Dr. John S/D

in honor of the doctor, may he rest in peace, here’s an early mack-penned tune that is among my favorite songs of all time:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_SY3_Qn8Wpw

The Gris Gris LP is one of my all time favorite albums, definitely gonna be spinning it a few times tomorrow, RIP

Awww man.

yet another guy intro'd to me on SNL in the '70s

This one's badass--Mac, Frankie Ford and some other guys paying tribute to the longtime NOLA Horror Movie TV Host...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHUq9ZL4_rI

For those who still do the physical media thing, if you can track down the Mos' Scocious comp on Rhino, get it. Two discs and track by track annotations by the man himself.

What a huge huge loss, an incredible character and an even better piano player. Idk what New Orleans even is without Dr John and Allen Toussaint

And the Meters/Nevilles?

Alluded to on the Obituary thread, but the challenge I've had re: Dr. John is that a few cameos aside, his impact and story really seems limited to the '60s and very early '70s. But the past 45 years or so, I never hear anyone mention anything worth seeking out specifically. I assume something like Mos' Scocious would help?

He was an heir to a particularly New Orleans tradition of piano, descended from Professor Linghair—his impact comes less from the recorded music he made (though a lot of it was great), but more his presence as a key figure in one of the country’s musical capitals for the past five decades.

That I already knew.

I like his cover of Donovan's "Season Of The Witch", to be found on the Blues Brothers 2000 soundtrack of all places.

I'm sure there's plenty of good stuff in his later catalog, because he had good taste among other things, but I think it's true that his biggest impact was late '60s/early '70s. Beyond that, though, I think he's more important as an embodiment and extension of that NOLA lineage. Along with Toussaint and the Nevilles, he really brought it to a broader national and international audience -- not just the music, but the culture and mythos. And he also showed that an awful lot of stuff could fit within it. Psychedelia, big band swing, jazz standards, swamp boogie, it all felt natural coming from/through him.

I interviewed him once (by phone) in 1997. Here are a couple of quotes I like that he gave me:

Talking about his recent live album -- "Music is basically meant to be played live. Music was meant to come from the spirit kingdom, go through the meat in our body, come back out, and go back into people's spirit. And the closest thing I think you can get to that on a record is a live record."

On longevity -- "I just always believe like Art Blakey—the idea that it'd be the nicest way to croak, on a gig. Might not be the most fun for the people watching that particular gig, but it kind of seems appropriate to go out doing what we do."

Professor Longhair died of a heart attack as well.

xpost He seems like he would have been a great interview.

I felt like the Nevilles comeback in the '80s did a lot of that, too. What was Dr. John's currency c., say, when "Yellow Moon" came out? Even Allen Toussaint seemed kind of marginalized by then. Tbh, the first I had really heard people talking about Dr. John beyond The Last Waltz and the Muppet Show was when he popped up on "Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space."

In A Sentimental Mood, an album of standards, served as a comeback in 1989. Seems like it and Yellow Moon kind of turned the spotlight back towards New Orleans as a music scene.

Seems like both the Nevilles and Dr. John were staples of those big Blues package tours in the '90s too.

Right around the same time I remember buying a Buckwheat Zydeco record, there must have been a reason why I picked that particular one.

Hmm, the Buckwheat Zydeco record I bought was On Track, in 1992. Maybe I liked his cover of "Hey Joe?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wviu3L8h1Jg

I bought Buckwheat Zydeco's On A Night Like This in 1987, because I saw the movie The Big Easy and was like "What is this music with the accordions? This is great!"

I don't know that much about Dr. John's music, though, precisely because he wasn't really an entry point to New Orleans music for me the way he was for a lot of other people. Besides Buckwheat Zydeco, I also heard Professor Longhair first (somebody gave me a tape of Crawfish Fiesta in high school, so maybe 1988 or 1989, and that really spun my head backwards), but what's interesting about Dr. John anyway is that he wasn’t just an old-timey act like Leon Redbone; he put his own weird spin on stuff, at least early on. I feel like he became more of a traditionalist/keeper-of-the-flame/institution later. So I guess I need to figure out which are his most psychedelic weirdo funk records, vs. which are the ones where he's just paying tribute to stuff from before him. On Twitter, Ned kinda lumped Redbone, Dr. John and Tom Waits together as the last of a breed, and I get that, too. 21st century Bob Dylan may fit in that bucket, too.

All that said, I'm listening to his 2012 album Locked Down as I type this, and for a retro '60s garage-psych sort of thing, it's pretty good.

