Customer Reviews

Under a Hoodoo Moon: The Life of Dr. John the Night Tripper

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4 star:		(3)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

For anyone who has heard the music of Mac Rebennack a.k.a. Dr. John, this book is essential reading. His unique experiences and his sense of humor make it fascinating to read from beginning to end.

The good doctor's experiences in the music business make a great tale. From his early attachment to some of the New Orleans music greats, through his own experiences in clubs and recording studios, this makes for a terrific insight into what being a musician is all about.

I would highly recommend this book.

I have read this book twice, not only because I like Dr.John's music, but also because I love the city of New Orleans and its cultural heritage. This book is more than just a musical biography; it's a chronicle of the Crescent City's music scene since the 50's and a huge source of musical information. Of course, Dr. John's biography and musical career is the main subject of the book and it will live up to your expectations. His recollections of his early career, Cosimo Matassa, Professor Longhair, Huey Piano Smith, Fats Domino, James Booker, and many more quoted in the book are priceless. His more recent musical experiences with big names such as Frank Zappa, The Rolling Stones, John Lennon, Van Morrison or Eric Clapton are remarkable too. On the contrary to many other musical biographies, there are not any gossips in this one, just music facts. Dr. John reviews some of his own recordings and includes some of the lyrics. There is also a chapter dedicated to the voodoo religion.

Co-written with author Jack Rummel, the book even works as a travel guidebook to the city. In one of my visits to the Big Easy after reading the book, I found places and sightseeings mentioned in it that I wouldn't find in any other guidebook. Highly recommended.

Want to be a professional musician? Think twice. Dr. John confirms the musician's world as full of addicts, thieves, prostitutes, and swindlers, where almost no one can be trusted. I give the book five stars because it was interesting enough that I finished it, but it's a bittersweet tale of a man who loves music stumbling in a junkie's nightmare. I appreciate his honesty, his sense of humor, his optimism, and his love for music. As an amateur musician who used to contemplate a musical career, I'm glad I opted for a day job and a house in the suburbs. But the story is fascinating. Now I definitely want to check out some of his music.

This book will give you a lot of insight to the wild web woven around and by Mac Rebennack. You'll learn more, and maybe to much, about his life, which will open your eyes to the lyrics he's written over the years and in what mental and physical condition he was in during those times. I've been a fan of Dr. John for as long as I can remember, but this book just amazed me! As much as I though I knew, I was wrong. His love of music got his soul in trouble with drugs and his fans were the ones who benefitted from his pain and suffering. He's grown, learned and bloomed into a clear, clean, insightful man. This book made me cry to think of all he went through to get to where he is today. I am lucky enough to own an autographed first edition. It is one of my most prized posessions. If you love New Orleans, Fonk, Blues, and Swampadelic music you MUST read this book!

Dr. John preformed on "Mondaygras" (the day before Fat Tuesday) in a New Orleans warehouse in 1987. On that night he introduced himself to me and several hundred New Orleans revelers. Those in attendance experienced the hoodoo moon and the life of the night tripper. For all others who missed that magical evening, the book, Under A Hoodoo Moon: The Life of the Night Tripper, Dr. John (Mac Rebennack) will make you feel as if you were standing at my side as I permitted the entire life of Dr. John to dance in my blood for that moment in time. The book merely affirms my experience.

I was in college. My dear friend Ruth managed to score some primo tickets. Having lived in New Orleans I knew it would be a special evening. It really did not matter who played. Around midnight and away from the haze of Bourbon Street, New Orleans naturally hums to a rebellious tune. The venue was hot. Crazed girls began to remove their cloths. Eventhough it was an open bar and the liquor was free, bottles of booze mysteriously appeared and were passed from person-to-person bonding us as one in drunkenness. Beads and doubloons rained from clouds of marijuana when the hedonistic frenzy was briefly interrupted by a very large man strolling toward the stage.

It was Dr. John. He needed no introduction. His tangled hair, glassy eyes, weathered skin, and shaman walking stick told their own story. He had sleazed with the dirtiest whores, drank the cheapest liquor, smoked the strongest weed, ate the finest gumbo, and still took joy in thumbing his nose at every law set before his destination. We were his family for that moment.

It is easy to recognize that Dr. John is a good and proud man with an ethos that shakes a soul. Just listen to his cyanne and cured voice. It does not matter what he says. The tones sound like the moon whispering secret knowledge. Dr. John isn't merely a musician spending brain-cells on a binge. He is a warlock.

Under A Hoodoo Moon may never win the Pulitzer Prize, but it tells a story about a remarkable man whose music will haunt your life.

