FAVORITE SONG about NEW ORLEANS?

[NightTrain]

Selections are listed in approximate chronological order.

[On the Road]

1. I Like "Pearl of the Quarter" by Steely Dan

but I voted for Professor Longhair.

[wicket]

2. Arlooooooo!

"Good morning America, how are ya?" :D

[Gato Moteado]

3. i voted for city of new orleans.....

but it was written by steve goodman, not arlo...and it's really about a train called "the city of new orleans" not the city itself.

[NightTrain]

5. I know the song was not specifically about New Orleans.

In fact, I almost didn't include it for that reason. But in the end, I put it in because I think it's a good record.

[Gato Moteado]

33. i'm glad you put it there!

it's long been one of my favorite songs. i saw goodman perform it before he died. he was awesome.

by the way, it was also one of the first songs i learned to play on the guitar.

[mr_hat]

4. Congo Square by Sonny Landreth

[GumboYaYa]

9. Good choice.

[Spider Jerusalem]

6. "I Wish I Was In New Orleans (In The Fourth Ward)", Tom Waits...

off his album "Small Change"...

[Gildor Inglorion]

7. "New Orleans Ladies" by Louisiana's LaRue (sp?)

n/t

[NightTrain]

15. "LeRoux," actually. And you must have a great musical memory!

:hi:

[mac56]

8. "Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans?" by Satchmo.

Beats the rest, hands down.

[Nashvilliberal]

19. Yeah, You Right!

Grew up on the West Bank, heard this song a thousand times, played it countless times working as a musician in N.O. Never really appreciated it until I left.

There's really NO place like home.

[markus]

21. Hell, yes.

Any poll in which that song doesn't win has been freeped.

Where on the WB you hail from? I worked over there for over five years for Guide Newspapers.

[Nashvilliberal]

48. The West Bank Guide?

Boy, that takes me back. I'm from Belle Chasse; grew up a half mile from the mighty Mississippi.

[bif]

25. Amen

Satchmo was the best!

[markus]

39. Dija mean, "Pops"?

n/t

[tishaLA]

41. That's the one.

[gonefishing]

HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN

There is a house in New Orleans they call the Rising Sun
It's been the ruin of many of poor boys and God I know I'm one
Mama, you got to tell your children not to do what I had done
To spend your life in sin and misery in the house of the rising sun
There is a house in New Orleans they call the rising sun
It's been the ruin of many of poor boys and God I know I'm one

[Kolesar]

18. Oh yeah!

Actually, I don't recognize most of the other ones, so I voted for Arlo Guthrie

[dae]

27. My fav-o-rite song of all time, you got it right!

:D

[Wickerman]

10. The City of New Orleans by Steve Goodman

always liked the original version a tad better - either way, its a strong song.

[kodi]

47. glad to see someone giving the composer his due

goodman's version is my favorite one.

[Bake]

50. I've got a live version by Goodman and John Prine

It is just KILLER!!

That song's not really about New Orleans per se. It's about a TRAIN. Nevertheless, I LOVE THAT SONG!!

Bake

[myrna minx]

11. "New Orleans" from the Simpsons...

"New Orleans"

Long before the Superdome
Where the Saints of football play...
Lived a city that the damned call home
Hear their hellish rondelet...


New Orleans!
Home or pirates, drunks and whores
New Orleans!
Tacky, overpriced souvenir store
If you want to go to hell, you should take a trip
To the Sodom and Gomorrah of the Mississip'
New Orleans!
Stinking, rotten, vomiting, vile
New Orleans!
Putrid, brackish, moggotty, foul
New Orleans!
Crummy, lousy, rancid and rank
New Orleans!

[Nashvilliberal]

49. THEM'S FIGHTIN' WORDS!

Gotta love the Simpsons, though. "Hear their hellish rondelet..." Oh, man, is that funny.

[GumboYaYa]

12. This is one of my favorite topics.

There are probably 100 different songs that I could list depending upon my mood, but a standard that is always at the top is Iko-Iko.

My grandma and your grandma
Were sittin' by the fire.
My grandma told your grandma:
"I'm gonna set your flag on fire."
Chorus:
Talkin' 'bout: Hey now! Hey now!
Iko, Iko, unday
Jockamo feeno ai nané.
Jockamo fee nané.
Look at my king all dressed in red.
Iko, Iko, unday.
I betcha five dollars he'll kill you dead.
Jockamo fee nané
Chorus:
My flag boy and your flag boy
Were sittin' by the fire.
My flag boy told your flag boy:
"I'm gonna set your flag on fire."
Chorus:
See that guy all dressed in green ?
Iko, Iko, unday. He's not a man;
He's a lovin' machine.
Jockamo fee nané.
Chorus

How is this about New Orleans you ask. First it was written by Sugar Boy Crawford and the Cane Cutters, a New Orleans legend. Second flag boys refer to the lead and tail on a Mardi Gras Indian parade who would carry the flag of the tribe and spot rival trbes taht are parading that day. Sometimes you see them referred to as spy boys, but in reality those are two different functions in the Mardi Gras Indian parade.

[NightTrain]

17. Could've guessed that from your screen name!

;)

[Whitacre D_WI]

13. Pass that bottle to me!

[Red_Storm]

14. Moon Over Bourbon Street - Sting

[Bonhomme Richard]

16. Goin Back to New Orleans with......

Dr. John and The Neville Bros.
Da Da Da Da Da Da Da Daaaaa Da
Da Da Da Da Da Da Da Daaaaa Da da da

[markus]

22. Dr. John + Nevilles: Ohhhhh

Best - damn - jam - ever - heard:

Dr. John and the Nevilles at Wolf Trap in DC on a 15 or 20 minutes Gilded Splinters. Thought I'd died and gone to, well, I wasn't sure where. But it was good at the time.

Around '90.

[Bonhomme Richard]

24. Fun Stuff.....

The band I was in used to play that tune and believe me when I tell you it was real weird to sing.
The crowd loved it.

[GumboYaYa]

26. I like the version on Dr. John's "Goin Back to NO"

album. If I remember correctly that is Mac, the Nevilles, Pete Fountain and several other notable New Orleans musicians.

[southpaw]

20. King of New Orleans

Better Than Ezra

[GumboYaYa]

30. Tom Drummond, the bass player from BTZ, is a friend of mine

from high school.

[Padraig18]

23. Pssst! "THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS" is about a train.

The Illinois Central train #58/59. :)

[I AM SPARTACUS]

46. and that train goes...where?

[Bridget Burke]

28. Sentimental choice: 912 Greens by Ramblin' Jack Elliott

More a story than a song, about beatnik ramblin' through New Orleans looking for a banjo player. Something about a dancer & a banana tree & a 3-legged cat named Kerouac.

Seriously, anything by Dr. John. Has anybody here read "Under a Hoodoo Moon: The Life of Dr. John the Night Tripper"? He knows his New Orleans history & tells it all.

[Blue-Jay]

29. Neville Brothers - "Congo Square"

Off the "Live From Planet Earth" Album. Do yourself a favor and buy it!

(yeah, I know they didn't write it, but theirs is the best version)

[geniph]

31. City of New Orleans was by Steve Goodman

he always used to thank Arlo Guthrie for covering it, and thus paying his bills during a very lean time. By the way, it's not about the city.

[GumboYaYa]

32. Big Chief is another classic not mentioned yet.

I particularly like the version on Anders Osborne's collaboration with Monk Boudreaux.

[robertpaulsen]

34. Baby Please Don't Go

Baby, please don't go
Baby, please don't go
Baby, please don't go
Down to New Orleans
You know I love you so
Baby please don't go

Great song by Them with Van Morrison. First thing that popped into my mind when I read the question was that scene in David Lynch's Wild At Heart where Harry Dean Stanton is driving to his doom in New Orleans. Classic r&b.

[VOX]

35. "New Orleans Wins the War" by Randy Newman

Don't remember much about my baby days,
But I been told
We used to live on Willow near the Garden District
Next to the Sugar Bowl
Momma used to wheel me past an ice cream wagon
One side for White and one side for Colored
I remember trash cans floatin' down Canal Street
It rained every day one summer
Momma used to take me to Audubon Park
Show me the ways of the world
She said, "here comes a white boy, there goes a black one,
that one's an octoroon
This little cookie here's a macaroon, that big round thing's
a red balloon
And the paper down here's called the Picayune
And here's a New Orleans tune"

In 1948 my Daddy came to the city
Told the people that they'd won the war
Maybe they'd heard it, maybe not
Probably they'd heard it and just forgot
'Cause they built him a platform there in Jackson Square
And the people came to hear him from everywhere
They started to party and they partied some more
'Cause New Orleans had won the war
(We knew we'd do it, we done whipped the Yankees)

Daddy said, "I'm gonna get this boy out of this place
Bound to sap his strength
People have fun here, and I think that they should
But nobody from here every come to no good
They're gonna pickle him in brandy and tell him he's saved
Then throw fireworks all 'round his grave"

So he took us down to the airport, and flew us back to L.A.
That was the end of my baby days
Blue blue morning, blue blue day
All your bad dreams drift away
It's a blue blue morning, of a blue blue day
Lose those bad dreams
Those gray clouds above you, what you want them around
with you for?
You got someone to love you
Who could ask for more?
It's a blue blue morning, of a blue blue day
All your bad dreams drift away

[JohnLocke]

36. I was born in New Orleans. (nt)

[lazarus]

37. Border of the Quarter

By Leon Redbone:

I come back to New Orleans
'Cause thats the only place I've been
Where the air's so thick and sweet
Feels like lovin' arms around me
lazy trees, ocean breeze
rainy evenings listening
The music oozing out of every door
its like my heaven made to order
Inside the Border of the Quarter
Lord, ain't no place like I've ever been before

I used watch and wonder at the ones who sing the blues
And try to find out why they'd want to get so low
But even tho I can't explain it now
I join in when they're singin'
And when the song is over ...Lord oh Lord!

There's something about the way the women walk in New Orleans
Or maybe its just me cause I'm love with all I've seen there
Bedroom by the balcony, laughter lifting from the street
Forgetting what my pocket watch is for
Its like my heaven made to order
Inside the Border of the Quarter
Lord, ain't no place like I've ever been before

I used watch and wonder at the ones who sing the blues
And try to find out why they'd want to get so low
But even tho I can't explain it now
I join in when they're singing
And when the song is over ...Lord oh Lord!

I come back to New Orleans
Cause thats the only place I've been
Where the air's so thick and sweet
Feels like lovin' arms around me
lazy trees, ocean breeze
rainy evenings glistening
The music oozing out of every door
its like my heaven made to order
Inside the Border of the Quarter
Lord, ain't no place like I've ever been before

[The Lone Liberal]

38. New Orleans ladies

New Orleans ladies
A sassy style that will drive you crazy
And they hold you like the light
Hugs the wick when this candle's burning
Them Creole babies
Thin and brown and downright lazy
And they roll just like a river
A little wade will last forever

All the way
From Bourbon Street to Esplanade
They sashay by...
They sashay by...

New Orleans ladies
A flair for life, love, and laughter
And they hold you like the night
Holds a chill when this cold wind's blowing
Them Creole babies
They strut and sway from dusk til dawn
And they roll just like the river
A little wade will last forever

All the way
From Bourbon Street to Esplanade
They sashay by...
They sashay by...

[ChoralScholar]

40. Battle of New Orleans - Johnny Horton

In 1814 we took a little trip
along with Colonel Jackson down the mighty Mississip.
We took a little bacon and we took a little beans
And we caught the bloody British in the town of New Orleans.

We fired our guns and the British kept a'comin.
There wasn't nigh as many as there was a while ago.
We fired once more and they began to runnin' on
down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.

We looked down the river and we seen the British come.
And there must have been a hundred of'em beatin' on the drum.
They stepped so high and they made the bugles ring.
We stood by our cotton bales and didn't say a thing.

Old Hickory said we could take 'em by surprise
If we didn't fire our muskets til we looked 'em in the eyes
We held our fire til we seen their faces well.
then we opened up with squirrel guns and really gave 'em..well.

Yeah, they ran through the briars and they ran through the brambles
And they ran through the bushes where a rabbit couldn't go.
They ran so fast that the hounds couldn't catch 'em
on down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.

We fired our cannon til the barrel melted down.
So we grabbed an alligator and we fought another round.
We filled his head with cannon balls and powdered his behind
and when we touched the powder off, the gator lost his mind.

Hup 2, 3, 4. Sound off 3, 4.... Hup 2, 3, 4.
Sound off 3, 4.... Hup 2, 3, 4

[tishaLA]

42. Two more!

"Lady Marmelade" by Labelle--not the Xtina incarnation of the song

and

"Dark Lady" by Cher. :dunce:

The fortune queen of New Orleans
Was brushing her cat in her black limousine
On the back seat were scratches
From the marks of men her fortune she had won
Couldn't see through the tinted glass
She said, "Home James" and he hit the gas
I followed her to some darkened room
She took my money, she said, "I'll be with you soon"


Dark lady laughed and danced
And lit the candles one by one
Danced to her gypsy music
Till her brew was done
Dark lady played black magic
Till the clock struck on the twelve
She told me more about me
Than I knew myself

[kskiska]

43. Basin Street Blues

Won't you come along with me
To the Mississippi
We'll take the boat to the land of dreams
Steam down the river down to New Orleans

The band's there to meet us
And old friends to greet us
Where all the people always meet
Heaven on earth they call it Basin Street

Basin Street is the street
Where the elite always meet
In New Orleans the land of dreams
You'll never know how nice it seems or just how much it really means

Glad to be oh yessiree
Where welcome's free are dear to me
Where I can lose
My Basin Street blues

Glad to be oh yessiree
Where welcome's free are dear to me
Where I can lose
My Basin Street blues

Ain't you glad you came with me
Way down to the Mississippi
We took the boat to the land of dreams
Steam down the river to New Orleans

[maggrwaggr]

44. Yes! Sung by Louis Armstrong!

glad somebody mentioned that one

[jpgray]

45. Man NightTrain!! You do this every time!! 'House of the Rising Sun'?

:D