St. James Infirmary Blues

"St. James Infirmary Blues" is an American folksong of anonymous origin, though sometimes credited to the songwriter Joe Primrose (a pseudonym for Irving Mills). Louis Armstrong made it famous in his influential 1928 recording.

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.

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.

Performers

Infobox Song
Name = St. James Infirmary


Caption =
Artist = Eric Burdon & The Animals
from Album = Every One Of Us
B-side = Year Of The Guru
Released = 1968
Format = 7" single (not official)
Recorded =
Genre = R&B, soul, jazz, gothic
Length =
Label = MGM
Arranged by = Briggs, Burdon, Jenkins, McCulloch, Money, Weider
Producer = Tom Wilson
Certification =
Chart position =
Last single = "Don't Bring Me Down" (1966)
This single = "See See Rider" (1966)

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, Cassandra Wilson, 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), Graham Bond Organisation, 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, Maciej Maleńczuk, and the Gutter Twins on their album "Adorata".

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 editio n 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". [ [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBk3jwNSteo&feature=related YouTube] ] 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.

The song appears in Episode 321 of the Autralian soap opera "Prisoner" sung by the character Margo Gaffney, played by Jane Clifton, during a prison concert in 1982.

The song was also included on a former Dr.Feelgood vocalist Pete Gage's solo album Out of Hours. Pete recorded 15 tracks, accompanying himself with a piano. The album was recorded in Finland 1997.

In 2000, Alternative musician Elliott Smith referred to the St. James Infirmary in the song "Pretty Mary K," off the album Figure 8.

The song "Jesus of the Moon" by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds references St. James Infirmary, calling it St. James Hotel as Bob Dylan did in "Blind Willie McTell".

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. [ [http://nonotes.wordpress.com/ NO Notes] ] "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.

This song has been used by several figure skaters in competition, most notably Maria Butyrskaya, who skated her short program to it in 1999; she used it to ultimately win the World Championships that year.

The song has been cited as an influence for Radiohead's song "Life in a Glasshouse" [ [http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/21229-amnesiac Amnesiac | Pitchfork ] ]

References

External links

* [http://www.ibiblio.org/jimmy/folkden-wp/?p=6990 MP3 Download and Lyrics from Roger McGuinn's Folk Den]
* [http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=5526 Lyrics and Historical Info at the Mudcat Cafe]
* [http://nonotes.wordpress.com/ Historical investigation by Rob Walker]
* [http://www.escape-suspense.com/2008/04/suspense---st-j.html "Suspense" (1953) "St James Infirmary Blues" starring Rosemary Clooney.]
* [http://prewarblues.org/ Huge collection of "St. James Infirmary Blues" songs]