St. James Infirmary Blues

St. James Infirmary on tenor sax

St. James Infirmary Blues is an American jazz song of uncertain origin. Louis Armstrong made the song famous in his influential 1928 recording on which Don Redman was credited as composer; later releases gave the name of Joe Primrose, a pseudonym of Irving Mills.[1]

The melody is 8 bars long, unlike songs in the classic blues genre, where there are 12 bars.[2] It is in a minor key, and has a 4/4 time signature.[3]

Theories about authorship and history

"St. James Infirmary Blues", sometimes known as "Gambler's Blues", is often regarded as an American folksong of anonymous origin.

Moore and Baxter published a version of "Gambler's Blues" in 1925.[4] In 1927, Carl Sandburg published a book called "The American Songbag", which contained lyrics for two versions of a song called "Those Gambler's Blues".[5] However, the song "St James Infirmary Blues" is sometimes credited to the songwriter Joe Primrose (a pseudonym for Irving Mills), who held copyrights for several versions of the song, registering the first in 1929. He claimed the rights to this specific title, and won a case in the US Supreme Court on this basis, the defendants having failed to produce the documentary evidence required by the court that the song had been known by that name for some years.[6]

"St James Infirmary Blues" is sometimes said to be based on an eighteenth-century traditional Irish folk song called "The Unfortunate Rake" (also known as "The Unfortunate Lad" or "The Young Man Cut Down in His Prime"), about a soldier who uses his money on prostitutes, and then dies of a venereal disease. But the familiar recorded versions (such as Armstrong's) bear little relation to the older traditional song. In addition, the earliest known form of this song was called "The Buck's Elegy", and is set in Covent Garden, London.[7]

According to Robert W. Harwood, the English journalist and recording artist A. L. Lloyd was the first person to formally connect "St. James Infirmary" with "The Unfortunate Lad/Rake".[8] Harwood refers to a five-page article by Lloyd in the January 1947 issue of the English music magazine "Keynote".[9] In 1956, Lloyd published a revised version of this article, in "Sing" magazine.[10]

In both articles Lloyd refers to an English broadside song entitled "The Unfortunate Lad", commenting that the song is sometimes known as "The Unfortunate Rake". No date or source for the latter title is given. The opening line of this version of the song refers to the "lock hospital", and not to an institution named St James.

The Oxford English Dictionary states that the term "lock hospital" was originally the name of an institution in Southwark, London, where lepers were isolated and treated.[11] The Lock in Southwark was later used for those suffering from venereal diseases. Eventually the longer term came into use as a generic term for a hospital treating venereal diseases. Its first recorded use is 1770.[12]

Lloyd claims that a song collected by Cecil Sharp in the Appalachians in 1918, which contains the words "St James Hospital", is the parent song, and that it looks like an elder relative of "The Dying Cowboy". The opening of that song, as quoted by Lloyd, is:

As I went down by St James Hospital one morning,
So early one morning, it was early one day,
I found my son, my own son,
Wrapped up in white linen, as cold as the clay.

He also claims that this Appalachian version derives in turn from the version published by Such in London in the 1850s, which refers to a lock hospital. The opening verse of this song, entitled "The Unfortunate Lad", is:

As I was walking down by the Lock Hospital,
As I was walking one morning of late,
Who did I spy but my own dear comrade,
Wrapp'd up in flannel, so hard was his fate.

Lloyd's articles both include direct comment on the jazz hit "St James Infirmary Blues". The first article asserts that

the song is, or was before it became corrupted, a narrative ballad. Such ballads are rare in negro song...So doubts are raised about whether "St James Infirmary" began life as a negro song [13].

The second article includes the following comment on the song:

Most versions of Infirmary include a number of stanzas from other songs, grafted on to the main stem - a confusion especially common with songs current among Negroes. The curious switchover from the actual death of the girl to the hypothetical death of the gambler creates some ambiguity too[14].

Lloyd points out that in some early variants of "The Unfortunate Rake", the sex of the victim of venereal disease was female, and comments:

We realise that the confusion in the "Infirmary", where the dead person is a woman but the funeral is ordered for a man, is surely due to the fact that the original ballad was commonly recorded in a form in which the sexes were reversed, so singers were often in two minds whether they were singing of a rakish man or a bad girl[15].

