Dr. John – One Night Late (Remastered) (1977/2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24-bit/96 kHz | Time – 30:46 minutes | 588 MB | Genre: Blues
Studio Master, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Karate Records
Probably recorded a year or so before the sessions for his first major label debut as Dr. John on the 1967 ATCO LP, Gris Gris, “Shoo-Ra” is from sessions Mac Rebennack cut in Los Angeles, where he had gone to seek work as a musician, songwriter, and producer and to escape lingering legal problems back in New Orleans. As he relates in his autobiography, Under A Hoodoo Moon, a number of his sessions from that era, many of which where simple songwriting demos not intended for release, were later appropriated and sold to cash in on the success he had as Dr. John. An aggregation of hustling shysters, including Mac’s former manager in the 1960s, Charile Green, Charlies Underwood (engineer on some of the sessions), and Huey Meaux of (aptly named) Crazy Cajun Records, who Mac worked for off and on, were the perpetrators. Many of the tunes that just had Mac playing paino and singing were even overdubbed to add other musicians; and, in a few cases, instrumental tracks had a “sound-alike” singer added. P-i-t-i-f-u-l. The cobbled together, random results were released on various low-rent LPs over the years and are still coming out in CD versions. The unauthorized LP I picked up long ago, One Night Late, is just one example (I have several more – one of which strangely has some uncredited Ronnie Barron tracks on it, too). Green and Underwood share “producer” credit here; and most of the songs on the record are Rebennack/Jessie Hill collaborations, as the two friends were writing/publishing partners out in LA, CA in the pre-Dr. John days.
Tracklist
1. Dr. John – Women is the Root of All Evil
2. Dr. John – Shoo-Ria
3. Dr. John – Tipatina
4. Dr. John – One Night Late
5. Dr. John – Cat and Mouse Game
6. Dr. John – She’s Just a Square
7. Dr. John – Bald Headed
8. Dr. John – In the Night
9. Dr. John – Helpin ‘Hand
10. Dr. John – Mean Cheatin ‘Woman
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