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Dr. John
The Dr. John Anthology – Mos’ Scocious
Rhino
R2 71450
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Disc One:
1. Bad Neighborhood
Ronnie & Delinquents
(Mac Rebennack/Joe Caronna/Martin)
(JC single #1000, circa 1959)
Ronnie Barron, Jerry Byrne & Frankie Ford: Vocals
Mac Rebennack & Huey Smith: Piano
Earl Stanley: Bass
Paul Staehle: Drums
Leonard James: Sax
2. Morgus The Magnificent
Morgus & The 3 Ghouls
(Clesi/Lester Bayhi)
(Vin single #1013, 4/59)
Ronnie Barron, Jerry Byrne, Ken Elliot, Jr., and Frankie Ford: Vocals
Mac Rebennack: Guitar
Earl Stanley: Bass
Paul Staehle: Drums
Leonard James: Sax
3. Storm Warning
Mac Rebennack
(Mac Rebennack)
(Rex single #1008, 8/59)
Mac Rebennack: Guitar
Allen Toussaint: Keyboards
Frank Fields: Bass
Charles Williams: Drums
Lee Allen & Alvin “Red” Tyler: Sax
Melvin Lastie: Trumpet
4. Sahara
Mac Rebennack & His Orchestra
(Mac Rebennack)
(Ace single #611, 1/61)
Mac Rebennack: Guitar, Keyboards
Frank Fields: Bass
Charles Williams: Drums
Lee Allen: Sax
5. Down The Road
Roland Stone
(Mac Rebennack)
(From the album Just A Moment by Roland Stone, Ace #1018, 1961)
Roland LeBlanc: Vocals
Mac Rebennack: Guitar
Earl Stanley; Bass
Paul Staehle: Drums
Leonard James & Alvin “Red” Tyler: Sax
6. Gris-Gris Gumbo Ya Ya
(Mac Rebennack)
From the album Gris-Gris, 1/22/68
Atco #33-234
Arranged and Produced by Harold Battiste
Dr. John: Vocals, Keyboards, Guitar, Percussion
Steve Mann: Guitar, Banjo
Ernest McLean: Guitar, Mandolin
Frasier & Bob West: Bass
John Bourdreaux: Drums
Mo Pedido: Congas
Richard “Didimus” Washington: Percussion
Plas Johnson: Sax
Lonnie Boulden: Flute
Ronnie Barron, Dave Dixon & Jesse Hill: Backing Vocals, Percussion
Sonny Ray Durdon, Shirley Goodman, Prince Ella Johnson, Joni Jonz & Tami Lynn: Backing Vocals
7. Mama Roux
(Mac Rebennack/Jesse Hill)
(Atco Single #6635, 11/21/68)
Arranged and Produced by Harold Battiste
Dr. John: Vocals, Keyboards, Guitar, Percussion
Steve Mann: Guitar, Banjo
Ernest McLean: Guitar, Mandolin
Frasier & Bob West: Bass
John Bourdreaux: Drums
Mo Pedido: Congas
Richard “Didimus” Washington: Percussion
Plas Johnson: Sax
Lonnie Boulden: Flute
Ronnie Barron, Dave Dixon & Jesse Hill: Backing Vocals, Percussion
Sonny Ray Durdon, Shirley Goodman, Prince Ella Johnson, Joni Jonz & Tami Lynn: Backing Vocals
8. Jump Sturdy
(Mac Rebennack)
(Atco single #6635, 11/21/68)
Arranged and Produced by Harold Battiste
Dr. John: Vocals, Keyboards, Guitar, Percussion
Steve Mann: Guitar, Banjo
Ernest McLean: Guitar, Mandolin
Frasier & Bob West: Bass
John Bourdreaux: Drums
Mo Pedido: Congas
Richard “Didimus” Washington: Percussion
Plas Johnson: Sax
Lonnie Boulden: Flute
Ronnie Barron, Dave Dixon & Jesse Hill: Backing Vocals, Percussion
Sonny Ray Durdon, Shirley Goodman, Prince Ella Johnson, Joni Jonz & Tami Lynn: Backing Vocals
9. I Walk On Guilded Splinters
(Mac Rebennack)
(From the album Gris-Gris; also issued [in 2 parts] as Atco single #6607, 8/14/68)
Atco #33-234
Arranged and Produced by Harold Battiste
Dr. John: Vocals, Keyboards, Guitar, Percussion
Steve Mann: Guitar, Banjo
Ernest McLean: Guitar, Mandolin
Frasier & Bob West: Bass
John Bourdreaux: Drums
Mo Pedido: Congas
Richard “Didimus” Washington: Percussion
Plas Johnson: Sax
Lonnie Boulden: Flute
Ronnie Barron, Dave Dixon & Jesse Hill: Backing Vocals, Percussion
Sonny Ray Durdon, Shirley Goodman, Prince Ella Johnson, Joni Jonz & Tami Lynn: Backing Vocals
10. Black Widow Spider
(Mac Rebennack)
(From the album Babylon, 1/17/69)
Atco #33-270
Arranged and Produced by Harold Battiste – A Sonny & Cher Production
Personnel probably the same as “I Walk On Guilded Splinters.”
11. Loop Garoo
(Mac Rebennack)
(Atco single #6755, 5/15/70)
Atco #33-316
Produced by Tom Dowd, Dr. John & Charles Greene
Dr. John: Vocals, Guitar
Cold Grits (personnel unknown): Backing Band
12. Wash, Mama, Wash
(Mac Rebennack)
(Atco single #6755, 5/15/70)
Produced by Tom Dowd, Dr. John & Charles Greene
Dr. John: Vocals, Piano
Cold Grits (Personnel unknown): Backing Band
Shirley Goodman, Jesse Hill & Tami Lynn: Backing Vocals
13. Mardi Gras Day
(Mac Rebennack)
(From the album Remedies, 4/9/70)
Produced by Tom Dowd, Dr. John & Charles Greene
Dr. John: Vocals, Guitar, Percussion
Cold Grits (Personnel unknown): Backing Band
Jesse Hill: Backing Vocals, Percussion
Shirley Goodman & Tami Lynn: Backing Vocals
14. Familiar Reality – Opening
(Mac Rebennack/Jesse Hill)
(From the album The Sun Moon & Herbs, 8/31/71)
Atco #33-362
Produced by Malcolm Rebennack & Charles Greene
Dr. John: Vocals, Piano
Ronnie Barron: Organ
Ron Johnson: Bass
John Bourdreaux: Drums
Jerry Jumonville: Sax
Ed Hoerner: Trumpet
15. Zu Zu Mamou
(Mac Rebennack)
(From the album The Sun Moon & Herbs, 8/31/71)
Atco #33-362
Produced by Malcolm Rebennack & Charles Greene
Dr. John: Vocals, Piano, Organ, Guitar, Vibes, Percussion
Eric Claptom: Slide Guitar
Tommy Feronne: Rhythm Guitar
Steve York: Acoustic Bass
Fred Shaehle: Drums
Ken Terroade: Flute
Vic Brox: Pocket Trumpet, Organ
Ray Draper: Tuba, Percussion, Backing Vocals
Jesse Boyce & Freeman Brown: Percussion
P.P. Arnold, Shirley Goodman, Mick Jagger, Joni Jonz, Tami Lynn & Doris Troy: Backing Vocals
16. Mess Around
(Ahmet Ertegun)
(From the album Gumbo, 4/20/72)
Atco #7006
Produced by Jerry Wexler and Harold Battiste
Dr. John: Vocals, Piano
Ronnie Barron: Electric Guitar, Organ, Backing Vocals
Ken Klimak: Guitar
Alvin Robinson: Guitar, Backing Vocals
Jimmy Calhoun: Bass
Freddie Staehle: Drums
Melvin Lastie: Cornet
Lee Allen, Sidney George and David Lastie: Sax
Moe Bechamin: Sax, Backing Vocals
Richard “Didimus” Washington: Percussion
Shirley Goodman, Tami Lynn, Robbie Montgomery & Jesse Smith: Backing Vocals
17. Somebody Changed The Lock
(Mac Rebennack)
(From the album Gumbo, 4/20/72)
Atco #7006
Produced by Jerry Wexler and Harold Battiste
Dr. John: Vocals, Piano
Ronnie Barron: Electric Guitar, Organ, Backing Vocals
Ken Klimak: Guitar
Alvin Robinson: Guitar, Backing Vocals
Jimmy Calhoun: Bass
Freddie Staehle: Drums
Melvin Lastie: Cornet
Lee Allen, Sidney George and David Lastie: Sax
Harold Battiste: Sax, Clarinet
Streamline: Trombone
Moe Bechamin: Sax, Backing Vocals
Richard “Didimus” Washington: Percussion
Shirley Goodman, Tami Lynn, Robbie Montgomery & Jesse Smith: Backing Vocals
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Disc Two:
