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Thread: And Now We’ve Lost Dr. John

  1. #1
    Front Porch & Sweet Tea NursingDaBlues's Avatar
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    Default And Now We’ve Lost Dr. John

    It’s been a hard week for the music industry. RIP Mac.

    https://www.npr.org/2019/06/06/73048...ans-dead-at-77

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  3. #2

    Default Re: And Now We’ve Lost Dr. John

    That's sad news. His health has been poor for quite a while. He was a survivor and a really great musician. I never got to see him although I did see The Meters in New Orleans at Tipitina's back in 1990- close but not close enough, I am afraid.

  4. #3
    Registered User tree's Avatar
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    Default Re: And Now We’ve Lost Dr. John

    Sad indeed. To bend a line from a New Orleans song, "Let him go, let him go, God bless him . . ."

    I hope his funeral is New Orleans joyful - he sure brought joy to folks through his music and persona!
    Clark Beavans

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    Default Re: And Now We’ve Lost Dr. John

    My kids got to know Dr. John because he sang the Curious George TV theme song on PBS.

    RIP.

  6. #5

    Default Re: And Now We’ve Lost Dr. John

    Cool dude! One of a kind! RIP Dr. John.....

  7. #6
    Mando accumulator allenhopkins's Avatar
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    Default Re: And Now We’ve Lost Dr. John

    Heard some NPR bio on him; quite a rough early life, drugs, jail time etc. Switched from guitar to piano after being shot in one of his fingers. Righted the ship, studied the New Orleans greats, became one of those performers who takes a regional style to the national stage -- I never would have heard Prof. Longhair if it weren't for Dr. John.

    As I said in another context, we've lost so many of the "originals," and now we're losing the first generation of "revivalists" who studied and disseminated the music of the "originals." Time marches on, and tramples much beauty as it does...
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  9. #7

    Default Re: And Now We’ve Lost Dr. John

    Big influence on me. That stuff got me into NOLA sooner than I likely would have. Prof Longhair got me into playing accordian..

  10. #8
    bon vivant jaycat's Avatar
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    Default Re: And Now We’ve Lost Dr. John

    If memory serves, I believe you can hear some mandolin in the background on his first record.

  11. #9
    bass player gone mando
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    Default Re: And Now We’ve Lost Dr. John

    Quote Originally Posted by jaycat View Post
    If memory serves, I believe you can hear some mandolin in the background on his first record.
    Yup. Here's the lineup for "Gris-Gris," a/k/a the Night Tripper album, his first. I heard it on the radio at age 16, said WTF is that?, bought the record and wore it out.

    Musicians

    Dr. John – vocals, keyboards, percussion
    Dr. Battiste – bass, clarinet, percussion, arranger
    Richard "Dr. Ditmus" Washington – percussion
    "Senator" Bob West – bass
    "Dr." John Boudreaux – drums
    "Governor" Plas Johnson – saxophone
    "Dr." Lonnie Boulden – flute
    "Dr." Steve Mann – bottleneck guitar, banjo
    "Dr." McLean – guitar, mandolin
    Mo "Dido" Pedido – congas
    Dave Dixon, Jessie Hill, Ronnie Barron – backing vocals, percussion
    Joni Jonz, Prince Ella Johnson, Shirley Goodman, Sonny Ray Durden, Tami Lynn – backing vocals
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  12. #10
    bass player gone mando
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    Default Re: And Now We’ve Lost Dr. John

    "Dr." McLean was Ernest McLean, quite a musician himself.

    Born in New Orleans, McLean was the son of musician Richard McLean, who played banjo in a government music project band, and his wife Beatrice.[2] He began learning guitar at the age of 11 and after the end of World War II, he joined Dave Bartholomew's band. The band featured drummer Earl Palmer and saxophonists Lee Allen, Herb Hardesty and Red Tyler, and became the best-known in New Orleans. They performed on many recordings, notably those made at Cosimo Matassa's studio. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, McLean was featured on many of the most successful and influential recordings of the era, including Fats Domino's "The Fat Man", Lloyd Price's "Lawdy Miss Clawdy",[2] and recordings by Shirley and Lee, Little Richard and Smiley Lewis.

    Described by Cosimo Matassa as "almost a total introvert", McLean was considered by many the best guitarist ever produced in New Orleans.[2] Red Tyler said "None of the other guitarists came even close to Ernest McLean...[He] was by far the best musician in Dave Bartholomew's band...one of the few musicians I knew that spent ten or eleven hours a day practicing. He helped found the Fats Domino sound."[3]

    In the late 1950s, encouraged by his friend Scatman Crothers,[4] McLean followed bandmate Earl Palmer to Los Angeles, where he began working in Earl Bostic's band.[2] In the early 1960s he was hired by Walt Disney to perform at Disneyland. There he played jazz standards and regularly performed in the New Orleans Square for the next 35 years.[2] He also played on occasional recording sessions for Lou Rawls, Sonny and Cher, and Screamin' Jay Hawkins, most notably featuring on Dr. John's debut album Gris-Gris recorded in 1967 on which he played guitar and mandolin, an instrument he had never previously played.[2][5]

    In 2010, he took part in a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame tribute to Dave Bartholomew at Case Western University. He died in Los Angeles in 2012, aged 86.[
    Collings MT O
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