Dr. John
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Review by Charlie Gillett, Rolling Stone, 8 June 1972
WIPE YOUR MIND clean of all you have ever heard and read about Dr. John the Night Tripper. If you knew that once he was ...
Live Review by Andy Gill, MOJO, September 1997
COMPARED TO his tremendous gigs at Ronnie Scott's a year or two ago, when Dr John was accompanied by a horn section that included Alvin ...
Audio interviews
Interview by Charlie Gillett, Rock's Backpages audio, 1971
From scuffling in the clubs and studios of late-'50s New Orleans, to his reinvention as Dr. John in mid-'60s L.A., Mac Rebennack tells the whole story - the gangsters, the drugs, the hard times and the high times. And, of course, the music, always the music.
File format: mp3; file size: 164.7mb, interview length: 2h 51' 32" sound quality: ***
Dr. John with Jerry Wexler (1972)
Interview by Jerry Wexler, Rock's Backpages audio, 1972
Kick back around the piano and let Dr. John and Jerry Wexler take you back to the R&B glory days of New Orleans: 'Fess, Guitar Slim and many more. (And be patient; Wexler becomes audible after a few minutes!)
File format: mp3; file size: 27.3mb; Interview length: 29' 50"; sound quality: ****
Interview by Andy Schwartz, Rock's Backpages audio, 18 April 1994
The erstwhile Night Tripper on writing his autobiography Under a Hoodoo Moon; on the New Orleans music business — the rip-offs, lousy studios, useless Musician's Union, Jim Garrison; on his new album Television; on drugs and recovery; on moving to New York City; on the modern recording scene (and being sampled by Beck); on his early involvement in N.Y. hip hop... and how he started out just playing for fun.
File format: mp3; file size: 72.1mb, interview length: 1h 15' 03" sound quality: ****
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages audio, 4 July 1995
The erstwhile Mac Rebennack goes through a lifetime in music from New Orleans, via Los Angeles, to the world: the music, the drugs and the whole cast of characters, including James Booker, Doc Pomus, Phil Spector, Allen Toussaint and Sam Cooke.
File format: mp3; file size: 73.5mb, interview length: 1h 20' 15" sound quality: **½
List of articles in the library
Albums from Tiny Tim and Dr. John
Review by Pete Johnson, Los Angeles Times, 17 March 1968
Bless You, Tiny Tim ...
Dr. John: Shadowy Singer Rises From Bayou
Profile and Interview by Pete Johnson, Los Angeles Times, 24 June 1968
AN UNEARTHLY sax pattern sets it off, yielding to bell-like guitar sounds, gently knotted rhythms of congas, bongos and drums and a mystically soothing female ...
Review by Miles, International Times, 28 November 1968
THE ALBUM OF huge underground word-of-mouth reputation in the States these days, an album far removed from the fashion changing ladder of the high chart ...
Dr John: Babylon (Atco 228 018)
Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 3 May 1969
Compulsive listening ...
Essay by Geoffrey Cannon, The Guardian, 27 May 1969
Gods, bishops, priests and worshippers ...
Dr. John, the Night Tripper: Steve Paul's Scene, New York NY
Live Review by Mike Jahn, The New York Times, 10 July 1969
Dr. John Accents Drum's Rhythms. Afro-Cuban Music at Heart of Coast Musician's Songs ...
How Do Voodoo, I'm Doctor John
Interview by Jacoba Atlas, Melody Maker, 27 June 1970
DR. JOHN The Night Tripper is an original. Claiming to be a high priest of voodoo, Mac Rebennack (his given name) is also one of ...
Behind the Scenes with Harold Battiste
Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, 9 July 1971
FREQUENTLY, we receive letters from readers' asking us to write about the people behind the scenes in our music. For example, the features we did ...
Dr. John From Way Down Yonder in New Orleans
Interview by Danny Holloway, New Musical Express, 29 April 1972
DR. JOHN'S contributions to pop music have been highly original and creative. Even if he claims that all the credit is due to the music ...
Dr. John: Voodoo to Rock Roots
Profile and Interview by Mike Jahn, Baltimore Sun, 7 May 1972
DR. JOHN inspires weirdness in those around him. Witness the press bio released by Atlantic Records: "...open a door into SHOOW HEEEH's lamblam another consciousness ...
Report by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 13 May 1972
Maybe if you're young enough, from a dreary home environment with nothing but a soul destroying future, then maybe you could enjoy a festival like ...
The Dr. John Story, Part One: Talking 'bout New Orleans
Retrospective and Interview by Richard Williams, Melody Maker, 20 May 1972
DOCTOR JOHN is The Night Tripper, purveyor of Gris-Gris and Voodoo since 1967. ...
