miker,
I haven't read Bryant's book yet, but I am almost done with
Stagolee Shot Billy (nice accompanying website,
www.stagoleeshotbilly.com, thanks for telling me about it,
Jordan), an in-depth case study of the legend surrounding one
Bad Black Man. As you note, miker, many of these
legends/ballads are based on real life occurences, which is
the case here. "Stack" Lee Shelton (maybe his descendants
should sue filmmaker Shelton Lee for appropriating his name,
as "Spike" did TNN) really did shoot Bill Lyons during an
argument/fight involving Stack Lee's hat. Cecil Brown looks
at all sorts of factors to try to understand why this one
murder became legendary when the other four murders that same
night, December 25, 1895, in same the black ghetto of East St
Louis were forgotten.
Although Brown stays very tightly focused on Stagolee, he
does address more general issues of pimps, gamblers, Bad
Black Men and folklore. At least this one folktale had no
roots in Africa, was far more a reaction to social conditions
in the US of A.
Stagger Lee figures show up in all sorts of hardboiled
novels, particular those Jordan mentioned by Donald Goines
and Iceberg Slim.
(By the way, miker, you might want to try one of Slim's
novels. Although I found it very interesting, I also found
Pimp pretty oppressive. However, I really liked his novels
Trick Baby and the Long White Con and intend to read his
others at some point.) And Stagger Lee himself has shown up
in at least two hardboiled novels I know of. I own but
haven't read the first, Stagger Lee, a "soon to be a major
motion picture" (but never was as far as I can tell)
paperback original published during the golden age of the
blaxploitaiton film. The second is Leavin' Trunk Blues by Ace
Atkins, which involves a person who may have been falsely
convicted of killing Billy Lyons. Of course, if you know the
song (as many reading a mystery about a folklore tracker
probably would) you already know the solution to the
mystery.
Mark
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