Robert W. Harwood over at I Went Down To St. James Infirmary has the 411: “The fact is that I really like this.”
Archive for the ‘"St. James Infirmary"’ Category
Blues in da Fog version
Posted in "St. James Infirmary", Versions on November 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
[NOT!] Leadbelly
Posted in "St. James Infirmary", Versions on October 24, 2009 | 1 Comment »
A fairly traditional treatment, but the sound is haunting and lovely. Enjoy.
UPDATE October 29: See the comments — seems that this is actually Josh White singing (although those are pictures of Leadbelly, I’m pretty sure.) A humiliating turn of events for no notes! Our thanks to Robert W. Harwood for setting [...]
The Preservation Hall SJI King Britt cartoon video (again, but apparently for real this time)
Posted in "St. James Infirmary", Versions on October 20, 2009 | 1 Comment »
–> Thx: G.K.!
A brief recap. An old Betty Boop cartoon by Max Fleischer is an astonishing and surreal piece of work, and happens to feature a Cab Calloway rendition of “St. James Infirmary.” Fleischer made several cartoons featuring jazz works. The 1933 Boop cartoon (considered a classic) features the character [...]
While we wait…
Posted in "St. James Infirmary" on October 15, 2009 | 3 Comments »
“SJI” … on ice??
Posted in "St. James Infirmary", Non-musical context on October 9, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The Globe and Mail has an article about a Canadian TV show called Battle of the Blades, which I gather is like one of those silly dance-competition reality shows, but, with skating. Who cares? Well, I only know about it because of this:
On a recent show, one duo performed a routine to the music of [...]
King Britt Remix + Animation
Posted in "St. James Infirmary", New Orleans, Versions on October 1, 2009 | 1 Comment »
[UPDATE: That link's not working anymore because they've password-protected the video for now, per comments. Boooo! Oh well, we'll be patient.]
Fantastic! Loaded with great N.O. and SJI details that I’ll address more later. But for now, check it out:
Preservation Hall Jazz Band – St. James Infirmary (King Britt Remix) from Lantian Xie on Vimeo.
SJI remixed & re-animated
Posted in "St. James Infirmary", Versions on September 26, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Alex Rawls passes along this (obviously exciting!) news:
Preservation Hall Recordings is proud to present a brand-new, locally produced animated music video! Directed by Lafayette-based teacher and animator James Tancill, the music video for the Preservation Hall / King Britt remix of “St. James Infirmary” by the Preservation Hall Jazz Band is an animated romp [...]
“Let her go” cont’d (back to 1902)
Posted in "St. James Infirmary", Lyric deconstruction on August 31, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Actually: Speaking of the Toussaint/Costello tune “Ascension Day,” it’s the song that made me zero on the phrase “let her go” in “SJI,” because I assumed (and actually still believe) that “SJI” is what Costello was referencing when he dropped it into his lyrics.
A reader pointed out to me some time ago that the phrase [...]
“SJI” reimagined to address current health-care crisis
Posted in "St. James Infirmary", Folk/Tradition, Non-musical context, Versions on August 27, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I went down to St. James Infirmary
60 people were waiting there
It was 8 AM in the morning
And we barely had the cab fare
First they handed me a pile of papers
The first page was easy to do
It said who is your health insurer
I wrote ‘none’ and turned to page two
All the same old questions
I answered 20 [...]
“SJI” on the uke
Posted in "St. James Infirmary", Musical context on June 22, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Up The Lazy River, a blog about “Learning to play the ukulele,” brings up “SJI” in a post about minor chords. Excerpt:
These chord groups are fun to play and practice on a regular basis. They’re grouped in the way you will likely find them in songs, and they almost sound like songs in themselves. As [...]
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 