Dr John: The Mind And Music Of A Delta Voodoo Rocker
Interview by Keith Altham, New Musical Express, 27 May 1972
ACCORDING to Dr. John almost everything started in New Orleans, from rock and rail to rhythm and blues to himself. ...
Review by Danny Holloway, New Musical Express, 3 June 1972
A survey of New Orleans, by Dr John ...
Profile and Interview by Dave Marsh, Creem, July 1972
GUMBO IS DR. JOHN'S fifth album, but it seems like his first. For once, the record and the recording both feel right, as though they ...
Review by Charlie Gillett, New Musical Express, 24 March 1973
Out of the swamp, into the chart? ...
Review by Jaan Uhelszki, Creem, June 1973
PACK UP the voodoo, stash the gumbo, 'cuz Dr. John has gone legit. Used to be a time when he was Numero Uno Witch Doctor. ...
Review by John Pidgeon, Let It Rock, June 1973
MAC REBENNACK'S situation is Jekyll and Hyde reversed. Mac took something and turned into the Doctor, split from his identity as a New Orleans songwriter/session ...
Retrospective and Interview by Charlie Gillett, Let It Rock, June 1973
BY THE TIME you read this, Dr. John's 'Right Time, Wrong Place' will probably be in the American Top Ten. Which will be mighty gratifying ...
The Dr. John Story part II: Los Angeles, The World
Retrospective and Interview by Charlie Gillett, Let It Rock, July 1973
"It's O.K. Mac, you can come out now" ...
Overview by Greg Shaw, Phonograph Record, 1 July 1973
THE STORY OF NEW ORLEANS ROCK 'N' ROLL ...
Dr. John: 'Right Place, Wrong Time' (Atco 6914)
Interview by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 5 July 1973
"I HAD THAT line in my songbook since about 1959, but I could never get anything together for it," Mac Rebennack remembered in his Los ...
Dr. John, Allen Toussaint, the Meters: Rainbow Theatre, London
Live Review by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 7 July 1973
VOODOO CHILE ...
Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 7 July 1973
SEX, DRUGS, VIOLENCE AND THE MAFIA? FORGET IT. THIS GUY'S THE SAVIOUR OF NEW ORLEANS. ROY CARR reports from Montreux. ...
Interview by Rob Partridge, Melody Maker, 14 July 1973
COULD THAT possibly be Mac Rebennack peeping through the Dr. John persona? Just like, say, Sly Stone and Sylvester Stewart. ...
Interview by John Abbey, Blues & Soul, 31 August 1973
WITH VIRTUALLY no publicity, the mighty Meters recently came into London as part of the Dr. John entourage. We were fortunate enough to catch up ...
"The Doctor Is In" — A Talk with Dr. John
Interview by Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 27 September 1973
MALCOLM JOHN Rebennack is a New Orleans musician who has played on more sessions than he or anyone else can remember. In 1968 his first ...
Report and Interview by Bruce Pollock, Sounds, 20 October 1973
ON THE broadwalk at Asbury Park, New Jersey, you can hear the black waters of the Atlantic rippling against the rotted sides of the pier ...
Dr. John: The Troubadour, Los Angeles CA
Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 29 November 1973
Dr. John: Just What Audience Ordered ...
Dr. John, Gary Farr: Bottom Line, New York NY
Live Review by Dan Nooger, The Village Voice, 21 February 1974
DR. JOHN AND his Revue and Gary Farr gave the Bottom Line, Allan Pepper and Stanley Sandowsky's new 450-seat cabaret-theatre, a rousing inaugural send-off last ...
Tell me, Dr. John... Dr. John? Dr. John? Wake up Dr. John!
Report and Interview by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 9 March 1974
THE KING OF VAUDEVILLE FUNK NODS OUT ON NICK KENT ...
Review by Charlie Gillett, New Musical Express, 18 May 1974
Chance discovery yields delightful work ...
Dr John: Finally In The Right Place
Interview by John Swenson, Crawdaddy!, June 1974
From Gris Gris to Gumbo to the Top of the Charts, with "goofer dust an' powders an' oils an' sachets an' lotions an' candles an' ...
Interview by Mick Brown, Sounds, 29 November 1975
WHEN DR John was coming off heroin some time ago, it was suggested that a visit to a faith-healing meeting might help in the cure. ...
Dr. John: Cut Me While I'm Hot and Hollywood Be Thy Name
Review by Chas de Whalley, New Musical Express, 29 November 1975
"DOCTOR JOHN THE Night Tripper, he's the King of New Orrlins". ...