1. Iko Iko
(James “Sugarboy” Crawford)
(From the album Gumbo; short version issued as Atco single #6882, 3/10/72)
Atco #7006
Produced by Jerry Wexler and Harold Battiste
Dr. John: Vocals, Piano
Ronnie Barron: Electric Guitar, Organ, Backing Vocals
Ken Klimak: Guitar
Alvin Robinson: Guitar, Backing Vocals
Jimmy Calhoun: Bass
Freddie Staehle: Drums
Melvin Lastie: Cornet
Lee Allen, Sidney George and David Lastie: Sax
Moe Bechamin: Sax, Backing Vocals
Richard “Didimus” Washington: Percussion
Shirley Goodman, Tami Lynn, Robbie Montgomery & Jesse Smith: Backing Vocals
2. Junko Partner
(Bob Shad)
(From the album Gumbo; short version issued as Atco single #6882, 3/10/72)
Atco #7006
Produced by Jerry Wexler and Harold Battiste
Dr. John: Vocals, Piano
Ronnie Barron: Electric Guitar, Organ, Backing Vocals
Ken Klimak: Guitar
Alvin Robinson: Guitar, Backing Vocals
Jimmy Calhoun: Bass
Freddie Staehle: Drums
Melvin Lastie: Cornet
Lee Allen, Sidney George and David Lastie: Sax
Moe Bechamin: Sax, Backing Vocals
Richard “Didimus” Washington: Percussion
Shirley Goodman, Tami Lynn, Robbie Montgomery & Jesse Smith: Backing Vocals
3. Tipitina
(Roy Byrd)
(From the album Gumbo; short version issued as Atco single #6882, 3/10/72)
Atco #7006
Produced by Jerry Wexler and Harold Battiste
Dr. John: Vocals, Piano
Ronnie Barron: Electric Guitar, Organ, Backing Vocals
Ken Klimak: Guitar
Alvin Robinson: Guitar, Backing Vocals
Jimmy Calhoun: Bass
Freddie Staehle: Drums
Melvin Lastie: Cornet
Lee Allen, Sidney George and David Lastie: Sax
Moe Bechamin: Sax, Backing Vocals
Richard “Didimus” Washington: Percussion
Shirley Goodman, Tami Lynn, Robbie Montgomery & Jesse Smith: Backing Vocals
4. Huey Smith Medley
a. High Blood Pressure
b. Don’t You Just Know It
c. Well I’ll Be John Brown
(Huey Smith/Johnny Vincent)
(Atco single #6882, 3/10/72)
Produced by Jerry Wexler and Harold Battiste
Dr. John: Vocals, Piano
Ronnie Barron: Electric Guitar, Organ, Backing Vocals
Ken Klimak: Guitar
Alvin Robinson: Guitar, Backing Vocals
Jimmy Calhoun: Bass
Freddie Staehle: Drums
Melvin Lastie: Cornet
Lee Allen, Sidney George and David Lastie: Sax
Moe Bechamin: Sax, Backing Vocals
Richard “Didimus” Washington: Percussion
Shirley Goodman, Tami Lynn, Robbie Montgomery & Jesse Smith: Backing Vocals
5. Right Place Wrong Time
(Mac Rebennack)
(Atco single #6914, 1/26/73)
Atco #7018
Produced by Allen Toussaint
Dr. John: Vocals, Keyboards
Dave Spinozza: Guitar Solo
Allen Toussaint: Keyboards, Guitar, Percussion, Backing Vocals
The Meters:
Arthur “Red” Neville: Organ
Leo “Breeze” Nocentelli: Guitar
George “Freak Man” Porter: Bass
Joseph “Zigaboo” modeliste: Drums
Gary Brown: Electric & Acoustic Sax
The Bonnaroo Horn Section: Horns
Robbie Montgomery & Jessie Smith: Backing Vocals
6. Traveling Mood
(James Waynes)
(From the album In The Right Place, 2/25/73)
Atco #7018
Produced by Allen Toussaint
Dr. John: Vocals, Keyboards
Allen Toussaint: Keyboards, Guitar, Percussion, Backing Vocals
The Meters:
Arthur “Red” Neville: Organ
Leo “Breeze” Nocentelli: Guitar
George “Freak Man” Porter: Bass
Joseph “Zigaboo” modeliste: Drums
Gary Brown: Electric & Acoustic Sax
The Bonnaroo Horn Section: Horns
Robbie Montgomery & Jessie Smith: Backing Vocals
7. Life
(Allen Toussaint)
(From the album In The Right Place, 2/25/73)
Atco #7018
Produced by Allen Toussaint
Dr. John: Vocals, Keyboards
Allen Toussaint: Keyboards, Guitar, Percussion, Backing Vocals
The Meters:
Arthur “Red” Neville: Organ
Leo “Breeze” Nocentelli: Guitar
George “Freak Man” Porter: Bass
Joseph “Zigaboo” modeliste: Drums
Gary Brown: Electric & Acoustic Sax
The Bonnaroo Horn Section: Horns
Robbie Montgomery & Jessie Smith: Backing Vocals
8. Such A Night
(Mac Rebennack)
(Atco single #6937, 8/14/73)
Produced by Allen Toussaint
Dr. John: Vocals, Keyboards
Allen Toussaint: Keyboards, Guitar, Percussion, Backing Vocals
The Meters:
Arthur “Red” Neville: Organ
Leo “Breeze” Nocentelli: Guitar
George “Freak Man” Porter: Bass
Joseph “Zigaboo” modeliste: Drums
Gary Brown: Electric & Acoustic Sax
The Bonnaroo Horn Section: Horns
Robbie Montgomery & Jessie Smith: Backing Vocals
Ralph McDonald: Percussion
9. I Been Hoodood
(Mac Rebennack)
(Atco single #6914, 1/26/73)
Produced by Allen Toussaint
Dr. John: Vocals, Keyboards, Percussion
Allen Toussaint: Keyboards, Guitar, Percussion, Backing Vocals
The Meters:
Arthur “Red” Neville: Organ
Leo “Breeze” Nocentelli: Guitar
George “Freak Man” Porter: Bass
Joseph “Zigaboo” modeliste: Drums
Gary Brown: Electric & Acoustic Sax
The Bonnaroo Horn Section: Horns
Robbie Montgomery & Jessie Smith: Backing Vocals
Ralph McDonald: Percussion
10. Cold Cold Cold
(Alvin Robinson/Jesse Hill/Mac Rebennack)
(Atco single #:6937, 8/14/73)
Produced by Allen Toussaint
Dr. John: Vocals, Keyboards
Allen Toussaint: Keyboards, Guitar, Percussion, Backing Vocals
The Meters:
Arthur “Red” Neville: Organ
Leo “Breeze” Nocentelli: Guitar
George “Freak Man” Porter: Bass
Joseph “Zigaboo” modeliste: Drums
Gary Brown: Electric & Acoustic Sax
The Bonnaroo Horn Section: Horns
Robbie Montgomery & Jessie Smith: Backing Vocals
11. Quitters Never Win
(Mac Rebennack)
(From the album Desitively Bonnaroo, 4/8/74)
Atco #7043
Produced and Arranged by Allen Toussaint for Sansu Enterprises, Inc.
Dr. John: Vocals, Guitar, Piano, Muted Fingernettes, Zigola
Arthur Neville: Organ
Allen Toussaint: Keyboards, Percussion, Backing Vocals
Leo Nocentelli: Guitar
George Porter, Jr.: Bass
Joseph Modeliste: Drums
Gary Brown: Soprano, Alto & Tenor Sax, Clarinet
Mark Colby: Tenor Sax, Clarinet
Whit Sidener: Alto & Baritone Sax
Ken Faulk: Euphonium
Robbie Montgomery & Jessie Smith: Backing Vocals
12. What Comes Around (Goes Around)
(Mac Rebennack)
(From the album Desitively Bonnaroo, 4/8/74)
Atco #7043
Produced and Arranged by Allen Toussaint for Sansu Enterprises, Inc.
Dr. John: Vocals, Guitar, Piano, Muted Fingernettes, Zigola
Arthur Neville: Organ
Allen Toussaint: Keyboards, Percussion, Backing Vocals
Leo Nocentelli: Guitar
George Porter, Jr.: Bass
Joseph Modeliste: Drums
Gary Brown: Soprano, Alto & Tenor Sax, Clarinet
Mark Colby: Tenor Sax, Clarinet
Whit Sidener: Alto & Baritone Sax
Ken Faulk: Euphonium
Robbie Montgomery & Jessie Smith: Backing Vocals
13. Mos’ Scocious
(Mac Rebennack)
(Atco single #6957, 3/18/74)
Produced and Arranged by Allen Toussaint for Sansu Enterprises, Inc.
Dr. John: Vocals, Guitar, Piano, Muted Fingernettes, Zigola
Arthur Neville: Organ
Allen Toussaint: Keyboards, Percussion, Backing Vocals
Leo Nocentelli: Guitar
George Porter, Jr.: Bass
Joseph Modeliste: Drums
Gary Brown: Soprano, Alto & Tenor Sax, Clarinet
Mark Colby: Tenor Sax, Clarinet
Whit Sidener: Alto & Baritone Sax
Ken Faulk: Euphonium
Robbie Montgomery & Jessie Smith: Backing Vocals
14. Let’s Make A Better World
(Earl King)
(Atco single #6971, 7/15/74)
Dr. John: Vocals, Guitar, Piano, Muted Fingernettes, Zigola
Arthur Neville: Organ
Allen Toussaint: Keyboards, Percussion, Backing Vocals
Leo Nocentelli: Guitar
George Porter, Jr.: Bass
Joseph Modeliste: Drums
Gary Brown: Soprano, Alto & Tenor Sax, Clarinet
Mark Colby: Tenor Sax, Clarinet
Whit Sidener: Alto & Baritone Sax
Ken Faulk: Euphonium
Robbie Montgomery & Jessie Smith: Backing Vocals
15. Back By The River
(Bill Quateman)
(From the album Hollywood Be Thy Name, 10/6/75)
United Artists #552
Produced and Arranged by Bob Ezrin
Dr. John: Vocals, Keyboards
Ronnie Barron: Organ
Kenny Ascher: Chamberlain
Steve “Deacon” Hunter: Guitar, Backing Vocals
Alvin Bishop “Shine” Robinson: Guitar, Percussion, Backing Vocals
Julius Farmer: Bass
Johnny “Bee” Badanjek & John Boudreaux: Drums
Bob Ezrin: Ondioline
Clifford Solomon & Ernie Watts: Tenor Sax
Leroy Cooper: Baritone Sax
Warren Luening: Trumpet
Chauncey Welsch: Trombone
Bobby Torres: Congas
The Creolettes (Vanetta Fields, Tami Lynn & Robbie Montgomery), Mick Coles, David R. Donaldson, Sr., Richard Flanzer, David Hines, Bruce Robb, Roy Silver, Al Teller & George Tutko: Backing Vocals
16. I Wanna Rock
(Roy Montrell/Robert Blackwell/John Marascalco)
(From the album Hollywood Be Thy Name, 10/6/75)
United Artists #552
Produced and Arranged by Bob Ezrin
Dr. John: Vocals, Keyboards
Ronnie Barron: Organ
Kenny Ascher: Chamberlain
Steve “Deacon” Hunter: Guitar, Backing Vocals
Alvin Bishop “Shine” Robinson: Guitar, Percussion, Backing Vocals
Julius Farmer: Bass
Johnny “Bee” Badanjek & John Boudreaux: Drums
Bob Ezrin: Ondioline
Clifford Solomon & Ernie Watts: Tenor Sax
Leroy Cooper: Baritone Sax
Warren Luening: Trumpet
Chauncey Welsch: Trombone
Bobby Torres: Congas
The Creolettes (Vanetta Fields, Tami Lynn & Robbie Montgomery), Mick Coles, David R. Donaldson, Sr., Richard Flanzer, David Hines, Bruce Robb, Roy Silver, Al Teller & George Tutko: Backing Vocals
17. Memories of Prof. Longhair
(Roy Byrd)
(From the album Dr. John Plays Mac Rebennack, 1981)
Clean Cuts #705
Produced by Jack Heyrman & Ed Levine
Dr. John: Piano
18. Honey Dripper
(Joe Liggins)
(From the album Dr. John Plays Mac Rebennack, 1981)
Clean Cuts #705
Produced by Jack Heyrman & Ed Levine
Dr. John: Piano
19. Pretty Libby
(Mac Rebennack)
(From the album The Brightest Smile In Town, 1983)
Clean Cuts #707
Produced by Jack Heyrman & Ed Levine
Dr. John: Piano
20. Makin’ Whooppee!
(Gus Kahn/Walter Donaldson)
(From the album In A Sentimental Mood, 4/25/89)
Warner Bros. #25889
Produced by Tommy LiPuma
Dr. John: Vocals, Keyboards
Rickie Lee Jones: Vocals
Larry Williams: Synthesizer
Paul Jackson: Acoustic Guitar
Abe Laboriel: Bass
Harvey Mason: Drums
Ralph Burns: Horn Arrangement
21. Accentuate The Positive
(Harold Arlen/Johnny Mercer)
(From the album In A Sentimental Mood, 4/25/89)
Warner Bros. #25889
Produced by Tommy LiPuma
Dr. John: Vocals, Keyboards
Larry Williams: Synthesizer
Hugh McCracken: Guitar
Abe Laboriel: Bass
Harvey Mason: Drums
Joel Peskin: Sax Solo
Ralph Burns: Horn Arrangement
22. More Than You Know
(William Rose/Edward Eliscu/Vincent Youmans)
(From the album In A Sentimental Mood, 4/25/89)
Warner Bros. #25889
Produced by Tommy LiPuma
Dr. John: Vocals, Keyboards
Hugh McCracken: Guitar
Marcus Miller: Bass
Jeff Porcaro: Drums
Marty Paich: String & Horn Arrangement
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Produced for Release by: James Austin
Compilation: John Brenes & Jeff Hannusch
Project Coordination: Stanley Chaisson
Project Assistance: Chris Framan
Research Director:: John Brenes
Research: Jeff Hannusch, John Brenes, Patrick Milligan, Gary Peterson & Dave Booth / Showtime Music Archive
Remastering: Bill Inglot
Art Direction: Geoff Gans
Design: Sevie Bates
Inside Booklet: Mike Smith, Michael Ochs Archive
Slipcase Front/Front Jewel Case 1 & 2: Sydney Byrd
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Certainly no other New Orleans artist has worn more musical hats than Mac Rebennack, aka Dr. John. During his career, which so far spans four decades, he's served as a greasy-kid-stuff rock 'n' roller, a producer, writer, sideman, psychedelic rock icon, jingle creator, and blues and jazz musician. As he aptly states, he has done "whatever I had to do to get the job did."
Although Dr. John is by no means a physician, the magic his music has created is medicinal. It was he who most effectively added the physical and visual aspect to New Orleans music. Back in the late-'60s-early-'70s psychedelic era, his outlandish shows were a celebration of all that was New Orleans. Tossing glitter and dressed in greasepaint, feathers, snakeskin, and bright colors, Dr. John brought the flavor of Mardi Gras, as well as the sounds and mysteries of New Orleans, to stages around the world.
Dr. John may have toned down his stage act during the last decade, but his music is still vibrant and progressive, yet true to the tradition of his hometown. His two Grammy awards - the most recent, 1993's Best Traditional Blues Album, for Goin' Back To New Orleans - only underline his ongoing contributions to popular music. He has created an enduring musical personality all his own.
Born Malcolm John Rebennack Jr., November 21, 1940, he was raised in New Orleans' middleclass Third Ward. A cherub as an infant, he was just nine months old when his photo graced the front panels of Ivory Soap laundry detergent boxes. At the age of three he'd already developed an interest in music and was singing and picking out melodies on the family piano.
Rebennack's family was extremely supportive and nurtured his interest in music. His hip Aunt Andre taught him how to play "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie," while Mac Sr. let his son listen to the hillbilly and blues 78s that he stocked in his appliance store. His mother even wrote songs for him when she was learning how to type. The Rebennacks often hosted what amounted to "family jam sessions" in their living room, with aunts, uncles, and grandparents participating. In grade school, he took piano lessons, but he soon grew bored because he could outplay the nun who taught him.
When he was an adolescent, Rebennack's mother took him downtown to Werlein's Music Store on Canal Street and bought him a guitar. Originally he disdained lessons, preferring to copy licks from Lightnin' Slim and Lightnin' Hopkins records. One evening, Rebennack's first guitar teacher stopped by his student's house and heard music coming from a back room. The teacher told Mrs. Rebennack he thought it was great that little Mac listened to records. Mrs. Rebennack pointed out that her son wasn't listening to records, it was Mac who was playing!
In his spare time, Rebennack helped his father, who augmented his income by repairing televisions, radios, and public address systems. One Saturday afternoon, father and son took the ferry across the Mississippi River to a black club called the Pepper Pot in order to fix a PA. The band playing inside was led by Professor Longhair. The younger Rebennack wasn't allowed inside the club, but he pulled a log up next to a window so he could look in to see Longhair play.
On another occasion, the Rebennacks went out to the Cadillac Club on Poland Avenue, where Fats Domino's band was playing. It was here Rebennack first saw guitarist Walter "Papoose" Nelson, who became his idol and eventual tutor.
"Papoose was showin' me T-Bone Walker and Mickey Baker and other guitar players like that," says Rebennack. "When I started taking lessons, I was listening to people like Lightnin' Hopkins. Papoose said, 'Man, you can't get in no band playing like that. You gotta learn stuff by this guy and that guy.'"
"He wouldn't let me play any leads. I would sit in front of him for hours, and he would just have me strum chords behind him. That really made an impression on me."
Rebennack's father was also a friend of Cosimo Matassa, who ran the only studio in town and who engineered every rhythm & blues and rock 'n' roll record cut in New Orleans during the 1950s. Initially, Matassa let Rebennack watch sessions from the booth and act as his gofer. The youngster often asked musicians how to play certain songs, but often Matassa would have to run him off when he made a nuisance of himself. Nevertheless, Rebennack kept coming back. Eventually he befriended nearly every musician that entered the studio.
"I remember walking in there one day, and Dave Bartholomew was doin' something," he says. "They were on a break, and I walked up and just touched Earl Palmer's drums. The next thing I knew I was thrown out of the studio. It was just because they were Earl Palmer's drums that I wanted to touch them, 'cause I loved the way Earl played. Dave was just like, 'Get this kid out of here before he breaks something.'''
"I can't remember Mac not being around the studio," says Johnny Vincent, who acted as a talent scout for Specialty and who later went on to form Ace Records. "He used to hang around and ask questions all the time. He was one of the greatest little prospects as a producer and writer, even at age 16."
By then, Rebennack was totally immersed in his hometown's rhythm & blues tradition. Not only did he listen to all the local R&B stations, he also scoured black record shops, like the Bop Shop on South Rampart Street, in order to buy the records he heard deejays Jack the Cat, Honeyboy, Dr. Daddy-O, and Pappa Stoppa play. At home he'd play the records over and over, copying his favorite licks on piano or guitar.
In 1954, Rebennack enrolled at Jesuit High, a prestigious Catholic high school known for its academic and athletic excellence (baseball stars Will Clark and Rusty Staub attended Jesuit). However, during the mid-1950s, like every other high school in America, Jesuit got caught up in the rock 'n' roll fervor. At Jesuit, Rebennack became somewhat the resident rock 'n' roll expert. Not only did he entertain his fellow students with the latest Chuck Berry licks, he answered questions about rock 'n' roll and told people who was down at Cosima's cutting records.
Rebennack formed a band with fellow Jesuit students, The Dominos, who wore black jackets emblazoned with dominos. At the annual Jesuit talent show, the group played several Fats Domino tunes. While Rebennack wowed the student body, the priests in attendance were anything but impressed by his brand of music.
He quit school during the 11th grade to go on the road playing music. Not a bad student, Rebennack signed up for correspondence school and eventually earned his high school diploma. Besides, Rebennack didn't need Jesuit. Cosimo's Studio, and the clubs that blared R&B, were his college.
When he was 17, Rebennack's band, The Skyliners - named after the sleek Ford late-'50s hardtop convertible - consisted of Paul Staehle on drums, Leonard James on sax, Warren Leaning on trumpet, Earl Stanley on bass, and of course Rebennack on guitar or piano. The band often changed names to accommodate the vocalists they backed - Frankie Ford, Jerry Byrne, Ronnie Barron - or the club owners who booked them. Apparently, Staehle had several fronts for his bass drum with several different band names, and he changed them to fit the occasion. However, the group had little trouble finding work; they stayed busy working everything from high school proms to strip clubs.
"We had a lot of different names," says Rebennack. "We could hustle more gigs that way. We'd say, 'Well we can get you this band. if you don't like that one.' It was the same band, it was just a question of who was leader on a gig.
"We won a battle of the bands one time, but we were disqualified after they figured out that we played one set dressed one way and another set dressed another way."
"Leonard James, who lived across the street from me, my parents trusted him," Rebennack adds.
"They would let me go work in strip joints with him. This guy knew how to hustle gigs! He'd walk in and talk to somebody, and the next thing] knew, we was workin' there that night."
Rebennack's first recording session was more or less "arranged" by Walter "Papoose" Nelson. "I went for my guitar lesson and the next thing I knew I was going to Cosima's studio to be on a session," explains Rebennack. "Papoose sent me to sub on the session. He just didn't want to do it. I'm not really sure whose date it was, but it might have been Eddie Bo or somebody.
"So I get there, and who am I working for but Paul Gayten, who knows me from hangin' in front of the Brass Rail when I wasn't even old enough to get in. He right away jumps in my shit with both feet.
'''What the hell is going on?! I thought I had Papoose!'
"I thought, 'Oh my God, I know he'd like to have somebody like Edgar Blanchard or somebody else here, I wish I had their phone number so I could just call 'em.' So he used me on the session. I remember he (Paul Gayten) hung a jacket that stuck with me for a long time. Paul Gayten was real hip that I'm copyin' T-Bone Walker. He hung this jacket on me that said Little T-Bone. It stuck with me for a long time."
Word got out that Rebennack was a pretty good player, and he began getting calls for sessions from several labels, especially when established players like Papoose, Ernest McLean, or Justin Adams were on the road or working gigs in town.
"Me and James Booker and Leonard James would hang at the studio," says Rebennack. "We was like hoping and praying somebody wouldn't show up, maybe somebody might give us a shot. We weren't even in the union or anything, we just loved to hear the music. Me and Booker would be listening to Huey Smith or Edward Frank and we'd just enjoy that."
Rebennack also began writing songs as a teenager. His first success, penned along with Seth Davis, was "Lights Out," a Little Richard-inspired rocker recorded for Specialty by Jerry Byrne in 1957. Rebennack had brought Byrne - who sang with Rebennack's band - and the song to Harold Battiste, who was running Specialty's operation in New Orleans. As luck would have it, Battiste and Rebennack's paths would cross several times in the future.
"You got to give Mac a lot of credit," says Battiste. "He was dedicated. He followed guys like Papoose and Roy Montrell [who replaced the late Papoose in Fats Domino's band] to learn from the source. I never thought it was odd he hung with black musicians. Elvis was copying the black sound, so why not Mac? Everybody liked Mac. The only thing was, once he started doing a lot of sessions, he started picking checks up at the black musicians' union. Some guys started resenting that."
"Nobody really gave any thought about Mac being white," says vocalist Johnny Adams, who recorded several Rebennack compositions. "He was just one of the guys and real good around the studio."
In the late 1950s, Rebennack took an A&R job with Johnny Vincent's Ace label, which paid $60 a week. Rebennack played an important role for Ace. Besides overseeing and playing on sessions, he was responsible for ferreting out talent. At the time, Ace's roster read like a Who's Who in New Orleans music - Huey Smith, Alvin "Red" Tyler, Big Boy Myles, Sugar Boy Crawford, Joe Tex, Frankie Ford, Earl King, James Booker. Rebennack worked with all of them.
"I went to work for Ace at the age of about 14," says Rebennack (who was probably at least 17). ") think Johnny Vincent hired me just because I wrote songs and hung around the studio so much. I was what they called the A&R man. Now they call it the producer.
"It was my job to get the artist and the material for the date, hire the musicians, put the date together - if I needed to hire an arranger, which was very rare, that was also my end. I made sure they got good production. "It was also my job to scout talent and find artists, find their repertoire, and then it was my job to get songs arranged and make records out of 'em.
"I did some of the Huey Smith & The Clowns things, Jimmy Clanton, and Frankie Ford. I did a bunch of unknown artists outta there that were never heard of - Guitar Ray, Al Reed, Luther Reeves, and Chuck Carbo, that was with the Spiders group.
"From working for Ace, who had a bunch of those people I just mentioned, I got the knowledge to work with the studio band on a real tight basis. My cues for what I was supposed to be doin' I learned from watching guys like Huey Smith and Allen Toussaint and Dave Bartholomew and Paul Gayten."
Ever ambitious, Rebennack sent one of his compositions to Lloyd Price, a New Orleans artist who had moved to New York. The song, "Lady Luck," was recorded by Price and became a #14 hit on the ABC-Paramount label in 1960. However, Rebennack didn't get credit for the song; Price and his producer, Don Logan, were listed as writers. He never saw a nickel from the song.
Gigwise, Rebennack was often called on to work the touring rock 'n' roll shows that stopped in New Orleans to play the Municipal Auditorium or Pontchartrain Beach Amusement Park.
