NCBS Murder Ballads Project. 2. Stagger Lee pt 2

If you're not a fan of "foul" language you might want to skip today's post.

Sing a Song of Murder, has talked about the lore surrounding "Stagger Lee" before, but Nick Cave's version takes it to a different place entirely.  A forced homosexual act was probably not what the original writer of "Stagger Lee" probably had in mind.  I'm sure these lyrics never popped into his head either:

I'm a bad motherfucker don't ya know
And I'll craw over fifty good pussies 
Just to get to one fat boy's asshole

Love the Take That shirt.

From what I've read Cave took lyrical inspiration from The Life: The Lore and Folk Poetry of the Black Hustler.  I'm currently trying to search out a copy that won't cost me 59.99 (used).

I think that "Stagger Lee", like "Delia's Gone" might have taken some inspiration from gangster rap, which was huge at the time of Murder Ballads.  If you don't remember the glory days of Snoop Dogg, Tupac, and uh . . .others* it involved a little of this . . .

Some of this . . .

 

And a lot of this

A lot of violence,  a lot of "motherfucker/motherfucking/motherfuckers" and the phrase "suck my dick".


Of course Eazy-E wasn't really suggesting that Dr. Dre get down on his knees and unbutton his fly.*1 It was more of an expression of dominance; "I'm the alpha male. You're a woman compared to me."*2


Lyrically, and through Cave's spoken word performance, "Stagger Lee" seems to be poking fun at rap's hyper-masculinity.  When Cave's Stagger Lee says "suck my dick" he really means "suck my dick."  


I stated in the previous post that Stagger Lee is the quintessential American song.  So does a "foreigner" have any right to sing it?  There's something to be said for being outside looking in.  Conservatives ranted and raved about gangster rap, and yet violence is so much at the heart of America, and American music.   It seems that only Americans have yet to accept that.

* Sorry, I'm hopelessly white.

*1 I'm really white.

*2 Lilly White

Another Look: Cop Killer

Haven't been feeling well this week, which has led to a lack of new posts.  So I thought I'd post this: Charlton Heston addresses The Cop Killer controversy.

Original "Cop Killer" post can be found here.

Cop Killer

I got my twelve gauge sawed off
I got my headlights turned off
I'm bout to bust some shots off
I'm bout to dust some cops off
- Body Count, Cop Killer


If you are old enough to remember the early 90's, chances are you recall that this little song  got a lot of attention. Not from radio stations, not ones that played music anyway. For moral conservatives, Cop Killer represented everything that was wrong with society.  For others it was a reaction to a corrupt police system.  Still other felt that, subject matter or not, Cop Killer was issue of free speech.


The song was eventually removed from the album.  But for myself, and a lot of my friends who grew up during that era, it still represents the rights of the artists vs social responsibility.

Cop Killer came out when a lot of minds were focused on the issue of police brutality.  Many people had witnessed footage of the beating of Rodney King.  About a month after the album was released, LA would erupt in violence in response to the acquittals of the officers involved.





So what is Cop Killer?  A "protest record"? (A Roc Exclusive: Ice T Speaks Out . .  .). Unlike "story songs", protest songs are a call to action.  And in once case "action" was taken.

While on patrol in July 1992, two Las Vegas police officers were ambushed and shot by four juvenile delinquents who boasted that Ice-T's Cop Killer gave them a sense of duty and purpose, to get even with "a f-king pig". The juveniles continued to sing its lyrics when apprehended.  (The Music of Murder)

So was Body Count telling people to go out and kill police officers, or was it simply a fantasy taken to extremes?