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Regarding “St. James Infirmary” and other things related to the book “Letters From New Orleans”

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Version of the Week: Perez Prado!

May 18, 2006 by nonotes


On Friday, September 26, 2003, I was driving around Jersey City, probably over on Communipaw. We’d just moved here from New Orleans a few weeks earlier. It was a raw, gray day, and I was listening to the car radio, which was tuned to WFMU. The DJ was playing a lot of really good stuff, but I was really struck when this one rather amazing blues song came on. No, it wasn’t “St. James Infirmary;” I didn’t know what it was, and when the DJ back-announced it, I scrawled the information on a slip of paper: “Hotel Lorraine,” by Otis Spann, a piece (the DJ explained) that was recorded the morning after Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, and that appears on an album called Rare Chicago Blues, 1962-1968. When I got home I ordered the CD off Amazon, and I looked up who this WFMU DJ was.

Pretty much ever since, I’ve done my best to catch “Give The Drummer Some,” Doug Schulkind’s show, every Friday morning. Usually I have to listen to the archived online edition (which is how I know the exact day I heard that song — I looked up the playlist.) Along the way the show, remarkable in the breadth of music Mr. Schulkind plays, has caused me to spend a lot of money on CDs. Also along the way, I’ve had a bit of correspondence with Mr. Schulkind, which led (finally, I’m getting to the point!) to today’s entry: He is the person who hipped me to, and sent me a copy of Pérez Prado’s version of “St. James Infirmary.”

Click here to hear a 45-second snippet
.

I had no idea such a thing existed, even though I’m a bit of a Prado fan. Prado is one of those people whose music was so accessible and fun that it’s too easy to sort of treat it as camp: The swinger music playing in the club while the characters in a Technicolor romantic comedy on TCM toss back martinis and tap their cigarette cases. But there’s more to it than that — Prado did a lot of amazing, innovative, totally hot work. (A pretty spirited overview can be found here.) His take on “St. James Infirmary” was released in a 1955 album called Voodoo Suite, the centerpiece of which is the 23-minute-long “The Voodoo Suite” itself — a good example of the kind of ambitious, emotional music that Prado created.

That said, his “St. James Infirmary” is, in fact, a very fun version. I don’t know how else to put it. But I don’t mean to suggest that it is merely fun — it’s got soul, too, and swing. And needless to say, it’s pretty fascinating to hear the song moved in Prado-ish, Latin-flavored direction, with all those big horn parts, low-down percussion, and the patented Prado grunty shouts (“UNH!”). Truly delightful.

Big thanks to Mr. Schulkind for introducing me to Prado’s “St. James Infirmary,” and to countless other great songs from around the world and across many decades on his fine show.

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Posted in "St. James Infirmary", Versions |

  • “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

    gambit-cover.jpg

    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.

  • 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.

  • Podcast!

    In November 2007 I was invited to do an all-"SJI" episode of the outstanding Podcast The Sounds In My Head. My episode is here. Post about it (with playlist, so, you know, spoiler alert) is here.
  • 1. St. James (+ Tangents)

    • “I Went Down To St. James Infirmary” blog
    • * 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
    • Louisiana Music Directory Blog (Alex Rawls)
    • Music of New Orleans: Music of the Streets; Music of Mardi Gras
    • Myshkin’s Ruby Warblers
    • Negrospirituals.com
    • Soup Greens
    • Still Singing The Blues
    • The American Folklife Center
    • The Florida Folklife Collection
    • The Red Hot Jazz Archive
    • The Sounds In My Head
    • The Wonderful World of Louis Armstrong
    • WBGO
    • WWOZ
  • 3. New Orleans (+ Like That)

    • “Class-ifying the Hurricane,” by Adolph Reed Jr.
    • * Why America Needs a City Right Where New Orleans Is
    • After the Deluge: Comic by Josh Neufeld
    • Basin Street Records
    • Culture Gulf
    • Katrina & post-Katrina shots by our friend, photographer Charles Franklin
    • Louisiana Music Factory
    • Washing Away
  • Categories

    • "St. James Infirmary"
    • Announcement
    • Announcements
    • Antecedents and Variations
    • Folk/Tradition
    • 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
  • Versions

    I either own or am familiar with a bunch of versions of S.J.I. and close variations by a variety of artists. Here's a list, in progress. For now I'm concentrating on SJI, rather than its folk antecedents or any of the "Streets of Laredo" thread. Title is "St. James Infirmary" or "St. James Infirmary Blues" unless otherwise noted:


    A - B -C
  • Aempirei
  • Henry "Red" Allen
  • Little Pink Anderson
  • Glenn David Andrews
  • The Animals
  • Louis Armstrong (more than once, but the 1928 version is the one I'm partial to); 1967 version discussed here

