Night Tripping

Black John the Conqueror is his name Black John the Conqueror, you're in his hand

And so the king of voodoo rock is ushered in with the calls of a thousand maidens locked forever in his grasp. Dr. John, the Night Tripper, that curious mixture of syncopation, polyphony and mysticism, has returned once again from the world of magic to the world of music in his new album The Sun, Moon and Herbs. Like his three previous efforts, Dr. John's latest album manages to avoid the pitfalls of false profundity, emerging instead as a reflection of the artist.

But the view the listener receives from Dr. John is full of contradictions... contradictions that underlie black and white magic, savior and sinner. On his first album he introduced himself as Dr. John the Night Tripper, "with medicine to cure all your ills," but in The Sun, Moon and Herbs he has moved toward the demonic, at one point carrying on a strange conversation in which he tells of punishing his enemies with snake eggs and burning candles. Dr. John is the high priest of magic, but is the magic black or white?

The answer lies in further examination, and one begins to see that Black John is at once street corner pimp, southern creole preacher and medicine show hustler. One who will use any means to achieve his ends. He is the Hootchie Coochie Man, the boastful con-artist who walks on guilded splinters and sees everything.

And on The Sin, Moon and Herbs, Dr. John takes to the liner notes to reveal his true identity. He is Malcolm Rebennack, an incredibly talented studio musician whose music is perfectly suited to a music of mysticism.

But Dr. John's identity is not the only surprise on The Sun, Moon and Herbs. Indeed, there are several 'surprises'...among them, Mick Jagger, Eric Clapton, Carl Raddle, Jim Gordon, Graham Bond, Bobby Whitlock, Doris Troy and the Memphis Horns. Dr. John weaves them into his spell, and they fit perfectly to help create the sound of electric bayou.

A tap on a skull here, the tinkling of a mystical bell there, the rhythmic beat of the conga drum, and the calling voices in the background all weave a pattern that leaves the listener spell-bound. Dr. John didn't learn to play the guitar in a bar on the South Side of Chicago but from Sister Eunice at The Temple of Innocent Blood. And he didn't get his "soul" in Memphis, but from the bayous of Louisiana. Strange, very strange.

"Black John the Conqueror" is the first cut on The Sun, Moon and Herbs, and it's indicative of how Dr. John has progressed since his previous releases. He uses horns, with a purpose, an alarum beckoning one to the arrival of Black John the Conqueror. Dr. John uses a prominent piano, with which he is able to change rhythms and direct the flow of the music. The imagery is fascinating... there's Dr. John banging away on the piano, while rolling words off his tongue in Dylanesque fashion. Then there are the voices, swaying in a trance-like state in the background until it's time to exalt the Conqueror, and voices raise with the horns in a tumultuous liturgy.

In "Craney Crow" Dr. John invites the listener to take part in a ritual which involves a call and response pattern punctuated by the excellent slide guitar work of Eric Clapton. As the Reverend Dr. John and his congregation are involved in wailing, "Chick-a-ma, Chick-a-ma, Chick-a-ma, Chick-a-ma Craney Crow," Clapton is busy accenting and amplifying the anagogical aura of the song with restrained yet amazingly powerful guitar lines. "Craney Crow" is Dr. John and his followers at their musical and mystical best.

Side Two of The Sun, Moon and Herbs is of particular interest, including "Familiar Reality" which was recorded back in 1969 when Dr. John released his first album. "Familiar Reality" is in two parts, an opening which appears at the beginning of Side Two and a reprise which appears at the end of the album. Dr. John's powers of prognosis are proven as he sings in the reprise.

You know this song go on like a river

It never end, it just go on from one end to the other.

The song, like Dr. John's music, lingers on in the mind of the listener long after it has been heard.

Take Dr. John's medicine..."it will cure all your ills," but beware.

Black John the Conqueror is his name Black John the Conqueror, you're in his hand