One of the prettiest piano pieces I know.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ij0QITJ1zrI

I also heard Professor Longhair first (somebody gave me a tape of Crawfish Fiesta in high school, so maybe 1988 or 1989, and that really spun my head backwards)

freaking awesome album is that. (sorry for none Doc John post - be he was a hero/mentor to him)

I could pretty much listen/dance to this on an endless loop today. Doc and Ronnie Barron recorded this under the name Drits and Dravy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7N38pW8MIU

unperson as far as dark psychedelic weirdo stuff, the first 3 or so LPs are where you want to be. Gris Gris is the masterpiece, the next few are patchy but there is some really out there stuff on them, incl. sidelong bad-trip freakout "Angola Anthem"

Yup to that.

Great thread here about the cover/gatefold art for In the Right Place

The cover of Dr. John’s “In the Right Place” is predictably freaky. We meet our hero as he’s riding on the moon, with multicolored hair and a wand. Below him, a spoon and a plate with arms and legs hold hands while fleeing a horse-legged lizard. pic.twitter.com/wDrp02pkRJ

— Randall Roberts 🦅 (@LilEdit) June 7, 2019

The stellar quality of Gris-Gris/"I Walk on Guilded Splinters" as entry points isn't simply that they're immediately appealing (they, of course, are), but that it, as I best understand it, was a project record that he became the public face of almost by accident, and that it was a grouping of people who were all from New Orleans but recording in LA with the perfect access to both the publicity and the technical side of the business. Pros working together, taking in what's around them and taking what they already know and going for it, and a perfect flashpoint of a frontman to boot.

love that Right Place album so much and it introduced me to the word "edumacated".

Great thread.

1) Others longer to New Orleans will have more essential memories, but I can desitively muster one worthy tale of the legendary Dr. John from having had the opportunity to write some dialogue for him on an HBO drama some years back. And to be clear....

— David Simon (@AoDespair) June 7, 2019

I've been needing a new dn for a while. Thank you, Doctor.

I've always been curious about his actual relationship with the Mardi Gras Indians. Obviously a big influence, but it seems like he had some sort of honorary outsider status (or else he never would have gotten away with posing in a full suit for an album cover, right?)? Would love to learn the details sometime.

New Orleans showed UP for Dr. John! This second-line feels never-ending. pic.twitter.com/saDbvv7MMS

— NOLA.com (@NOLAnews) June 7, 2019

Great read here about his early years. Crazy times.

http://blog.ponderosastomp.com/2019/06/mac-rebennacks-wild-years/?fbclid=IwAR2ALgNPzYRHl4fvKxcy5CsR5lOxJYbuy0ILLiakvEfYhqgDuHZamtF8oN8

After preparing for a Dr. John tribute concert tonight, I've come to the conclusion that as much as I respect the piano playing and the particular style of slo-mo New Orleans groove that he came to own, I'm not really a Dr. John fan.

Fuck. How did I miss that he died?

:-( That's okay, I have enough fandom for both of us. xp

Ha, that's good. I like that people like him!

One of my fav deep cuts, from his early west coast days:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LR3Obpfcqlc

Wish some footage of that original Night Tripper band from the time fo Gris gris would appear.
Have loved that lp since I heard it in the late 80s, think I knew Walk On Guilded Splinters a while earlier.

Picked up the Atco box set a couple of years ago which is pretty great.

Loads of lovely live stuff been popping up since he passed. But do wish there was some more stuff a little earlier.

& the memoir Under A hoodoo Moon was a great read.

Did not know Dr. John had an ElectroFunk period

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hz4o2tWp8Vw

“Top of the morning to you, govna!”

That’s a fun oddity. I used to slip it into dj sets when I played out.

I wonder when his final album will ever be released.

Just picked up a sweet copy of Babylon after loving Black Widow Spider for years. Such a weirdo record. Does anyone else vouch for Zu Zu Man? I saw that at a store and passed recently, but maybe I should go back?

There are a zillion versions of Zu Zu man, containing more or fewer songs. None of it is in the trippy Gris Gris/Babylon vein, but the songs are worth hearing if you’re a Dr. John fan. He never did a straight country song like Just Like a Mirror again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBQ0xKARXQg

Final album came out Friday. I’ve listened twice so far and found it lovely, mostly downbeat and bittersweet. It’s perfect Sunday morning music. Not overladen with guest artists, and it holds to its original conception (a country album) fairly well, with thematic nods in the song selection that would be his final work.

I’m glad they didn’t go the Johnny Cash/Bettye LaVette route and have him doing Nine Inch Nails or Stones covers.
Apparently there was some after-the-fact “fixing” but overall I think it’s a fine farewell.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/dr-john-final-album-things-happen-that-way-1234595476/