While I was in Berkeley last weekend, I had a chance to go to Amoeba Records and Rasputin Music. Both are shrines to what a trip to the record store USED to be (think “Slipped Disc” to the Nth degree, without the coke-addled owners and employees . . .). Anyway, I came away with three absolute treasures on CD; “Smokin’” by Humble Pie (Google “30 Days In The Hole.” I’m guessing an 8-year-old Chris Robinson of the Black Crows wore out 4 copies of this record when it came out in 1972. “30 Days” is perhaps THE best drug song EVER recorded. . .), a bootleg live album by my favorite 90s group, Morphine, and lastly but certainly not leastly, “Rock and Roll Gumbo” by Professor Longhair, a New Orleans blues and stride piano player, par excellence.
I only ever had a cassette(!!!) of the latter, and hadn’t listened to it in years, so I put it on and was just stunned as to how good it sounded. It was released in 1985, 10 years after it was recorded and 5 years after his death. Attached is his version of Hank Williams’ “Jambalaya.” Here’s the set-up: white, alcoholic country-crooner/genius song writer as interpreted through a New Orleans piano-playing hoo-doo master (with Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown on violin) doing an ode to Cajun food, Cajun drink, Cajun dancing, and Cajun sluts. Fucking Grand Slam, and it might not be the best track on the album.
Jambalaya (On the Bayou)
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Thank you for this Rance. I saved it to post on the Witch Doctor’s birthday, in His honor.
All Hail The Witch Doctor . . . .
Also while in Berkeley, I spent a few hours in Moe’s Books on Telegraph Ave. where I picked up, among other things, a copy of “The Kitchen Readings” by Michael Cleverly and Bob Braudis, two close friends and neighbors of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson’s who were part of his “inner Circle” of friends that had almost unlimited access to Doc. The title comes from the fact that the center of activity at Doc’s Owl Farm home was the kitchen, from which he would hold court. It’s an excellent book and a must read for anybody who is a fan of Doc’s. LOTS of really great stories (especially the ones about freaks who would show up in Woody Creek unannounced and thinking that the fact that they traveled hundreds or thousands of miles to see Doc entitled them to meet with him. Their “vision quests” ended with varying, and probably unintended results . . .).
Anyway, while reading this book, I was struck by the fact that The Witch Doctor and I could have pulled off a number of these same stunts had we had more excess to firearms and explosives . . .
All Hail The Witch Doctor . . . .
I’ve read it… a great read..
The world’s a better place for the fact that the weapon of choice of The Witch Doctor and I was empty Corona bottles . . .
“Access!” I meant “Access,” not “Excess!” “… If we had more ACCESS to firearms and explosives . . . .” Dammit Luger, when are you going to install fucking SpellCheck to your damn website. You KNOW I only type after several drinks, etc., thus leaving me open to typos like this. The only thing The Witch Doctor and I had an EXCESS of was poor judgment . . .
I am the anti-editor… like Frank, fat and lazy