Amazon.co.uk Review: Covered in a variegated spray of New Orleans Mardi Gras feathers and shiny voodoo baubles, Mac Rebennack's highly personal mythology was finally made real on this 1968 album. This was his first appearance made under the new guise of Dr John Creaux, The Night Tripper. Before then, he'd been a pivotal figure on the Crescent City R&B circuit. Afterwards, he became one of its most significant blues ambassadors. This album is a classic of the admittedly specialist psychedelic swamp-gumbo genre, boasting at least four tracks that have become cult favourites. "Gris-Gris Gumbo Ya-Ya", "Mama Roux", "Jump Sturdy" and "I Walk On Guilded Splinters" each have their own delicate mixtures of catchy chorus and weird spatial sound effects, with radical stereo separation, intensely croaking, close-quarter vocals from the Doctor, pneumatic keyboard riffs, pinprick electric guitar and booming, thick-skinned Afro-Caribbean percussion. The album still stands at its original 33-minute length, with no bonus cuts unearthed, but its high density more than compensates for any brevity. --Martin Longley
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - a novice writes....
I don't know too much about later Dr John. I have had this album on my Ipod for ages without listening and it is with a slightly shamed face that I say I only really sought it out again after hearing cher's (!!)version of Walking on Gilded Splinters on the david Holmes/Cherrystones CD. Like nothing else I own, but fantastic. I treasure the day that I got bored and drunk on the train from Charing X and gave it a go. vocal-wise the nearest comparison is capt. beefhart, but it is far more accessible ... Read More
Rating: - unique
I'm no great fan of the doctor's blues piano he was later famous for, but this album is different from that and unlike much else you're likely to hear. Harold Battiste's arrangements make Dr John's songs sound weird and wonderful. The mixture of styles somehow work together here in a way that he has not achieved since. Everyone I've played this to loves it. Definitely one to buy.
Rating: - It just works
I can still remember the first time I heard this record. I fell in love with the magic of it. I was also shocked as I'd heard a fair amount of Dr John but nothing like this. I gained a whole new respect for him off the back of this album.
It's very different and I'm very poud to have it in my collection. Odd moments include raspberry blowing and pig noises...??? But it all fits nicely.
A great album, treat yourself to something different, [in hippy voice] open your mind man.
Rating: - Recorded in a basement on a cassette machine?
Which only goes to show that you don't have to be 24 bit digital to be magical. I first heard this in 1970 and it's every bit as compelling as it was then. This was that brief mock-Voodoo Night Tripper episode before Mack decided to show off his piano playing skills instead. Nonetheless, great songs, arrangments and delivery.
Rating: - Classic, but Short Playing Time.
I think the first edition of the rolling stone record guide gave this album, like, 2 stars. I discovered it in my flatmates record collection, and have always found it's voodoo tinged atmosphere with it's haunting female backing vocals very compelling, especially the opening and closing tracks. I bought a best of Dr John album lately, but his other stuff was very differenty from this, and not really what I hoped it would be. This album however, is the bees knees.
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