82 – Lloyd Price – Stagger Lee (1958)

Originalmente, Stagger Lee foi lançada em 1923, pela Frank Westphal and His Regal Novelty Orchestra. Também foi regravada por Woody Guthrie em 1931 e 1944, por Lloyd Price em 1958, pelo Grateful Dead em 1978 e por Bob Dylan em 1995.

Trata-se de uma canção folk baseada no assassinato de William Billy Lyons por Stagger Lee Shelton. A versão de Lloyd Price, que é a que escolhemos pra nossa coleção, chegou ao numero 1 dos charts americanos em 1958 e é a numero 456 da lista das 500 melhores canções de todos os tempos da revista Rolling Stones.

Neil Diamond também gravou uma versão de Stagger Lee. Outros grandes que gravaram foram Fats Domino, Duke Ellington, Dr. John, Bill Haley and His Comets, Wilbert Harrison, The Isley Brothers, Wilson Pickett, Professor Longhair, Johnny Rivers e Pete Seeger.

A letra:

The night was clear and the moon was yellow

And the leaves came tumbling down

I was standing on the corner

When I heard my bulldog bark

He was barkin' at the two men

Who were gamblin' in the dark

It was Stagger Lee and Billy

Two men who gambled late

Stagger Lee threw seven

Billy swore that he threw eight

Stagger Lee told Billy

I can't let you go with that

You have won all my money

And my brand new stetson hat

Stagger Lee went home

And he got his forty-four

Said, I'm goin' to the barroom

Just to pay that debt I owe

Go Stagger Lee

Stagger Lee went to the barroom

And he stood across the barroom door

He said, nobody move

And he pulled his forty-four

Stagger Lee, cried Billy

Oh, please don't take my life

I've three little children

And a very sickly wife

Stagger Lee shot Billy

Oh, he shot that poor boy so bad

Till the bullet came through Billy

And it broke the bartender's glass

A gravação original de Lloyd Price, de 1958, somente o áudio:



Johnny Rivers, em 1965, no seu album Whisky a go go (somente o áudio):



The Isley Brothers ao vivo na TV: