......... The Royal Spades circa 1960
......... Don Nix - Steve Cropper - Charles "Packy" Axton - Donald "Duck" Dunn - Terry Johnson - Ronnie Stoots - Wayne Jackson

ROCKMAN

.................................. Melbourne newspaper clipping 1973

ROCKMAN

Original LP + Beano signed by EC according to the seller on Ebay

HMN
StonesCave

Some good ol'ones


Dale Hawkins

The Big Bopper

Sam Cooke

Roy Orbison

Credits Tommy Edwards Archives

HMN
StonesCave

..........Hendrix at 70 --- Guitar Player May 2012

ROCKMAN

Don't think anyone has posted this yet (apologies if they have):

Copied from Waddy Wachtel's website: full interview with more pictures here; [www.waddywachtelinfo.com]



It is not only an honor, but a pleasure as well to interview one of the most sought after guitar players in rock n roll history; Waddy I thank you for the gift of your time.

You are one of the premier guitar players in the industry, how long have you been playing, and what was your first guitar and amp?

I've been playing since I was 9. I'm going to be 65 this year. My first guitar was a Kamico. It was like a little box. But for my next birthday, my father got me a Gibson L7 sunburst. My first amp was a Fender Vibrolux.

Who were you influences?

Its funny ... when I was 9 there weren't any guitar heroes yet; my influence was music and the guitar itself. My mom passed away when I was 6. About a year before that we saw a guy playing a big jazz guitar on television. I remember saying "What is that?" She told me "It's a guitar." I said "That's what I want." I told her "That's what I want to do, I want to play the guitar." After she left, the guitar never left my thoughts, and I badgered my father from the time I was 6 until age 9 when he finally gave in and bought me my first guitar. I was already playing when I first saw Elvis, and that did it! I knew that this was what I would be doing forever. Playing with The Everly Brothers was my first road gig. That's where Warren Zevon and I met. We became brothers. I moved to Los Angeles in 1968. I came out here with a band. After one year we broke up. That's when I began session work. I kept trying to get jobs... finally it happened. A friend mentioned that The Everly Brothers needed someone. I knew everything about every song of theirs, so I auditioned and got the job. I love them, I grew up hearing them. Duane Eddy was my first major influence; hearing "Tequila" by The Champs, and then the Ventures.

Everyone remembers their first band, what was the name of your band, and who was in it?

The Nocturnes, an odd line up, this was in 1961... I was 14. We had a trumpet, an accordion, drums and guitar. The trumpet player Alan Mendelson asked me to join the band. We grew up in New York... we played weddings and bar mitzvahs. Later we replaced the accordion with a friend Leon Salem who played vibraphone. The drummer's name was Nat Schneider, but i'm sorry to say i can't remember our accordionist's last name... Nicky. Sorry Nicky.

You were playing with Linda Ronstadt in the late 70‘s, how did you get this gig, and how long did you play with her?

Peter Asher, her manager and producer, saw me playing with Carole King at Royce Hall U.C.L.A. He came to the show and soon after approached me and asked if I wanted to play with Linda. I was starting to do a lot of session work at that time. Peter was producing J. D. Souther's Black Rose album, and J. D. and I were good friends. I sat in on a session for the song "Simple Man, Simple Dream." I played and Peter liked what he heard, asked me to play on Linda’s record, then out on the road we went... in 1973. I was with her for 3 years. We did the albums Hasten Down the Wind, Simple Dreams, Back in the USA, and Mad Love. “Get Closer” was the single from Mad Love.




(Photo by Neal Preston)


Playing with the X-pensive Winos must have been a trip, what was it like touring and playing with Keith Richards?

It was as good as you could imagine; an amazing reality when Keith called. He said "I'm putting a band together and you are the other guitar player." The band was Bobby Keys, Ivan Neville, Charley Drayton and Steve Jordan. It was the best band that anyone could play in... fantastic. Every night was heaven, pure musicianship. We would blow our own minds. I don’t like to hear too much in my monitor, basically just drums and bass and vocals. Keith and I didn't have each other in our monitors. At the end of the night when we were on the bus, we would listen to the show... and say how great each other did. We would say, “ Damn did you hear what you did”?

You have been touring with Stevie Nicks for a few years now, she must be an angel to work with. What are the plans for this year working with her?

Nothing is carved in stone. We spent a lot of time on the road last year, promoting Stevie’s new record In Your Dreams. We did a lot of shows with Stevie opening for Rod Stewart - all arenas, it was great. Then we toured the U.S. extensively and finished up with a month in Australia from November to December. Right now everything is in limbo... her mom Barbara just passed away. There's nothing booked at this point. And yes, Stevie is most certainly an angel!!!!

You have your own band, aptly named the Waddy Wachtel Band, is this just a fun side project, or do you plan on taking the band on a full blown tour?

If we were offered we would. It started when Jack Tempchin wanted to play in town, so I did it with Jack and Rick Rosas and Phil Jones. At first we played original songs and covered some great tunes, but then we just wanted to rock more, so we took it one more step towards rock n roll. It's basically the best cover band you've ever heard..... we do a lot of great titles, our set list is unbelievable. The singers - Bernard Fowler, Blondie Chaplin, and Jamie Savko - are incredible, Brett Tuggle plays guitar and keyboards, and lately Mindi Abair has been blasting saxophone with us... it's killer stuff. Also on hand is my dear friend Keith Allison who does some great tunes as well. It’s a very strong rock n roll band. We do a couple of original songs, but not enough to really go and tour I think. I'm very proud of the noise we make and everyone on that stage.

Speaking of gear, what is your favorite guitar for stage and studio, and what is your fave amp?

I usually use my Les Paul... I have several of them. One is retired, too old to go out anymore. I use a 1974 mostly - it's a gold top, but it's spray painted white... ugliest thing you've ever seen - along with a Fender Vibro King amp. I use two different rigs on stage. With Stevie I use my old 50 watt Marshall, but with the Waddy Wachtel Band I use two Fender Vibro Kings. Very loud they are!!! I will use a Tele every once in a while, but mostly use a Les Paul or a Strat. But basically whatever the song dictates determines which guitar gets used.

What are your favorite new pedals, and how have they changed from the days with Linda?

I don’t use pedal, no effects. I would use them in the studio if they want me to. I have no pedal board... I feel as though they get in the way when you're on stage. It was suggested that I use one on the intro to “Edge of Seventeen”, but I laughed and said, “No, that’s ok. I can do that without one." And trust me - after a tour with Stevie playing that song, that sometimes can go from 14 to 17 minutes long, my right hand is strong enough to break open walnuts.

I have heard of you playing with just about everyone I know, either in the studio or on tour. Other than the ones mentioned, who have you had the pleasure of playing with, and can you tell us about some of your most memorable?

They're all special. Randy Newman, I played with him on Little Criminals; that was the album “Short People” was on. It was great to find someone that was actually more sarcastic than I am. Upon hearing that song for the first time in the studio, Lenny Waronker his producer said "The song is stupid." Randy said, “Don’t take it personally.” I played on a few of his other albums and on his song "I Love L. A." I've also played with Bob Seger, Bob Dylan, The Bee Gees, to name a few. But one of my absolute favorites was playing on the Rolling Stones album Bridges to Babylon. One night when BB King was there, they had made a deal - if BB would play on their album, they would play on his. Well I had this small amp, BB had a great big sound, Mick was singing, and it came time for BB’s solo and I was really getting into it, and then he says "Take it Waddy." I froze for a moment and thought, "What the @#$%&?" Not one of my better solos... but a very memorable moment nonetheless!!!


I would like to add that this was a very special interview, because it was so enjoyable to talk to Waddy, and he made me feel so at ease. As luck would have it, my cell phone dropped the call not once, but yes, twice. Waddy graciously called me back both times, and we actually got a giggle out of it. I really enjoyed the spontaneous conversations we
had, that actually did not have anything to do with the questions. And for the record...if any one asks, where does Waddy like to eat when he is dining with friends when in Atlanta, Waddy says Sergeant Wyatt Country Bar Bq rocks. One of those spontaneous stories...

............BACKSTAGE - CREEM ------ July 1979

ROCKMAN

Thanks Green Lady for the WW interview

HMN
StonesCave

BEST OF THE BEAT LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC AWARD: GEORGE PORTER, JR.
01 January 2012 — by Alex Rawls



In George Porter, Jr.’s attic studio, he has a laminated, yellowed page from the 1970s with a story on the Meters from a British music magazine hanging on his wall. He has an ad that Warner Brothers Records bought in Rolling Stone congratulating the Meters for being America’s Best Instrumental Band, and a cassette rack nailed to the wall that holds tapes with such titles as “John Mooney, Geo. Porter Jr. & Fingers Taylor, 1987” and “Traub Music Demos 1999.” Porter says he has a cassette copy of everything he’s recorded, whether as a Meter, as part of the studio band for Allen Toussaint’s productions, or from his life after the Meters—2,000 to 3,000 cassettes, he thinks. For a while, he taped Runnin’ Pardners and PBS shows with his mobile recording unit. “When we’re in the van running up and down the highway, I’ll have recorded the gig from the night before, and I’ll plug it into the dashboard and really listen to it,” Porter says. “The band likes listening to the whole gig. In all of our solos, there’s the basis for new songs.” He stopped that practice, though, because it became too time-consuming to set up and break down the rig.

The halls in Porter’s house document his 50-year musical history— photos of him with different incarnations of the Runnin’ Pardners, a shot of him onstage with David Byrne, and one wall of his living room is covered with more photos of him playing live with musical friends. There’s a crayon-drawn message from a fan in Japan, and the only open wall space in his house is behind the door in his bedroom. Other people have photos of family and friends in their homes, and he does too, only his come from life in music.



He showed me how to take New Orleans music to the world. Everything from booking the gig to setting up for the gig to playing the gig, breaking down the gig and getting ready for the next gig. Not only is he the best musician I’ve ever played with; he’s the best roadie I’ve ever had. In the seven years I played with him, he was always the first one to set up and the last one to leave. His whole thing is to make it so that when it’s time to play your instrument, that’s all you have to focus on. You’re not worried about cables going bad, you’re not worried about guitars going out of tune, you’re not worried about soundmen giving you headaches. All you’re worrying about is playing music.

With George, it’s always like you’re playing the song for the first time. “Cissy Strut”—you’ve played it a million times, but he always makes it different. The way he attacks it, the transitions from phrases, and the energy he has. It’s like he’s so excited about playing that it doesn’t matter what song it is, it’s like he’s playing it for the first time.
—John Gros

“I was pretty much the first roadie in New Orleans,” Porter says at home in his living room. “I helped Herb tear down and set all his gear up.” “Herb” was Herbert Wing, who led the Royal Knights in the early 1960s. “A majority of the gigs they played were fraternity parties. If anybody had to part for any special reason, I would play that instrument. Back in those days, you played a four-hour gig. Over the course of the first hour, we played swing and jazz and bebop, and then it started easing toward the Ninth Ward with Fats Domino and Huey Smith and the Clowns kind of stuff. Then the last set of the gig would be the early ‘Hey Pocky Way’ and the more hardcore Earl King and Benny Spellman and Ernie K-Doe kind of music. That’s what I grew up on, you know, Chris Kenner and all that stuff.

“I learned to play jazz with Frank Moten and Walter Washington and the Lastie Brothers, David and Walter Lastie. There was another set of brothers, a saxophone player and a drummer, they were from the Ninth Ward also—What were their names?—those two guys were great. There was a bass player named Ervin Charles, and Ervin Charles’ daddy played guitar with those guys. I had to play bass with those guys when I was 15, 16 years old. They were more of a swing band, and that’s how I learned to play music.”


Photo by Elsa Hahne.

Porter has made an effort to keep jazz as an element of his music, particularly with the Runnin’ Pardners, which had its roots as a jazz band. Jazz keyboard player Phil Parnell had a solo piano gig in a restaurant on Tchoupitoulas, and when the owner suggested he expand the band, he brought in Porter and a drummer—“I think it might have been Bunchy Johnson”—and the owner liked it enough to want it to continue, going so far as to suggest a band name: George Porter and Friends.

“I could see it in Phil’s eyes, he wasn’t happy about that,” Porter says. “I said, ‘Let’s name it Runnin’ Pardners.’ It started as a trio, and it was pretty much almost a jazz gig. I’m a frustrated jazz musician. The music that I played when I was a kid had jazz in it; it was a part of the growth for me.”

Years of including jazz players in the Runnin’ Pardners has affected not only his own music but the way he plays Meters songs. During a rehearsal for the 2005 reunion in San Francisco, guitarist Leo Nocentelli stopped them in the middle of “Cissy Strut.”

“‘No brah, that’s not right, brah,’” Porter remembers him saying. “I said, ‘Okay Leo you’re right.’ I had been playing it that way for years—dum duh da da dad um—which was the wrong way. The jazz musicians were the ones who added those extra notes.”



[In the ‘90s] We did trio gigs downstairs at the Funky Butt, me and George. George says, “I can’t play jazz.” I said, “Just come play, @#$%&.” George says that all the time, but he’s got ears like an elephant. He can learn a hard song in two rounds. That was the beginning of what we call the Trio.

We don’t talk about what we’re going to do; we don’t even discuss music before we do it and whatever happens, happens. Together, we can polish people. We can give people double support, which is what a rhythm section is generally supposed to do, even though we’re playing free, improvised music. It takes two people to create a groove. One person can make a great beat, but it takes two people to make
a groove. When you get two people to synchronize, that’s powerful enough to draw the other players into it, which creates a groove, when everybody’s on the same page. So it’s science.
—Johnny Vidacovich

The Meters emerged in the early 1960s when Art Neville formed a band to play with him and brothers Aaron and Cyril. Porter, Leo Nocentelli and later Zigaboo Modeliste would join them to play the Nitecap on Louisiana Avenue, then the Ivanhoe on Bourbon Street. It was through these regular gigs that Allen Toussaint approached them about working on sessions. In 1997, Porter told OffBeat’s Alex Oliver, “Working with Allen, if you paid attention, you learned something…. I took a very strong posture of an observer, watching the stuff that was going on in the studio, how Cosimo [Matassa] made things work in the studio. I learned the operational side of that studio. I’m a roadie by heart, so I learned the business from the technical point. To me, that meant more than just being a musician, I wanted to know how this was applied. I was in school.”

Porter cut three albums with Lee Dorsey and sessions with Johnny Adams, Earl King and Betty Harris to name a few. He cut an album with Frankie Ford that has never been released, though he’s not sure if Toussaint or Wardell Quezergue produced it. He was on the sessions for Labelle’s 1974 Nightbirds album, which included the single “Lady Marmalade.” During the sessions, Toussaint and Zigaboo Modeliste had a falling out, so Modeliste and Herman Ernest both played drums on the sessions, and they both played on versions of “Lady Marmalade.” Porter can’t tell who’s on the final version since Toussaint wrote the drum part.


Photo by Golden Richard III.

“I remember the day we recorded Herman’s version because after we finished the session that day, we all ended up back at my mom’s house eating gumbo,” Porter says. “Patti and everybody came up to the house.”

He remembers recording Robert Palmer’s 1974 album Sneakin’ Sally Through the Alley, but for less positive reasons. “The Robert Palmer session stands out because we were ignored,” Porter says. “That record came out and there was no mention of us anywhere. I love the music; I hated the record.”

To make matters worse, Porter recalls seeing Palmer claim to have played all the parts in an interview with a British magazine. For a long time, he’d have nothing to do with any of the songs until Runnin’ Pardner guitarist Brint Anderson suggested they play the title song. “I said, ‘You sing it.’’” It became part of a medley with one of his own songs, “Odiferous.” After a year, Anderson suggested that they add “Sailing Shoes”, which opened the album, and it joined the medley. The popularity of the album is such that at a recent festival, fans came up to Porter and asked when he was going to add “Hey Julia”.



George always comes in to play. His signature is that he learns songs really fast and comes up with amazing parts right off the bat. He hears it and jumps to something that’s really cool. George will participate fully in the music, then when people go in to listen, he’ll get on his computer. He won’t even listen to the playback. He’s just there. He gets there early and when he’s done, he goes home.

You talk to musicians about drummer/bass combinations, and they’ll say that “So-and-So is behind the beat” and “So-and-So is on top of the beat.” With George, you hear different things. Some people say he’s in front and some say he’s way behind. To me, he just plays with who he plays with and the takes come out as they are, but I’ve seen people try to ProTool George’s part back. To me, that was the sound.
—Mark Bingham

As a result of his studio experience, Porter became an in-demand studio bass player starting in the early 1990s, not only playing on local sessions but with national artists such as David Byrne (1992’s Uh-Oh) and Tori Amos (1992’s Little Earthquakes, 1994’s Under the Pink, 1996’s Boys for Pele). He explained the process of recording with Amos to Alex Oliver in 1997.

“We overdubbed all of our parts to Tori’s existing, completed tracks,” Porter said. “Myself, the drummer and the guitar player were the last guys to come in. I let the drummer put his parts on first, and then I would come in and just play from start to finish by myself. Then she’d come in and we’d go through it and find parts that fit with what she was hearing. We’d kind of go through it a verse at a time and find out what worked and what didn’t work.”

Porter didn’t make Amos funky, though, nor did he funkify Mo’ Beauty by Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s Alec Ounsworth. “Just because Stan [Stanton Moore] and George and Robert [Walter] have done certain projects—have certain tendencies that people categorize—that doesn’t mean that they can’t do whatever the hell they want,” Ounsworth said in 2009.

