Dr John

[garth cartwright]

Dr John has just played a 3 week residency in a prestigious New York venue - wish I could have been there.

Here's Robert Christgau on the nights:
http://music.msn.com/music/article.aspx?news=721532

I've loved the good Dr's music ever since I heard Right Place, Wrong Time on Kiwi radio as a little boy. It just got me in the way some music does. Probably the strangest song I had ever heard back then. Watching The Last Waltz was the first time I saw Dr John and I liked him even more. Not long after I found a 2nd hand copy of Gris Gris which just flipped my wig, as they used to say. What a magnificent album.

I think I've heard pretty much every album Mac has released. Some are excellent. Others are pretty pedestrian. His new one Locked Down is getting him more attention than any release since, oh, I don't know what. Mainly cos it is produced by Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys. Being a nascent hipster I went and bought the Black Keys album Brothers last year and found out I liked their sound a lot. Turns out they had already released 5 or 6 albums.

Anyway, Dan does a good job with Mac - he's in strong, if ever gruff, voice; the band are on the money and drums-organ-guitar-bass really lock together and faithfully replicate a groove close to that of his late-60s work. He's never going to recreate Gris Gris simply because that would not be possible. But this is a solid album. Lacking only perhaps in hooks - The Black Keys best tunes have monster hooks but Dan and the Doc have not worked out how to sneak a few in here. So no new Right Place. But Locked In is a good place to spend an hour if you like a swampy New Orleans funk-rock. And I do. Oh, track 9 , which is the slowest on the album is actually pretty hooky in a nice late night jazz soul reflective, give out the good vibes kind of way. Nice!

[Adam Blake]

Judy and I were listening to "Gris Gris" only the other night and saying how wonderful the drumming is. The original "Gilded Splinters" is such a classic. I'm sure you know, Garth, that that album was recorded on Sonny & Cher's studio time - without them knowing about it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWvdO3l4_P8

[NormanD]

My copy of "Gris Gris" got played to death. The back cover has the usual multiple burn marks that can only suggest 1968. A friend bought me the follow-up as a birthday present. It was a real disappointment compared to that earlier stone classic. "Bab - y - lon is represented in the bible by a stone". Is it? Thanks for telling me.

His autobiography is a very good read, although common decency would not be the words I'd most immediately associate with his past behaviours. But what a great musician! And he has done so much to preserve the word on the heritage of New Orleans music and its glorious life.

[Chris P]

I liked Babylon quite a lot, about time I dug it out & see if I still do

"Bab-y-lon - Is represented in the bible by a stone"

It's the way he told it tho!!

edit:
Listening now - fabulous fabulous

just finished, I'll come out and say that when I'm in the mood, as I am now, this is my favourite Dr J. album, and also the second one I got to know, (after Plays Mac Rebennack vol 1 which became a fixture in my jam jar's cassette player in the mid-eighties)

[Rob Hall]

Having read Garth's review, I still can't make my mind up whether to buy this new one or not.

I'll second Chris' recommendation of 'Plays Mac Rebennack' but, after 'Gris Gris'*, I think 'Gumbo' is probably my favourite of his. Mind you, 'Right Place, Wrong Time' is pretty good too.

* When I was very young and impressionable, one of my first girl friends, who was much hipper than I was, had a copy of 'Gris Gris' and it absolutely blew my mind. The relationship didn't last but the impression that album made on me did.

[garth cartwright]

I've just listened to Babylon for the first time in several years. Not too good. A few moments but after Gris Gris it is inevitable "second album" syndrome.

Plays Mac Rebennac is great.

I also reread Charlie's 2-part interview with Dr J from Let It Rock June & July 1973. Charlie had mentioned to me once that he did this and some kind soul - Alan or Norman? - dug out their old copies and photocopied them for me. Interesting to reread as Charlie dislikes pretty much all of the Dr J albums up to Right Place - which he thinks is great. Charlie is much more enthusiastic about Mac as a sideman - Spanish Harlem, Small Town Talk, so many other classics - than as a solo artist. It surprises me today that Charlie misses how great Gris Gris is - surely one of the most African sounding records ever made in the US! - but Charlie intensely disliked psychedelic music and drug culture so maybe that got in the way of him hearing what was good on the album.

I often listen to music and think about how Charlie and how he might have heard it - right now I imagine we'd be engaged in a debate on the new Dr John album and what its saving graces were (if any). Oh, Charlie told me that Dr John was very unhappy with the articles he wrote and for several years whenever their paths crossed acted in an unfriendly manner - Charlie said this was because Mac disliked Charlie discussing his drug problems but having reread the features and found there being only minor references to the man's major addictions it might be that Mac resented Charlie being so harsh on his albums. Charlie loved New Orleans r&b deeply and, I think, felt Mac was betraying his talent and origins when making rock albums - this being why he loved Right Place as it is very much a NO r&b album.

Rob, I'll lend you Locked Down and you can make your mind up. It's pretty good but not great. Better than that 90s album he made in the UK with Paul Weller and Spiritualized and such guesting. Damn, I remember going to see him at Dingwalls and those idiots took over the stage and Weller insisted on singing Walk On Gilded Splinters and....

