Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds Songs - Stagger Lee Lyrics

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Stagger Lee

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Stagger Lee Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Murder Ballads
Released: 1996

Stagger Lee Lyrics

It was back in '32 when times were hard
He had a Colt forty-five and a deck of cards
Stagger Lee

He wore rat-drawn shoes and an old stetson hat
Had a '28 Ford, had payments on that
Stagger Lee

His woman threw him out in the ice and snow
And told him, "Never ever come back no more."
Stagger Lee

So he walked through the rain, and he walked through the mud
Till he came to a place called The Bucket Of Blood
Stagger Lee

He said "Mr. Motherfucker, you know who I am?"
The barkeeper said, "No, and I don't give a good goddamn."
To Stagger Lee

He said, "Well, bartender, it's plain to see
I'm that bad motherfucker called Stagger Lee."
Mr. Stagger Lee

Barkeep said, "Yeah, I've heard your name down the way
And I kick motherfucking asses like you every day."
Mr Stagger Lee

Well, those were the last words that the barkeep said
'Cause Stag put four holes in his motherfucking head

Just then in came a broad called Nellie Brown
Was known to make more money than any bitch in town

She struts across the bar, hitching up her skirt
Over to Stagger Lee, she starts to flirt
With Stagger Lee

She saw the barkeep, said, "O God, he can't be dead!"
Stag said, "Well, just count the holes in the motherfucker's head."

She said, "You ain't look like you scored in quite a time.
Why not come to my pad? It won't cost you a dime."
Mr. Stagger Lee

"But there's something I have to say before you begin
You'll have to be gone before my man Billy Dilly comes in,
Mr. Stagger Lee."

"I'll stay here till Billy comes in, till time comes to pass
And furthermore I'll fuck Billy in his motherfucking ass."
Said Stagger Lee

"I'm a bad motherfucker, don't you know?
And I'll crawl over fifty good pussies just to get one fat boy's asshole,"
Said Stagger Lee

Just then Billy Dilly rolls in and he says, "You must be
That bad motherfucker called Stagger Lee."
Stagger Lee

"Yeah, I'm Stagger Lee, and you better get down on your knees
And suck my dick because if you don't, you're gonna be dead,"
Said Stagger Lee

Billy dropped down and slobbered on his head
And Stag filled him full of lead
Oh yeah

Writer/s: GARCIA, JERRY / HUNTER, ROBERT
Publisher: Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Stagger Lee Song Chart

On the night of December 25, 1895, "Stag" Lee Shelton shot dead his underworld rival William "Billy" Lyons in a St. Louis saloon following a dispute. The crime soon became the subject of songs as well as folktales and poems. The best known version of "Stagger Lee," by Lloyd Price, reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1959 - Dick Clark insisted the violent content of the song be toned down when Price appeared on American Bandstand Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' sweary interpretation tells the story from a neutral perspective and is set in the 1930s.

The recording of the song for the Murder Ballads album was a happy accident. "It was a real last-minute miracle," drummer Jim Sclavunos told NME. "I came into the studio towards the very end of the sessions, and I showed Nick a book called The Life, which was a collection of black hustler prison poetry. I pointed out an old really nasty version of 'Stagger Lee', and he got quite excited. Just a few minutes later, we piled into the live room, and recorded the song, fully realized, totally off-the-cuff, in one take."