Saint James' Infirmary: A Song History

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In "Saint James Infirmary" a gambler at a barroom tells how he went to the infirmary and found his sweetheart dead, then sets out the arrangements he wants for his own funeral; the Traditional Ballad Index dates it to 1925, when Dorothy Scarborough printed a text in her collection of African American folk songs.[1] The Roud index files it under number 2 with "The Unfortunate Rake" and "The Streets of Laredo," though the Ballad Index regards it as a separate song that probably grew from the same roots.[1] The Index traces that wider family, which includes "Saint James Hospital" and "The Streets of Laredo," back to "The Unfortunate Rake": its members share a tune and a meter, and each concerns someone dying of a wild life, while the Index's cross-references tie "Saint James Infirmary" to the group by theme alone, not by tune or meter.[2] The Index also links the song to "Dying Crapshooter's Blues," which shares its theme and some floating verses.[1]

Etching of a singer performing beside a bass player for seated patrons at a reserved nightclub table

Charles L. Sallee, Jr., Cabaret Scene, soft-ground etching, 1936–41. A singer and a bass player in a nightclub of the late 1930s, shown for the song's life in jazz; it has no connection to the song.

Fess Williams recorded a version called "Gambler's Blues," credited to the songwriter Carl Moore, for Brunswick on February 25, 1927.[3] Louis Armstrong and his Savoy Ballroom Five cut "St. James' Infirmary" for OKeh on December 12, 1928,[4] and that Chicago session[5] is generally thought to have given the song roughly the shape it still has.[6] The copyright in the name of "Joe Primrose," a pen name of the publisher Irving Mills, was apparently registered in 1929, after Armstrong's disc, so the Index suggests it probably reflected ownership rather than authorship; the Index also cites Edward Foote Gardner's estimate that in March 1930 the song was the eighth most popular in the United States.[1] Charting versions followed from King Oliver's band in 1930 and Cab Calloway's orchestra in 1931,[5] and later performers have ranged from Count Basie and Django Reinhardt to the Doors and Janis Joplin.[6]

Elaine and Larry Conger set it for two players in Standard And Bass Dulcimer Duets, a Fingers Of Steel collection of 20 duets pairing a standard mountain dulcimer in DAD with a bass tuned the same way an octave lower, each with an MP3 recording.[7]

Our books that contain the song "Saint James' Infirmary"

Sources

  1. The Traditional Ballad Index: "Saint James Infirmary".
  2. The Traditional Ballad Index: "Bad Girl's Lament, The (St. James' Hospital; The Young Girl Cut Down in her Prime) [Laws Q26]".
  3. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Carl Moore".
  4. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "OKeh 8657 (10-in. double-faced)".
  5. JazzStandards.com: "St. James Infirmary".
  6. CBC Radio, The Sunday Edition: "St. James Infirmary: the elusive history of a timeless song".
  7. Fingers Of Steel: "Elaine And Larry Conger, Standard And Bass Dulcimer Duets".
  8. Image: Charles L. Sallee, Jr., Cabaret Scene, soft-ground etching, 1936–41. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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