Thanks to Mr. J. Johnston, one of the people who read an earlier version of the essay, got in touch, and ultimately sent me a copy of the early (original?) sheet music, source of the image that accompanies the explanation entry. Thanks to Fred S. for the Saturday Night Live transcript link. Thanks to Brad [...]
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"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.
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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.
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Podcast!
Categories
- "St. James Infirmary"
- 1. St. James (+ Tangents)
- Announcements
- Antecedents and Variations
- Friends
- In performance
- Intellectual property
- Irving Mills/Joe Primrose
- Letters From New Orleans book
- Lyric deconstruction
- MLK BLVD
- Movies & Television
- Musical context
- MySpace/YouTube/Etc.
- New Orleans
- Non-musical context
- One song / one album
- Other Music +
- Public Housing
- Q&As
- Questions (and sometimes answers)
- St. James +
- St. James Infirmary (the building)
- Thanks
- The Hot 8
- The Rolling Jelly Series
- The Thing Itself
- Uncategorized
- Versions
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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.
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Mailing List
1. St. James (+ Tangents)
- * Betty Boop cartoon with Cab Calloway’s version of “St. James Infirmary.”
- * Dutch radio broadcast featuring many versions of “S.J.I.” Part One.
- * Dutch radio broadcast featuring many versions of “S.J.I.” Part Two
- * Irving Mills overview via The Red Hot Jazz Archive
- * Metafilter August 2005 “Streets of Laredo” discussion
- * Metafilter June 2004 “St. James” discussion
- * Mudcat discussion
- * Tablature
- * The Hot 8: The band I heard play “St. James Infirmary” in the late 1990s
- * The Unfortunate Rake collection on Smithsonian Folkways Recordings
- * The Unfortunate Rake lyrics
- * Transcript of S.N.L. with Lilly Tomlin singing “St. James Infirmary.”
- * Unfortunate Lass lyrics
- * Wikipedia entry
2. Other Music (+ So On)
- Alan Lomax Stuff
- Disquiet
- Downtown Soulville with Mr. Fine Wine
- Folkways Smithsonian
- Gary Giddins Essay on Louis Armstrong
- Give the Drummer Some
- Home of the Groove
- Music of New Orleans: Music of the Streets; Music of Mardi Gras
- Myshkin’s Ruby Warblers
- Negrospirituals.com
- The American Folklife Center
- The Florida Folklife Collection
- The Red Hot Jazz Archive
- The Sounds In My Head
- WBGO
- WWOZ
3. New Orleans (+ Like That)
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Versions
