In the USA, light music has always been conceived as a tool for improving racial integration, and social cohesion. For that, certain professional musicians of white ethnicity live their entire life as it was the one of a freeman of color. Consequently, grotesque characters sometime derive from a sort of exploitation of black popular culture. The most interesting and emblematic persona is the one of Malcom John Rebennack Jr., globally known as Dr. John, a contracted form of the stage name “Doctor John Creaux the Night Tripper”. Dr. John died in the year 2019, and was active as a professional musician from 1954 to the day of the death. Although he only had one hit into the Billboard Top 100 during the entire career, he gained an excellent reputation as: at first a guitarist and successively a pianist, a songwriter, a music producer, a brilliant collaborator of top musicians and top bands of various musical genres, and a cursed poet of rock. When he was only 13, Mr. Rebennack decided that music was his way of living, and that the streets of New Orleans were the school most suitable to him. The described choices gifted him with genuine superstition, imagination, originality and creativity. However, he was an addict to heroin until the year 1989, committed some crimes, and spent a period at a prison. After the reclusion, Dr. John was forced to leave New Orleans, and to restart his profession in Los Angeles. It’s time to introduce Dr. John’s compositions.
The earliest Doctor John was Jean Montanee, a freeman of color who became the originator of voodoo practice in the hometown, New Orleans (not native of Senegal, as written by some authors). He lived in the 19th century, and became the teacher of the legendary voodoo queen, Marie Laveau. Mr. Rebennack acquired the philosophy of the original Doctor John, and communicated the fact through the chosen stage name. More than that, Rebennack used to appear at live concerts with flamboyant voodoo costumes, rather theatrical. Can I briefly summarize the philosophy of voodoo in New Orleans? Logically, a valid answer would be the best possible contribution of the blog to the memory of Dr. John the Night Tripper. First, true knowledge can’t come from experience, so that only the Grand Zombie might be invoked for obtaining a little bit of wisdom. It means that belonging to the crowd of the living forbids a full access to the world of spirituality, and that gaining a proper death is the main purpose of your life. Curiously, a similar idea is contained in many religions and in many popular cultures, not necessarily African. Second, human discoveries and achievements, including medicine, are the results of shamanic communications, because the eyes of the living are captured by the irrelevant shapes of materiality. It means that no therapy can be effective without taking care of the soul of the patient. More in detail, you can’t cure anyone with prejudices, or under the effects of moral condemnations, a priori or not.
The rock of Mr. Rebennack is a peculiar miscellanea of archaic African sounds like articulated choruses, psychedelic elements such as reverb and echo effects, traditional bluesy melodies, and rhythms taken from Mardi Gras celebrations. The voice is raucous, impure, grasping, more rhythmic than melodic. The content of Dr. John’s 39 albums is notably faithful to the reported philosophy of voodoo in New Orleans. In conclusion, I agree that the perfect definition of Dr. John’s music is voodoo rock, even if I have found it only in one source. As you can understand, the mix of the page is the equivalent of a C60, and contains a selection of voodoo rock, proposed according to my style.
File name is “web C60 by Max Look DJ, the voodoo rock of Dr. John (May 2025)”, about 1 hour and 6’ of notable tunes by Dr. John.
Voodoo rock, the playlist:
Dr. John - Black John the conqueror
Dr. John - Shoo Fly marches on
Dr. John - gris-gris gumbo yaya
Dr. John - iko iko
Dr. John - glowin'
Dr. John - life
Dr. John - I walk on guilded splinters
Dr. John - danse fambeaux
Dr. John - black widow spider
Dr. John - somebody changed the lock
Dr. John - Craney crow
Dr. John - blow wind blow
Dr. John - qualified
Dr. John - let the good times roll
Dr. John - zu zu Mamou