[Chris P]

I've just listened to Babylon for the first time in several years. Not too good. A few moments

I strongly disagree (as you know). And I'm not the only one who thinks it's something of a unique masterpiece. I just can't stand by and let it be spoken of like that. I listened to it tonight and it got to me in the best way. Harold Battiste's arrangements are true creative excitement, Mac's voice is bang on the money, and the female chorusing is the tasty icing. An ace

At least we agree on Plays Mac R!

[garth cartwright]

Chris, care to mention who else other than yourself thinks Babylon "a unique masterpiece"? Even Mac hates it so I guess you are amongst a rather select few. Album low point: where Gilded Splinters gets recycled before a kids chorus comes in. Battiste is a master producer-arranger but he took little pride in Babylon when I met him in New Orleans in Feb' - it was his attempt to make a record for kids who bought protest albums. That said, its tended to be held in higher esteem than The Moon, Herbs album that followed. I can understand why Charlie found the solo albums frustrating - he loved Mac for what he had cut in NO, LA and NY alongside great r&b singers. The psychedelic rock thing must have seemed shrill and ugly compared to such.

[Adam Blake]

Ooh, we could get into it here! I love "Babylon" almost as much as "Gris Gris". It was a brave attempt at progression - do you remember those noble days when artists used to try and progress? Rather than just repeat a winning formula? Nowhere is there a recyle of "Gilded Splinters" with a kids chorus. I think you must be referring to "The Patriotic Flag Waver" which is a rather quixotic (for a white Southerner) political 'protest' song. Mac loved jazz and was trying to inject some into his music - hence the wacked out arrangements and time signatures of the title track and "Black Widow Spider", to say nothing of the album's stoned centrepiece: "The Twilight Zone". For myself, the best track is "Glowin'".

Mac was a heroin addict surrounded by freaks and fruitcakes trying to capitalize as best they could on the surprise success of "Gris Gris". A little context is called for here! The fact that he managed to survive and eventually get out from under the weight of both junk and the trappings of being on the periphery of rockstar royalty at the beginning of the 70s is a testament to his strength and creativity.

I remember being surprised at the virulence and strictness of Charlie's review of "Gumbo" in Rolling Stone. It seemed like he didn't want to like it but couldn't help himself. Charlie was perfectly capable of irrational prejudice, you know, just like all of us. He was just generally better informed! He liked Mac as a sideman, as you say Garth, and perhaps felt he should have stayed as one.

Mac has made at least as many lousy albums as good ones but the good ones are so good you forgive him. Not to be overlooked: "The Brightest Smile In Town" - the delightful Vol.2 to "Plays Mac Rebbenack" - in some ways a more relaxed and less formal solo piano record. The blink and you miss it live in London album "Such A Night" on Spindrift Records, a semi-legit record than I am not sure has ever been re-issued on CD. Featuring a wonderful band, Mac sails through his classic set list to howls of British appreciation (I saw him on that tour and can testify). The belated follow up to "Gumbo" - "Goin' Back To New Orleans" from 1992 which contains some of his finest studio work, including an exquisite arrangement of Louis Gottschalk's "Litanie Des Saints".

I've seen him live many times and he's been good, bad and indifferent but no-one else plays piano like that and he's also a much under-rated guitarist. Whatever one may say about him, he's the real deal, and surely one of the very few white men to play black music without ever a hint of blackface. With Mac Rebennack, it's not even an issue.

[john poole]

I remember being surprised at the virulence and strictness of Charlie's review of "Gumbo" in Rolling Stone.

I've looked it up - seems a fairly positive review to me, a couple of extracts being -

"Six great tracks - three that get by as interesting - three that don't make it"

"A record that is a delight both for people who never heard of any of the previous versions of the songs, and for those who remember them well"

Charlie certainly wasn't a fan of the previous albums on the whole, but did favourably mention 'Mama Roux' from "Gris Gris" and 'Wash Mama Wash' & 'Mardi Gras Day' from "Remedies" in a piece for "Let It Rock".

[allears]

Good to see so many fans of Gris Gris here - like most of you I was also disappointed with Babylon and many of the subsequent albums.

I appreciate Adam`s point about Dr John advancing rather than re-hashing, it`s just that in advancing Dr John lost a lot of the magic that made Gris Gris such a special album. I guess he realised it himself, partly because "even Mac hates it" (garth c.) and partly because his third album, Remedies, though patchy, backs away from the experiments and pretensions of "Flag Waiver" and "Guitar Strangler" and is closer to the loose jungle spirit of Gris Gris.

In fact, the true heir to Gris Gris may not be by Dr John at all; perhaps it`s the self-titled 1970 album by Exuma, which comes complete with zombies, frogs, whistles and remedies of every description. Exuma is a mere one thousand miles by sea from Dr John`s stamping ground, so they were almost neighbours, dipping into the same slave-route voodoo heritage, and both albums convey the illusion that they are impromptu recordings, live from some moonlit shack in the swamps.

