"...when the levee breaks, I'll have no place to stay. Lord, mean old levee taught me to weep and moan." 'When the Levee Breaks', Led Zeppelin, 1971.
"....Bourbon blues on the street, loose and complete.....My memory is muddy what's this river that I'm in? New Orleans is sinking man and I don't want to swim." 'New Orleans is Sinking', The Tragically Hip, 1989.
Katrina has found her way. Not even Louis Armstrong and the Hot Fives and Hot 7, armed with his trumpet, on the Riverboat was able to save New Orleans. 80% submerged, over at Congo Square, the wind carries Jelly Roll Morton - 'the blowingest man ever lived since Gabriel' - and his ragtime memory. The Original Dixieland Band play the 'Tiger Rag' at the Dixie Park. The Red Hot Peppers, Scott Joplin, Buddy Bolden, Kid Ory, Freddie Keppard, Mamie Smith, Joe 'King' Oliver, Sidney Bechet and Nick LaRocca form a marching band and blow through a cat-fantastic 'When the Saints Go Marching In." Katrina has lost her way but she could not steal, nor destroy a legacy. A soul.
You chose two songs from my favorite groups of all time. Very poignant. Classic rock; just when you think songs are meaningless, they end up predicting the future. Except for Prince. End of 1999 was pretty much uneventful; although I wore a suit at the New Year's Eve party.
ReplyDeleteTwo great songs.
ReplyDeleteThose people are in survival mode. They are caught in total primal mode.
I have no idea who those sinpers are and what they are trying to accomplish. There is no power vacuum. It's supposed to be a civil society.
It reminds me of the famous ice storm up here several years ago. Montreal was literally a blanket of ice. We had to survive in sub-zero temperatures. One more week and it would have been a national disaster. It was archaic how we lived for two weeks.