Post Katrina; Songs mentioning/about N O

Subject: Post Katrina; Songs mentioning/about N O
From: Wrinkles
Date: 24 Sep 05 - 07:43 AM

Folk are writing songs about the disaster, but old tunes have taken on a new dimension in the wake of Katrina.

Goodman's "City of New Orleans" brought tears to my eyes recently, as did "Me and Bobby McGee" - what other songs/tunes have had a similer effect on you after the huricane?

Wrinkles

Subject: RE: Post Katrina; Songs mentioning/about N O
From: *daylia*
Date: 24 Sep 05 - 08:25 AM

JUst about any song that mentions storms or New Orleans - there must be hundreds! - has had a sobering effect on me lately, including "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?", "Who'll Stop the Rain", "Born on the Bayou" and "Bad Moon Rising" by John Fogerty (CCR); "A Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall" by Bob Dylan; "Riverboat Fantasy" by David Wilcox; "House of the Rising Sun" by the Animals ... and on and on ...

For a while there, every time I thought "Katrina" I heard Katrina Katrina - where you been so long (to the tune Corrina Corrina). And now, thanks to Donuel's creativity posted on the Rita thread, every time I look at the news I hear "Ugly Rita, hurricane ..." (to the tune of the Beatles "Lovely Rita, meter maid")

.... aarrrgghh ....

Subject: Lyr Add: FAREWELL TO STORYVILLE (Billie Holiday)
From: GUEST,Bob Coltman
Date: 24 Sep 05 - 11:05 AM

I'm copying over my message from the "Farewell to Storyville" thread. This one is my hands-down candidate.

=====

Billie Holiday, in the 1947 Arthur Lubin film "New Orleans," sang what just might be the best lament for New Orleans ever.

The occasion was the police crackdown on the notorious Storyville section with its clubs, whorehouses, gangsters and dives. In the movie all the clubs close, lights go out, and the denizens of Storyville turn out by night, singing Billie's song as they wind through the streets in a mighty exodus.

Though not about a flood, the song rings some dire changes on the present evacuation and the rumors of elite resettlement plans. And it's just plain beautiful. A worthy tribute to a great city in pain.


FAREWELL TO STORYVILLE
Words and music by Spencer Williams
As sung by Billie Holiday

All you old-time queens from New Orleans
Who live in Storyville,
You sang the blues, tried to amuse,
Here's how they paid the bill,
The law stepped in, and called it sin
To have a little fun,
The police cop has made a stop
And Storyville is done.

REFRAIN
Pick out your steamboat, pick yourself a train (a slow ol' train),
Pick out your steamboat, pick yourself a train (a slow ol' train),
They made you close up, they'll never let you back (let you back),
Go buy your ticket, or else you'll walk the track.

No use complaining, blue skies follow rain (the cold ol' rain),
No use complaining, blue skies follow rain (the cold ol' rain),
Just say farewell now, and get your one last thrill (your one last thrill),
Just say farewell now, farewell to Storyville.

Here's the tune ABC fashion:

.G .A C C .A    .C .A C C .A   A   Eb C    Eb D   C

.G .A C C .A    .C .A C C .A    D D .B D D D

Repeat line 1 tune

.A .B D D .G .B D D .B D C .B .A .G


REFRAIN:

~E E E C# .A    E .A E E D      (.Å C C .B-A)

~D D D .B .G    Eb C Eb D   D-C    (.A C C B-A)

This two-line tune just repeats over and over throughout the remaining lines of the refrain. It'll tug at your heart.

Subject: RE: Post Katrina; Songs mentioning/about N O
From: Wrinkles
Date: 25 Sep 05 - 07:14 AM

Nice lists guys ;-) But there's gotta be more

Wrinkles

Subject: RE: Post Katrina; Songs mentioning/about N O
From: Le Scaramouche
Date: 25 Sep 05 - 08:02 AM

Baby Please Don't Go has acquired new meaning.

Subject: RE: Post Katrina; Songs mentioning/about N O
From: Dita
Date: 25 Sep 05 - 02:45 PM

"Lakes of Ponchartrain" has found it way back into my sets, after I saw the news report that had become grossly contaminated with sewage.
I now understand Bob Dylan's Basemet tapes song "Crash on the Levee."
"Cottonfields" and "Johnny B. Goode" are both different songs now.

John.

Subject: RE: Post Katrina; Songs mentioning/about N O
From: mg
Date: 26 Sep 05 - 12:48 AM

I keep thinking of American Pie...was it the day the music died? Levee wasn't dry though... father son and holy ghost took the last train to teh coast..maybe all the analyses of thsi song were premature. mg

Subject: RE: Post Katrina; Songs mentioning/about N O
From: Elmer Fudd
Date: 26 Sep 05 - 03:37 AM

I keep hearing Louis Armstrong singing "Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans?" rattling around in my mind.

E-e-elmer

Subject: RE: Post Katrina; Songs: Led Zeppelin
From: GUEST,Goldenboy
Date: 27 Sep 05 - 11:28 AM

If it keeps on rainin', Levee's gonna break..."

Subject: RE: Post Katrina; Songs mentioning/about N O
From: GUEST,Marcus 3-Dee
Date: 29 Sep 10 - 10:18 AM

5 years later, I still miss my hometown.

Casey Donahew Band, "New Orleans"
Scarlett Johansson, "I Wish I was in New Orleans"
Concrete Blonde, "Bloodletting (The Vampire Song)"
Danzig, "Long Way Back From Hell"
Arlo Guthrie/Willie Nelson, "City of New Orleans"
The Rolling Stones, "Brown Sugar"
Down, "Beneath the Tides" & "On March the Saints"
Green Day & U2, "The Saints are Coming"
Fats Domino, "Walking to New Orleans"
Kid Rock, "New Orleans"
etc, etc...

Subject: RE: Post Katrina; Songs mentioning/about N O
From: iancarterb
Date: 30 Sep 10 - 12:01 PM

I noticced some mention on the Cat (mybe a year back?) of Bessie Smith singing Backwater Blues, and I still think of it before any other performance of any other song connected to flood anywhere.

Subject: Lyr Add: ON THE BANKS OF LAKE PONTCHARTRAIN (Blake
From: AnneMC
Date: 02 Oct 10 - 06:17 AM

Norman Blake sings a great song about Katrina:


ON THE BANKS OF LAKE PONTCHARTRAIN
by Pattie Bryan, Norman Blake

There was a jewel of a city on the banks of Lake Pontchartrain
Till water rushed down upon her from a terrible hurricane.
By the name of a beautiful lady, on the winds of a demon it came,
Flooding that jewel of a city on the banks of Lake Pontchartrain.

Mothers with babies were crying from hunger and thirst—what a shame!—
Trapped by a break in the levees on the banks of Lake Pontchartrain.

Oh, beloved New Orleans, on a swamp without a natural drain,
Between the great Mississippi and the banks of Lake Pontchartrain!
All who could fled the city; the old and the poor remained,
Climbing to attics and rooftops from the flood of Lake Pontchartrain.

All the people are homeless; hundreds of lives they were claimed,
Drowned by a break in the levees on the banks of Lake Pontchartrain.