Like some backwoods black magic ceremony, Dr. John The Night Tripper's (shortened a few years later to just simply Dr. John) 1968 debut album was something American listeners had never heard before. The entire album is imbued with a dark quality that feels as if he were trying to give us the musical embodiment of the religious mélange which makes up the rites and beliefs of Cajun swamp magic. It is at times irreverent, strange, amusing and frightening, but always adventurous. Wails, moans, insane cackles, animal screeches and caws- all these cacophonous sounds are grist for the mill as Dr. John draws us into his mystical world of swamp magic and gris-gris bags, voodoo dolls and red beans and rice. Lyrics are repeated, as if the singers were summoning something from beyond with their voices.
Of course, the standout track on this debut album is the one that made Dr. John famous: “I Walk On Guilded Splinters”, a song about black magic and the Hoodoo’s dark powers to control zombies and raise Hell on Earth. And with Dr. John’s rough tone, it all sounds believable that he could make a zombie or two with the contents of his gris-gris bag.
GRIS GRIS is an album that could only come from The Big Easy, a city as much a dark mélange as this album.
If you have a taste for soulful, dark, strange music that at times feels as if it might actually call forth some demonic swamp entity to do your bidding, then find this album and add it to your collection.
Tracks:
1. "Gris-Gris Gumbo Ya Ya”
2. "Danse Kalinda Ba Doom"
3. "Mama Roux"
4. "Danse Fambeaux"
5. "Croker Courtbullion"
6. "Jump Sturdy"
7. "I Walk On Guilded Splinters"
Check out Dr. John's website--it's worth it.
--Nickolas Cook
No comments:
Post a Comment