“I consider myself a musician’s musician,” Porter told Oliver. “I don’t just play funk. Hey, if they’ve got a country and western session out there, I’ll play it, and not only that, I’ll know how to play it.”


Photo by Elsa Hahne.

He admits that he loves the studio and the control over the creative process, but that doesn’t mean things always go the way he thinks they should. On one recent session, he thought the rhythm section could have completed its parts in a day, though he was on the clock for significantly longer. But he understands. “With producers, you’ve got to give them space because they’re paid to do a job,” he says. “They’re paid to put the artist in a certain light.”

In the last year or so, he recorded Eden Brent’s 2010 album Ain’t Got No Troubles, Marianne Faithfull’s 2010 album Horses and High Heels, and Ruthie Foster’s upcoming album, Let it Burn, all recorded at Piety Street Studios. “Eden, being a musician, was more hands-on,” he says. When the Ruthie Foster sessions turned from covers to her original material, they hit a high point for Porter: “She said, ‘Enough, this is what I want to do.’ We went after doing some of her stuff, and that made me feel really good. ‘Yeahhhh, that’s just Ruthie now!’”

Marianne Faithfull? “She liked me. She said, ‘We’re taking you on the road with us.’” So far, that invitation hasn’t come, but if it did, Porter’s not sure he could go. He’s playing in five bands right now: The Meters, the funky Meters, the Runnin’ Pardners, the Trio, and 7 Walkers.

As for the finished albums? “I haven’t heard any of them.”



George was a vital part of my recording. He had it together. He showed up with the material learned. He kept a schedule going when it came to the music. He obviously showed up early and had downloaded songs that he needed as a reference, and he had it set up so that everybody could hear it right there in the studio while everybody’s really hot and ready to go.

He had great ideas about how to get in and out of tunes as well, which I know he’s known for. He even picked up the guitar a couple of times to give direction to the other guys—Ike [Stubblefield], Russell [Batiste] and Dave [Easley]. I enjoyed being in the room with him; he was really encouraging to me as a vocalist to relax. He reminded me that they were there for me. He had a real comforting way of assuring me that everything was going as it should be, just trust the process.
—Ruthie Foster

The tracks on the first Meters albums were short, intricate, clockwork-like funk machines. For years, people who knew the Meters through those recordings have wondered where the lengthy jam versions came from. Porter takes some of the credit.

“I’ve always been a part of that,” he says. “There might have been one song [on the Josie albums] that was four minutes. When we first left and went on the road, we had an album of two-minute songs. For our gigs, every one of those songs got stretched.

“I don’t think anybody wants to come see a two-minute song anymore. I think people want to see how distorted, or how disfigured you can make it. See how far away from the track you can get, and if you can get back to it. That’s the secret to the stretching. It’s about whether or not you come back to the song. When I was playing with PBS, we would take songs so far out that it would be nonsense to try to go back. Then we would go somewhere else. The funky Meters have done that. We start the gig and when we stop playing, the gig is over. We just go from song to song to song. We might play 16, 17 songs and maybe stop one time.”

On his new album, Can’t Beat the Funk!, Porter revisits the Meters catalogue, adapting tracks he felt had been overlooked in Meters reunion shows to his current lineup. He suggested 24 songs for the Meters’ reunion in 2000, but only “What Cha’ Say” and “Liver Splash” made the cut. Since then, one more of his choices, “The Hand Clapping Song,” has been added to Meters reunion show setlists. At Jazz Fest 2010, Porter announced that he planned to re-record some Meters material and within a month, he had the band in his home studio working out arrangements. “I didn’t really want everybody to mimic what they had heard in the original tracks,” he says. “I wanted everybody to pretty much bring themselves to the song and take some of the organ solos and make them synth solos or piano solos. Having Brint’s guitar solo be a slide.”


George Porter, Jr. with The Meters at Jazz Fest 1991. Photo by Clayton Call.

Porter has played with drummers Russell Batiste and Johnny Vidacovich longer than he played with Modeliste when the Meters were together (1964-1978), and the Runnin’ Pardners have outlasted the Meters. Still, the Meters are the band with which he’ll always be most associated, and when he records their songs or they reunite, it’s news. Some were epic, such as the 2005 shows in San Francisco and at Jazz Fest, while others have been less so. This year’s Voodoo set was special in that for the first time, a reunion included Cyril Neville.

