St. James Infirmary Blues
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"St. James Infirmary Blues" is an American folksong of anonymous origin. Louis Armstrong made it famous in his influential 1928 recording.
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[edit] Authorship and history
The source of this song is an 18th century English folk song called "The Unfortunate Rake" (also known as "Unfortunate Lad" or "The Young Man Cut Down in His Prime"). There are versions of this song throughout the English-speaking world, and it evolved into American standards such as "The Streets of Laredo" or "The Dying Cowboy". "The Unfortunate Rake" is about a sailor who uses his money on prostitutes, and it implies that he dies of a venereal disease. When the song moved to America, gambling and drinking became the cause of the man's death.
The song was first collected in England in its version as "The Unfortunate Rake" by Henry Hammond by a Mr. William Cutis at Lyme Regis, Dorset in March 1906.
[edit] The song
The song involves a man telling the singer/narrator, at a bar, how he went down to St. James Infirmary (hospital) and tragically found his girl (the so-called "baby") dead.
Like most such folksongs, there is much variation in the lyrics from one version to another. One set of lyrics, goes this way:
- I went down to old Joe's bar room, on the corner by the square
- Well, the drinks were bein' served as usual, and this motley crowd was there
- Well, on my left stood Joe McKennedy, and his eyes were bloodshot red
- When he told me that sad story, these were the words he said:
- I went down to the St. James infirmary, I saw my baby there
- She was stretched out on a long white table, so cold, and fine, and fair.
- Let her go, let her go, God bless her, wherever she may be
- She can search this world over, never find another man like me
- When I die Oh lord please bury me in my high top Stetson hat
- Put gold coins over my eyelids, so the boys will know I died standing pat
- Get six crapshooting pallbearers, six chorus girls to sing me a song,
- Put a jazz band behind my hearse wagon, to raise hell as we roll along.
- Get sixteen coal black horses, to pull that rubber tired hack.
- There's thirteen men going to the graveyard, only twelve men are coming back
- Well, now you've heard my story, well, have another round of booze,
- And if anyone should ever, ever ask you, I've got the St. James infirmary blues!
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- this version, called St. James, is currently popularized by the band The Devil Makes Three.
[edit] Performers
Notable performers of this song include Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, Big Mama Thornton, "Spider" John Koerner, Jack Teagarden, Poor Wendy, Billie Holiday, Josh White, Stan Kenton (who infused the breaks, between verses, with rival Woody Herman's "Blue Flame"), Lou Rawls, The Limeliters, Arlo Guthrie, Bobby Bland, Danny Elfman who would perform the song nearly every night in the early Oingo Boingo days,Turk Murphy, Janis Joplin, The Doors who performed it in the middle of Light My Fire on occasion, The Animals, The Triffids, Dr. John (both solo and with Eddie Bo), The Standells, Blues Creation with Carmen Maki, Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan, Doc Watson and more recently The White Stripes, the Stray Cats, the Tarbox Ramblers, Tom Jones with Jools Holland, Van Morrison, Alec K. Redfearn, Maria in the Shower, and Maciej Maleńczuk,
Van Morrison has often performed this in concert playing his alto saxophone. He recorded a rendition on the (2003) Grammy nominated album, What's Wrong with This Picture? and a live version as performed on September 15, 2006 is included on the limited edition album, Live at Austin City Limits Festival (2006). Eric Clapton and Dr John performed a rendition of the song during a 1996 concert called "Duets". Arlo Guthrie performed a rendition with slightly different lyrics (learned from Cisco Houston) on NPR's Talk of the Nation radio broadcast on Nov. 14, 2001. Robert Crumb even released a version of it on a CD included in the 'R. Crumb Handbook'. Live versions appear on Joe Cocker's albums Something To Say (1972, also known as Joe Cocker), and Live in L.A. (1976), and on The Devil Makes Three's live album A Little Bit Faster and A Little Bit Worse (2007). The Bing Crosby musical Birth Of The Blues featured the song in 1941. In 2002, the song appeared in Osamu Tezuka's dixieland-influenced anime film Metropolis as arranged by Toshiyuki Honda. In 1981, Bob Dylan used the folk melody in his song "Blind Willie McTell" (released in 1991 on Dylan's Bootleg Series, Volumes 1–3), named for blues singer Willie McTell (who himself recorded a version of the song under the title "Dying Crapshooter's Blues"); the song includes a reference to the St. James Hotel.
Cab Calloway can be seen singing it and dancing a slide dance in the Betty Boop cartoon Snow White. His performance was filmed, then transferred into the cartoon world by "rotoscoping": tracing over prints of the filmed scene one frame at a time.
Jazz guitarists Marc Ribot and Ivan "Boogaloo Joe" Jones have recorded instrumental versions of this song. Bobby Bland's version has the following lyrics:
- I went down to St. James Infirmary
- And I heard my baby moan.
- And I felt so broken hearted.
- She used to be my very own.
- And I tried so hard to keep from crying.
- My heart felt just like lead.
- She was all that I had to live for.
- Oh, I wish it was me instead.
- Now she's gone, she's gone and may God bless her
- Wherever she may be.
- She can search this wide world over
- And she'll never find a man like me.
- She's gone . . . She's gone . . . She's gone.
In 2000, Alternative musician Elliott Smith referred to the St. James Infirmary in the song "Pretty Mary K," off the album Figure 8. Lyrics include the lines that seem to be influenced by Bobby Bland's version:
- I found faith in the infirmary
- I walk round the dock and talk to St. James.
- Though I'm already done,
- and ask everyone "Have you seen her?"
- Pretty Mary k
Writer Rob Walker has been researching "St. James Infirmary" since 1999 and has collected thousands of pages of information about the song, along with dozens of versions. His "NO Notes" website is devoted to this ongoing project; it includes links to many jazz version available for free download. NO Notes tends to focus on versions that have some connections to New Orleans. Although the song definitely did not originate there, it has a long history as part of the cultural landscape of New Orleans and is considered a local standard and Dixieland classic.
