MJJG list-O-mania: intertextual refs (overt & credited)
David Morris
fqmorris at gmail.com
Wed Dec 2 21:26:22 UTC 2020
https://musicaficionado.blog/2017/11/08/gris-gris-by-dr-john/
"In 1967 Mac Rebennack decided it was time to realize a project he was
dreaming about for some time, ever since his sister gave him books on
Haitian voodoo. In New Orleans he visited spiritual ceremonies and the
Cracker Jax drug store that carried all kinds of potions and mysterious
remedies to all maladies known to men. He was aware of a New Orleans
mythological character from the 1840s named Dr. John, a huge black man who
made a small fortune by offering a multitude of concoctions and gris-gris
(small cloth bags containing scriptures) to lift curses for a fee. Some of
these potions went no farther than boiled water with some herbs. As he told
a friend: “I hurt nobody, but if folks want to give me fifty dollars, I
take fifty dollars every time.” Fifty dollars were quite a sum in the mid
19th century. Mac also discovered a book telling the story of how Dr. John
and a Pauline Rebennack were thrown in jail for their voodoo craft. That
sealed the idea of taking on the Dr. John persona, and Mac started writing
songs with that vibe in mind."
On Wed, Dec 2, 2020 at 3:14 PM David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
> That was Dr John's first album. It is steeped in real VooDoo. It
> represents a very long spiritual tradition in New Orleans. The French
> first colonized New Orleans, and they allowed their slaves Sunday to
> express their own religions each Sunday in a place now known as Congo
> Square, on Rampart st, just outside the Quarter. The French also allowed
> their slaves to become free over time. Thus New Orleans developed a black
> "aristocracy" to mimic white New Orleans society. Then the Americans moved
> in and fucked it all up.
>
> David Morris
>
> On Wed, Dec 2, 2020 at 2:40 PM Thomas Eckhardt <
> thomas.eckhardt at uni-bonn.de> wrote:
>
>> Thank you, very much appreciated.
>>
>> Incidentally, a few days ago I listened to Dr. John's "Gris-Gris" for
>> the first time and "I Walk on Guilded Splinters" is my latest favourite
>> song.
>>
>> --
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>
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