The Meters and Dr John: Walking to New Orleans
Review by Don Snowden, Pasadena Guardian, 3 December 1975
WHILE UNIVERSALLY acknowledged as one of the birthplaces of jazz, New Orleans has never received its due as a rhythm and blues center in the ...
Dr John: Hollywood Be Thy Name (United Artists)
Review by Mick Brown, Sounds, 13 December 1975
WHEN DOCTOR John failed to deliver a hit single (and album) to follow the success of 'In The Right Place' Atlantic promptly ditched him. That's ...
Special Report: Running The Streets Of The Crescent City
Report by John Sinclair, The Ann Arbor Sun, 22 April 1976
Well I'm going to New Orleans, I wanna see the Mardi Gras When I see the Mardi Gras, I wanna know what the carnival for. ...
The Band's "Last Waltz": Winterland, San Francisco CA
Live Review by Stephen M H Braitman, Phonograph Record, December 1976
WHEN THE announcement came, 5,000 tickets at $25 each were sold out almost immediately. This was the final show, "The Last Waltz." The Band — ...
Bruce Springsteen & Dr. John: Fan Recalls First Close Encounter
Memoir by Don Snowden, Thunder, February 1978
WELL, IT WAS the summer of '74 and all in all life was reasonably comfortable but pretty boring. Home was the spacious second floor of ...
Interview: Dr. John (Mac Rebennack), November 14, 1978
Interview by Peter Stone Brown, unpublished, 14 November 1978
THIS INTERVIEW TOOK place on Dr. John's tour bus right before a show at the Bijou Café in downtown Philly. I'd been a fan of ...
Review by Davitt Sigerson, Melody Maker, 9 December 1978
DR JOHN is clean (and mean) and on the scene; so Hail on Mac 'cause it's a stone fact (y'all), the gritty gumbo hustler's back. ...
Ace Records: Dealing Aces Vols. 1 and 2
Review by Pete Wingfield, Melody Maker, 13 January 1979
THESE TWO volumes, together with the indispensable Huey "Piano" Smith and the Clowns collection in the same series (Ace CH 9) represent the first time ...
Dr. John: Dr. John Plays Mac Rebennack (Clean Cuts)
Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, March 1982
AS THE TITLE implies, this is Dr. John being himself, stretching out on the piano and doing what comes naturally. At the same time, there's ...
Dr John: On Becoming Mac Rebennack
Interview by J.D. Considine, Musician, June 1982
The legend of Dr. John and his gumbo ragtime voodoo funk medicine, as told by the man who invented him, lived him and let him ...
Live Review by Max Bell, The Times, 5 August 1983
DESPITE AN unfortunate illness, rumours of Dr John's early retirement have been greatly exaggerated. As if to emphasize his recent recovery New Orleans's favourite white ...
Dr. John: A Shot of Rhythm 'n' Snooze
Interview by Gavin Martin, New Musical Express, 10 March 1984
BACK IN New Orleans in the '50s, when he was one of the few white people involved in one of the last great watersheds in ...
Dr. John/The Meters: I Been Hoodood
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 18 August 1984
THERE ARE GROOVES and there are grooves: that which is laid down by the Meters is definitely one of the latter. ...
Nights For Trippin' With Dr. John At The Lingerie
Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, 23 May 1985
DR. JOHN SHOULD feel right at home this weekend at the Lingerie in Hollywood. ...
Dr John: In A Sentimental Mood (Warner Bros LP/Cassette/CD)
Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 20 May 1989
FUNNY OL' game the record business! First, we have the triumphant return of the Neville Brothers to the A&M stable after a ten year absence ...
Dr. John: New Orleans is Rising
Profile and Interview by Nicholas Jennings, HMV Magazine, April 1991
DR. JOHN AND New Orleans. Although the legendary pianist has made New York City his home for almost a decade now, his name still conjures ...
Dr. John Comes Clean: Kicking Dope & Taking Names
Interview by John Sinclair, Offbeat, 1994
John Sinclair: First things first: everybody wants to know who did your hair for the record cover of Television? ...
Interview by Hank Bordowitz, Jazziz, July 1994
MAC REBENNACK'S music continues a 40 year long mardi gras of the mind, a sound that never gets old, never gets tired. ...
Dr John: The Very Best Of (Rhino)
Review by Andy Gill, MOJO, August 1995
IF THIS COMPILATION ULTIMATELY fails to live up to its title, it's at least partly due to the strain of trying to encapsulate a career ...
