Mississippi John Hurt’s: Stack O’Lee

The song is set up by introducing a man, Billy de Lyon, pleading for his life by saying he’s got a couple of little kids and “a darlin’ lovin’ wife”. Stack O’lee, on the other hand, could care less because Billy stole his $5 hat in which case he replies, “I’m bound to take your life.” Personally, I’ve never owned anything worth killing someone for. Stack O’Lee must have really loved that hat. The Lyrics don’t seem to fit with the melody… similar to irish folk song the Sun and the Moon, for example. (Maybe the hat symbolizes something else? Like the tree in Sun and the Moon symbolized incest) Anyways, at times, both songs are sung from the murderers point of view and because of the melody, it’s implied that they don’t feel bad for what they’ve done.   

The middle portion of the song is hummed, which I find interesting because when Hurt continues singing he sings “Boom Boom… with the forty-four.” The humming is powerful and effective because it represents the ongoing verbal and possibly physical confrontation between Stack O’lee and his victim (Billy de Lyon) in the moments leading up to his death. I like to imagine that the struggle between them was so intense that it can’t be expressed in words, and the only thing  you hear is the gun shot.

To my surprise, the song concludes in a court room where a jury’s sentencing Stack O’lee to his death. So it turns out the narrator of the song is from the point of view of the prosecuting attorney. Hence the repetition of “That bad man, oh, cruel Stack O’lee” placed at the end of every bar to emphasize the conviction of this murderer. (So if you go back and listen to it, Hurt’s singing the song to us as if we are all members of the jury.)

I believe the song form is ABC. However Stack O’lee doesn’t take on the traditional 12-bar blues format, instead it repeats after just 11-bars. There is also a sense of call and response between the guitar and vocals. The piedmont style, in this case, is performed by only one person but this style of guitar playing gives off the impression that there’s more accompaniment because of it’s multiple layers. The recording isn’t too bad… yes there are scratches and hisses (which helps establish the time period- 1928) but overall the guitar and the vocals can be heard very clearly.