The Sound of the City: New Orleans [EMI, 2003]
Surely some exploiter will step forward, or wouldn't it be nice if the Smithsonian strong-armed licensors into sluicing royalties right to the Ninth Ward? But with Rhino's three-LP canon long ago put under and Shout! Factory's four-CD Doctors, Professors, Kings & Queens tourist-board hype, this Charlie Gillett creation is easily the finest available overview of the lost city's rock and roll heritage even if you have to e-mail England to get one. On what is essentially a rock-era survey, the New Orleans tinge sustains a perilous segue from "Let the Good Times Roll" to "West End Blues" to (Bobby Bland's) "St. James' Infirmary." No Mardi Gras krewes, but Gillett does remember every major artist as well as irreplaceable one-shots from Jessie Hill's high-principled "Ooh Poo Pah Doo" to the Animals' carpetbagging "House of the Rising Sun." And though he deals a few sixes and sevens, ace finds start with Archibald's boogie-woogieing "Stack O Lee," Jerry Byrne's frenetic "Lights Out," Willie Tee's pimping "Thank You John," and two very different Bobby Charles songs--one young, dumb, and itching to be free, the other disabused, disabusing, and longing to make love work. A
R. Christgau
Tracklist in comments
16 comments:
Disc: 1
1. Mardi Gras Mambo - The Hawketts
2. New Orleans - U.S Bonds
3. Good Rockin' Tonight - Roy Brown
4. Let The Good Times Roll - Shirley & Lee
5. West End Blues - Louis Armstrong & His Hot Five
6. St James' Infirmary - Bobby Bland
7. The House Of The Rising Sun - The Animals
8. Mardi Gras In New Orleans - Professor Longhair
9. Stack O Lee - Archibald
10. Rockin Pneumonia And The Boogie Woogie Flu - Huey 'Piano' Smith & The Clowns
11. Blue Monday - Fats Domino
12. I Hear You Knocking - Smiley Lewis
13. I Don't Want To Do It - The Spiders
14. No Use Knocking - Bobby Charles
15. I Know - Barbara George
16. The Things That I Used To Do - Guitar Slim
17. Lawdy Miss Clawdy - Lloyd Price
18. Lucille - Little Richard
19. Lights Out - Jerry Byrne
20. Stagger Lee - Lloyd Price
21. Country Fool - The Showmen
22. Country Boy - Snooks Eaglin
23. Iko Iko - Dixie Cups
Disc: 2
1. Come On (Part 1) - Earl King
2. I Like It Like That (Part 1) - Chris Kenner
3. Ooh Poo Pah Doo (Part 1) - Jessie Hill
4. Ooh Poo Pah Doo (Part 2) - Jessie Hill
5. Bad Neighbourhood - Ronnie & The Delinquents
6. Losing Battle - Johnny Adams
7. Ruler Of My Heart - Irma Thomas
8. Tell It Like It Is - Aaron Neville
9. Thank You John - Willie Tee
10. Down Home Girl - Alvin Robinson
11. Get Out Of My Life
12. Cissy Strut - The Meters
13. Groove Me - King Floyd
14. Lady Marmalade - Labelle
15. Country John - Allen Toussaint
16. Life - Dr John
17. Small Town Talk - Bobby Charles
18. Rising Sun - Snakefarm
19. Yellow Moon - The Neville Brothers
20. Bye Bye Baby - G Love & Special Sauce (feat. Rebirth Brass Band)
21. What's Hip? - Cool Bone
http://www.embedupload.com/?d=8IFHUWIFFX-socno1.rar
http://www.embedupload.com/?d=8ZSGCDZKZM-socno2.rar
Nice compilation. Has all the greats, with a few glaring exceptions. The Emperor of the Universe, Mr. K- Doe, would be displeased!
Geez pmac, ya got a sleep schedule like mine! Gotta do something when ya wake up at 4 am eh?
Yeah KDoe is a mystifying omission, also Eddie Bo and Chocolate Milk - a little Toussaint-centric - I'd slide out the visitors recording here like Little Richard and the Bland and Animals inclusions are a little head scratching, but he was English at the end of the day eh?
Insomnia is a bitch! Gotta bring my fiance to the airport for 6 and have a dr's appointment this morning that has me a little frazzled. God willing, I'll be at dba tonight for the Tin Men!
Hi KC,
Over at the Cult, under the SOTC Playlist, I offered to post these city-themed compilations. I have all of them I think ( N.O. plus Memphis, Los Angeles, New York and Chicago). Do you intend to post the others? If not I'll go ahead and post. Great series.