The day was a long one for Porter and Art Neville who had played a funky Meters show in Sacramento the night before. Their flight home put them on the ground in New Orleans around 3:30 p.m., less than three hours before their scheduled start time. Cyril’s guest spot wasn’t on the setlist, but Art sent the word to Porter, who was onstage checking the drums, that Cyril was there, and Art wanted to bring him up to sing “Be My Lady.” Porter said no to the song choice, preferring instead “No More Okey Doke.”

“The night before in Sacramento I was playing a bass solo and the pocket fell right to me and I went into ‘No More Okey Doke,’ Porter says. “ I ran down the stairs, grabbed Mark [Mullins] and Craig [Klein], and I said, ‘Y’all guys remember that little horn part in ‘Okey Doke”?’ Craig started singing it.” They were pressed into service, and the whole guest spot came together in the 15 or so minutes before show time.

“It was nice,” Porter says. “Cyril came up and gave a good presentation.”

As he tells that story, which involved one minor miscommunication, it sounds like dealing with the Meters is never simple and probably hasn’t been for years. Over the years, the Meters have reunited and pulled out on each other, and more than 40 years of history together has to leave a mark.

“I don’t think anybody dislikes each other,” Porter says. “I think that we just don’t keep in touch, but we didn’t keep in touch back then.” How did it get like that? “I don’t have a real answer for that. I think it’s just neglect. We probably think that [the others] are going to be around forever, and that’s obviously not true. But that probably had a lot to do with management and everybody who got in between us. They were able to do that because we just didn’t talk to each other enough. That’s probably the case even with the funky Meters. I talk to Brian [Stoltz] all the time, but he calls me and it probably has a lot to do with the mess that’s going on with PBS.”

Is playing with the Meters still fun?

“I still enjoy myself, even when we have a train wreck, which isn’t often. I thought Voodoo went flawless. Some of the gigs that we rehearsed didn’t go as well as Voodoo did.”


George Porter, Jr. with the funky Meters in 1998.



Porter’s newest project is 7 Walkers, a band with Papa Mali, Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann and Matt Hubbard, and it splits the difference between Porter and Mali’s Louisiana-centric musical world and that of the Dead, with lyrics written by Dead lyricist Robert Hunter. Because Porter’s so busy, Reid Mathis often subs for him, and recently Kirk Joseph has filled in for him with increasing regularity. Like so many things in Porter’s life, his association with 7 Walkers started onstage. He was playing a show at Tipitina’s with Papa Mali in 2009, and in the middle of the rehearsal while tuning up, Mali asked him what he was doing on a given date. With 7 Walkers, Porter is playing with his second Grateful Dead drummer. “I had done a Mickey Hart tour about two years earlier,” he recalls.

I asked him if he had any interest in playing Grateful Dead songs, and he said, “Yeah.” So we took it from there. He went out with us for two weeks, and him and Bill hit it off really well. Personally and musically, they were firing on all cylinders, joking and laughing like they were old friends. Two days later, Bill said, “We’ve got to ask him to join the band.” That’s how it went down. For me, it’s a dream come true; I feel like if I never do another cool thing in my life, bringing together the bassist for the Meters with the drummer for the Dead is enough for one lifetime.

I’ve been a life-long fan of the Meters. They were the very first real band I saw. I was 12 years old and I saw them during Mardi Gras. They were playing outside on a flat-bed truck and some Mardi Gras Indians were there. 1969, 1970, something like that. In my mind, the Meters were as big as the Dead if not bigger.
—Papa Mali

While the music has always been rewarding for Porter, the business rarely has. Business-related tensions fed the initial break-up of the Meters. In 1991, he told OffBeat’s Anthony Clark, “Music was a seedy business back then. We couldn’t figure out how we could play so much and not make any money. Somebody wasn’t telling us everything.” He credits a number of management decisions for limiting the band, and in 2005, Art Neville told OffBeat contributing editor John Swenson, “Somebody didn’t want us to make it.” Over the years, legal and financial issues created tensions that affected relationships between the Meters, particularly those that arose when Meters’ beats were sampled for hip-hop tracks.

