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outcolder's review against another edition
5.0
Stagolee has been shooting Billy for over a century now, and if you don't believe Billy's dead, you can come look at the hole in his mother loving head. Cecil Brown fascinates with his portrait of ragtime St. Louis, makes a convincing argument that Stagolee is the primary source for the badman archetype and thus for most of hip hop and all of gangsta rap. Brown is, like, 70s cool, you know, down with Richard Pryor, and, you know, like that. So he actually talked with James Baldwin and Bobby Seale about Stagolee IN REAL LIFE. ... pause for respect ...
Billy Lyon... what a jerk. I guess nobody deserves to be murdered, but still. I wouldn't have cried at his funeral.
I'm surprised to see other reviewers calling this book slow because I thought it was a real page-turner. Many short chapters, plenty of pimps, players, prostitutes and hustlers. But also plenty of Walter Benjamin, semiotics, and scholarly approaches to both folklore and orality more generally and I dig that kind of thing.
I also appreciate that songs mentioned in the text have endnotes that say what albums or which archives have them. I know most people, if they want to hear a song, probably just type it in to the youtubes but I appreciate knowing which Smithsonian Folkways record it is on.
Billy Lyon... what a jerk. I guess nobody deserves to be murdered, but still. I wouldn't have cried at his funeral.
I'm surprised to see other reviewers calling this book slow because I thought it was a real page-turner. Many short chapters, plenty of pimps, players, prostitutes and hustlers. But also plenty of Walter Benjamin, semiotics, and scholarly approaches to both folklore and orality more generally and I dig that kind of thing.
I also appreciate that songs mentioned in the text have endnotes that say what albums or which archives have them. I know most people, if they want to hear a song, probably just type it in to the youtubes but I appreciate knowing which Smithsonian Folkways record it is on.
littletaiko's review against another edition
3.0
One of our local theaters is about present the world premier of Staggerlee based on the legend of Staggerlee (Stagolee). I had never heard of Staggerlee nor was I familiar with any of the music that has resulted in this legend. Good back story and opened my eyes to a whole new world.
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