- The song that I chose this week was "Stagolee" by Mississippi John Hunt
This song has a very back waters feel to it. It makes me feel as if I'm down south in the Bayou. Something that I found fascinating in the song is how they portray the story. Starts with them robbing a coal mine that has some gambling going on. The two men had the robbery planned out in a way, so they won't shoot each other in the process. One of these men was Stagolee, the other was Billy De Lyon. Billy De Lyon knocked off Stagolee's Stetson hat in the process. Stagolee ends up killing him even after hearing him beg for his life. I find this portion of the song so interesting because they just robbed a saloon, and this man is going to kill someone over a five-dollar hat. With all the money that they just scored he could easily replace that hat. But instead, he takes someone’s life over something so meaningless. This is a great way to show how heartless Stagolee really is and how he doesn’t care for anyone or their backstory. If he feels wronged in anyway, he takes his revenge to the extreme. This song really portrays the characters in such a way that you can picture all of this taking place and the instruments in the background aid the song in a way that gives it a remorseful feeling to it.
I liked how you told the story of the song and described the emotions that were included in the lyrics. I agree that this song can help visualize how the story went down and really get you thinking about how life for them really was.
ReplyDeleteI like how you made connections in your writing about how "It makes me feel as if I'm down south in the Bayou." I was also getting that same vibe after listening to this song for the first time. Also, I like how you provided the story behind the song because I didn't know that's what the song was about! I feel like it's also really petty what they did. Killing someone over a five-dollar hat? That is really extreme. It makes me wonder what other things stagolee did to other people. How many others has he killed? What were the reasons for them? I would also like to say that this song also reminds me of "Ma Belle Evangeline" song from princess and the frog when that little firefly guy sings. Although the stories of the songs are total opposites. In Ma Belle Evangeline, he talks about how much he loves Evangeline. In Stagolee, he talks about the bad man stagolee. I think that this song has a sort of happy calming tone to it, but the meaning behind it is not so calming and happy. That's why I wasn't aware that the song was about a bad man killing someone over a five-dollar hat.
ReplyDeleteyou did a Very good job on this blog. I liked how you shared the storie the song tells is maybe an easier way to understand than it is when listening to his singing. I also like the example of "Ma Belle Evangeline" because thats a song lots of people know and it could bring them more into some of this genera.
ReplyDeleteI have listen to this song a couple times. I also like that this song tells a story. I love that you added how it makes you feel like you are down south. If I had not already heard this song your description does a great job of telling us all of the details of the song. This blog was great and you are a wonderful writer.
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