[Chris P]

Ooh, we could get into it here! I love "Babylon" almost as much as "Gris Gris". It was a brave attempt at progression - do you remember those noble days when artists used to try and progress? Rather than just repeat a winning formula? Nowhere is there a recyle of "Gilded Splinters" with a kids chorus. I think you must be referring to "The Patriotic Flag Waver" which is a rather quixotic (for a white Southerner) political 'protest' song. Mac loved jazz and was trying to inject some into his music - hence the wacked out arrangements and time signatures of the title track and "Black Widow Spider", to say nothing of the album's stoned centrepiece: "The Twilight Zone". For myself, the best track is "Glowin'".

Flippin hallelujah, thank you Adam. Garth - drummer Chris Cutler, plus an artist friend of his and printing project mate of mine from way back - Grim aka Graham, & several other colleagues & friends, all hold it in the very highest esteem. As do most of the amazon.com and .uk reviewers - mainly 5 star (with words to back their opinions up). Even Unterberger's underwhelming review on All Music which I don't rate, at least gives it some real credit - but I don't always think a great deal of Unterberger's reviewing - it may be very good, but his tastes are way different to mine.

Yes Adam, agree on Vol 2 of Plays Mac Reb being even more enjoyable than Vol 1! It's the one I go to first these days. I've just got it out to play: it was sat next to Charlie's Another Saturday Night as it appens, which seems to suit the Charlie theme in this thread

edit: now back listening to what is becoming one of my all-time favourite albums - Babylon. A good thing about these discussions, is that despite a feeling of a favourite musical parade being rained (or insert more colourful liquid) on, the actual effect is that, as now, I'm actually enjoying this music more than ever. Let a thousand or more flowers contend, eh?

I wouldn't even be suprised if Garth one day confesses to not loving Song of the Bailing Man by Ubu, (although I would be suprised if he couldn't take a happy ride on Story Of My Life - that rocks!). I credit and thank Adam for getting me partly back into Ubu after a gap of 8 years, with a mildly disparaging remark he made earlier this year. Too early in the morning for Ubu though, over to King Tubbys Meets Rockers instead

[garth cartwright]

Adam, as ever I love your raves - even when I disagree with them! To me Patriotic is just a poor rehash of Gilded Splinters and I don't think it was brave - protest songs were very chic then, even your bete noires The Stones were singing about Street Fightin' Men and such. And Mac might be a white Southerner but he'd already broken pretty much every taboo keeping him part of the white South a long time before he became Dr John. Being brave involved Mac as a teenager who went and gigged with black musicians and took abuse from both whites and blacks for doing so!

Anyway, we could argue about that album forever and no one will change their mind, might as well praise the good stuff and there is plenty of that. He's certainly productive and keeps on touring - I've seen him over the years in New Orleans, San Francisco and London many many times. He used to tour with big bands but economics now finds him backed by a trio of guitar-bass-drums - last time i saw him (beside the Tower Of London) he had yr pal Abram Wilson come on and play trumpet on a few tunes, Adam. That was good. Yes, he's a great guitarist tho i haven't seen him pick up his axe in many years. He and Allen Toussaint are my favourite living musicians and I will continue to go see both whenever I get the chance.

Allears - your African band Exuma sound fascinating. Gris Gris remains to my ears the most West African sounding album ever cut in the US (beyond James Brown's hardest funk, I guess).

Chris - Pere Ubu? LIked Final Solution and Dub Housing but that was a long time ago. I just don't often get nostalgic for a lot of what we listened to in our early teens.

Dr John was Jamie Cullen's guest last night: well worth listening to

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01fqrt2

He's as fascinating as ever. Jamie does quite a good show at times. A much better DJ than singer.

[Chris P]

Chris - Pere Ubu? LIked Final Solution and Dub Housing but that was a long time ago. I just don't often get nostalgic for a lot of what we listened to in our early teens.

well I was 20 and 31 respectively when the Ubu albums I mentioned were released, but good music is good music. It was just my little joke, I'm glad you enjoyed that fine album and ep you mention. For the record, much as I like them, a little Pere Ubu goes quite a long way with me, so I can see they wouldn't be everyone's cuppa

now: back to Dr John...

[NormanD]

Did anyone else here see Dr Mac when he toured with the Chris Barber band? They played their separate sets, and then came together for a load of end-of-show jam songs. What I especially liked was that he was the pianist with the band, not the star - he seemed as much in awe of Chris Barber as Barber was of him. That was a great gig - the combined living knowledge of music from that crew! The term 'professor' never seemed more appropriate.

I also have a vague memory of seeing a solo gig on Clapham Common bandstand sometime in the 70s. If I hadn't wasted so much time in the previous decade listening to "Gris Gris" - and fretting over "Babylon" - I might have remembered.

And he was a guest on Charlie's show late 90s/early 00s. I believe it was pre-recorded in the week, so no listeners phoning in for info on B-sides, etc. I think Nikki A. may have some more to say on this, if I can encourage you, missie (if you're reading this post, that is).