Stagolee shot Billy

Although his story has been told countless times - by performers from Ma Rainey, Cab Calloway and the Isley brothers to Ike and Tina Turner, James Brown and Taj Mahal - no one seems to know who Stagolee really is. Stack Lee? Stagger Lee? He has gone by all these names in the ballad that has kept his exploits before us for over a century. Delving into a subculture of St. Louis known as Deep Morgan, Cecil Brown emerges with the facts behind the legend to unfold the mystery of Stack Lee and the incident that led to murder in 1895.

• Introduction: The Tradition of Stagolee p. 1
• I. Stagolee and St. Louis
• 1. Stagolee Shot Billy p. 21
• 2. Lee Shelton: The Man behind the Myth p. 37
• 3. That Bad Pimp of Old St. Louis: The Oral Poetry of the Late 1890s p. 48
• 4. "Poor Billy Lyons" p. 59
• 5. Narrative Events and Narrated Events p. 70
• 6. Stagolee and Politics p. 79
• 7. Under the Lid: The Underside of the Political Struggle p. 84
• 8. The Black Social Clubs p. 93
• 9. Hats and Nicknames: Symbolic Values p. 98
• 10. Ragtime and Stagolee p. 105
• 11. The Blues and Stagolee p. 110
• II. The Thousand Faces of Stagolee
• 12. Jim Crow and Oral Narrative p. 119
• 13. Riverboat Rouster and Mean Mate p. 122
• 14. Work Camps, Hoboes, and Shack Bully Hollers p. 127
• 15. William Marion Reedy's White Outlaw p. 129
• 16. Cowboy Stagolee and Hillbilly Blues p. 134
• 17. Blueswomen: Stagolee Did Them Wrong p. 144
• 18. Bluesmen and Black Bad Man p. 148
• 19. On the Trail of Sinful Stagolee p. 157
• 20. Stagolee in a World Full of Trouble p. 163
• 21. From Rhythm and Blues to Rock and Roll: "I Heard My Bulldog Bark" p. 172
• 22. The Toast: Bad Black Hero of the Black Revolution p. 177
• 23. Folklore/Poplore: Bob Dylan's Stagolee p. 184
• III. Mammy-Made: Stagolee and American Identity
• 24. The "Bad Nigger" Trope in American Literature p. 193
• 25. James Baldwin's "Staggerlee Wonders" p. 206
• 26. Stagolee as Cultural and Political Hero p. 212
• 27. Stagolee and Modernism p. 217
• Notes p. 231
• Bibliography p. 261
• Index p. 287