Description
By Robert W. Harwood
The Fourth Edition, fully revised and expanded.
I Went Down to St. James Infirmary is the quintessential jazz-blues song of the early twentieth century. Many major performing and recording artists have covered it, from Louis Armstrong and Jimmie Rodgers to Van Morrison and the White Stripes; new variations emerge every year.
Infused with ego-driven angst and once considered obscene because of the song’s stark depiction of death and the portrayal of a seedy underworld inhabited by gamblers, pimps, loose women, and every sort of rounder, it has been adapted, rewritten, borrowed, stolen, attacked, revered, and cherished. In its heyday of the 1920s and ‘30s, when recordings and sheet music of St. James Infirmary were first packaged and marketed, the public could not get enough of it. Over a hundred years later, its allure remains.
Author Robert W. Harwood follows the song as it travels from its folk origins into the recording studios, performance stages, and law courts of America’s jazz era. Along the way he picks up a retinue of fascinating characters whose stories are as rich as the song itself. Infused with humor and supported by meticulous research, this groundbreaking book explores the turbulent and mysterious history of one of the most important and influential songs of our times.
However, the history and evolution of “St. James Infirmary” is both tangled and slippery. Whenever research into the song seems complete, new information emerges that deepens the story. While Harwood was convinced that the 3rd edition marked the end of his task, he felt that sufficient new evidence warranted this 4th edition. Always interesting and engaging, the song and its history will continue to entertain, inform, charm and disarm.