Doctor John: An Incantation to the Jollamallawalla Gods
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, September 1995
A QUARTER OF A CENTURY HAS PASSED SINCE MALCOLM Rebennack, trading under the sinisterly exotic stage name "Dr John The Night Tripper", descended the steps ...
Retropop Scene: Emmett, Mac and Peter Coyote
Memoir by Al Aronowitz, The Blacklisted Journalist, 1 May 1996
I. NEW YORK, October 27, 1971 Emmett Grogan sent Tuesday Weld home early. He didn't like all the publicity that was going around about the two ...
Interview by Bill DeMain, Performing Songwriter, September 1997
FUNK IS one of those words, like cool or hip, that is difficult to define. In music, it's an amorphous thing, an attitude, a looseness, ...
Live Review by Gavin Martin, Uncut, September 1997
Dr John: organic groover ...
The Return Of The Native: A Conversation With Dr John, The Night Tripper
Interview by Joss Hutton, Bucketfull of Brains, 1998
NEW ORLEANS-bred musician Mac Rebennack, better known as Dr John, has seen a lot hair-curling sights during his forty year career on the fringes. ...
Dr John: Black Or White - Dr John's Shady Past
Interview by Bill Carpenter, Goldmine, 10 April 1998
DR. JOHN IS as much identified with New Orleans as gumbo is. In a May '97 interview with FI magazine, Dr. John, "Mac" to his ...
Interview by Gavin Martin, Uncut, July 1998
MAC REBENNACK, IS SLUMPED ON A chaise longue in an elegant London hotel suite, the ubiquitous walking cane by his side, a straw Homburg tilted ...
The Doctor and the Duke: A Night with Mac Rebennack
Profile and Interview by Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph, 17 July 1999
ON A WARM Saturday afternoon, in a studio just off 5th Avenue, in the downtown section of New York, Dr John is recording an album ...
Dr. John: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Live Review by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 7 August 1999
If it wasn't for the beard and white suit, you might mistake Dr John for the warm-up act. Tom Cox waits in vain for something ...
Wardell Quezergue: Architect of the Sound
Profile and Interview by John Swenson, Offbeat, 1 May 2000
ON AN UNSEASONABLY warm December afternoon, Wardell Quezergue walks carefully into the Musicians Union meeting hall on Esplanade Avenue. ...
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 14 January 2005
DR JOHN'S LONG journey to this concert hall has been faltering and nearly fatal. Born Mac Rebennack in New Orleans, he is as steeped in ...
Interview by Paul Trynka, MOJO, April 2005
Shopped by Zappa, hooked on heroin and chased by the Feds, Dr. John dodged death and digit loss to become New Orleans' "fonk" ambassador in ...
Wade In The Water: Dr. John Weathers the Flood
Interview by John Sinclair, Honest Tune, 2006
THERE IS no native son of New Orleans more fiercely native than Mac Rebennack, known professionally now for almost 40 years as Dr. John. ...
Eric Clapton: The Return of God
Profile and Interview by Bud Scoppa, Uncut, September 2008
To the faithful, Eric Clapton's guitar playing has always been sacred. But in 2008, from a Blind Faith reunion to a host of blazing session ...
Review by Holly Gleason, Paste, 4 April 2012
TO LIVE AND BREATHE in the sketchiest part of the Quarter...to hustle and flow, to let go... to get saved and find a funky kind ...
Dr John, The Night Tripper: Gris-Gris
Review by David Cavanagh, Uncut, April 2014
ROCK HAS TRADITIONALLY looked to Louisiana with an envious eye. The history. The imagery. The swamps. Songwriters who didn't know one end of an alligator ...
Dr. John: Welcome to the Big Easy
Retrospective and Interview by Michael Simmons, MOJO, October 2014
FROM HIS 1968 DEBUT ONWARDS, THE MUSIC OF DR. JOHN HAS BEEN MARINADED IN THE PSYCHEDELIC VOODOO OF NEW ORLEANS. NOW, WITH A TRIBUTE TO ...
Revisitation Rights: Some People Call Me "Professor Dr. John"
Retrospective by Don Snowden, Rock's Backpages, 21 June 2019
"SOME PEOPLE call me Professor Dr. John…" No, that doesn't work. ...
Rickie Lee Jones: "I had lived volumes long before I was famous"
Interview by Sean O'Hagan, The Observer, 18 April 2021
A fractured childhood, years as a hippie drifter… the musician's new memoir tells of her incredible adventures before she found fame – and of her ...
Book Excerpt by David Toop, Strange Attractor Press, August 2024
An excerpt from David Toop's Two-Headed Doctor: Listening For Ghosts in Dr. John's Gris-Gris, published by Strange Attractor Press in the UK and MIT in ...
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