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Gris-Gris | 
 enlarge | Artist: Dr. John
Label: Collector's Choice
Category: Music
List Price: $16.98
Buy New: $13.99
You Save: $2.99 (18%)
New (37) Used (12) from $7.49
Rating:  19 reviews
Sales Rank: 17055
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 131
UPC: 617742013122
EAN: 0617742013122
ASIN: B00004SW9R
Release Date: May 9, 2000
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Tracks:
| • | Gris-Gris Gumbo Ya Ya - Dr. John, Creaux, Dr.John | | • | Danse Kalinda Ba Boom - Dr. John, Creaux, Dr.John | | • | Mama Roux - Dr. John, Doctor John | | • | Danse Fambeaux - Dr. John, Creaux, Dr.John | | • | Croker Courtbullion - Dr. John, Battiste, Harold | | • | Jump Sturdy - Dr. John, Rebennack, Mac | | • | I Walk on Guilded Splinters - Dr. John, Doctor John |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com essential recording
Covered in a variegated spray of New Orleans Mardi Gras feathers and shiny voodoo baubles, Mac Rebennack's highly personal mythology was finally made real on this 1968 album. This was his first appearance made under the new guise of Dr. John Creaux, the Night Tripper. Before then, he'd been a pivotal figure on the Crescent City R&B circuit. Afterward, he became one of its most significant blues ambassadors. This album is a classic of the admittedly specialized psychedelic swamp-gumbo genre, boasting at least four tracks that have become cult favorites. "Gris-Gris Gumbo Ya-Ya," "Mama Roux," "Jump Sturdy," and "I Walk on Gilded Splinters" each delicately mix catchy choruses and weird spatial sound effects, with radical stereo separation, intensely croaking, close-quarter vocals from the doctor, pneumatic keyboard riffs, pinprick electric guitar, and booming Afro-Caribbean percussion. The album still stands at its original 33-minute length, with no bonus cuts unearthed, but its high density more than compensates for any brevity. --Martin Lonely
Album Description
Dr. John's 1968 release for Atco, reissued with original artwork and new liner notes. Extremely unique album, one part psychedelia, one part New Orleans R&B and one part...something else , voodoo ritual, maybe. First time on CD in the U.S. Standard jewel case. 2000 release.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 14 more reviews...
 A Midsummer Night's Dream Under A Hoodoo Moon April 28, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
There's absolutely nothing else out there like this one. Swampy and funky psychedelic voodoo gumbo music with chanting background vocals, mandolin, clarinet, tribal percussion, harpsichord, organ, and an odd and bizarre arrangement of instruments which creates a strange and smoky nocturnal atmosphere like a ritual under a full moon on a hot summer night in the bayou jungle. Dr. John Creaux, the Night Tripper, is the "Grand Zombie", our sort of Halloween guide on this after hours voyage which can be a party of the weirdest kind as well as an equal parts earthy and eerie head trip. Give it a spin. Your record collection will never be the same.
Transports you to a different world February 26, 2008
There has always been something primative and haunting about Dr. Johns music, it is a peek into a very complex and unique culture. This is an album that I went to a New Years Eve concert in Phoenix to see in the 70's and never forgot the magic. This CD is just how I remembered it and is fast becoming one of my favorites. PFM
Classic Dr. John February 10, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This was the doctor's first release as a solo artist. I still think it's his best work. It shimmers with gumbo and voodoo capturing the mysterious atmosphere of the "Big Easy," New Orleans.
 "I walk on gilded splinters, with the king of the Zulu" August 21, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I only have a few Dr. John records, but this is my favorite of them by a long shot. It's also probably the weirdest record I own, so those looking for a traditional record better go elsewhere. It's got bits of New Orleans jazz, some R&B, and some stuff I can't even dream of classifying, such as my favorite Dr. John song, (I Walk on) Gilded Splinters. People talk a lot about extended epic songs that came out around this time: Stairway to Heaven, Free Bird, Won't Get Fooled Again, Light My Fire - and while I do enjoy all of those songs, I think this (and the Fairport Convention's Matty Groves, while I'm sticking up for under-appreciated musicians) deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as them. It ain't your average song though, I can tell you that: really, it's more like an invocation to some evil voodoo demon. If you think I'm exaggerated, you obviously haven't heard the song: half of it is taken up by chants and Dr. John's seemingly improvised Spanish lyrics (which include the phrase "Padre Diablo", to give you an idea of what you're dealing with here). That bass clarinet melody is haunting and ghostly; and those deep, booming drums send chills down my spine each time. Oh, and the lyrics themselves are excellent: the whole song is 7:37 of genuinely frightening menace. I was about eight when I first heard it, and it scared me out of my wits. So even though I've got no clue what "Kon, kon, the kiddy kon kon" means, or even if that's the real lyric, I still love to chant along with it. Dr John the voodoo priest! That image also shows up on my #2 pick, Gris-Gris Gumbo Ya Ya, which takes the approach of Gilded Splinters and adds a folksy edge. There are actually some accessible songs here, but even those have strong New Orleans elements: Jump Sturdy is another great song, with its huge chorus, cool lyrics, and jangling mandolin; and I just love the laid-back Mama Roux. And the Gilded Splinters-like Croker Courtbulion is a good... invocation, I guess you'd say, as well. Now I'm not a fan of the record's two "Danses" - both strike me as rather silly, especially compared to (I Walk on) Gilded Splinters (which is easily one of the 50 best songs I've heard). But I really like this album, and if you want to hear something weird I have to recommend it to you. If you know Dr. John for '70s hits like Right Place, Wrong Time; Such a Night or What Goes Around (Comes Around), or maybe for his take on Iko Iko, you're in for a real surprise with this one. It's dark, mysterious, intriguing, unique music.
