10. Bruce Daigrepont, "Laissez Faire (Let It Be)" (available on Stir Up The Roux)
In a city where drag queens, strippers, prostitutes, and drunks share the same space as artists and power brokers, no sentiment sums up the civic character better than "Laissez Faire." Cajun stalwart Daigrepont recites his creed in Acadian French, set to a melody that riffs on "Jambalaya" and European festival music. The accordion and guitars drop out at the climax, leaving Daigrepont and his background singers to shout the chorus like a fervent prayer.
11. Professor Longhair, "Tipitina" (available on New Orleans Piano)
In their nationwide search for regional jazz and blues, the Atlantic Records brain trust of Ahmet Ertegun and Jerry Wexler turned up the man affectionately known as "Fess," and recorded this free-swinging, piano-driven novelty song, whose nonsense lyrics and asynchronous rhythms helped establish the New Orleans sound.
12. Elvis Presley, "New Orleans" (available on King Creole)
A Jerry Leiber/Mike Stoller-penned bit of Dixieland-tinged silliness from one of Elvis' more ambitious screen ventures, this tourists'-eye view of the Big Easy would just drift away if Presley didn't completely sell it. "You'll never know what heaven means / until you've been down to New Orleans." Amen.
13. Aaron Neville, "Tell It Like It Is" (available on Ultimate Collection)
Easily the most recognizable voice in The Neville Brothers (if not all of Louisiana), Aaron Neville had his first hit in 1966, with this simmering soul classic. Neville's feather-light, cotton-soft vocals flutter around the brass hangings and cantering rhythm, sounding simultaneously defiant and resigned as he tells his lover, "You might as well get what you want, so go on and live."
14. Sonny Landreth, "South Of I-10" (available on South Of I-10)
Those who drive west out of New Orleans on I-10 skim the top of Lafayette, the bayou city that's New Orleans musical sister. Roots-rocker Landreth—who served an apprenticeship with Clifton Chenier—recorded this anthem for his adopted hometown in 1995, investing it with scorching slide-guitar leads and his heartfelt belief that "South of I-10, we've really got it made."
15. C.C. Adcock, "Runaway Life" (available on Lafayette Marquis)
New-breed Lafayette singer-songwriter C.C. Adcock has positioned himself as a vital heir to his home state's musical tradition, with a snaky roots-rock sound that owes a lot to Peter Case, Steve Forbert, and Tom Petty. Adcock's loose, guitar-driven Creole style comes together superbly on "Runaway Life," where woozy fiddles and Adcock's absent rasp enhance the story of a restless man who can't seem to leave home. It's as Louisianan as its opening line: "Hey ya ya."
16. Earl King, "No City Like New Orleans" (available on Hard River To Cross)
The French Quarter has plenty of amazing places to eat and drink, and at any spot on any night, a patron has at least an 80 percent chance of hearing some top-shelf R&B floating across the street from one of the nightclubs. Up until Earl King's late-'90s retirement, he might well have been the midnight entertainment, ripping through seamless blues riffs and belting out songs like this paean to his home town, which is the best place to live even if "you might be a king and you might be a queen."
17. Allen Toussaint, "Southern Nights" (available on Southern Nights)
Glen Campbell turned Toussaint's 1975 dreamscape into a countrypolitan hit, and though Campbell's version has its charms, it can't touch the mad genius of the original, which matches Toussaint's marching-band melody with underwater vocals and multiple cascading pianos. Even though it came first, it plays like the reprise to Campbell's take: a night of glorious revelry seen from the foggy perspective of the following morning.
18. Fats Domino, "Walking To New Orleans" (available on My Blue Heaven: The Best Of Fats Domino)
Done wrong by his woman, Fats Domino decides to head home the hard way to the city that does him right. Domino was rescued from his flooded New Orleans home last week. Here's hoping that he, and many other New Orleanians, find their way home soon.
« Previous | 1 | 2
- Comments