  • Baby Boyz
  • James "Iron Head" Baker ("St. James Hospital;" a Lomax field recording)
  • Danny Barker
  • Count Basie
  • "Antoine Batiste"
  • Bethany & Rufus
  • Bobby "Blue" Bland
  • Dock Boggs
  • The Graham Bond Organisation
  • James Booker
  • Elton Britt
  • Peter Brötzmann/Die Like a Dog

  • Cab Calloway
  • Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan
  • Sister Wynona Carr ("I'm A Pilgrim Traveler")
  • Big Al Carson / The Magnificent Sevenths
  • Eric Clapton and Dr. John (live)
  • Joe Cocker
  • Anat Cohen
  • Ray Condo
  • Harry Connick Jr.
  • J. Lawrence Cook
  • Scatman Crothers

  • D-E-F

  • Joe Dassin
  • Herman Davis ("Barroom Blues")
  • The Doors

  • Snooks Eaglin
  • Ramblin' Jack Elliot

  • Bob French's Original Tuxedo Jazz Band & Friends

  • G-H-I

  • Michael Galasso ("Blue"), an amazing piece.
  • Red Garland (a nice one)
  • Errol Garner
  • Benny Goodman
  • Andy Griffith
  • Arlo Guthrie

  • Hall Johnson Negro Choir
  • Harlem Hot Chocolates
  • Alex Hill and His Orchestra
  • Earl Hines
  • Mattie Hite ("St. Joe's Infirmary")
  • Nils Hoffmann
  • Toshiyuki Honda
  • The Hokum Boys ("Gamber's Blues," two excellent takes)

  • J-K-L

  • Janis Joplin (mentioned to me by multiple people; I don't have it)
  • Dr. John ("Touro Infirmary")
  • Tom Jones

  • Kansas City Frank and his Footwarmers
  • Johnny Kendall & The Heralds (I'm told this was huge in The Netherlands in the 1960s)
  • Stan Kenton (twice, I think, one of those as "Gambler's Blues")
  • Chris Thomas King
  • Spider John Koerner
  • Joe Krown

  • George E. Lee and his Novelty Singing Orchestra
  • Julia Lee
  • Blake Leyh, Davis Rogan, Tony Jarvis
  • Limelighters

  • M-N-O

  • Magnolia Sisters ("Barroom Blues")
  • Colette Magny
  • The Main Squeeze Orchestra
  • Roger McGuinn
  • Jimmy McPartland
  • Blind Willie McTell (as "Dyin' Crapshooters Blues," in 1942 and 1956; I prefer the latter)
  • Irving Mills and His Hotsy Tosty Gang
  • Van Morrison
  • Megan Mullally
  • The Mumlers

  • Nelstone's Hawaiians ("You'll Never Find A Daddy Like Me")

  • (Mystic Knights of) Oingo Boingo
  • King Oliver
  • The Outsiders Featuring Maddie Ruthless
  • Kid Ory

  • P-Q-R

  • Moses "Clear Rock" Platt. ("St. James Hospital," a Lomax field recording)
  • Preservation Hall Jazz Band
  • Preservation Hall Jazz Band with Yim Yames
  • Hot Lips Paige
  • Perez Prado

  • Lou Rawls
  • Jerry Reed
  • Della Reese
  • Django Reinhardt
  • Marc Ribot (Solo guitar instrumental; one of my favorites)
  • Tony Rice ("St. James Hospital")
  • Jimmie Rodgers ("Those Gamblers' Blues," one of my very favorites; "Gambling Barrooom Blues" is similar)
  • Kermit Ruffins

  • S-T-U

  • Artie Shaw
  • Archie Shepp
  • Frederick "Shep" Sheppard ("Habari Gani")
  • Ezra Sims ("Sextet")
  • Sin the Tik
  • Jimmy Smith
  • Snakefarm
  • James Solbere
  • Muggsy Spanier
  • Pete Special/Old Town School of Folk
  • Standells
  • The Stolen Sweets
  • Jack Teagarden (at least two versions)
  • Alphonso Trent and his Orchestra
  • Triffids
  • Trombone Shorty

  • V-W-X-Y-Z

    Dave Van Ronk

  • Doc Watson ("St. James Hospital")
  • Josh White
  • The White Stripes
  • Fess Williams and His Royal Flush Orchestra ("Gambler's Blues")
  • Cassandra Wilson
  • Garland Wilson
  • Jackie Wilson
  • Marva Wright

  • The Ventures

  • Frank Zappa ("Ain't Necessarily the St. James Infirmary Blues," a pretty cool take)

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