Tonight, in deference to the season but without much regard for the Halloween-industrial complex, we go deep down into that voodoo swamp with Dr. John, only it's not really Dr. John... tonight, we hear from the Dr. John known as the Night Tripper.
As you surely know, Dr. John the Night Tripper is a persona adopted early on in Mac Rebennack's career, based on "a purported Senegalese prince who came to New Orleans from Haiti, a medicinal and spiritual healer. The Doctor was a free man of color who lived on Bayou Road and claimed to have fifteen wives and over fifty children. He maintained a fascination with reptiles and kept an assortment of snakes and lizards, along with embalmed scorpions and animal and human skulls. His specialization was healing, and as such, in selling Gris-Gris, voodoo amulets that protected the wearer from harm."
This persona would carry through Dr. John's first four LPs, to be revisited from time to time afterward. Though Rebennack maintained the stage name Dr. John for his prolific career, there are but a finite amount of true Night Tripper recordings. And that's where we're going tonight, to walk on those guilded splinters with that king of the Zulus.
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DANSE KALINDA BA DOOM, tonight