On the Ed Sullivan show (noted earlier):
“St. James Infirmary”
[Or: The Point of this Site]
A couple of years ago I did some research into the song "St. James Infirmary," wrote up what I found, emailed that essay to friends and posted it on my web site (as part of a series of "Letters From New Orleans," as I was living in that city at the time). Based on the feedback, I wrote a second version of the essay, and asked for more feedback. Based on that, I wrote a third version.And now, this site: A place to collect some of the links, leads, thoughts, and suggestions relating to the song that readers (from Finland, The Netherlands, Australia, Spain, England, Sweden, Canada, and all over the U.S.) have sent me. This may lead to a fourth and significantly expanded version of the essay, some day. Also on this site: Plenty of tangents.
Never heard "St. James Infirmary"? Start here.
The Essay
The most recent version of my "St. James Infirmary" essay is now a few years old. But it's still a fairly decent overview of what I know about the song, and why I'm interested in it. You can read it either in the book Letters from New Orleans (see below), or in the archives of The Gambit, the New Orleans weekly that published the piece as a book excerpt when LfNO came out.
Podcast!
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The Book
This site is a partial spinoff of the book Letters from New Orleans, published by the unstoppable Garrett County Press. My interest in "St. James Infirmary" is the subject of one essay in the book. All author proceeds from the book still go to post-Katrina relief efforts, so I think it's okay for me to say: You ought to buy it.
Mailing List
Versions
The song, “St James Infirmary”, is based upon an old London, (UK), folksong and the Infirmary in question was the , “Chapel Royal of St James’ Palace”, formerly belonging to a House of Female Lepers founded by the citizens of London. Infirmary, then, refered to ANY place of refuge for, e.g., the young, the aged, fallen women. Many leper places often dealt with venerial diseases. See –
“http://www.oldlondonmaps.com/articles/hospitals.html
Bob.
Thanks. You might consider taking a look around this site. There’s a lot of information here about the song’s history, as well as the question of the original infirmary referred to.
For instance:
http://nonotes.wordpress.com/2006/03/16/st-james-infirmary-the-edifice-complexity/
Also you might consider reading the essay linked to in the sidebar at right, from which this blog descends.
Thanks again.