How prophetic was Randy Newman's Louisiana...........

[Neocondriac]

With lyrics like "Six feet of water in the steets of Evangeline" or "They're trying to wash us away".....but who knew the levees might be breached ?.......a squatly little songwriter from Brooklyn in 1975.

[samsingh]

1. who could have foreseen this event indeed?

[evlbstrd]

2. The song is about a flood in 1927

from an "opera" about Louisiana Governor Huey Long. History repeats.

[Neocondriac]

3. Thx...

I did not know !

[evlbstrd]

5. You're welcome.

I've been a Randy Newman fan for a long time.

[JuniperLea]

4. I've been singing....

When The Levee Breaks for days... I'm more likely to latch onto a Zeppelin tune.

If it keeps on rainin’, levee’s goin’ to break,
If it keeps on rainin’, levee’s goin’ to break,
When the levee breaks I’ll have no place to stay.
Mean old levee taught me to weep and moan,
Lord, mean old levee taught me to weep and moan,
Got what it takes to make a mountain man leave his home,
Oh, well, oh, well, oh, well.
Don’t it make you feel bad
When you’re tryin’ to find your way home,
You don’t know which way to go?
If you’re goin’ down south
They go no work to do,
If you don’t know about chicago.
Cryin’ won’t help you, prayin’ won’t do you no good,
Now, cryin’ won’t help you, prayin’ won’t do you no good,
When the levee breaks, mama, you got to move.
All last night sat on the levee and moaned,
All last night sat on the levee and moaned,
Thinkin’ ’bout me baby and my happy home.
Going, go’n’ to chicago,
Go’n’ to chicago,
Sorry but I can’t take you.
Going down, going down now, going down.

[misanthrope]

6. That's a public domain...

...tune that was made famous by an old blues singer named Memphis Minnie.

Course, that wouldn't be the first song Zeppelin "forgot" to properly attribute.

[Zomby Woof]

7. Zeppelin did credit Memphis Minnie on that one

But yes, they usually "forgot".

[JuniperLea]

10. Not many know of Memphis Minne

but they know Zeppelin...

What was it Homer Simpson said? Something about 'there goes Jimmy Page, who stole more black music than any other living human being'... or something like that.

I love the old blues... Howlin' Wolf 'specially... my b/f has a lot of comps of old blues that were the roots of many a killer 20th century rock anthem.

[Zomby Woof]

14. Howlin' Wolf is my idol

I share his birthday. I wanted that as my DU name, but it was taken. :-) So I went with my next choice.

[JuniperLea]

15. he rulz!

i share a birthday with paul mccartney... not even in the same league:) but i also share with isabella roselini... if only i had her looks and paul's $$...

:)

[mcscajun]

9. I had that tune running through my head yesterday...

...when I saw the pic of Bush strumming that blasted guitar for the UMPTEENTH Time this week.

So, I got busy...



I think this belongs on a T-Shirt for the Sept. 24th March.

[whalerider55]

8. actually...

my recollection is that Newman spent a significant portion of his early life living in New Orleans. he has a feel for the south and its idiosyncrasies like no other writer I know... Sail Away, Rednecks, the list is endless...

whalerider- fan since 1969

[JuniperLea]

11. That may be so...

and I'm not knocking him... I just never "got" him, that's all.

It's not you, it's me:)

[Land Shark]

12. good history link for Louisiana 1927 and importance to progressive politic

http://www.salon.com/april97/columnists/carville970407.html

[StatGirl]

13. "President Coolidge came down in a railroad train . . ."

"President Coolidge came down in a railroad train
With a little fat man with a notepad in his hand
The president said, "Little fat man, isn't it a shame
What the river has done to this poor crackers' land?"

Great song. I pulled out my old vinyl "Good Old Boys" album and listened to it last week, and was surprised to hear it on "Prairie Home Companion" this weekend.