Posted in Musical context, Non-musical context on May 9, 2008 | No Comments »
Wednesday night here in Savannah there was a showing of the Todd Haynes movie I’m Not There — his wild riff on the idea of Bob Dylan, using six different actors to portray aspects of Dylan-ness — at a coffee shop here, courtesy of The Psychotronic Film Society. It was pretty crowded, kind of too [...]
Posted in "St. James Infirmary", Non-musical context on April 21, 2008 | 2 Comments »
T-P Music writer Keith Spera says:
The well-trod “Do You Know What it Means to Miss New Orleans” is, like “St. James Infirmary” and “Lil’ Liza Jane, ” a New Orleans standard overdue for retirement.
Due for retirement?
“St. James Infirmary”??
You’re fucking fired.
Posted in Letters From New Orleans book, New Orleans, Non-musical context on February 15, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Every city has its dive bars. Sometimes those bars have a reputation for being a bit dangerous, a bit of a risk. We all know these places; we’ve all been to them. The vague sense of edginess is part of the appeal.
Back when we lived in New Orleans, we had quite a number of such [...]
Posted in "St. James Infirmary", Non-musical context, St. James + on February 10, 2008 | No Comments »
Until recently, the only literary reference to “St. James Infirmary” that anyone had ever mentioned to me is the closing scene of Robert Stone’s Hall of Mirrors, which involves a morgue visit that seems pretty clearly to be inspired by “SJI” on some level (although I do not believe the song is ever specifically mentioned).
So [...]
Posted in Non-musical context on November 28, 2007 | No Comments »
Here’s something I came upon by checking my “incoming links.” You know how I’m always going on about that Betty Boop cartoon featuring Cab Calloway’s take on “SJI”? Well, echenblog had a post mentioning that (and this site) the other day — and noting that in one poll of animators it was voted the 19th [...]
Posted in "St. James Infirmary", Non-musical context on September 25, 2007 | No Comments »
A while back I wrote about the Bethany & Rufus version of “SJI.” An interesting comment from Bethany Yarrow from this piece in the East Bay Express:
“St. James Infirmary,” about an untimely death, originated as a British folk ballad and eventually became a New Orleans bar song. Yarrow describes the uncanny feeling she got performing [...]
Posted in "St. James Infirmary", Movies & Television, MySpace/YouTube/Etc., Non-musical context, Versions on August 8, 2007 | No Comments »
Speaking of “SJI” in the movies, here’s another example — rather different from the previously mentioned Taste of Cherry.
I forget how I got wind that the tune appears in the 2001 anime film Metropolis; it may be that I became aware of the sound track first, and then backed into it from there.
In any case, [...]
Posted in "St. James Infirmary", Non-musical context on August 1, 2007 | No Comments »
Inspired by the Simpsons movie, Time Out Chicago asks: “What is your favorite cartoon of all time?” Apparently this question was basically posed to the Time Out Chicago staff. Film writer Cliff Doerksen answers:
“Snow White,” the 1933 Betty Boop short with a rotoscoped Cab Calloway singing ‘St James Infirmary Blues.’ So beautiful.
Good choice. [...]
Posted in "St. James Infirmary", Lyric deconstruction, MySpace/YouTube/Etc., Non-musical context, Versions on July 12, 2007 | No Comments »
The other day I mentioned The White Stripes including “St. James Infirmary” in a live set. The famous Detroit duo also of course have recorded the song, on their first album. I’ve never written about that version here, but now’s as good a time as any. The occasion is the appearance on YouTube of what [...]
Posted in "St. James Infirmary", MySpace/YouTube/Etc., New Orleans, Non-musical context, Versions on July 9, 2007 | No Comments »
Speaking of Wynton Marsalis & “St. James Infirmary,” a relevant bit of Spike Lee’s When The Levees Broke popped up on YouTube recently. If you haven’t seen Lee’s epic documentary about Katrina and its aftermath, I highly recommend it. If you have seen it, you know that the “SJI” tune pops up early in [...]
[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 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.
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.
