Every Friday night we smooth our way into the weekend with music, the universal language. These selections demonstrate that despite what is being passed off as art today, there is plenty of really good music available. Come along and enjoy. 

Mardi Gras Day WAS February 21 2023. Fat Tuesday WAS the last day of the Carnival season as it always falls the day before Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent.

So it’s over.

But we’re still going to celebrate the good music of Mardi Gras and New Orleans.

We begin with a track from a Paul McCartney and Wings 1975 album.

The album was recorded in New Orleans with the cover photographed by Paul’s wife Linda. The red and yellow billiard balls represent the planets in the album title.

Paul Simon wrote a song in 1973 about the New Orleans carnival.

C’mon take me to the Mardi Gras
Where the people sing and play
Where the dancing is elite
And there’s music in the street, both night and day

Hurry take me to the Mardi Gras
In the city of my dreams
You can legalize your lows
You can wear your summer clothes, in the New Orleans

And I will lay my burden down
Rest my head upon that shore
And when I wear that starry crown
I won’t be wanting anymore

Keyboardist Bob James (Theme from “Taxi”) turned it into a peppy instrumental in 1975.

Bob James was born on Christmas Day. Now 83, James has been a member of Fourplay, one of the top contemporary jazz groups since 1991.

Head to Mardi Gras and you’re bound to see a parade.

This 1937 ragtime march is named after a New Orleans street.

Co-composers were Ray Bauduc and Bob Haggart. Bauduc hummed the basic tune to Haggart who scribbled it down on a hotel tablecloth, which he then had to steal in order to create an arrangement.

Richard Carpenter loved this next Hank Willaims song and recorded an instrumental track in 1972. The following year Richard was under pressure to finish the “Now & Then” album that featured an entire side of oldies. For the other side Richard got sister Karen to add her precious vocal since they had no time to come up with another original song. No Cajun drawl here. Just magical Karen.

Although the Carpenters didn’t release it as a single in the US, their version became a big hit in places like England, Mexico, Holland, Germany…and Japan.

How popular was “Jambalaya,” a song about a guy who travels down the bayou to attend a party with his girlfriend Yvonne and her family where they eat Cajun cuisine and drink liquor from fruit jars? The original version reached number one on the U.S. country charts and was there for fourteen non-consecutive weeks.

That’s it for this week.

Goodnight.

Sleep well.

Have a great weekend.

We close with a New Orleans folk melody often used for celebrations like parades. The translation of the “Jock-a-mo fee-na-nay” chorus is the subject of debate. Scholars submit that the phrase is Native American, West African, or a creolization of those languages with New Orleans French. What’s it mean? Answers vary from “Kiss my ass” to “Very good” to “The fool will not play today.”

Mac Rebennack was Dr. John’s real name. He flamboyantly wore voodoo beads and feathers onstage. In June of 2019 he suffered a heart attack and died. His family stated Dr. John “created a unique blend of music which carried his hometown, New Orleans, at its heart, as it was always in his heart.” He was 77.

Ringo Starr and his All-Star Band…