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Article: A song with a story of its own: scholar Cecil Brown's search for the oft-sung exploits of Stagolee underscores the indelible power of our oral culture. (Bibliomane).
- Article from:
- Black Issues Book Review
- Article date:
- July 1, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Cox, Matthews & Associates. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The artful use of words spoken or sung to entertain or inform is embedded in our culture. The ballad has been particularly important. By definition, ballads tell stories. The verses frequently travel over great distances and through many generations in time--growing, sometimes mutating, sometimes picking up fragments from other cultural traditions.
As a male child growing up on a tobacco farm in North Carolina in the late 1950s, Cecil Brown became fascinated with one particular ballad about Stagolee, Stagger Lee, or Stack O'Lee, to cite a few variations. "The legend survives because black men pass it on," Brown writes in his new book, Stagolee Shot Billy (Harvard ...