Currently, Porter faces legal issues that emerge from the break-up of PBS. When he decided he didn’t want to be in the band anymore, its management, Highsteppin’ Productions, sued to recoup the money it says the band owes it, money it contends the band authorized it to spend on PBS’ behalf. Porter is understandably careful when talking about the suit, conceding only that the sum is in the mid-hundreds of thousands. News of the suit has prompted a number of PBS benefit shows around the country (including one that almost made it impossible for him to attend the Best of the Beat), and it has led to a number of sky-is-falling type postings online and a website, SavePBS.org. Porter, Brian Stoltz and Russell Batiste face possible bankruptcy, and if things go badly, Porter could lose his share of the Meters’ publishing. “All the depositions have been done,” he says. “Trial dates are set. It was supposed to have been around Mardi Gras; now it’s two weeks before Jazz Fest here in New Orleans.”



George Porter, Jr. has spent a life playing music, and he’s been generous with his talent, playing with others and sharing what he has learned with others. OffBeat’s John Swenson has referred to the Runnin’ Pardners as a finishing school for New Orleans funk bands, and John Gros and Mark Mullins are just two of his many graduates. He laughs at the image, but when talking about the band, he at one point talks about a keyboard player “who came through the school.” Part of his way is to trust the people he’s playing with, offering no more guidance than necessary. “I say what neighborhood we want to go to, and then I leave the individuals room to get there as best they can,” he says. “I think I told Brint once or twice, ‘Don’t take that left turn. Don’t go there no more.’”

More than anything else, he leads by example, at all times putting the music first. “No matter how creative or outside he gets, George is always holding down the groove,” Papa Mali says. You can always feel that pulse. George is the root of New Orleans funk.”

[www.offbeat.com]

..................Mick Jagger ----------------------- Scarlett Johansson -------------------------------- Jeff Bezos
............................. Costume Institute Gala - Metropolitan Museum Of Art - New York - 8 May 2012

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........................... THE AGE --- 4 June 2012

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.............. RECORD COLLECTOR 400 ---- April 2012

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......................... THE AGE -- 5 JUNE 2012

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most wanted - Record Collector 402 --- June 2012

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.............. FILTER BOOKS - MOJO 224 - July 2012

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.................. THE AGE -- 7 June 2012

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................................... Record Collector 400 - April 2012

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THE AGE ------- 8 June 2012

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..................................... MOJO 224 --- July 2012

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Born on the Bayou: Exploring Louisiana in 18 Songs
Listen to our playlist of funk, soul, hip-hop and more from the musically rich 18th state



Dr. John
Jeffrey Ufberg/WireImage

By JAMES SULLIVAN
June 11, 2012 3:00 PM ET

The Lousiana Purchase of 1803 brought nearly a million acres of new land to the United States of America, spreading as far afield as Montana. Working out to about three cents an acre, the purchase continues to pay outrageous dividends, not least in the form of the rich and diverse cultural heritage of the state of Louisiana, which became the 18th state of the Union in 1812. The birthplace of jazz, the state has also given us Cajun and zydeco music and its own brands of blues, country, funk and hip hop, and the place can even make a strong case as the original home of rock & roll. Here are 18 songs that have helped define the rapturous music of the 18th state


"Wild Man," Galactic feat. Big Chief Bo Dollis
The past is never far removed in New Orleans. Case in point: this inspired pairing of new-breed funk fanatics Galactic with Big Chief Bo Dollis, who has been helping keep the Mardi Gras Indian tradition alive with the Wild Magnolias since the Sixties.

"Little Liza Jane," Huey "Piano" Smith & His Clowns
After recording for Little Richard, Lloyd Price and others, Huey "Piano" Smith became a bandleader himself, scoring hits including "Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu." "Little Liza Jane" is the Clowns' raucous version of one of the original standards of the New Orleans brass band tradition.

"Mr. Big Stuff," Jean Knight
Inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame in 2007, New Orleans native Jean Knight is best known for her 1971 Stax single "Mr. Big Stuff," which spent five weeks atop the R&B chart and hit Number Two on the pop chart. Before the song hit, she was baking bread at Loyola University for a living.

"Diggy Liggy Lo," Doug and Rusty Kershaw
The brothers' biggest hit, "Louisiana Man," was broadcast from the Apollo 12 moon mission. Their second-biggest, "Diggy Liggy Lo," was a direct product of the family's upbringing on a houseboat in Cajun country: the couple in the song "fell in love at the fais do-do."

"Tipitina," Professor Longhair
Yes, the howling, rhumba-rhythm piano-pounder known as ‘Fess wrote the song that gave one of New Orleans' most beloved nightclubs its name. Henry Roeland Byrd was a one-man synthesis of New Orleans music, from Congo Square to Harry Connick, Jr.

