[...] So Young, So Cold , So Fair : The Saint James Infirmary Blues from Honey, Where You Been So Long? [...]

This. Is. Triumphant!!

This is an amazing collection and it is of great historical significance. It’s like curating an art exhibit, except it’s music. Keep up the good work!

Thank you very much. AS Beverly stated, this is of great historical significance. By the way I have an early copy of the new Buddy Guy album. Let me know if you are interested in me sending you the mp3s. Thanks!

FYI – numbers 9, 20, 24 and 100 are broken…
This is amazing, thank you so much (I emailed you another one too)

What’s with the unwarranted Doors bashing? It’s not even a version of the song, Jim seems to be just slightly referencing it live between songs. Otherwise, great job.

You’ve been awarded! http://www.theauburnandivory.blogspot.com Thanks for the great music!

Wow. This is huge. I’ve got one to add, by the band Snakefarm (Anna Domino singing), recorded in the mid-90s. Please email if you would like to hear it.

ah, just listen to a few versions…

Honey, Where You Been So Long? So Young, So Cold , So Fair : The Saint James Infirmary Blues 8 Posted in Honey on 07.10.08 I’m happy to present So Young, So Cold, So Fair: The Saint James Infirmary Blues,……

I’ve always loved this song and Doc Watson’s has always been one of my favorites.

I’m surprised the Mojo Buford version has no harmonica. He played harp off and on for Muddy Waters, replacing both George Smith and James Cotton. Here’s links to a couple photos I took of George ‘Mojo’ Buford at the 2007 Chicago Blues Festival;

George Mojo Buford
Hoochie Coochie Boys

Thank you so much for putting this together. Your commitment to the site is much appreciated.

Stellar work for a wonderful song. Many, many thanks. I recently downloaded a few versions (including that great really slow Louis Armstrong one) from iTunes but you have done the job properly.
To add some pictures, you can download the Betty Boop Snow White cartoon (featuring Cab Calloway’s version of SJIB, along with Cab himself in rotoscoped form) from the Internet Archive at: http://www.archive.org/details/bb_snow_white
They also have the unmissable Minnie The Moocher (again with rotoscoped Cab)at: http://www.archive.org/details/bb_minnie_the_moocher

[...] Gorgeous. One hundred twenty-one versions of St. James Infirmary! [...]

Great! Thanks for this. May I also suggest Bob Dylan’s “Blind Willie McTell” which uses the melody.

YES!!!!!!!!!!!

i was just telling my girlfriend 5 minutes ago how st james is one of my favorite songs of all time. then, just because i hadn’t been here in awhile, i come and check this site… and there they are, over 100 versions of my favorite song. man! i’m overwhelmed. thank you for this!

Amazing collection : D

[...] – bookmarked by 1 members originally found by hansoon on 2008-08-23 So Young, So Cold , So Fair : The Saint James Infirmary Blues http://prewarblues.org/2008/07/so-young-so-cold-so-fair-the-saint-james-infirmary-blues/ – [...]

Hi there,
I came across another version for you, this one by blues pianist Dave Alexander (a.k.a. Omar Shariff) on his 2nd Arhoolie LP “The Dirt On The Ground”, located at: http://www.birdswithbrokenwings.blogspot.com/2007/09/dirt-on-ground-dave-alexander.html
The download URL for the LP is: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=PTQPGPML
Nice work,
ditchcat

AT LAST I FOUND THE VER. BY JOE COKER,THE MUTHER WOSENT WILING TO PLAY IT IN TELAVIV FOR ME .BUT I FORGIV HIM NOW.CDB.

[...] finally: A stunning 121-take list in July, and a 38-song appendix in [...]

bravozzzzzz!auzgesichnet..u and all that contributed have done future generations agreat service.

I utilize St. james Inf. quite a bit w/ psych. inpatient music Therapy.

“You can search da whole wide werld over…”
talk about being tough n’ true in the face of grief n’ loss….whew…

let’s not forget dem chord chenges….

Em B7 /Em /Am C7 /B7 /Em B7 /
Em (Am)/C7 B7 /Em //(repeat)

real nice on the fingers..easy to state a meaningful improv.

narrartor of song iz lika buddHa “It is as it is supposed to be….”

again thank you sincerely one and all.

didn’t Leadbelly do a version? why hasn’t anyone been able to find it?

hi this is a great post, i was wonderin’ if you would know how to get a tab or the chords and pickin for snooks eaglin’s version….wich is my favourite…thanks

this is a joy. teagarden on # 66 is at the height of his powers – and feeling it. And not a soul was going to step on his toes.
WTD

Great & Wonderfull Job !
1000 thanks.