“I’d put a band together to back these big rock 'n' roll and rhythm & blues shows that would come through New Orleans," he says. "They had these minimums where you had to have a 17-piece band for some of the shows, so my band cut it. We got to work with Jerry Lee Lewis, Fabian, Bobby Darin, and whoever had hit records. You see, in those days, there was segregation. They'd have Tommy Ridgley's band back the black shows, and I'd back the white shows."
Rebennack and his band also spent a great deal of time on the road, touring sometimes for more than a month at clubs along the Gulf Coast. ]n 1960, while on one of these extended tours - this time with a "Twist band" - an incident happened that nearly ended Rebennack's career and life. Rebennack interceded in an argument between Ronnie Barron and a motel manager in Jacksonville, Florida. The manager pulled a gun, and a fight broke out. The gun went off and a bullet hit Rebennack's left index finger.
"I couldn't play guitar no more," he says. "I got shot in the finger, and I got very depressed after that, 'cause that's the one you bend strings with to play blues and stuff.
"So, I took a job playing bass in a Dixieland band, and it was weird because I didn't even own a bass. At first I was borrowing this guy's upright bass, and then I got a Fender bass. I started hustling around playing drums, too, and James Booker got me my first gig playin' keyboards. He was playing down the block for these guys, and he said, 'Look man, I'm gonna teach you how to play the organ.'”
"At that time Jimmy Smith was starting to come up with that 'Chicken Shack' record. Booker convinced all these guys he was working for to sell the pianos and dump 'em, and he got 'em into buying organs for all these clubs. He hurried up and taught me how to play enough organ that I could audition for this gig, actually three or four gigs.
"I put this little band together and started working these gigs. It was weird because the first gig might be backing up strippers, and the second gig would be a dance gig, and the third gig would be a jam session for all the street people. We'd start the first gig at 10 at night and go until 2 in the morning, and then play the second gig from 2 to 6, and then from 6 to 10 in the morning would be the jam session. You'd play 12 hours straight with no break, while all 'round you there were shootings and stabbings and people hitting each other over the head with bottles. And it was an everyday gig. It's not like you had nights off; there just wasn't no such thing."
Despite his hectic Bourbon Street schedule, Rebennack still found time to write, produce, and play on a lot of sessions. After a falling-out with Ace, Rebennack assumed A&R duties for Joe Ruffino's Ric and Ron labels. Ruffino even went as far as offering to make Rebennack president of the company. While at Ric and Ron, Rebennack produced and wrote his first chart record, "A Losing Battle," which Johnny Adams recorded in 1962. Other Rebennack productions turned up on Spinet, Watch, Rex, and A.F.O.
As bright as the future looked for New Orleans music in 1962, fortunes reversed themselves in 1963. Commercially, the charts once dominated by New Orleans records were now filled with releases coming out of Detroit, Memphis, and especially England. As a result, several labels closed up shop or left the city. On top of that, many local musicians were suddenly out of work. In an effort to eliminate prostitution and B-drinking, New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison closed a lot of clubs that featured live music.
"There was no work left in New Orleans," Rebennack explains: "If I wanted to keep playing music, I had to leave and go to the West Coast."
Luckily for him, the path from New Orleans to Los Angeles had recently been worn by several Crescent City musicians. Upon his arrival. he fell into a New Orleans clique of musicians led by his old friend, Harold Battiste. Battiste, who was producing Sonny & Cher at the time, arranged for Rebennack to join the duo's band, and he recommended him to other producers for session work.
"I did sessions with The O'Jays, Johnny Watson, artists like that," he says. "I also did some work for Phil Spector. But jeez, I went from doing Professor Longhair and Irma Thomas sessions to the Electric Alarm Clock [sic] and Iron Butterfly. I mean, I didn't know what I was walking into. I remember at one session being told to just play 'smiles' on certain tracks. The stuff New Orleans players were laying down was just too real. They wanted dragon-and-butterfly stuff."
As a songwriter, this was a very productive period for Rebennack, who wrote on his own, or with partners. He recalls that on a good day, he and Jessie Hill (of "Ooh Poo Pah Doo" fame) could write as many as 25 songs.
Battiste was also instrumental in Rebennack's transformation into the Dr. John character. The original Dr. John claimed to be a West African prince and lived in New Orleans during the mid-1800s. He told fortunes, sold "gris-gris" potions, and held seances and voodoo ceremonies. Rebennack had long held a fascination for voodoo, especially after his sister gave him some books on Haitian voodoo she found at the antique store where she worked. Several musicians Rebennack hung with (particularly Jessie Hill) shared his interest and occasionally he'd visit Cracker Jack's Drug Store on South Rampart Street, which sold candles, love potions, good-luck floor wash, and incense.
Battiste had some leftover studio time between Sonny & Cher sessions, so in fall 1967, he and Rebennack decided to experiment. They went into the Gold Star Studio with a band of several New Orleans expatriates to record Gris-Gris, which was credited to "Dr. John, the Night Tripper."
"I wanted to do it [the Dr. John concept] with Ronnie Barron, but it didn't work out, so I just did it myself," says Rebennack. "Gris-Gris was the idea of music for people that was never in New Orleans, a part of New Orleans music that they never knew existed.
"I knew Ahmet Ertegun was upset about it. I was sittin' in the studio doing a session for Bobby Darin, and he came in and said, 'What the hell is this record you gave me here!' He ate up a lot of Bobby Darin's studio time yellin' at me. He was stuck with another record that he didn't know what to do with. It wasn't exactly somethin' you could fit in a slot. You couldn't put your finger on what the hell it was. 'Gris-gris' is the New Orleans word for voodoo, and it was voodoo music, but there is not exactly a calling for that in the marketplace. It just happened that we lit into the psychedelic movement."
Battiste claims that the actual roots of the sound heard on Gris-Gris can be traced to an unreleased track called "Need You” which was recorded for A.F.O. by Prince La La in 1962. One of the more mysterious characters on the New Orleans R&B scene, Prince La La's real name was Lawrence Nelson, and he was the brother of Rebennack's guitar teacher, Walter "Papoose" Nelson. Prince La La had accompanied Barbara George to her A.F.O. audition, but wound up getting signed to the label himself. He cut the label's first hit, "She Put The Hurt On Me."
"That song ('Need You') is definitely the predecessor for the Dr. John sound," confirms Battiste.
"The arrangement was that African, New Orleans, Congo Square kind of spiritual thing you can only find here (New Orleans). It was something New Orleans musicians all could feel, but it was Mac who eventually made the sound commercial."
Despite Atlantic's misgivings, Gris-Gris found a home on alternative FM radio. The record became somewhat of an underground hit, doing well enough saleswise to keep Atlantic interested in a followup, even though they originally considered Gris-Gris to be a one-shot. The record was in many ways pushed by Rebennack's bizarre stage act. After being assured by resident voodoo experts that he wasn't disturbing the spirits, he created an unforgettable show to accompany his music.
"It was a show in the New Orleans tradition," says Rebennack. "We were lucky with it, because all those love-ins and be-ins and freak-ins were happening at the same time. I got Chicken Man and some other guys that did a real voodoo show. That was too much for some people, so I toned it down when I began promoting the record. Basically, I kept the snake dancer and the backup singers and a small version of the band. The lineup kept getting smaller, because a lot of people didn't want to go on the road. All the guys were sittin' pretty doing studio work, they had no reason to go on the road."
Gris-Gris was followed by the Babylon album (1968), which continued in the voodoo rock direction, and Remedies (1970), which returned to the more traditional New Orleans R&B sound.
In between the second and third album, Rebennack had a falling-out with Battiste and signed on with Charlie Greene and Brian Stone, powerful rock managers who boasted Sonny & Cher and Buffalo Springfield among their clients. However, Rebennack discharged Greene and Stone, inconveniently, on the eve of his fourth album, which was to be recorded in London.
With the aid of Eric Clapton and Mick Jagger among others, Rebennack recorded dozens of tracks for The Sun Moon & Herbs, a projected three-album set. However, when Rebennack returned to America, he found that several of the tapes were either missing or unusable.
Eventually, Rebennack and Tom Dowd were able to remix several tracks, and eventually, a single album was released. However, by 1972, Rebennack was deep in debt - primarily due to the costs for recording The Sun Moon & Herbs.
Luckily for Rebennack, in stepped Atlantic President Jerry Wexler, who helped get his career back on track. A longtime fan of New Orleans music, Wexler had recorded three of Rebennack's idols nearly two decades before: Professor Longhair, Champion Jack Dupree, and Guitar Slim. During a studio lull, Wexler and Leon Russell were calling out the titles to old New Orleans songs, and Rebennack played pieces of each request on the piano. At the end of the evening, Wexler suggested Rebennack get with Battiste and the other New Orleans musicians on the West Coast to do an album's worth of Crescent City R&B standards. The resulting 1972 album, Gumbo, turned out to be a landmark.
