Stagolee

[WARNING: This song contains antiquated racial stereotypes. It is presented here for historical and educational purposes only.]

From “Folk Songs of North America” by Alan Lomax
A traditional folksong

Lyrics:

  1. It was early, early one mornin’
    When I heard my bulldog bark
    Stagolee and Billy Lyons
    Was squabblin’ in the dark
  2. Stagolee told Billy Lyons
    ‘What do you think of that?
    You win all my money, Billy
    Now you spit in my Stetson hat”
  3. Stagolee, he went a-walkin’
    In the red-hot, broilin’ sun
    Says, ‘Bring me my six-shooter
    Lawd, I wants my forty-one’
  4. Stagolee, he went a-walkin’
    Through the mud and through the sand
    Says, ‘I feel mistreated this mornin’
    I could kill most any man’
  5. Billy Lyons told Stagolee
    ‘Please don’t take my life
    I’ve got three little helples chillun
    And one poor, pitiful wife’
  6. ‘Don’t care nothin’ about your chillun
    And nothin’ about your wife
    You done mistreated me, Billy
    And I’m bound to take your life’
  7. He shot him three times in the shoulder
    Lawd, and three times in the side
    Well, the last time he shot him
    Cause Billy Lyons to die
  8. Stagolee told Mrs. Billy
    ‘You don’t believe yo’ man is dead
    Come into the bar-room
    See the hole I shot in his head
  9. The high sheriff told the deputies
    ‘Get your pistols and come with me
    We got to go ‘rest that
    Bad man Stagolee’
  10. The deputies took their pistols
    And they laid them on the shelf
    ‘If you want that bad man Stagolee
    Go ‘rest him by yourself’
  11. High sheriff ask the bartender
    ‘Who can that bad man be?’
    ‘Speak softly,’ said the bartender
    ‘It’s that bad man Stagolee’
  12. He touch Stack on the shoulder
    Say, ‘Stack, why don’t you run?’
    ‘I don’t run, white folks
    When I got my forty-one’
  13. The hangman put the mask on
    Tied his hands behind his back
    Sprung the trap on Stagolee
    But his neck refuse to crack
  14. Hangman, he got frightened
    Said, ‘Chief, you see how it be
    I can’t hang this man
    Better set him free’
  15. Three hundred dollar funeral
    Thousand dollar hearse
    Satisfaction undertaker
    Put Stack six feet in the earth
  16. Stagolee, he told the Devil
    Says, ‘Come on and have some fun
    You stick me with your pitchfork
    I’ll shoot you with my forty-one
  17. Stagolee took the pitchfork
    And he laid it on the shelf
    Says, ‘Stand back, Tom Devil
    I’m gonna rule Hell by myself’

Sung here by Fred Feild: