I was in the right place, but it must have been the wrong time
I was sayin' the right things, but I must have used the wrong line
I was on the right trip, but I must have used the wrong car
Head is in a bad place and I wonder what it's good for
I was in the right place, but it must have been the wrong time
My head is in a bad place, but I'm havin' such a good time
Anyone who can write those lines --- to say nothing of "What goes around, comes around" --- and set them to an irresistibly funky beat is not, shall we say, sitting in some suburb and drawing on poetic inspiration fueled by a drink you can buy at Starbucks.
This is knowledge that is, shall we say, hard won. "Right time, wrong place" --- that's something you think around 3 AM, after you've poured Lord knows what down your throat and your money is gone and the women have left.
Dr. John --- no one would mistake him for a healer in the traditional sense --- was born Mac Rebennack. He grew up in New Orleans, where music is in the blood at a tender age. School was not his thing. By l6, he was a working guitarist and, the books say, a heroin addict. Something went wrong, and he spent a season or two in jail. Something went wrong again --- a gun, a disagreement, the details are AWOL --- and he was shot in the hand, ending his career as a guitarist. But New Orleans was the right place, right time; he had cut his teeth on Fats Domino, Little Richard and Professor Longhair. The piano beckoned.
As did the particular charms of the mid-'60s. To New Orleans Creole lore, he added the spice of psychedelics. He wore Mardi Gras duds onstage. He invoked voodoo. And soon he was a kind of Cajun Jimi Hendrix --- Dr. John the Night Tripper.
I remember the first time I heard Dr. John. A good time was being had, and then someone put this on:
J'suis the Grand Zombie
My yellow belt of choison
Ain't afraid of no tom cat
Fill my brains with poison
Walk thru the fire
Fly thru the smoke
See my enemy
At the end of dey rope
Walk on pins and needles
See what they can do
Walk on gilded splinters
With the king of the Zulu
Over the top? Only a lot. This guy flew considerably higher than Mary Poppins. He was fun.
Music that sounds this simple is, paradoxically, the result of great thought. And great elegance. You can see that in the records Dr. John made after he made his classics --- traditional R&B CDs that are long on history and short on tricks. And, sometimes, he just liked to play piano; I include a link to " Dr. John Plays Mac Rebennack: The Legendary Sessions."
"Refried confusion is making itself clear" --- those six words will speak to many survivors of an earlier time. And, with equal accuracy, to the present.
-- by Jesse Kornbluth, for HeadButler.com
To buy "The Very Best of Dr. John" from Amazon.com, click here.
To buy " Dr. John Plays Mac Rebennack: The Legendary Sessions, Vol. 1" from Amazon.com, click here.
