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St. James Infirmary Blues
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"St. James Infirmary Blues" is an American folksong of anonymous origin, though sometimes credited to the songwriter Joe Primrose (a pseudonym for Irving Mills). Louis Armstrong made it famous in his influential 1928 recording.
source of this song is an 18th century English folk song called "The Unfortunate Rake" (also known as "Unfortunate Lad" or "The Young Man Cut Down in His Prime").
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Encyclopedia
"St. James Infirmary Blues" is an American folksong of anonymous origin, though sometimes credited to the songwriter Joe Primrose (a pseudonym for Irving Mills). Louis Armstrong made it famous in his influential 1928 recording.
Authorship and history
The source of this song is an 18th century English folk song called "The Unfortunate Rake" (also known as "Unfortunate Lad" or "The Young Man Cut Down in His Prime"). There are versions of this song throughout the English-speaking world, and it evolved into American standards such as "The Streets of Laredo" or "The Dying Cowboy". "The Unfortunate Rake" is about a sailor who uses his money on prostitutes, and it implies that he dies of a venereal disease. When the song moved to America, gambling and drinking became the cause of the man's death.
The song was first collected in England in its version as "The Unfortunate Rake" by Henry Hammond by a Mr. William Cutis at Lyme Regis, Dorset in March 1906.
The song
The song involves a man telling the singer/narrator, at a bar, how he went down to St. James Infirmary (hospital) and tragically found his girl (the so-called "baby") dead.
Like most such folksongs, there is much variation in the lyrics from one version to another. As a representative version, here is the first stanza as sung by Louis Armstrong:
I went down to St. James Infirmary,
Saw my baby there,
Set down on a long white table,
So sweet, so cold, so fair.
Let her go, let her go, God bless her,
Wherever she may be,
She can look this wide world over,
She'll never find a sweet man like me.
Performers
Notable performers of this song include James Booker, Cab Calloway, King Oliver, Big Mama Thornton, Jack Teagarden, Billie Holiday, Josh White, Cassandra Wilson, Stan Kenton, Lou Rawls, The Limeliters, Bobby Bland, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Doc Watson, "Spider" John Koerner, Janis Joplin, The Doors, The Animals, The Standells, and more recently The White Stripes, the Stray Cats, the Devil Makes Three, the Tarbox Ramblers, Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan, The Gutter Twins, Eric Clapton and Dr John, and Tom Jones with Jools Holland. Jazz guitarists Marc Ribot and Ivan "Boogaloo Joe" Jones have recorded instrumental versions.
Bob Dylan used the melody in his song "Blind Willie McTell" (released on Bootleg Series, Volumes 1–3), named for blues singer Blind Willie McTell (who recorded a version of the song under the title "Dying Crapshooter's Blues"); the song makes reference to the St. James Hotel.
Van Morrison recorded a rendition on the (2003) Grammy nominated album, What's Wrong with This Picture? and a live version on the limited edition album, Live at Austin City Limits Festival (2006). Eric Clapton and Dr. John performed a rendition of the song during a 1996 concert. Arlo Guthrie performed a rendition NPR's Talk of the Nation on November 14, 2001. Robert Crumb released a version on a CD included in the R. Crumb Handbook. Live versions appear on Joe Cocker's albums Something To Say (1972), and Live in L.A. (1976).
The Bing Crosby musical Birth Of The Blues featured the song in 1941. In 2002, the song appeared in Osamu Tezuka's Dixieland-influenced anime film Metropolis as performed by Atsushi Kimura and arranged by Toshiyuki Honda. Cab Calloway can be seen singing it and dancing a slide dance in the Betty Boop cartoon Snow White. His performance was filmed, then transferred into the cartoon using rotoscoping.
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