What do
Cliff Edwards (1928),
Lloyd Price (circa 1959),
The Rulers (1967),
R.L. Burnside (late 1980s/ early 1990s),
Grateful Dead (live in 1993), and
Nick Cave (live in 1996) have in common? If nothing else, they all
sang some variation of the crime of Lee Shelton, also known as
Stack O'Lee, Stagolee, Stack-a-Lee , Stackerlee, Stagger Lee and other names, with
as many variations in the details of that fateful night. Join MeFite
Paul Slade with
his journalistic narrations of
murder ballads, tales of
Secret London (
previously), and
other works of
long-form journalism (which
may or may not be ideal for the web,
previously). [via
mefi projects; more clips and bits inside]
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Sep 22, 2009 -
29 comments
Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads Digital images, plus the occasional sound file, for the Bodleian's massive collection. In addition,
Samuel Pepys was an enormously important collector, and the Early Modern Center at UCSB has
digitized his collection--again, with some sound files. See also the
Francis J. Child Ballads, taken from Child's
The English and Scottish Popular Ballads. (For previous MeFi sojourns in the wonderful world of ballads, see
here,
here, and
here.)
posted by thomas j wise
on Apr 14, 2006 -
8 comments
The John Quincy Wolf Folklore Collection from the University of Arkansas. "John Quincy Wolf began collecting Ozark ballads while an undergraduate at Arkansas (now Lyon) college. His first serious professional interest in Ozark folksongs dates from his attendance at the Old Settler's folk music festival at Blanchard Springs in 1941. He and his wife Bess began to seek out folksingers in the White River and surrounding areas, often placing advertisements in local newspapers for people who knew 'old songs'. Wolf recorded hundreds of Ozark folksingers between 1952 and 1963, including Almeda Riddle, Neal Morris, Oscar and Ollie Gilbert, and Jimmy Driftwood. [...] The
Wolf Folksong Collection at Lyon College contains hundreds of recordings." Site contains the field recordings of
Ozark Folksongs, as well as sections for
Memphis Blues,
Sacred Harp Singing, and
more. The folk song recordings are indexed by
song title and
singer. Music files play in Windows Media or Real.
posted by jokeefe
on Jun 7, 2005 -
10 comments
My Back Pages--Interesting in his own right
Eyolf Østrem still maintains the fan's fan tab, chords and music site, the standard by which all others are judged. I just revisited it the other night, while trying to recall how that little run in Dylan's version of
Delia went, and dang, if it didn't have the
back story of that ballad. I love this kind of stuff. The source of that account, John Garst, is the folklorist king of such research--he puts
John Henry at a railroad tunnel near Leeds, Alabama, just east of Birmingham on September 20, 1887, for example. Murder and heroic death ballad back stories are of extreme interest to me, so I decided to post a few more here:
Frankie and Albert,
Frankie and Johnny,
Casey Jones and
Stagger Lee. Did I say I love this kind of stuff?
posted by y2karl
on Sep 23, 2004 -
10 comments
