St. James Infirmary, in a funereal, no lyrics, brass-band version underlies a persistent scrum of half-remembered songs about New Orleans rising in concert with the waters, lapping at the sandbags of my mind. Up front,
Tom Waits (
I Wish I Was in New Orleans) and
Randy Newman (
Lousiana 1927) are duking it out for time at the piano, elaborately filigreed chords overlapping and changing the dominant lyric at the moment of harmonic convergence, while in the background
Arlo Guthrie (
The City of New Orleans) warbles about a train ride.
Professor Longhair and/or
The Dixie Cups (
Big Chief,
Iko Iko) sort of amusedly fight to keep sliptime with the martial drums from Jimmy Driftwood's
The Battle of New Orleans (caution: embedded quicktime) behind the whole toxic soup of sonic residue. I'm sure the stew will grow more dense over the next couple weeks.
Got a New Orleans song to toss into the waters?
posted by mwhybark
on Aug 30, 2005 -
45 comments
Harry Partch: "
iconoclastic American composer, musical theorist, philosophic instrument builder, raconteur, hobo, artist -- presents unique challenges and aesthetics." A huge influence on the weirder work of
Tom Waits and a great
craftsman, his work is still being performed
today, albeit with some difficulty.
And, of course, there's always
controversy.
posted by PinkStainlessTail
on Jul 30, 2002 -
4 comments