I think we do Jazzjet - if it turns out we don't I'll let you know
Lest I be the one to mislead. When I commented that I had the Gillett CDs I was speaking of the World series. The NOLA one posted is the only on from the Sound Of The City series I have. Unkle C
Aha - well then have at it Jazzjet
Many, many thanks for this. The Sound of the City collection compiled by Unky Cliff and perfected by you was 16 compact discs with only eighteen minutes of blank space on the last disc so I have been listening to it almost non-stop since I downloaded and burned it. I appreciate the brevity of the New Orleans collection even if there are some notable omissions. Like Lazz, I also appreciate the decrease in posts and, too, concomitant increase in comments and personal reflections by you. For me, it adds a great deal to my appreciation, knowledge, and understanding of the music. Your New Orleans posts alone have been incredible so I am glad for the slower pace that allows for more writing.
By the way, to you and p-mac, it''s insomnia when one is working. When one is retired, I prefer to call it Creative Alternative Nocturnal Transition sleep (or CANT sleep) because, to paraphrase Mr. Charles, the night time is the right time to be with music you love. The family is in bed fast asleep and no longer demanding attention and the small hours of the morning make for some great contemplative listening. I've posted more than a few comments in the early hours, which may account for the Keroaucian verbosity of my comments and ramblings, but have lately been turning the music off around one or two a.m. to read so I don't wake up more ignorant in the morning, a life-long fear or phobia, I'm afraid. Lazz's music during such quiet times in the early, early a.m. is especially enjoyable and sublime.
I love the compilations you have posted for the flood of memories they bring and the overview they give me of an era. More importantly, as I review the selections on this Sound of the City compilation, I realize that many of the names and songs have only become familiar to me through this blog. Of course, if you and Unky Cliff could figure out a way to also digitally transmit coffee and beignets to accompany these selections, I would no doubt achieve that level of bliss about which Joseph Campbell often mused. For now, I'm almost there. Thanks again.
Lastly, owing to dedication to new medication that knocks me out to slow my heart down, I have been silent of late on the other blogs despite their great selections so let me say in advance that this weekend I will be rising early to make the obligatory sacrifices to the music gods in anticipation that Jazzjet may post more Sound of the City treasures soon.
FOB my dear friend, I SO enjoy your musings -- and a Joe Campbell reference too??!! -- I am tickled, Cliff likely less so - Joe is a subject we disagree on
I'm not surprised about Cliff. No need to follow your bliss, when you already have it through your encyclopedic knowledge of music, seeming unlimited music collection, keen mentoring of Le Roi, and spiritual influence over all things related to this blog and its followers. If I had a time machine, I'd return to the late 1960s and paint over all Clapton Is God graffiti and replace it with Unky Cliff Is God, as well as the Holy Spirit of music incarnate.
I have to make this brief, I have a month of unanswered E-mails to which I will begin responding tonight and more importantly James Carr is singing to me now. He's another one of those singers that makes me temporarily wish I was born in the South and had been able to discover him earlier. He's also another one of those singers I would not know but for you. Don't even get me started on what Miss Marva's and Irma Thomas' music have meant to me. Irma I knew before, but Marva makes me again yearn for that time machine so I could catch her live. What a musical dynamo!!!! And nobody, but nobody sings Tom Jan's "Loving Arms" like Irma. It still sends shivers up my spine whenever I hear it.
FOB thinks I'm 2/3 of the Trinity? What meds ARE YOU TAKING! I'm sure my first two wives thought I was far more satanic. And while we are speaking of JC, it isn't that I dislike Mr Campbell… But this is a blog about music and for those Campbell fans out there I would suggest a gander at Evan Eisenberg's book (conveniently cited by KC to the left). He discusses the concept of the collector as one on an heroic quest. It's the search and how you are changed not the ultimate acquisition of the music. KC has mentioned my inveterate list making. I started about 1968 and, as I slip into my dotage, recently began to notice that I am on the verge of completion. Certainly of those lists begun in the 70s 80s and 90s. Some years ago I read a short story about a man who wanted to count all the stars in the sky but feared enumerating the last one lest creation end. I may have to hold off on that last Edna Gallmon Cooke (Nashboro 7154). Unky Cliff
CANT sleep. FOB, you da man!
Ah no, FOB. Time to toss in a little sacrilegious-ness. Fine as Irma's Loving Arms is (and are, I've no doubt) it's no match for Dobie Gray's. So there (*ducks*).
All links are down/dead. Someone please RE-UP. PLEEEAASSSE?
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