Brenda Stardom [ Prophetic and Related New Orleans And Disaster Songs ]

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Last 15 Articles

4-9-2005 - Prophetic and Related New Orleans And Disaster Songs

Lately, people have been posting complete song lyrics on their blogs and commenters have followed suit. Yesterday I was on my French friend Steven Rix's politique usa blog and was taken aback by the song he reprinted by The Tragaically Hip. It was chilling to read and today I discovered Canadian stations have stopped playing it out of respect for the people of New Orleans.

Bourbon blues on the street loose and complete
Under skies all smoky blue-green
I can Forksake the dixie dead shake
So we dance the sidewalk clean
My memory is muddy what's this river I'm in
New Orleans is sinking and I don't want to swim

Colonel Tom What's wrong? What's Going On
You can't tie yourself up for a deal
He said" Hey North, you're south shut you big mouth
You gotta do what you feel is real."
Ain't got no picture postcards, ain't go no souvenirs
My baby she don't know me when I'm thinking about those years

Pale as a light bulb hanging on a wire
Sucking up to someone just stoke the fire
Picking out the highlights of the scenery
Saw a little cloud looked a little like me

I had my hand in the river
My feet back up on the banks
Looked up to the lord above and said hey man thanks
Some time I feel so good I gotta scream
She says Gordie baby I know exactly what you mean
She said, she said I swear to god she said

My memory is muddy, what's this river I'm in
New Orleans is sinking and I don't want to swim

I don't know if this is being played in the US. this makes me recall the list of banned songs which cirulated after 9/11 and if I remember right, that was bogus. Fats Domino, the great 50's musician whose boogie woogie I tried to learn, wrote "Going To The River" in 1953 and it's quite sad to remember it now because it almost came true for him. He was seen being rescued on CNN by his daughterr:

I'm going to the river
Gonna go overboard and drown
I'm going to the river
Gonna jump overboard and drown
Because the gal I love
She just has left this town

When she left me
I bowed my head and cried
When she left me
I bowed my head and cried
I never thought
I would be
I would be the one to cry

Well, if you see my mama tell her
Goodbye for me
If you see my mama tell her
Goodbye for me
I'm tired of living
Living in misery

Music is a powerful force, one of the most powerful and many times it's prophetic or can be tailored to the time or tragedy. I was a Randy Newman fan and was distantly remembering a song about Louisiana. I had to look up the lyrics. Whoa:

Louisiana 1927

What has happened down here is the wind have changed
Clouds roll in from the north and it started to rain
Rained real hard and rained for a real long time
Six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline

The river rose all day
The river rose all night
Some people got lost in the flood
Some people got away alright
The river have busted through cleard down to Plaquemines
Six feet of water in the streets of Evangelne

CHORUS
Louisiana, Louisiana
They're tyrin' to wash us away
They're tryin' to wash us away
Louisiana, Louisiana
They're tryin' to wash us away
They're tryin' to wash us away

President Coolidge came down in a railroad train
With a little fat man with a note-pad in his hand
The President say, "Little fat man isn't it a shame what the river has done
To this poor crackers land."

Poor crackers land, indeed. I'm not the only one who "knew" racism was playing a part in this. A friend told me her little daughter asked, when viewing the great human tragedy playing out in New Orleans and Mississippi, "where are the white people?". My friend explained they had the money and means to get out, while the mostly black under class -- the poorest of the poor -- had no way to leave. Her daughter wept and said she didn't want to be white anymore. How intense is that? She's five, by the way.

I dug out old lyrics, written during a horrendous storm many, many years ago. It's chillingly prescient:

I woke up screaming in the middle of the night
It was frightening
I could see water rise
It was doubled twice its size
It came rushing

I woke up screaming in the middle of the night
Outside I could see bolts of lightning
I could see water rise
it was reaching to the skies
It came gushing

I woke up screaming in the middle of the night
I was crying
this was surely not a dream
I could hear people scream
they were dying

Chorus:
This wild and crazy storm
Born of nature's fury
Burst in screaming hard and fast
In one hell of a hurry

It was though the sky had burst
This was weather at its worst
The storm was heavy
Never seen anything like it before
Dam the levee!

I could hear people shout
No one knew what it was all about
They ran asunder
I could see dead bodies float
Their bellies had begun to bloat
Then I went under

Chorus: Repeat

I could see a great star fall
I could hear angels call
trumpets blaring
The sun and moon and stars grew dim
I began to yell at Him
I was swearing

Chorus: repeat

I don't feel weird at all about quoting my own stuff. I always knew it written for a reason and some day it would come into play. I just didn't think I'd live to see the day.

I can't take another day of watching the images which are just as horrifying as those from Abu Gharib or to watch part of America, which Bush kept referring to as "in this part of world" like it wasn't part of the United States, fall into such wretched decay. Stupid fuck. He's only saying what he is and doing things because of the barrage of world-wide criticism heaped on him. If slings and arrows had form, he'd look like a voodoo doll.

Driving in my big black car
Nothing can go wrong

I’m going and I don’t know how far
Driving in my big black car

So, so long
Nothing can go wrong
-- Alex Chilton, missing musician

Brenda Stardom
Portugal 7h13 GMT