Lloyd’s second article is cited as a reference by Kenneth Goldstein in his liner notes for a 1960 Folkways LP called The Unfortunate Rake. These liner notes are, in turn, often used as an information source for the history of "St James Infirmary Blues". One example is an article by Rob Walker.[16]

The liner notes raise the question of whether St James' Hospital was a real place and, if so, where it was. Kenneth Goldstein claimed in the notes that "St James" refers to London's St. James Hospital, a religious foundation for the treatment of leprosy. His references list an article by Kenneth Lodewick. That article states, giving no reference or source for the idea, that the phrase "St James Hospital" refers to a hospital of that name in London.[17] There is some difficulty in this, since the hospital in question closed in 1532 when Henry VIII acquired the land to build St James's Palace.[18] Another possibility, suggested by Higginbotham on the basis of his claim that the song "St James Infirmary" dates at least from the early nineteenth century, is the Infirmary section of the St James Workhouse, which the St James Parish opened in 1725 on Poland Street, Piccadilly, and which continued well into the nineteenth century.[19] This St James Infirmary was contemporaneous with the estimated advent of the song "The Unfortunate Lad", but it is not the London Lock Hospital. Another difficulty is that, out of the early versions of the song mentioned in the references given by Goldstein, only the one collected by Cecil Sharp in the Appalachians in 1918, and one found in Canada in the 1920s, make use of the phrase "St James".

The liner notes link the Rake to an early fragment called "My Jewel, My Joy", stating it was heard in Dublin. The same statement appears in the Lodewick article referenced in those notes[20]. The notes given in the source cited for this fragment, a collection of songs collected by William Forde and published by P W Joyce, state that the song was heard in Cork, not Dublin.[21]

The version of the "Unfortunate Rake" on the LP of that name is sung by Lloyd, of whom it has been said that he "sometimes modified lyrics or melodies to make the songs more palatable for contemporary listeners",[22] and its first verse is as follows:

As I was a-walking down by St. James Hospital,
I was a-walking down by there one day.
What should I spy but one of my comrades
All wrapped up in a flannel though warm was the day.[lower-alpha 1]

The liner notes[24]state that Lloyd is singing a nineteenth century broadside version, but do not specify which. The Lloyd article cited in the references given in the liner notes,[25] refers to a version published by Such and to no other version. The title and words sung by Lloyd are not those of the Such broadside[26] which has no reference to St James and is not called "The Unfortunate Rake". Lloyd recorded a slightly different version in 1966, this time calling the song "St James Hospital".[27] In 1967, his book "Folk Song in England" was published.[28] This includes some comment on the song, claims without any supporting references or information that a Czech version pre-dates the British ones, repeats the confusion between Dublin and Cork as the place where the "My Jewel My Joy" fragment had been heard, and includes an unattributed quotation of two verses that differ from the versions sung by Lloyd.

Variations typically feature a narrator telling the story of a young man "cut down in his prime" (occasionally, a young woman "cut down in her prime") as a result of morally questionable behaviour. For example, when the song moved to America, gambling and alcohol became common causes of the youth's death[29]. There are numerous versions of the song throughout the English-speaking world. For example, it evolved into other American standards such as "The Streets of Laredo".[30]

The song, "Dyin' Crapshooter's Blues", has sometimes been described as a descendant of "The Unfortunate Rake", and thus related to "St James Infirmary Blues". This song was issued as a record four times in 1927, and attributed to pianist, arranger, and band-leader Porter Grainger.[31] Blind Willie McTell recorded a version of the former for John Lomax in 1940,[32] and claimed to have begun writing the song around 1929.

The tune of some of the earlier versions of "St. James Infirmary", and of "Unfortunate Rake", is in a major key also similar to that of the "Streets of Laredo". Notably, the same tune is used for a song called "The Bard of Armagh". The jazz version, as played by Louis Armstrong, is in a minor key and appears to have been influenced by the chord structures prevalent in Latin American music, particularly the Tango. Gottlieb considered whether there were Jewish American influences through the use of the Ukrainian Dorian mode, but only found hints of this in a version published by Siegmeister and Downes.[33] He also suggests that there may have been Jewish influences on the rendition by Cab Calloway.[34] A melody very similar to the Armstrong version can be found in an instrumental composition entitled "Charleston Cabin", which was recorded by Whitey Kaufman's Original Pennsylvania Serenaders in 1924 (three years prior to the earliest recording of "Gambler's Blues").[35]

As with many folksongs, there is much variation in the lyric from one version to another. These are the first two stanzas as sung by Louis Armstrong on a 1928 Odeon Records release:[36]

I went down to St. James Infirmary,
Saw my baby there,
Stretched out on a long white table,

So cold, so sweet, so fair.