What a great collection of one of my favourite blues songs!

FYI: unfortunately #104 (Van Morrison, one of the best versions) is not complete, the end is missing.
Louis Armstrong: at least the versions 10 and 91 are the same (#91 with 16,2 kbps and #10 with 320 kbps), so you can delete #91 without losing anything important.

[...] One of our listeners, Nathan, keeps requesting St. James Infirmary from me so I found a site, Pre-war Blues that hosts 121 versions of the song, some in good quality, some kind of lousy but I’ll leave [...]

[...] We’re looking forward to the rich and varied stories that we know will spring forth from your imaginations for this project! Here’s the link I mentioned earlier: Honey, Where You Been So Long? [...]

Just stumbled upon your blog last night Looking for Cab Calloway’s “St. James Infirmary” only to find a cornucopia of music. I’m so pleased. Such a prodigious amount of songs and artists for me to learn about and enjoy.

Was this done by dukes of dixieland?

You’re missing the Koko Taylor & Willie Dixon version called Insane Asylum.

It’s pretty insane: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fq3QySTQlmI

Otherwise, nice list!

Great site! There is a nice version played by the Jack Brass Band, but I’m not sure if you can link it. I didn’t find on the net.

Butch

PS: We gonna play that tune with our swiss carnival band.

The first time I heard St. James was way back in the 60’s: Johnny Kendall & The Heralds. I was completely knocked down by that version. In the same period I discovered the Animals version.
Later on, a few years ago I started collecting this song, after having heard the stunning version by Van Morrison. So: this site is a real surprise for me!! Thanks a lot!!!!!

And some more versions by:

Eric Clapton (w/ Dr. John)
Hans Teessink
Andy Griffith
St, James Infirmary (Blues Band)
Roger McGuin
Blues Underground
Bryn Bladel
Doc Watson & Taj Mahal
Five Keys
Guy Mendilow
Joe Dassin
Keith Vire & Joel Farthing
Ken Koyler
Lou Rawls
Robben Ford
The Swing Cats (Lee Rocker)

Is there any way to upload these version to this site????

[...] malleability never cease to amaze me. You can find an extensive collection of mp3s of many versions here, and a long discussion about the history of the song [...]

i love the blues and especial st james infirmary i can plat it myself in two keys and i love every version i can get my hands on idk if i got enough hard drive space i might need u to burn ur servers on cd or dvd for me lol jk thank alot thou i love this site!

Outstanding effort – hearty thx and congratulations.

You might want to include a version by Baby Gramps as can be found here – http://www.babygramps.com/promo.htm

I am astounded that no one has written to you about the version that Allen Toussaint created for his latest (2009) album “The Bright Mississippi.” That version is what led me to your website. It’s a masterpiece!

Missing this one: Complete Victors, Vol. 2 : King Oliver & His Orchestra. Number 4 song.
Here is the amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Victors-Vol-Oliver-Orchestra/dp/B000PLXFLK

This is what NPR plays if I am not wrong, usually Oct. 30th midnight!!

A Triumph!!! My hat is off!!!

I found here because Finnish Broadcasting Company had a literary discussion program on Albert Camus’s “The Plague”, and in that book they played the record (vinyl) “St James Infirmary”. My guess was that record should have been the *Oran* Hot Lips Page version because the book was staged in Oran, Algeria — but who knows.

A couple of things make me wonder among these wonderful files. Somewhere among my old vinyls I have a Blind Willie McTell version of “StJI”, but it sounds more similar to the standard one than the “Dyin’ Gambler” here. I think it was “Dyin’ crapshooter”, which sounds like the same, but it also had all these antiques about stetson hats and 20 dollar gold pieces, and the melody was also the same.

Koko Taylor’s “Insane Asylum” is the same thing (also in my vinyls), but I think it is too young to be here. Nice thing, though.

Thanks for this treasure! Cheers, Jazza

104 by van morrison is truncated.

thanks, great collection.

Hi, Great stuff — one of my all-time favorite songs. Can you get the version played by the Saturday Night Live Band around 1976-77 with Lily Tomlin on vocals?

wow… what a treasure trove! My dad had an old old 78 of Cab Calloway covering the song in his earlier, high-pitched vocal days and he used to play it a lot when I was a kind n the 1950s… and I have loved this song ever since.

Thank you thank you thank you!!!