Heavens! It seems that I’ve missed the boat on several memorable experiences of New Orleans living, if you’re to believe the rabble at the station with me for Sunday night’s episode of Musicians, Mentors, and Barroom Heroes (semi-thematic spotify playlist attached.)
Said experiences include:
1.] Stumbling out of BJs, having drunkenly forgotten my gun at the gun check behind the bar (again)
2.] Bird’s-eye balcony views of bare-knuckled boxing matches in the back of the Saturn Bar…. {continued…}
3.] Running into a familiar (duck-)face* at some Quarter watering hole and enjoying a neighborly round of beer/rum together (*that is, the face of an actual drinking duck that one is familiar with from the bar circuit, not the familiar face of a prepubescent human taking an unflattering picture of itself.)
4.] (Whilst overseas, fighting in World War II…) Receiving mail from my loved ones via former St. Claude bar Herstell’s (who were probably also my loved ones, back in that day) because they always knew where were we stationed.
5.] That time at Checkpoint Charlie’s, when we all got up to see about the commotion in the laundry room, but it was just that woman who liked to tumble around inside running dryers, naked.
And plenty more…. (Working on getting recordings archived soon, for those of you who’ve asked!) Thanks again to Pizza Mike, Jd Furlong, & Katherine Hebbler for the great song picks, passing along some interesting local history, sharing such interesting/hilarious experiences, sharing some of the painful/poignant ones, putting up with my technological ineptitude, and (as always, as with all y’all) for so readily welcoming me into this wonderful community. And for visiting Brendan Fraser’s stunning personal website, found here: http://brendanfraser.com.
Playlist notes (long-winded, often irrelevant) ——
1. “Wolf Like Me” – TV On the Radio. Beautiful bridge. Great for driving. Great for road-rage and bloodlust. Great for regular rage and regular lust.
2. “Move With Me” – Tim Buckley. Off of Greeting From LA, not one of his typical folksy-troubadoury albums, in the least. See also “Get on Top”, “Make it Right”, etc, cannot play with mother listening in.
3. “On the Radio” – Regina Spektor. The least sappy of the songs I was considering dedicating to my kid sister Esise.
4. “Why Don’t You Eat Where You Slept Last Night” – Zuzu Bollin. Pizza Mike pick. Great Texan artist with a New Orleans feel.
5. “How Come My Dog Don’t Bark (When You Come Around)” – Dr. John. Pizza Mike pick. Pizza apparently has a penchant for songs with unwieldy question titles. [Runner up: “How Ya Gonna Keep ‘Em Down on the Farm (Once They’ve Seen Paris)”.]
6. “Help is On the Way” – Rise Against. JD pick, “How we all felt after Katrina.” Articulates the rage of people met with bitter injustice.
7. “Killing” – The Apples. Heavy metal done with brass. Crazy cool.
8. “Later, On Decatur” – Dave Ferrato. Title track off new album. Hits very close to home… Later, on Decatur, the four of us went to the Abbey (“because we wanted to live deliberately”) and because we wanted to visit bartender/jack-of-all-trades Curtis Casados, who will be a special guest on MM&BRH in the coming weeks, look out!
9. “Anyone Who Knows What Love Is” – Irma Thomas. So far, Katherine Hebblerr has only been able to find this on the Vaughan’s jukebox, but do let her know if you know otherwise.
10. “Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down” – Meschiya Lake
& the Little Big Horns. I’ve seen/love this trad jazz band many times, also got to see Lake do a beautiful solo acoustic set at Mag’s last week.
11. “I’m Blue” – The Shangri-Las. Katherine Hebbler: “When this song comes on the jukebox at J&J’s, you can see every scorned single woman at the look around, and go [insert squinty-eyed, commiserating nod emoji here.]” Lollollol. #truth. This song is dedicated to Jam Jams (may she rest in peace), a beloved lizard Justin Matheson and I acquired in the midst of a pub crawl, a habitual consumer of crickets that were collectively named after the Ganser twins (Marge and Mary Ann) of the Shangri-Las.
12. “Don’t Call Me Stranger” – Chris Smither. Great track off Time Stands Still, Smither album I’m currently obsessed with. “Don’t worry, I ain’t evil. I’m just bad.”
13. “Thrift Store Suit” – Coco Robicheaux. Jd pick, in honor of his old friend. Jd was tending bar at the Apple Barrel the day Robicheaux died of a heart attack there four years back. One of the most infamous occurrences in Frenchmen lore, Robicheaux’s death doesn’t compete with the stories of his life, of which we heard a few from Mike Darby on MM&BRH ep. 3 as well. (More to come.) Wish I could have met him.
14. “Knowing Me, Knowing You” – ABBA. I believe they meant to title this song “Walking Through a Minty House.” Dedicated to my best friend Sarah Murphy, and when she comes to visit for Jazz Fest (!!!), we will be delighted to perform the dance we choreographed for it in middle school, just for you. (Please call ahead to schedule a booking.)
15. “Simple Twist of Fate” – Bob Dylan. Off Blood on the Tracks. Love this album, except tracks 3 and 4, the loungey ambience of the sound has always grated.
16. “Read My Mind” – Killers. Petering out on typing things.
17. “Time Stands Still” – Chris Smither. still petering, current fave song.
18. “Sunny Moon” – Cat Empire. Petering, petering, petering. Cat Empire=DeFazio family staple. (Be grateful I didn’t play you all 43 minutes of Jethro Tull’s “Thick as a Brick”.)
Tune in Sunday nights, 9-11pm (CST)! 102.3 WHIV FM supports independent voices and all things New Orleans. Thank you to everyone at the station for cultivating such a freewheelin’ community atmosphere and giving so many people a chance to get on air and enthuse about the things they’re passionate about. And thank YOU, facebook, for clipping all posts at a certain length so I can keep rambling on cheerfully without destroying anybody’s newsfeed