Here's what Rebennack said about the album in the original liner notes:
"It's like a picture of the music New Orleans people listen to, a combination of Dixieland, rock 'n' roll and funk. The origin of funk is in New Orleans coming out of Mardi Gras music: your basic 2/4 beat with compounded rhythms and syncopation added on. This album is basic good-time New Orleans blues and stomp music with a little Dixieland jazz and some Spanish rumba blues: there isn't any what you might call voodoo rock or gris-gris, because my producers and I thought that the people might enjoy hearing the root music from New Orleans which was maybe the chief ingredient in what we know today as rock & roll."
Gumbo brought a great deal of worldwide attention to the New Orleans R&B tradition and pretty much brought to an end the gris-gris/voodoo-rock period of Rebennack's career. Lauded by critics, and a big seller, Gumbo was followed by the extraordinary In The Right Place album, which was produced by Allen Toussaint and featured The Meters as the backup group. The album featured two hit singles, "Such A Night" (#42 pop) and "Right Place Wrong Time" (#9 pop). The album proved that the New Orleans sound was still commercially viable, even with the unfortunate emergence of disco.
The year 1973 was a busy one for Rebennack. With In the Right Place in the charts, Rebennack made several national television appearances and toured Europe with Professor Longhair and The Meters. In the fall he was back in the studio with Toussaint and The Meters to record the Desitively Bonnaroo album. While the formula was similar to In The Right Place, and there were some great songs, saleswise the record didn't live up to Atlantic's expectations.
"After doing five records for Atlantic I finally made one that really sells," says Rebennack, referring to In The Right Place. "Then we made Desitively Bonnaroo, which I thought was pretty good. Atlantic wanted me to cut that record with the Average White Band. I asked them, 'Why should I cut with the Average White Band when I'm touring with The Meters?' I finally started making money for Atlantic, and I wound up getting dropped by the label. It didn't make any sense."
After Atlantic, he signed on with United Artists, where he recorded just one album, Hollywood Be Thy Name. The album was one of Rebennack's more inconsistent efforts: one side was live and the other recorded in a studio. The record sold poorly, primarily because it was released when United Artists was faltering financially and unable to promote it.
During the 1970s, Rebennack continued to pile up studio credits, working with Buddy Guy and Jr. Wells, Johnny Winter, Luther Allison, The Allman Brothers, Maria Muldaur, Aretha Franklin, James Taylor and Carly Simon, Kate Smith, Levon Helm, and Van Morrison among others. In 1977, he appeared in The Band's farewell film The Last Waltz, performing "Such A Night."
The following year saw Rebennack cut the City Lights album, which appeared on A&M's Horizon subsidiary. Produced by Tommy LiPuma and Hugh McCracken, City Lights was released in 1979. A departure from his previous work, the album signaled a maturation in Rebennack's music and a graduation from the rock scene.
"I wanted to do another record like Gris-Gris," he says. "That turned out to be City Lights and included songs that me and Doc Pomus wrote, songs that me and Billy Charles wrote. From that experience I came into contact with cats like Hugh McCracken, Steve Gadd, Richard Tee, and other New York dudes. I really dug that record. The songs on it opened up a lot of spaces for me. I fell into slots I hadn't fallen into before - jazz slots, and things. Jazz stations in L.A. and New York were playing cuts from City Lights. I mean, I took a band on the road that had in it David Sanborn, Steve Gadd, people like that. It was a whole different thing than I was used to."
Rebennack's next album, Tango Palace, was stylistically close to City Lights and also came out in 1979. Again Tony LiPuma produced.
"That was supposed to be called I Thought I Heard New Orleans Say," Rebennack says. "I wasn't aware of it at the time, but halfway into the record, A&M was getting ready to dump Horizon. And that's what I was on. The record turned from I Thought I Heard New Orleans Say, which was going to be the musical story of some guys from New Orleans who get stranded in New York and work tango palaces and rumrum joints so they can make it back home, to something else. I had all these songs telling this story. I cut one other song to appease the record company. Then they asked for another. And another.
"By the time they were through, everything was sidetracked. The day the record came out, Horizon Records went under. The record got played on the radio, but nobody could get it."
In the early 1980s, Rebennack's career continued to expand. He had moved to New York, which helped two of his new ventures - working on soundtracks and working on radio and television commercials.
Says the artist: "I've made more money doing Scott tissue and toilet paper jingles, Oreo cookies, and Popeye's chicken jingles than the last seven records I did. I've been doing jingles since the 1950s, but back then you didn't get any residuals."
Rebennack also teamed up with the legendary tunesmith Doc Pomus to write material. Several of their best compositions were recorded by B. B. King and appeared on There's Got To Be A Better World Somewhere, an excellent album on which Rebennack also played.
Unsigned by a major label, in 1981 he recorded two albums for the small Baltimore-based label Clean Cuts: Dr. John Plays Mac Rebennack and The Brightest Smile In Town. "Those records were both cut at one session in one day," he says. "They were easy to make because it was just me and the piano. I just recorded a lot of stuff I normally like to play when I sit down at the piano."
The 1980s also found Rebennack traveling more abroad, traveling to Europe, Australia, and the Far East. He had developed an international following, since several of his older recordings were being reissued in England and Japan. In America, a number of mysterious, semi-legitimate albums containing Rebennack outtakes and live material began appearing on budget labels as early as 1972. However, the first legitimate reissues of his work - Gumbo and Gris-Gris - didn't appear in the United States until 1987, when Alligator released them.
Although he stayed busy writing, doing sessions and soundtracks, touring, creating jingles, and even appearing in the movie Candy Mountain, Rebennack didn't get around to making his next studio album until 1989. (Two great concert sets, Such A Night: Live In London and Mardi Gras At The Marquis, did appear in Europe and have both recently been reissued.) Despite his track record and his reputation as a great musician, Rebennack actually had a hard time getting a satisfactory record deal until Warner Bros. stepped into the picture.
"I really trust Tommy (LiPuma), and he's the major reason I signed with Warner Bros.," says Rebennack. "I had been talking to Ahmet Ertegun about re-signing with Atlantic, but he was driving me crazy about a single, and we never could get eye-to-eye on it.
"Actually, Tommy had called me five years before [signing with Warner Bros.] but the people at Blue Note said, 'No, don't do a record with him, we want to do the definitive Dr. John record.' Then Blue Note started talking about doing another solo record, which I didn't think made sense because I'd already done that. I'd been going back and forth with Blue Note about what we were gonna do, but after five years there still was no record. Finally, Tommy called again and said, 'Look, let's just do a good album. Don't worry about a hit single. Let's just do it.' Naturally, I jumped in with both feet."
''I'd always stayed in touch with Mac over the years," says LiPuma, who'd worked with Rebennack as early as the mid-1960s in Los Angeles. "When I moved to New York, I used to go see him at the Lone Star. One day Bob Merlis, who does PR for Warner Brothers, gave me a copy of Dr. John Plays Mac Rebennack. Mac did a couple of standards on it, and when I heard them, a light bulb went off. I had this idea of doing an LP like Ray Charles' Genius + Soul = Jazz. I called Mac about the idea, and he was all for it. I don't think the public wanted just another Dr. John album - they wanted something different."
The Rebennack/LiPuma collaboration resulted in In A Sentimental Mood, an album considered a comeback album by Warner Bros. - but not by Rebennack. He and LiPuma went through nearly 100 songs before deciding on the nine that made up the album.
"Tommy had the idea of doing an album of old songs," says Rebennack. "I dug it from Jump City. Originally, we were going to cut Louis Jordan tunes, but after a feeling-out procedure, we shifted gears and took another direction. We went through a stack of old material, stopping when it felt right and cutting most of it as live as we could get.
"All of the songs I'd played behind other acts at one time or another. We used to do those Tin Pan Alley tunes on our after-hours gigs, and it's kind of a tribute to that kind of thing and also a tribute to Ray Charles and Charles Brown. I always like the way they took those popular kind of songs and turn them into R&B rather than pop."
Many listeners aptly compared In A Sentimental Mood to Ray Charles' classic Modern Sounds In Country and Western Music, which was released in the early 1960s.
"I didn't know it at the time, but my arranger Marty Paich was Ray Charles' arranger way back in the early 1960s," says Rebennack. "I was trying to go for a Louis Jordan-like sound and get away from Ray's sound, but Marty's arrangements were so distinct it made it impossible."
"That was incidental,” claimed LiPuma. "When I asked Marty to arrange the album, I had no idea he had worked with Ray Charles. It's kind of cosmic, but he really gave the album a touch of class."