Let her go, let her go, God bless her,
Wherever she may be,
She can look this wide world over,
But she'll never find a sweet man like me.

Some of the versions, such as the one published as "Gambler's Blues" and attributed to Carl Moore and Phil Baxter, frame the story with an initial stanza or stanzas in which a separate narrator goes down to a saloon known as "Joe's barroom" and encounters a customer who then relates the incident about the woman in the infirmary.[37] Later verses commonly include the speaker's request to be buried according to certain instructions, which vary according to the version.[38]

Performers

Koko the clown (a rotoscoped Cab Calloway) performing the song in the 1933 Betty Boop animation Snow White

The song was first recorded (as "Gambler's Blues") in 1927 by Fess Williams and his Royal Flush Orchestra, with credits given to Moore and Baxter.[39] This version mentions an infirmary, but not by name. The song was popular during the jazz era, and by 1930 at least eighteen different versions had been released by various artists.[40] The Duke Ellington Orchestra recorded the song multiple times using pseudonyms such as "The Ten Black Berries", "The Harlem Hot Chocolates" and "The Jungle Band",[41] whilst Cab Calloway performs a version in the 1933 Betty Boop animated film Snow White, providing both vocals and dance moves for Koko the clown.[42]

In 1945, while serving with the U.S. Army in Germany, Tony Bennett recorded a version with his division's military band. This was the very first studio recording Bennett ever did.

In 1956, Scatman Crothers released a version of "St. James Infirmary" as the fifth track of his album, Rock 'N' Roll With "Scat Man.[43]

In 1959, Snooks Eaglin recorded a version of "St. James Infirmary" for the Folkways Records album "New Orleans Street Singer".[44]

In 1961, Bobby "Blue" Bland released a version of "Saint James Infirmary" on the flip side of his No. 2 R&B hit "Don't Cry No More" (Duke 340) and included it in his album Two Steps From The Blues.[45][46]

In 1963, Lou Rawls featured the song on his Capitol album, Back and Blue.[47]

In 1965, Appalachian banjo player Dock Boggs recorded a version of the song entitled "Old Joe's Barroom".[48]

In 1968, Don Partridge released a version on his self-named album, as did Eric Burdon and the Animals on their album "Every One of Us".[49]

In 1967, garage rock band The Standells included a version on their album "Try It".

From 1969 to 1970, The Doors often included a version of it in their live shows, often as a continuation of Light My Fire.

The 1972 album Joe Cocker (also billed as Something to Say) includes a live version by Joe Cocker.[50]

On the sixth episode of the 1st season of Saturday Night Live, aired November 22, 1975, Lily Tomlin performed the song with "Howard Shore and his All-Nurse Band", which was the usual SNL house band wearing nurses uniforms.

In 1981, Bob Dylan adapted the song when he wrote and recorded "Blind Willie McTell". The song was written for his 1983 release, Infidels, but was not released until The Bootleg Series, Vol. 1-3: Rare and Unreleased, 1961-1991 (Columbia, 1991).[51]

In 1983, it was sung by Dave Van Ronk on an album titled Saint James Infirmary.

James Booker covered the song on his album Resurrection Of The Bayou Maharajah (1993).

Canadian Brass created a nostalgic version of this on their Basin Street CD recorded for Sony/CBS in 1984.[52]

The James Solberg Band recorded a blues version on their 1995 CD on the Atomic Theory label See That My Grave Is Kept Clean.[53]

In 2006, The Devil Makes Three covered the song on the album A Little Bit Faster And A Little Bit Worse (under the title St James).[54]

In 2007, Arlo Guthrie, along with the University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra, released the song on the album, In Times Like These.[55]

The White Stripes covered the song on their self-titled debut album, and Jack White says he and fellow band member, Meg White, were introduced to the song from a Betty Boop cartoon.[56]

Isobel Campbell has also recorded a version of the song.[57] In 2002 Jorma Kaukonen did a version for his Blue Country Heart album, on which he titled the song "Those Gambler's Blues", and erroneously credited it to Jimmie Rodgers.

Hugh Laurie performed the song on his blues album Let Them Talk.

The Gutter Twins included a version on their 2008 EP Adorata.

The song appears on Allen Toussaint album "The bright Mississippi" released in 2009.

