Stagger Lee
[Verse, First Seven Beats Acapella]
If you ain't heard my name said yet,
Call me [all instruments in] Stagger Lee!
[Instrumentals x 32]
Trouble . . . Oh,
[Instrumentals x 16]
You got trouble
[Instrumentals x 8]
'Cause you got me!
[One hit]
The dark is Stagolee!
[Instrumentals x 4]
Throw your burdens on the ground,
Oh, my pretty penny.
I'm your burden as of now.
They'll repeat your story.
No more wishing for you now.
Pray the Lord-ached mercy?
You ain't walking out this house.
I'm your eyes unsearching.
[Segue]
No man, no man, no man loves you now . . .
[Ins x 64]
Ha!
[Ins x 64]
Ha!
[Bridge]
I was born in the blacklands
In a little ol' town.
One church on the Main Street,
A gremlin cast out.
So I started walking when I turned seventeen,
The boots of Abaddon
Clocked away from the screams.
If anyone cottoned,
They kept it deep down--
Fear took their livers
When the chapel burned down!
[Segue]
Men rocking cradles
Are honeyed ice-tea
To bait the boots of the crowfish,
The Man, they call me . . .
Call me Stack 'O Lee!
[Ins x 64]
You've been so many men
I'm just one thing--
O!, the wicked, I
Am Stag O'Lee!
[Instrumentals x ad lib. In the last 2 measures:]
[Acapella, with Hits]
I am,
I am,
I am Stagger Lee!
*Notes.
(1) "The Lord-ache mercy" is a semantic mystery, seeming to have content without actually having any. BUT sung, it'll sound like "The Lord have mercy" which is meaningful. The reason for the distortion is that it shortens the phrase.
(2) In "walking when I," the word "when" is clipped as "walking 'n I" to preserve the meter.
(2) "The crowfish" is a metonym for "an abomination." (A metonym is a part that references a whole.)
