[Dixielandjazz] Lyrics to Good Morning New Orleans

[Harry Callaghan]

Bruce:

Well, you really did a job on selling me the CD. While I was reading it, I
said this guy is sounding like he must be Kermit Ruffins' brother.

But then I clicked the link that you supplied and discovered that it had
been written by the magazine's Jason Berry.

Nevertheless, thank you very much for sharing it with us.

Tides
HC


On 3/22/10, Bruce Stangeland <stangeland at earthlink.net> wrote:
>
>
>
> Hello,
>
> While searching on Google for "Good Morning New Orleans" + Lyrics, I found
> the following on
> http://www.myneworleans.com/New-Orleans-Magazine/May-2009/All-aboard/ :
>
> I hope this is what you were seeking,
> Bruce Stangeland
> Berkeley banjoist
>
> ....
> "Every now and then a song comes along that captures a cosmic essence of
> this grand, betrayed, beaten-down and timeless town, too long mocked by that
> idiotic bumper sticker “New Orleans: Proud to Call it Home.” If you own that
> one peel it off your car. The town was a political wreck before Hurricane
> Katrina and is now a basket case of democracy under the preening narcissist
> we still call mayor. So. Let us turn from the data of our third-world
> governance to the topic at hand, Kermit Ruffins’ new CD, Livin’ a Tremé
> Life, and more specifically, the sterling fourth cut, “Good Morning, New
> Orleans” – with the final word pronounced à la Satchmo: Or-leens.
>
> In a sunny tone, Ruffins’ trumpet lays out a lazy winding melody to David
> Torkanowsky’s supple piano work splashing along George Porter’s poetics on
> bass and Herlin Riley’s drumming in perfect balance. Then Ruffins uncorks
> his lyrics in a gravelly tone, “Good mornin’, New Or-leens” to which a sweet
> woman chorus chimes the line right back in medium tempo as if giving it good
> to her man, “Good morn-ing, New Or-leens” – we’re talking Patrice Hardin and
> Betty Winn on vocals, and Vernon Ward in minor key. Congratulations, you
> three!
>
> We love you New Orleens; we love you New-Orleens
> It’s such a lovely day, to love New Or-leens,
> when people come
> they never leave because we’re swinging that way.
> The sunshine’s so so bright
> The sunshine’s so-so bright
> The breeze is so so nice
> The breeze is so so nice
> The starlights twinkle at night
> by the riverside so
> by and by sometimes
> I cry
> it’s such a beautiful sight
>
> A guy who admits to sights that make him cry is someone to heed. And
> Ruffins’ lyrics on this one move with such adroit phrasing to those
> beautiful voices flowing in at the right moments as to wash you in feelings
> of exaltation about the town. Do not kid yourself, news-numbed reader, we
> need songs like this to endure what the politics is doing to us. Other songs
> achieve a similar balm to the wounds of place. Lil Queenie singing “My
> Darlin’ New Orleans” [lyrics by Ron Cuccia]. The original version of “Basin
> Street Blues” by Spencer Williams, who grew up in one of the Storyville
> whorehouses and masked the raw stuff with lyrics of elegant euphemism. “Do
> You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans” (even though it was written for
> a bad movie). The Dixie Cups’ version of “Iko Iko” – the list goes on, but
> is really not so long.
>
> What makes a great song work is often secondary to the lyrics. The words of
> “What a Wonderful World” – skies of blue, red roses too – border on the
> banal, but with a voice like Louis Armstrong’s, redemption comes with the
> ease of a smile. Kermit Ruffins modeled himself after Armstrong. With no
> disrespect to the swinging barbecue man from Tremé, that persona of an
> easy-rambling good time man works fine on stage, and even off. But selling
> music on CDs, especially in hard times – and times were seriously hard for
> the recording industry before the gluttons of Wall Street ran out of starch
> – is another trick altogether. Of the 11 songs on Livin’ a Tremé Life I’d
> only bother putting five on an iPod, if I had one.
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 5
> Date: Sun, 21 Mar 2010 23:09:20 +0100
> From: Augustini Bengt-G?ran <BG.Augustini at capio.se>
> To: <Dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
> Cc: Dixieland Jazz Mailing List <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
> Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Lyrics to Good Morning New Orleans
> Message-ID:
>        <AC92E879A76C8047ACCDCC4360DE888A0320E1A4 at MAIL01.hq.capio.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain;       charset="iso-8859-1"
>
>
> Hi everybody!
>
> I?m looking for the lyrics to a seldom heard tune, Good Morning New
> Orleans. Can anyone help me?
> Thanks in advance.
>
> bg.augustini at capio.se
>
> /bg
>
>
>
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