Sábado 18 Mar 2006, 23:05

The song Junco Partner is widely played. I have versions from Dr. John, Professor Longhair, and The Clash.

Although all of the versions have their charms, although I have to say I think that I might like Professor Longhair's version best. The Clash version was the first that I heard, and I never really understood what it was about. Next I got Professor Longhair's Rock 'n Roll Gumbo. Now that's a wonderful album. He was a much better musician than he gets credit for, I think because he doesn't really play a pure style, it's a mix of all different styles and influences. And the album features the much underappreciated Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown.

But things really came into focus when I got a copy of Dr. John's Gumbo. It has liner notes for each song. So here's what it has to say on Junco Partner:

Lee Allenwails on this one, how many tenor choruses does he have, four? I love it! The song was first made popular by James Wayne's hit on the "Sittin' In" (Bob Shad's) label. But it was a New Orleans classic; the anthem of the dopers, the whores, the pimps, the cons. It was a song they sang in Angola, the state prison fams and the rhythm was even known as the "jailbird beat". Dudes used to come back with all different verses. The hard-core dopers couldn't wait to hit the streets after their release so they could score again:

"Six months ain't no sentence
One year ain't no time
They got boys there in Angola
Doing nine to ninety-nine"

Meaning they had no intention of reforming even before beginning their sentence. It'a a song all New Orleans bands had to play; kind of a Calypso-oriented rhythm with a Cajun dialect. I heard it first on Poppa Stoppa's radio show… Louis Jordan covered it later on, and he did an even heavier Calypso thing with it. The great thing on this record is our drummer Freddie Staehle's laidback second-line drumming. This is classic New Orleans second line style where the drummer plays relaxed licks all around the beat, but with perfect time. You couldcall it "melody drums."

There you have it, the story of Junco Partner.

(Added link to James Booker, 18 May 2006)