"Time Is on My Side," Irma Thomas
Soul queen Irma Thomas has had several notable hits in her career – "It's Raining," "Ruler of My Heart" – but her signature song was, oddly, originally a B-side. Her version of Jerry Ragovoy's "Time Is on My Side" came out less than a year before the Rolling Stones', and it's still Irma's song.

"Shake Your Hips," Slim Harpo
Another Louisiana classic covered by the Stones as "Hip Shake", the sly "Shake Your Hips" was written and first recorded by Baton Rouge native Slim Harpo, who maintained his own trucking business until his premature death in 1970.

"Be My Guest," Fats Domino
The Fat Man was at least as instrumental in establishing rock & roll as Elvis was; with the tugging rhythm of "Be My Guest," he almost singlehandedly invented ska, as a generation of elder Jamaicans will attest.

"Buttercup," Lucinda Williams
Once named "America's Best Songwriter" by Time magazine, Lake Charles' Lucinda Williams is the daughter of the poet Miller Williams. The world-wise "Buttercup" kicked off her most recent album, 2011's Blessed.

"Look-Ka Py Py," Meters
Leo Nocentelli's chicken-scratch guitar on the Meters' classic soul instrumentals practically defined the sound of Southern funk. The band was a complete package of talent, with bassist George Porter Jr. and strummer Zigaboo Modeliste locked in syncopation while leader Art Neville held court on the keys.

"Bon Ton Roulet," Clifton Chenier
The "King of Zydeco," who died in 1987, played the accordion, but he was also credited with designing the frottoir, the percussive washboard worn over the shoulders. Crossing Cajun dance music with R&B, Chenier effectively invented zydeco itself, much as James Brown "invented" funk. "Bon Ton Roulet" is Chenier's 1967 version of the original song by Clarence Garlow, with whom he toured as the "Two Crazy Frenchmen."

"I Walk on Guilded Splinters," Dr. John
Though he moved to Los Angeles to become an in-demand session musician at age 23, Mac Rebennack is New Orleans Third Ward through and through. Before he hit the charts with 1973's "Right Place Wrong Time," before he reintroduced himself with this year's Locked Down (produced by the Black Keys' Dan Auerbach), the Night Tripper epitomized his voodoo-priest vibe on his classic "I Walk on Guilded Splinters."

"Yellow Moon," Neville Brothers
If the Marsalis family is the first family of New Orleans music, the Nevilles are a very close second. After solo hits like Aaron's "Tell It Like It Is" and group efforts including Art's work with the Meters, the family banded together, recording more than a dozen albums, including the definitive Yellow Moon in 1989 with longtime Crescent City producing fixture Daniel Lanois.

"Suzie Q," Dale Hawkins
Without Dale Hawkins, the pride of Gold Mine, Louisiana, John Fogerty might never have imagined being "born on the bayou." A creator of the swamp-rock sound, Hawkins' "Susie Q" combined rockabilly, R&B and a little hoodoo for one of rock's most enduring classics.

"Sneakin' Sally Through the Alley," Lee Dorsey
"Everything I do is funky like Lee Dorsey," rapped the Beastie Boys. The late New Orleans soul singer had a Number Seven pop hit (Number One R& with 1961's "Ya Ya." Though this protégé of Allen Toussaint never again reached that height, he left behind a string a excellent nuggets, including "Yes We Can," "Working in the Coal Mine" and "Sneakin' Sally Through the Alley."

"Do Whatcha Wanna," Rebirth Brass Band
Now celebrating 30 years together, the aptly named Rebirth Brass Band helped reinvigorate the great New Orleans second line tradition by infusing it with funk. Their 1991 signature song "Do Whatcha Wanna" might as well be a rallying cry for their wonderfully eccentric hometown.

"A Milli," Lil Wayne
Over the past couple of decades Louisiana has put its own unique stamp on hip hop, from Master P's fiercely independent No Limit label to the second line-style chants of bounce. Lil Wayne's rise to superstardom has been marked by innovative, wickedly risque raps like the one-of-a-kind "A Milli."

"Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans," Louis Armstrong
Anyone who's visited and fallen in love with the place knows just what songwriters Eddie DeLange and Louis Alter were getting at when they wrote this perennial local favorite. First sung by Billie Holiday in the 1947 movie New Orleans, the song was a careerlong staple of her co-star, Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong, one of the greatest ambassadors the state of Louisiana has ever produced.



Read more: [www.rollingstone.com]

Fanks Edith ..... nice list ...nice list

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.................................................................................... Peter Tosh

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........................................................................................ Peter Tosh

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Damn, that's a deadly axe !

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