Stagolee (Stagger Lee)

(album: Bound For Glory - 1956)

Stagolee was a bad man, everybody knows
Spent a hundred dollars for just one suit of clothes
He was a bad man, that mean old Stagolee

Stagolee loaded cotton, weighed five hundred pounds
Carried along a Gatling gun, that drug him to the ground
He was a bad man, that mean old Stagolee

It was in a hustling b-joint where the Mississippi run
Stagolee killed Billy de Lyons with a smoking forty-one
He was a bad man, that mean old Stagolee

The high sheriff asked the deputy, "How can it be
You can arrest everybody, but the mean old Stagolee?
He's a bad man, that mean old Stagolee"

And the deputy told the new sheriff, "Double up my fee
And I'll go get that outlaw, by the name of Stagolee
'Cause he's a bad man, that mean old Stagolee"

Gentlemen of the jury, what do you think about that?
Stagolee killed Billy de Lyons about a five dollar Stetson hat
He was a bad man, that mean old Stagolee

Billy was in the card house and kneeling on the floor
Stagolee pulled the trigger of his red-hot forty-four
He was a bad man, that mean old Stagolee

Billy said to Stagolee, "Please don't take my life
I've got three little babes and a darling loving wife
You're a bad man, your name is Stagolee"

"What do I care about your two little babes, your darling loving wife?
You done stole my brand new hat and I'm bound to take your life
'Cause you're a bad man, and my name is Stagolee"

Billy died in the sawdust, with his head upon the rail
Deputy took old Stagolee and he marched him off to jail
He was a bad man, that mean old Stagolee

The judge said, "Mr. Stagolee, Mr. Stagolee
I'm gonna hang your body up and set your spirit free
'Cause you're a bad man, your name is Stagolee"

Stagolee on his gallows, his head way up high
Twelve o'clock we killed him, was all glad to see him die
He was a bad man, that mean old Stagolee
He was a bad man, that mean old Stagolee