In 2012, Trombone Shorty and Booker T. Jones performed an instrumental version as the opening number of the "Red, White, and Blues" concert at the White House.[58]

The song appears on Rickie Lee Jones' album, The Devil You Know.[59]

Yo-Yo Ma's The Silkroad Ensemble perform St. James Infirmary with singer Rhiannon Giddens on their 2016 record Sing Me Home. It is a rare version with a rather traditional folk ensemble instrumentation and a female singer. This version crosses the boundaries between the traditional blues- and marching band sound and French and eastern European folk music.[60]

On their 2017 record On the Spot, the musicians of the Hot 8 Brass Band play a version of the song.[61]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ "The Unfortunate Rake" (traditional song: this variation is from a 1960 Folkways LP edited by Goldstein, where it was sung by A L Lloyd, and is also the version given by Harwood, 2014 (Op Cit), apparently using the same source. It is sung to the tune of "My Jewel, My Joy", for reasons explained by Lloyd in an article referenced in the liner notes to this LP )[23]

References

  1. ↑ Harwood R W (2015) I Went Down to St James’ Infirmary. Canada, Harland Press p 113
  2. ↑ Twelve-bar blues
  3. ↑ http://iwentdowntostjamesinfirmary.blogspot.co.uk/2008/12/st-james-infirmary-piano-sheet-music.html
  4. ↑ Harwood R W (2015) I Went Down to St James’ Infirmary. Canada, Harland Press
  5. ↑ https://archive.org/details/americansongbag029895mbp
  6. ↑ [Harwood R W (2015) I Went Down to St James’ Infirmary. Canada, Harland Press]
  7. ↑ J. Bishop and S. Roud (2014) The New Penguin Book of English Folk Songs. London, Penguin.
  8. ↑ Harwood R W (2015) I Went Down to St James’ Infirmary. Canada, Harland Press. p 36.
  9. ↑ A. L. Lloyd, "Background to St James Infirmary Blues," Keynote, January 1947.
  10. ↑ Lloyd, A L "Background to St James Infirmary", SING Volume 3, London, 1956, pp19-21.
  11. ↑ http://www.oed.com/
  12. ↑ The New Shorter Oxford Dictionary. 1988, Guild Publishing Edition.
  13. ↑ Lloyd, 1947, Op Cit p.10
  14. ↑ Lloyd, 1956 Op Cit p.19
  15. ↑ Lloyd, 1956, Op Cit, p21.
  16. ↑ Walker, R “Name That Tune”
  17. ↑ Lodewick, K “‘The Unfortunate Rake’ and His Descendants”. Western Folklore Vol. 14, No. 2 (Apr., 1955)
  18. ↑ Goldstein, Kenneth S. (1960). "The Unfortunate Rake: A Study in the Evolution of a Ballad". The Unfortunate Rake (St. James Hospital) (PDF) (booklet). Various artists. New York: Folkways Records. pp. 1–2.
  19. ↑ Peter Higginbotham. "The Workhouse in Westminster (St James), London: Middlesex". Workhouses.org.uk. Retrieved 8 September 2013.
  20. ↑ Lodewick K (1955) The Unfortunate Rake and his Descendants. Western Folklore, Vol 14, No 2. pp 98-109.
  21. ↑ Old Irish Folk Music and Songs: A Collection of 842 Irish Airs and Songs Hitherto Unpublished / edited with annotations for The Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland by PW Joyce. Available online at https://www.itma.ie/joyce/book/old-irish-folk-music-and-songs-part-3
  22. ↑ Harwood (2015), Op Cit, p 38.
  23. ↑ Lloyd A L, 1956, "Background to St James' Infirmary", Sing Magazine. Vol 3, p19-21
  24. ↑ https://media.smithsonianfolkways.org/liner_notes/folkways/FW03805.pdf
  25. ↑ Lloyd A L, 1956, "Background to St James' Infirmary", Sing Magazine. Vol 3, p19-21
  26. ↑ H Such, Union Street, Borough, SE London. Available via the Bodleian Libraries Broadside Ballads Online Web site
  27. ↑ First Person (Topic 12T118 UK, 1966)
  28. ↑ Lloyd A L (1967) Folk Song in England. Lawrence and Wishart/Paladin Edition 1975
  29. ↑ Philips, Barry. Some Aspects of Folk Songs. The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 25, No. 97 (Jul. - Sep., 1912), pp. 274-283
