Stagger Lee falls into the category of “songs that tell a story,” which is a genre I really enjoy.
I think this is the reason that I feel like I should like Stagger Lee more than I do. The song has interesting characters, some humorously uncouth parts (e.g. “she shot him in the balls”), and a sense of bravado that I associate with Delia DeLyon. Yet, I don’t think the music to which the song is set matches the lyrics in terms of interestingness or originality.
I remember exactly where I was when I realized that I didn’t like Stagger Lee as much as I thought I did. I was playing with a band in Chicago and we rehearsed in the attic space of this old house. It was SO hot up there. One of the guitarists, the band leader, really wanted to play originals, but I just wanted to play Dead songs. Anyway, despite my zeal for playing Dead songs at one rehearsal the drummer got geeked about playing Stagger Lee. I just had a “meh” moment and realized that wasn’t one of the songs I wanted to play given my ‘druthers.
Your mileage may vary, of course.
Looking at its performance history is interesting as well. Played a total of 146 times, it was pretty common in 1978 and 1979 when it was new. The song was dropped until 1982, where it was only played twice in the month of August, then dropped again until the summer of 1985. It was played maybe 10 times or less each year from 1985 until 1995.
