I think Lloyd Price's version went to #1, which is a rarity for New Orleans hits. (Offhand, "Mother-in-Law" and "Lady Marmalade" are the only others I can think of.)

Fats Domino never had a #1 pop hit.

Whine: The bag my Mojo came in was open and my cd was gone! GONE! So sad. That's the best part of getting the mag for me. I never have time to read it all.

That's criminal. Especially since I've heard that this Chess set is fantastic.

Especially since I've heard that this Chess set is fantastic.

It looks great. bastards. And it's music that I'm not so familiar with (unlike, say, last month's U2 Jukebox). I've really learned so much in my year of subscribing to the mag.

Whine: The bag my Mojo came in was open and my cd was gone! GONE! So sad. That's the best part of getting the mag for me. I never have time to read it all.

I got mine yesterday. If you're feeling very bereft, lisah, I could make a copy for you.

If you're feeling very bereft, lisah, I could make a copy for you.

ooh. yeah. If it wouldn't be a hassle.

ETA although it occurs to me that I probably have at least one friend here who gets it and can hook me up. I'll let you know though if I have no local luck.

ooh. yeah. If it wouldn't be a hassle.

No hassle. Email your address to my profile addy.

I don't think Greil has listened to more than five rap records in his life

I bet he's listened to at least 10 or 12. Anyway, after I wrote my earlier post I started thinking that one of the chapters in Flyboy in the Buttermilk had Staggerlee in the title. Haven't found it online, though, & my copy is in storage. Maybe I'm thinking of the chapter on Prince, Eddie Murphy &... who? Wynton? Something about how Jimi, Pryor & Miles really had Stack in them whereas their artistic heirs had the Staggerlee trappings, but there was a calculation in them that belied the notion that they were somehow imbued with Stack's outside the law persona. Maybe I'm remembering it wrong or just doing a bad job of describing it. Tate's certainly more qualified than Marcus to write about hip hop. I'd like to read his take on the Staggerlee-derived gangsta mythology bumping up against all the dead gangstas from Tupac and Biggie on down. That's another great thing about "Wrong 'Em Boyo" (last time I'll bring it up, I promise) (for a while at least) -- it's juxtaposition with "Death or Glory". The romanticized view of the badass living the life he wants to and playing by his own rules vs. "every cheap hood strikes a bargain with the world" and how Staggerlee's "death or glory becomes just another story."

I'll check my Flyboy when I get home, as mine is conveniently on the living room bookshelf.

I remember reading a collection of folk stories (real ones - not the Paul Bunyon ones. Not that I don't like the Paul Bunyon or Pecos Bill ones. In fact, I kind of love that they're fake folk stories and then took on a life of their own.) and they had a great one titled...."The Oxblood Stetson" I think. Very much out of that Staggerlee era and myth.

Yeah, it's a variation on Staggerlee where he makes a deal with the devil:

Stagger Lee, Occult Dealmaker

In addition to being an enormous badass, according to some versions of the story Stagger Lee had occult powers. In most versions of the story, these powers were derived from Stag's Stetson hat, which the Devil had traded him for his soul. According to B.A. Botkin in A Treasury of American Folklore: Stories, Ballads, and Traditions of the People, the hat was "an oxblood magic hat that folks claim he made from the raw hide of a man-eating panther that the devil had skinned alive." The hat allowed Stag to do "all kinds of magic and devilish things." Of course, since this was a deal with the Devil, there was a catch: if Stag ever lost the hat, he would "lose his head, and kill a good citizen, and run right smack into his doom."