Stagger Lee
This morning my friend Bob gave me a copy of the death certificate of Lee Shelton, who died in the prison here in Jefferson City, MO, of tuberculosis in 1912. Shelton was an African American cab driver and pimp convicted of murdering William “Billy” Lyons on Christmas Eve, 1895 in St. Louis, Missouri. [More on Shelton at Wikipedia]
The crime was immortalized in a popular song that has been recorded by numerous artists. Here are just a few:
- Grateful Dead
- Tom Jones
- Pat Boone
- James Brown
- Neil Diamond
- Fats Domino
- Dr. John
- Bob Dylan
- Duke Ellington
- Woody Guthrie
- Bill Haley & His Comets
- The Isley Brothers
- Huey Lewis and the News
- Taj Mahal
- Wilson Pickett
- Sam the Sham
- Ike and Tina Turner
You might need a Blip.fm account to listen to the two versions I’ve linked above.
The Hurt Locker
The Hurt Locker more than lived up to its billing as an “intense” film. Black Hawk Down intense. Only the men and women who have served in Iraq (or who live there) can say how real the movie is. Real enough, I suspect.
I’m not sure the film makers had any sort of political statement to make about our presence in Iraq, but I came away thinking there is no way to win such a war. Unless the last suicide bomber blowing up the last Humvee with the last chunk of siMMtec counts as winning. Not sure what it would look like for our side.
The “can’t go home again” theme reminded me of Tommy Lee Jones’ character in Rolling Thunder. I still don’t know what to make of the brief appearances by David Morse, Ralph Fiennes and Guy Pearce.
Richard Peck: Last Dance
Cell Block
I shot this little clip during a tour of the Missouri State Penitentiary a couple of years ago, and forgot about it. One of my favorite prison factoids: The prison was opened in 1836… the same month the Alamo fell.