The Iron Fist of Voodoo July 7, 2007
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
I have no way of knowing what effect Dr John had on British music listeners in 1968. He must have seemed incredibly exotic and menacing. Perhaps people were scared to play the record in case Dr John appeared on their doorstep in the middle of the night, holding a snake in his hand. Although Gris-Gris was not a hit, I have seen it linked to the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, who were apparently influenced by its colourful voodoo patois, and it was the kind of thing that was well-known by every hip young person at the time.
The album is a bit like "Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars", in the sense that it is a concept album about a fictional character, although it doesn't tell a story - instead, it's Dr John's calling card. Throughout the album Dr John builds up a legend of himself. He tells us that he is a witch doctor who can cure all known diseases with his pungent bag of gris-gris, and that he is "le grand zombi". The shamanistic image is hard to take seriously nowadays, but it is fun. I don't know what people in Britain thought of New Orleans in 1968, and if people really believed that Dr John was a shaman. The photographs make him look like an overweight computer geek with a teenage beard, and his voice is not as deep and croaky as I expected. Perhaps in 1968 it was possible for a British person to envisage New Orleans as a scary haunted swamp full of voodoo practitioners, but not in 2007. According to the internet that I have on my desktop, New Orleans is a modern city with office blocks and dual carriageways, and a domed sports stadium. I suppose you have to let yourself go a little bit, in order to succumb to the atmosphere.
The songs are based on shuffling grooves, with a very loose feel. A couple of them are faster, but still not very fast. The album was produced in a hurry, but it has a big open sound. It's mostly acoustic, with a good heavy sound, particularly on "Danse Kalinda Ba Doom". It's one of those 60s stereo records where the voices are in one channel and the instruments are in another. The backing vocals are typically in the right channel, and you can remix the album by moving the balance control to the left. Because of this it sounds a little odd on headphones.
The music reminds me of "Sympathy for the Devil" (particularly "Mama Roux"), but it is generally slower and more skeletal. It is accompanied by some lady backing singers, who slink and slither like sirens. It would be unwise to follow them into the swamp. The big standout track is "I Walk on Gilded Splinters", which is the longest track on the album, at seven minutes. It has a wonderful echo effect whereby Dr John delivers a line, and his backing singers follow him. The song is the best synthesis of music and the Dr John image. It is spooky, mysterious, threatening, and has a big booming bass drum. I have no idea what it is about, exactly - it seems to be a prayer for vengeance - but it has a feeling to it.
The rest of the album divides into two halves. "Danse Kalinda Ba Doom" and "Croker Courtbullion" are hypnotic dance tunes. Dr John does not sing in either of them. "Danse Kalinda" is the best; it is more intense than "Croker Courtbullion", which sounds weaker once you hear "Kalinda". "Mama Roux" and "Jump Sturdy" are relatively conventional songs. They both seem to be about the kind of women a young man should avoid. "Jump Sturdy" is the album's only disaster; it's a simple jaunty number that sounds like a song from Sesame Street, with the kind of catchy but irritating chorus that will one day be sampled in a hip-hop song. "Gris-Gris Gumbo Ya Ya" is a menacing slice of pure atmosphere, and is the perfect introduction.
"Danse Fambeaux" is a simple set of bass chords that loop around and around, with Dr John and his backing singers improvising over the top. It ends with a plea for creme brulee. I like it; the song, that is. But I also like creme brulee, although not to the exclusion of a social life.
Gris-Gris probably does not have the same effect today that it would have had back in 1968, but it's still the kind of album you need to hear at least once. I haven't heard anything else by Dr John. I understand his career wobbled after this, with a couple of real high points and a lot of dull nothingness. I do like creme brulee.
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