Remedies
At last, after a painful few days, an album of substance, something interesting to listen to and think about.
Remedies was Dr John’s third album and made under difficult circumstances due to issues with his management. I’d never heard it before today and in some respects it took me by surprise. I’d expected an album in the style I know him for, New Orleans infused bluesy, jazzy good time songs with overtones of showbiz voodoo. It’s more complicated than that.
The opener, Loop Garoo is the missing link between Captain Beefheart and Tom Waits. What Goes Around is the classic Night Tripper sound I anticipated. A couple of other songs are filler, but classy filler. Mardy Gras Day is an impressionistic account of the said day. The melody is simple, but it’s all about the arrangement. It goes on a bit too long (8 minutes) for me, but that might just be me. The artistic core of the album, though, is the 17 minute track that takes up side 2: Angola Anthem.
Angola Anthem is not, as the Rolling Stone reviewer believed, about the African country but about Louisiana State Penitentiary. It is an impressionistic piece, an evocation of violence and disfunction, as disturbing as anything on White Noise’s An Electric Storm. It isn’t the sort of thing you can glibly like or dislike, it is something to be experienced, perhaps endured.
Remedies isn’t an album I’d go out of my way to buy and if I had a copy it’s unlikely it would get played much, although Loop Garoo is a song I ought to playlist. But that isn’t to say it’s a record that should be passed over either. Dr John was something of a jester in the court of rock’n’roll, and one of the functions of jesters was to tell the truth. There’s truth on this album, and it’s on my list to revisit at some point.
It’s on Spotify and also a YouTube playlist (below).
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