  30. ↑ Waltz, Robert B.; David G. Engle (2011). "Bad Girl's Lament, The (St. James' Hospital; The Young Girl Cut Down in her Prime) [Laws Q26]". The Ballad Index. Fresno, California: Fresno State University. Retrieved 1 June 2012.
  31. ↑ See http://www.78discography.com/COL14000D.htm (Accessed11/03/2017)
  32. ↑ Harwood, Robert W (2008). I Went Down to St. James Infirmary. p. 9. ISBN 9780980974300.
  33. ↑ Gottlieb, J (2004) "Funny, It Doesn't Sound Jewish", SUNY/Library of Congress. p. 207, and note to page.
  34. ↑ Gottlieb, op cit, p211
  35. ↑ Harwood, Robert W (2008). I Went Down to St. James Infirmary. p. 39. ISBN 9780980974300.
  36. ↑ "Louis Armstrong - St. James Infirmary - New York 12.12. 1928". YouTube. 25 April 2011. Retrieved 26 July 2016.
  37. ↑ http://iwentdowntostjamesinfirmary.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-golden-grail-found-gamblers-blues.html
  38. ↑ See, for example, 1 Lodewick K (1955) The Unfortunate Rake and his Descendants. Western Folklore, Vol 14, No 2. pp 98-109, Five Folk Songs. 2 Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society Vol. 3, No. 2 (Dec., 1937), pp. 126-134.
  39. ↑ Harwood, Robert W (2008). I Went Down to St. James Infirmary. pp. 11, 12. ISBN 9780980974300.
  40. ↑ Harwood, Robert W (2008). I Went Down to St. James Infirmary. p. 30. ISBN 9780980974300.
  41. ↑ Harwood, Robert W (2008). I Went Down to St. James Infirmary. p. 19. ISBN 9780980974300. Irving Mills is credited as 'Sunny Smith' on the recordings
  42. ↑ The short film Snow White is available for free download at the Internet Archive
  43. ↑ ""Scat Man" Crothers* - Rock 'N' Roll With "Scat Man" (Vinyl, LP)". Discogs.com. Retrieved 26 July 2016.
  44. ↑ "St. James Infirmary - Snooks Eaglin". Smithsonian Folkways. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
  45. ↑ Whitburn, Joel, Top R&B Singles 1942-1999, Menomonee Falls, WI: Record Research, Inc., 2000, page 34.
  46. ↑ Bland, Bobby, "Two Steps From The Blues", MCA (CD) 088 112 516-2, Duke (LP) 74
  47. ↑ Ron Wynn. "Black and Blue - Lou Rawls | Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved 20 January 2016.
  48. ↑ "Old Joe's Barroom - Dock Boggs". Smithsonian Folkways. 20 March 2013. Retrieved 8 September 2013.
  49. ↑ Bruce Eder, "Every One of Us - Eric Burdon & the Animals", All Music.
  50. ↑ "Joe Cocker [A&M] - Joe Cocker | Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved 20 January 2016.
  51. ↑ Song and Dance Man III: The Art of Bob Dylan, Michael Gray (Continuum, 2000), pp. 517–547
  52. ↑ "Basin Street - Canadian Brass | Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved 20 January 2016.
  53. ↑ Thom Owens (1 August 1995). "See That My Grave is Kept Clean - James Solberg Band | Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved 20 January 2016.
  54. ↑ "A Little Bit Faster and a Little Bit Worse - The Devil Makes Three | Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic. 17 November 2006. Retrieved 20 January 2016.
  55. ↑ Arlo Guthrie - Topic (2016-02-27), St. James Infirmary, retrieved 2018-01-19
  56. ↑ "Series 40, episode 2". Later...with Jools Holland. Season 40. Episode 2. 24 April 2012.
  57. ↑ "Isobel Campbell, St. Etienne Sign New Deals". Billboard. Retrieved 8 September 2013.
  58. ↑ Clark, Cindy (22 February 2012). "The White House sings the blues". USA Today. Retrieved 3 June 2012.
  59. ↑ "Pop CD reviews: Van Morrison, No Doubt, Beth Orton, Rickie Lee Jones, Krar Collectives". 28 September 2012. Retrieved 21 May 2014.
  60. ↑ "Yo-Yo Ma's The Silkroad Ensemble - St. James Infirmary Blues on Youtube". 4 March 2016. Retrieved 25 October 2017.
  61. ↑ "Hot 8 Brass Band - St. James Infirmary on Youtube". 22 September 2017. Retrieved 25 October 2017.
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