In A Sentimental Mood got great reviews across the board and eventually earned a Grammy Award for Rebennack's duet with Rickie Lee Jones on "Makin' Whoopie!" The success of the album created an avalanche of work for Rebennack. As far as working concerts, he could pretty much write his own ticket. Television and radio commercial work continued to pour in, and it became virtually impossible to listen to either medium for more than an hour without hearing Rebennack sing or play on an endorsement. He also continued session work, most notably on Johnny Adams' The Real Me, which contained material written by Rebennack and Doc Pomus.
Rebennack's next solo outing was Going Back To New Orleans, recorded in his hometown in 1992.
Ironically, it was the first issued album he ever made in his hometown. Many of his fans think it's his best work to date, including as it did the likes of The Neville Brothers, Al Hirt, and Pete Fountain, among others.
"I had the idea to do something like this, but the toughest part was narrowing things down," he says. "It's mostly just street stuff. It was a lot of music to try and narrow down, especially when you're looking at more than 100 years of music. I tried to get people that meant a lot to me and people that wrote songs that meant a lot to me. All the people I came up under."
Although the record continues to sell, and earned Rebennack his second Grammy, Rebennack and Warner Bros. parted company after he and the label couldn't agree on a concept for another album. Currently, he is taking a bit of a sabbatical, working on his own projects - producing a Lillian Boutte album is at the top of the list - and wailing to see what offers are forthcoming for a future album.
Whatever he does, he promises he won't, and can't, stray far from the New Orleans sound that is his music's foundation. "It's part of me," he declares. "It's part of whatever I'm about. The importance of it is beyond anything I do."
Containing a full spectrum of his work, indisputably, Mos' Scocious supplants all previous collections of Dr. John's work. One of New Orleans' most important artists, Dr. John continues to draw on the past to create the present. Certainly, he'll do the same in the future.
- Jeff Hannusch
June 1993
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Sources:
Dr. John interview by Jeff Hannusch, New Orleans, 1980 (published in Figaro, January 12, 1981)
Dr. John interview by Jeff Hannusch, London, England, 1984, (published in Wavelength, August 1984)
Dr. John interview by Jeff Hannusch, Metairie, 1989 (published in Wavelength, June 1989)
Dr. John interview by Jeff Hannusch, New Orleans, 1993
Harold Battiste interview by Jeff Hannusch, New Orleans, 1993
Tommy LiPuma interview by Jeff Hannusch, New York, 1989, published in Billboard, spring 1989
Walking To New Orleans: The Story Of New Orleans Rhythm And Blues, John Broven (Blues Unlimited, 1974)
New Orleans Rhythm And Blues Record Labels Listings, Ray Topping (Flyright, 1978)
Up From The Cradle Of Jazz, Jon Foose, Tad Jones, and Jason Berry (University of Georgia Press, 1986)
I Hear You Knockin': The Sound Of New Orleans Rhythm And Blues, Jeff Hannusch (Swallow Books, 1985)
"Dr. John," Dave Marsh (Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival Official Program)
"Dr. John: Gris-Gris Gumbo Ya Ya," Robert Santelli (Goldmine, April 24, 1987)
"Right Place, Right Time: Dr. John Retraces His Roots," Richard Skelly (NARAS Journal, 1993)
Dr, John And His New Orleans Congregation liner notes, Greg Shaw
Gumbo LP liner notes, Dr. John (Atco, 1972)
The Sun Moon & Herbs LP liner notes, Dr. John (Atco, 1971)
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THE SONGS: QUOTES FROM DR. JOHN
"Bad Neighborhood" - Ronnie & Delinquents
"This was a record I produced on Ronnie Barron for Johnny Vincent. I cut it with Paul Staehle on drums, Earl Stanley on bass, and Huey Smith on electrical piano. I was on a Wurlitzer, the original electrical piano that Ray Charles used on that live-in-Atlanta album [Ray Charles In Person - Atlantic 8039]. It was really kind of a demo but it came out. Me and Joe Carrona (part of the Ace hierarchy) came up with the idea for shooting the pool balls in the beginning. We were just clowning around in the studio and thought it would be a good idea."
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"Morgus The Magnificent" - Morgus & The 3 Ghouls
"We cut that in a radio station (WWEZ) downtown. Ken Elliot's [aka "Jack the Cat," a famous New Orleans deejay during the 1950s] son wrote that, and he sings on it with Frankie Ford and Jerry Byrne. It's basically the same band as on "Bad Neighborhood." Morgus was a real popular TV show host then in New Orleans, showing those monster movies."
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"Storm Warning" - Mac Rebennack
"I cut that for Cos around 1957. It was kind of a Bo Diddley guitar instrumental thing. A lot of the studio guys that were around at the time are on there. Lee Allen, Red Tyler, Frank Fields, Melvin Lastie, and Hungry Williams. Allen Toussaint's playing too."
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"Sahara" - Mac Rebennack & His Orch.
''I'm playing piano on that. That was supposed to be on an album with 'Storm Warning.' The idea was to do an instrumental album - one side guitar instrumentals, the other side piano instrumentals. The album never came out. The IRS kept all the tapes when they closed Cos' studio [1966] because he owed 'em back taxes."
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"Down The Road" - Roland Stone
"Of course that song is really 'Junco Partner.' My band played that song every night, so when Johnny [Vincent] would come in the club, he'd always hear it. He asked me to change some of the words and record it with Roland. We must have cut it about eight or nine times before we got it right. Roland was singing with my band at the time, and Johnny was cutting an album on him."
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"Gris-Gris Gumbo Ya Ya"
"That's from the Gris-Gris album. It was kind of like bringing New Orleans to Los Angeles. That was like the first record I did where I tried to sing. It was supposed to be Ronnie Barron's record but it didn't work that way. It was a special session because there were a lot of New Orleans cats on there that was out there at the time. It was just a mood thing, that came out real nice. We had Plas Johnson playing saxophone through a condor box, and the sound came out to be in between a guitar and an oboe."
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"Mama Roux"
"That was like a little Mardi Gras Indian thing I heard way back in the game. I was trying to get a different sound for the bass, so I played the bass on the organ's bass pedals. We also had Ernest McLean play mandolin, which gave it a funny sound. We were just looking for a different sound."
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"Jump Sturdy"
"That's the song where Steve Mann comes in and plays the banjo. It was just one of those funny little tunes I tried on Gris-Gris. We had Jessie Hill, Tami Lynn, and Shirley Goodman singing on it. All around, I thought we had a hell of a crew."
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"I Walk On Guilded Splinters"
"That was another Gris-Gris type of thing. I had Richard 'Didimus' Washington and Mo Pedido on congas and I was trying to get them to take a solo, but they wouldn't do it. I got a little salty about it at first, but that's the beauty about New Orleans musicians, they don't want to show off. But we had a lot of off-the-wall percussion things going on there."
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"Black Widow Spider"
"I cut that in a funky 5/4 time. Up until then the only song I'd heard in that timing was Dave Brubeck's 'Take Five.' I was playing the guitar in a real slow cut time. John Boudreaux's playing drums on that, but really the whole band is playing percussion. If you listen to it, you call hear it just build and build. We had a hell of a groove on there."
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"Loop Garoo"
'''Loop Garoo' was a werewolf that lived in the swamp in the old fairy tale. According to the legend, it walked around with its head under its arm. Tom Dowd produced that. I cut that with this group from Baton Rouge called Cold Grits that was in Miami working in the studio. The guy managing me at the time, Charles Greene, was listed as a producer but he had nothing to do with it."
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"Wash, Mama, Wash"
"That was on the album Remedies that I did in Miami with that band from Baton Rouge - Cold Grits. Basically, it's a song about a washerwoman playing the lottery gig. Her lucky numbers are 4-11-44."
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"Mardi Gras Day"
"We had a lot of trouble cutting that because I didn't want to do it straight-up second-line, which, I think, threw off some of the musicians. After we finished recording, I had to go back in the studio to remix and recut some of the vocals."
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"Familiar Reality - Opening"
"I wrote that with Jessie Hill. That song comes from the days when we would stay up day and night, writing songs as fast as we could."
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"Zu Zu Mamou"
"That's the record we did in England with all those percussionists from Africa and Jamaica. We had a studio full of people beatin' on everything from logs to regular percussion shit. The only people from my band were Fred Staehle [Rebennack's original drummer's brother] on drums and my vocalists Joni Jonz, Tami Lynn, and Shirley Goodman. Somewhere between the original recording and when Atlantic got the tapes, Charlie Greene had erased stuff, so we had to repair and redo a lot of the stuff in the studio in Miami. It was a big pain in the ass puttin' this record back together after it was all done."
