myles and Arthur Buddy Johnson, two St. Louisans who credibly claimed to be the great-grandchildren of Billy Lyons. He was nicknamed Stag Lee or Stack Lee, with a variety of explanations being given: he was given the nickname because he "went stag", meaning he was without friends; he took the nickname from a well-known riverboat captain called Stack Lee; or, according to John and Alan Lomax, he took the name from a riverboat owned by the Lee family of Memphis called the Stack Lee, which was known for its on-board prostitution. That bad man, oh, cruel Stack O Lee, And all they gathered, hands way up high, Lynch, who went by the name of Eric the Actor, died Saturday. Keith's Cancer Fund. The bad man emerged in their stories and songs as an alternative to more wholesome folk heroes like John Henry. [4], On Christmas night in 1895, Shelton and his acquaintance William "Billy" Lyons were drinking in the Bill Curtis Saloon. William "Billy" Lyons April 18, 1946 - February 5, 2023 Sacramento, California - William (Billy) Lyons left us much too soon on February 5, 2023, surrounded by his adoring family. Enjoy our next guest, Billy Lyons. [8] The song was well known in African American communities along the lower Mississippi River by 1910. [10], The song was first recorded by Waring's Pennsylvanians in 1923, and became a hit. Several of them knew their lineage as far back as Florence Lyons, but not her fathers famous name. It Takes a Lunatic is his first film. OnChristmasEve, 1895, a shooting occurred in a North St. Louis saloon that was destined to find a prominentand permanentplace in American oral tradition. [7], The crime quickly entered into American folklore and became the subject of song, as well as folktales and toasts. Cedric is the grandson of legendary bluesman R.L. As so many have already learned and been praying, my brother in law, Billy Coile, went fishing alone Saturday afternoon and has not returned. The North Carolina native has also served . To find a largely comprehensive documentation of 420+ Stagger Lee recordings, see StaggerLee.com. It opened January 21, 2015 and featured Brandon Gill, J. Bernard Calloway, Tiffany Mann, Cedric Neal, and Saycon Sengbloh. Apparently, Billy was a Republican. Stack left everything he owned to his good friend James D. Anderson, a junk dealer, in whose home he was supposed to spend his final days. You can check Billy out in the film John Nieto: A Stagolee haunts the prose of Richard Wright and Toni Morrison; James Baldwin worked on a novel about the character and late in his life published a long poem called Staggerlee Wonders., Scholars of African-American studies generally agree that both the pimp protagonists of 70s blaxploitation films and the self-mythologists of gangsta rap are Stagolees direct descendants: mononymous, fearless, and fastidious about their name-brand apparel. Some versions add an additional section in which Stagolee goes to Hell and usurps it from the Devil. A bastion of blues and ragtime music, Deep Morgan was also a neighborhood in which gambling flourished and prostitution was rife. The personal traumas that allegedly drove her to do it included the recent slaying of her step-father, William Lyons, by Lee Sheldon [sic]. The shoddiness of 19th-century journalism makes me skeptical of anything reported only once. David interviewed them extensively and found documentary support for their claim. The feud between Stagger Lee and Billy Lyons is as legendary as the one between the Hatfields and the McCoys; a truly American folk tale, retold countless times, about Stagger shooting Billy Lyons over, varyingly, a Stetson hat, a woman, a gambling debt, politics, or simply because Stagger was that mean of a man. Experience actor . He was paroled in 1909, but returned to prison in 1911 for assault and robbery. We deeply regret the situation into which our unfortunate brother has fallen.. Myles and Johnson both died in the 80s, and neither had surviving children. A version by Lloyd Price reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1959. The discussion drifted to politics, and an argument was started, the conclusion of which was that Lyons snatched Sheldon's hat from his head. [10] In his version, as in all such pieces, there are many (sometimes anachronistic) variants on the lyrics. Lee Shelton had no prior criminal record that anyone could locate, and William Lyons was listed as single on his death certificate. How was he able to terrorize the city for close to a decade without acquiring a rap sheet? A truly great friend to all and a caring cop! Odum. [1], In January 2020, he appeared in an episode of Doctor Who, alongside Jodie Whittaker, Jo Martin and The Judoon. Handy wrote that it probably was a nickname for a tall person, comparing him to the tall smokestack of the large steamboat Robert E. From 1982 to 1984, two masked professional wrestlers were billed as Stagger Lee in the Southern US; Sylvester Ritter, better known as Junkyard Dog, played him first in Mid-South Wrestling and James Ware, who became Koko B. Ware, followed suit in the Continental Wrestling Association. And they were acquainted with the story of Stagolee, but as legend, not family history. September 14, 2019. But long before rehabilitating Thomas Cromwells reputation, Mantel was unparalleled in her crystalline dissections of power, whether between girls at the University of London or Dantonists in the French Revolution. Another version was recorded later that year by Frank Westphal & His Regal Novelty Orchestra, and Herb Wiedoeft and his band recorded the song in 1924. Early versions were called "Stack-a-Lee" and "Stacker Lee", while "Stagolee" and "Stagger Lee" also became common. In addition to his holdings in Deep Morgan, Lee occupied an impressive brick house at 911 North Twelfth Street, situated in a more upscale neighborhood. Lee threatened to shoot Billy unless he returned the hat forthwith: Billy refused. As per our current Database, Billy Lyons is still alive (as per Wikipedia, Last update: May 10, 2020). He, too, believe it or not, had tuberculosis. In bars, barbershops, and prisons, he remained the baddest n who ever lived, the antihero of profane epics and rhyming toasts whose exploits offered a fantasy of freedom from lifes indignities. Dallas Theater Center in Dallas produced an original musical with an adaptation of the folklore around Stagger Lee and Billy Lyons. When that failed to produce the desired results, Lee fi ed a round into Billys abdomen. Through every generation and nearly every musical style, Stagger Lee has made an appearance. He is very active and popular in several social networking sites. You done stole my Stetson1 hat, Im bound to take your life Enjoy our next guest, Billy Lyons. From there, dozens andeventuallyhundreds of recorded renditions of Stacks story were spawned. Soon, the musical, mythical iteration of Stack Lee supplanted the man himself, as black America cultivated and nurtured a heroic outlaw to admire. Billy Lyons is an actor, director, teacher, and producer living in New York City, where he's trained with and been the close assistant to Wynn Handman for many years. "It's Weill's money, but it's our history and this is the endgame here," said actor Billy Lyons, 29, assistant to acting coach Wynn Handman, who had worked from a Carnegie studio since the . Turn-of-the-century St. Louis was a musical placethe cradle of ragtime, full of barroom bards and river roustabouts who were constantly turning scuttlebutt into song. Stack Lee was also well connected, which may further explain his having gotten away with so much for so long. Im talking about Paul Harvey, whose daily broadcast The Rest of the Story aired on more than 1,100 radio stations for thirty-plus years. It may have seemed like providence when a Stagolee-struck researcher, also 47, showed up on her doorstep, hoping literally to carry out her late husbands work. Bill, you will be missed, great man, great cop!! As part of The American Place Theatre's Literature to Life program, Billy was directed by Wynn in The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien, which he performed extensively in schools and communities throughout the USA, working closely with Vietnam Veterans. He visited so many nursing homes, his widow told me. But whether the word is used to celebrate or censure Stagolee, the implication of bad is always that hes dangerous and widely feared. Yeah, but I wonder if there was ever a person whose name was , Lee Shelton? Sheltonalias Stack Leewould be memorialized in song, becoming perhaps the most significant figure in African-American folklore. 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