Tom Bradley
[..]

I bought this book because I had heard a series of interviews with Mac (on [...]) made during the research for the book. The book is amazingly true to the interviews. The guy can talk. If I hadn't heard the interviews I might have been turned off by the idiosyncrasies of spelling and language, like fonk instead of funk.

To me, it provided a very absorbing inside look at the post-war New Orleans music scene. Man, that was tough: cut-throat competition for work, ubiquitous drugs, and significant violence. It was interesting to read about how so many people kept such remarkable focus on improving as musicians in the business. The discussions of the LA recording scene were interesting too.

My favorite line in the book:

"I hired...an organist who couldn't cut it on the keyboard but who could handle snakes, which was crucial to our show."

I got this book to see how Rebennack was shaped by the post-war New Orleans music scene, and how he worked up his gris-gris thing. The book's good for stories about that scene because Rebennack was definitely in the thick of it. He wasn't just an outside observer, he cut his musical teeth in it, and was friends with the folks making the music, like James Booker and Professor Longhair. His gris-gris thing--well, that came out of a mixture of actual knowledge of voodoo/santeria practices and unabashed Vaudeville stage antics (his grandfather was in Vaudeville).

Anyone interested in this period in New Orleans music should follow up with another book, "Up From the Cradle of Jazz: New Orleans Music Since World War II", which came out in 1986 but it's still available--a very fine book that even includes a chapter about Rebennack.

The problem I had with the book is not entirely its fault. I've read a lot of biographies of jazz and rock musicians, and I've finally gotten to the point where I'm sick of reading about their drug habits--"My Life with Junk", users and abusers, all the details about how they mess themselves up, how they score, how they hurt those around them, how they squander their talent--so I got pretty impatient with the good Doctor's stories of developing a heroin habit at 17, his Dilaudid habit, how he scored while on the road, etc. I know that it's part of the story and the full story can't be told without this, but is it really useful to know so much about Rebennack's habit but not to hear, until about 3/4 through the book, that he had kids? And the final chapter, the obligatory "redemption" bit about kicking the habit, just made it worse. I don't care about redemption stories. You cleaned up, fine, you might be dead by now if you hadn't, but are we supposed to get some kind of gratification out of it?

Anyway, if you can put up with all the drug details, the book has a lot of good insights into post-war New Orleans music and cultural life in general, because Rebennack definitely is a product of that world.

Dr. John is a name thrown around by many music fans of the late '60s and '70s as that "voodoo" guy with his crazy stage show and "Walk on Guilded Splinters", "Gris-Gris Gumbo Ya-Ya" and a smattering of people remembering him from various side projects, session work, etc. This book not only isn't just a stroll down memory lane and someone's "glory years", but when read carefully and with some knowledge of New Orleans post WWII music scene, isn't entirely about Mac. He constantly stresses the importance and beauty that New Orleans music has possessed and still does today. With every act doing one style and hitting the top of the charts, he can go back and bluntly point out where the well-known artists got their style (if that is an appropriate word for what they imparted to us), tracing it back many times to New Orleans and the studios and clubs that were brimming with top-rate artists and characters. Quite often a misunderstood city, New Orleans is seen as a kind of "if I can't make it to Vegas then let's go there" destination for many. Beads, bare breasts and a "anything goes" sort of rep that obscures it's rich musical lineage.

But the book. It's an addictive, fun, and honest look at Mac's own life and music that serves as an education for those not aware of the scene and even if you're hip to New Orleans blues and RnB, you get first-hand accounts of some of the greatest musicians that walked the earth. Warts and all. No nonsense, both sentimental and surprisingly detached, it defies description and therefore the point of this review, now to think of it.

Just get it, read it and keep a hold of it. This isn't some collection of pointless trivia that can go back on the stack of pointless biographies of people who barely merit one.

Oh, and buy some of the music mentioned throughout. Music and Mac's memories are joined at the hip.

I have been a great fan of Dr. John for many years until I read this book. Although the doctor is very honest about the experiences in his life, I find the man behind the music is a heroin addict which has lead him down the road of unbelieveable, irreputable, and horrible behavior to the people around him - and it appears the doctor has little remorse about it!
The story he tells about going 50/50 with the illegal abortion doctor was too much. His job was to dispose of the dead aborted babies! Unfortunately, you can continue to read on about similar behavior but - NO THANKS! Just another entertainer with addictions and a legacy of horrible behavior. Save your money.
Sorry, his music is great but he is not much of a human being.
I will not throw away my Dr. John music - I will burn it!