Dr. John - Gris-Gris
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CD Details
Artist: Dr. JohnEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown)
CD Release Date: 2000-05-09
Music Label: Collector's Choice
Soundtracks:
- Gris-Gris Gumbo Ya Ya
- Danse Kalinda Ba Doom
- Mam Roux
- Danse Fambeaux
- Croker Courtbullion
- Jump Sturdy
- I Walk On Guided Splinters
Music reviews of Gris-Gris
Music Review: The Iron Fist of Voodoo
Rating: 4 Stars
I have no way of knowing what effect Dr John had on British music listeners in 1968. He must have seemed incredibly exotic and menacing. Perhaps people were scared to play the record in case Dr John appeared on their doorstep in the middle of the night, holding a snake in his hand. Although Gris-Gris was not a hit, I have seen it linked to the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, who were apparently influenced by its colourful voodoo patois, and it was the kind of thing that was well-known by every hip young person at the time.
The album is a bit like "Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars", in the sense that it is a concept album about a fictional character, although it doesn't tell a story - instead, it's Dr John's calling card. Throughout the album Dr John builds up a legend of himself. He tells us that he is a witch doctor who can cure all known diseases with his pungent bag of gris-gris, and that he is "le grand zombi". The shamanistic image is hard to take seriously nowadays, but it is fun. I don't know what people in Britain thought of New Orleans in 1968, and if people really believed that Dr John was a shaman. The photographs make him look like an overweight computer geek with a teenage beard, and his voice is not as deep and croaky as I expected. Perhaps in 1968 it was possible for a British person to envisage New Orleans as a scary haunted swamp full of voodoo practitioners, but not in 2007. According to the internet that I have on my desktop, New Orleans is a modern city with office blocks and dual carriageways, and a domed sports stadium. I suppose you have to let yourself go a little bit, in order to succumb to the atmosphere.
The songs are based on shuffling grooves, with a very loose feel. A couple of them are faster, but still not very fast. The album was produced in a hurry, but it has a big open sound. It's mostly acoustic, with a good heavy sound, particularly on "Danse Kalinda Ba Doom". It's one of those 60s stereo records where the voices are in one channel and the instruments are in another. The backing vocals are typically in the right channel, and you can remix the album by moving the balance control to the left. Because of this it sounds a little odd on headphones.
The music reminds me of "Sympathy for the Devil" (particularly "Mama Roux"), but it is generally slower and more skeletal. It is accompanied by some lady backing singers, who slink and slither like sirens. It would be unwise to follow them into the swamp. The big standout track is "I Walk on Gilded Splinters", which is the longest track on the album, at seven minutes. It has a wonderful echo effect whereby Dr John delivers a line, and his backing singers follow him. The song is the best synthesis of music and the Dr John image. It is spooky, mysterious, threatening, and has a big booming bass drum. I have no idea what it is about, exactly - it seems to be a prayer for vengeance - but it has a feeling to it.
The rest of the album divides into two halves. "Danse Kalinda Ba Doom" and "Croker Courtbullion" are hypnotic dance tunes. Dr John does not sing in either of them. "Danse Kalinda" is the best; it is more intense than "Croker Courtbullion", which sounds weaker once you hear "Kalinda". "Mama Roux" and "Jump Sturdy" are relatively conventional songs. They both seem to be about the kind of women a young man should avoid. "Jump Sturdy" is the album's only disaster; it's a simple jaunty number that sounds like a song from Sesame Street, with the kind of catchy but irritating chorus that will one day be sampled in a hip-hop song. "Gris-Gris Gumbo Ya Ya" is a menacing slice of pure atmosphere, and is the perfect introduction.
"Danse Fambeaux" is a simple set of bass chords that loop around and around, with Dr John and his backing singers improvising over the top. It ends with a plea for crème brūlée. I like it; the song, that is. But I also like crème brūlée, although not to the exclusion of a social life.
Gris-Gris probably does not have the same effect today that it would have had back in 1968, but it's still the kind of album you need to hear at least once. I haven't heard anything else by Dr John. I understand his career wobbled after this, with a couple of real high points and a lot of dull nothingness. I do like crème brūlée.
Description of Gris-Gris
Dr. John's 1968 release for Atco, reissued with original artwork and new liner notes. Extremely unique album, one part psychedelia, one part New Orleans R&B and one part...something else , voodoo ritual, maybe. First time on CD in the U.S. Standard jewel case. 2000 release.Covered in a variegated spray of New Orleans Mardi Gras feathers and shiny voodoo baubles, Mac Rebennack's highly personal mythology was finally made real on this 1968 album. This was his first appearance made under the new guise of Dr. John Creaux, the Night Tripper. Before then, he'd been a pivotal figure on the Crescent City R&B circuit. Afterward, he became one of its most significant blues ambassadors. This album is a classic of the admittedly specialized psychedelic swamp-gumbo genre, boasting at least four tracks that have become cult favorites. "Gris-Gris Gumbo Ya-Ya," "Mama Roux," "Jump Sturdy," and "I Walk on Gilded Splinters" each delicately mix catchy choruses and weird spatial sound effects, with radical stereo separation, intensely croaking, close-quarter vocals from the doctor, pneumatic keyboard riffs, pinprick electric guitar, and booming Afro-Caribbean percussion. The album still stands at its original 33-minute length, with no bonus cuts unearthed, but its high density more than compensates for any brevity. --Martin Lonely
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