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"Mess Around"
"Ahmet Ertegun wrote this one for Ray Charles. I kind of worked Cow Cow Davenport's 'Cow Cow Blues' into it because it fits with 'Mess Around.' I feature my piano on this one, and the solo is Ray Charles, which I copied and have been playing since I first heard the record in the early 1950s. Ray was a big influence on New Orleans music; he really changed our charts around. Ray's 'What'd I Say' led to 'Ooh Poo Pah Doo,' for instance; he put a new kind of funk into the basic New Orleans shuffle."
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"Somebody Changed The Lock"
"I wrote this song around 1960, and it was recorded by me and Ronnie Barron singing a duet under the name Drits & Dravey for a local New Orleans label of Melvin [Lastie] and Harold [Battiste] called Another. It was a subsidiary of A.F.O. It's just a natural Dixieland tune with Dixieland changes. On this version here, Melvin's on coronet, Harold is on clarinet. Doesn't he sound like Bechet! The trombone player is named Streamline. He moved from New Orleans to California in 1927 to replace some big name jazz star and ain't never come back."
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"Iko Iko"
"This song was written and recorded back in the early 1950s by a New Orleans singer named James 'Sugarboy' Crawford. It was recorded in the 1960s by The Dixie Cups, but the format we're following here is Sugarboy's original. The song was originally called 'Jockamo,' and it has a lot of Creole patois in it. Jockamo means 'jester' in the old myth. It's Mardi Gras music. Peter Wolf from the J. Geils Band, suggested I record it."
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"Junko Partner"
"Lee Allen wails on this one; how many tenor choruses does he have, four? The song was first made popular by James Wayne's hit on the Sittin' In label. But it was a New Orleans classic, the anthem of the dopers, the whores, the pimps, the cons. It was a song they sang in Angola, the state prison farm, and the rhythm was even known as the 'jailbird beat.'
"I first heard it on Poppa Stoppa's radio show. Louis Jordan covered it later on, and he did an even heavier calypso thing with it. The great thing on this record is our drummer Freddie Staehle's laid-back second-line drumming. This is the classic second-line style, where the drummer plays relaxed licks all around the beat, but with perfect time."
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"Tipitina"
"I heard it played by 'Fess' a hundred times. I can play 'Tipitina' in a hundred different variations without getting away from Professor Longhair; the version I'm playing here is a pure, classic longhair version."
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"Huey Smith Medley"
"The three songs in this medley are 'High Blood Pressure,' 'Don't You Just Know It,' and 'Well I'll Be John Brown'; they were all hits for Ace Records in 1956, '57, and '58, respectively. They were great-sounding records with great studio musicians like Lee Allen, Red Tyler on baritone, and Charles Williams on drums. I was working for Ace as an A&R man at the time."
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"Right Place Wrong Time"
"That was a song that was written and put together right in the studio. It was a thing I'd been fooling around with, with the Meters, but I never finished writing the words. We got in the studio and started throwing ideas for lyrics around at each other. We got a good groove going and we did a nice little arrangement on it. It fit right in with what was going on at the time"
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"Traveling Mood"
"I always did like this tune. The original that James Wayne cut was produced by Dave Bartholomew in New Orleans for Imperial. Just about every New Orleans artist that I know did that tune at one time or another. Everybody used to do it: Snooks, Art Neville, all the cats - it's one of those tunes you can fool around with and really have fun playing."
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"Life"
"To me that was a real spiritual song. I remember one day I was over at Allen's playing some little things, and he took one and wrote a whole song around it. I think the lyrics really captured what was going around the world at that time."
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"Such A Night"
"I wrote that song about 10 or 15 years before I cut it. I was just going through some songs with Allen Toussaint one day. I probably never would have cut that if it hadn't been for Allen. The song started selling big in Europe before it started selling in the States. When it hit here, it was dead in Europe. It was a freak record. It even started selling again at the time of The Last Waltz. That was years afterwards."
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"I Been Hoodood"
"That was a song my grandpa used to sing to me when I was a little kid. I think it was a minstrel show song. I just changed it up a little bit when I did it."
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"Cold Cold Cold"
"That's another tune I'd had around in one of my books for a while. I had written it for somebody else, I can't remember who, but whoever I wrote it for, I think they got dropped by their label before they could cut it. I ended up cutting it."
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"Quitters Never Win"
"That's kind of a nice little macho-type song. It's like something you might hear some guys talking about on the street."
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"What Comes Around (Goes Around)"
"I thought Allen [Toussaint] really did a special arrangement on that song. It was different. The Meters play different, and Gary Brown plays some nice sax. I thought it was the best song on that album [Desitively Bonnaroo]."
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"Mos' Scocious"
'''Mos' Scocious' - that's like a phrase you could only hear on the streets of New Orleans. It's like two different words turned around. There's a lot of phrases like that here. Take the words 'positive' and 'absolutely,' people here will mix 'em up and say 'posilutely.'''
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"Let's Make A Better World"
"Earl King wrote that one. I love Earl's writing and 'Let's Make A Better World' really tells a story. He had another song I wanted to do at the time about a haunted house, but I only did that one. I thought this was one of my better produced records, because Allen tried some different things with the horns and the background vocals."
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"Back By The River"
"That was a song Bill Quateman wrote that Bob Ezrin produced. I was kind of mad, because a lot of people who helped on that session [Hollywood Be Thy Name] never got listed on the back of the record."
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"I Wanna Rock"
"That's my old guitar teacher's song - Roy Montrell. He asked me if I'd cut it, so I put it on Hollywood Be Thy Name.
Originally it was called 'That Mellow Saxophone,' and he recorded it for Specialty. I loved the original record - it was killer. Montrell was always making up little tunes like that."
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"Memories Of Professor Longhair"
"It's just what the name of it says. It's just an instrumental piece with a lot of things Fess used to play mixed into one song.
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"Honey Dripper"
"Joe Liggins made the hit out of it, but Roosevelt Sykes did it originally. It was one of the first songs I learned to play on the piano as a kid. All the piano players in New Orleans played it, but I loved the way Roosevelt Sykes played it - it was kind of his signature. I tried to play it close to the original."
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"Pretty Libby"
"That's actually part of a song on City Lights called 'Sonata/He's A Hero.' It was the lead-in. When it came time to do a solo piano record, I just expanded it into a whole song."
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"Makin' Whoopee!"
"It was (producer) Tommy LiPuma's idea to do the song as a duet. As soon as Rickie's [Rickie Lee Jones] name came up, we both knew she was right. I used to go hear her in her early days, and she reminded me of those early jazz singers like Billie Holiday. Being as I ain't the kind of singer that can sing a duet where there's harmony involved, we thought it was best to find a voice that's completely opposite from mine. Rickie provided a real contrast."
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"Accentuate The Positive"
"That wasn't a song I really liked at first, because I remember The Andrew Sisters doin' it. But Tommy (LiPuma) sent me the sheet music on it, and I started messin' with it. Finally, it became a song I could do something with, so we cut it, and it turned out pretty good."
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"More Than You Know"
"I used to just love hearing Charles Brown sing that song. I used to have a record of him with Johnny Moore and Oscar Moore both on guitars. I always liked that song and wanted to cut it. It really fit in with the concept we had on In A Sentimental Mood."
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“Bad Neighborhood,” “Morgus The Magnificent,” “Storm Warning,” “Sahara,” and “Down The Road” courtesy Ace Records
“Gris-Gris Gumbo Ya Ya,” “Mama Roux,” “Jump Sturdy,” “I Walk On Guilded Splinters,” “Black Widow Spider,” “Loop Garoo,” “Wash, Mama, Wash,” “Mardi Gras Day,” “Familiar Reality – Opening,” and “Zu Zu Mamou”; “Mess Around,” “Somebody Changed The Lock,” “Iko Iko,” “Junko Partner,” “Tipitina,” and “Huey Smith Medley” (P) 1972 Atlantic Records; “Right Place Wrong Time,” “Traveling Mood,” “Life,” “Such A Night,” “I Been Hoodood,” and “Cold Cold Cold” (P) 1973 Atlantic Records;
“Quitters Never Win,” “What Comes Around (Goes Around),” “Mos’ Scocious,” and “Let’s Make A Better World” (P) 1974 Atlantic Records, all produced under license from Atlantic Recording Corp.
“Back By The River,” and “I Wanna Rock” (P) 1975 EMI Records, courtesy of EMI Records Group/EMI Records, under license from CEMA Special Markets.
“Memories of Prof. Longhair” and “Honey Dripper” (P) 1981 Clean Cuts, Inc., and “Pretty Libby” (P) 1983 Clean Cuts, Inc., licensed from Clean Cuts, Inc.
“Makin’ Whoopee!,” “Accentuate The Positive,” and “More Than You Know” (P) 1989 Warner Bros. Records Inc., produced under license from Warner Bros. Records Inc.
This compilation (P) & © 1993 Rhino Records Inc., 10635 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90025-4900
