When I lived in Peterborough back in the mid 1970’s we used
to have all night music sessions at a friends house when his parents were away.
A character called Graham used to dominate the proceedings and make everyone
listen to his music heroes who were Captain Beefheart and Dr. John aka
The Night Tripper or the Gris-Gris man. That was my introduction to the music
of Dr. John, although In 1969 I liked a record by Marsha Hunt called
Walk On Gilded Splinters but I didn’t know back then that it was written
by Dr. John. It was in 1979 that I first saw the film The Last Waltz and
Dr. John sang Such A Night. Van Morrison stole the show in that film when
he sang Caravan.
I can’t claim to have ever been a huge fan of Dr. John because
I didn’t ever see him in concert or buy any of his albums. I mainly liked him
because of his collaborations with Van Morrison. I think they first met
at the Last Waltz concert and became friendly and Van invited Dr. John to
co-produce his A Period Of Transition album of 1977. This is what Dr. John said about that.
“During the filming of The Last Waltz, Martin Scorsese's
tribute to The Band, I became friendly with Van Morrison. While we was hanging
out, Van mentioned to me that he wanted to do a record of the old R&B stuff
that had inspired him. We threw it around for a while, and later he called to
hire me as producer and asked if I could get a rhythm section hooked up to come
to England.
I managed to hijack part of Stevie Wonder's rhythm section--Ollie
Brown on drums and Reggie McBride on bass, plus Ray Parker, Jr., on rhythm
guitar, along with myself on piano. These guys were absolutely happening at the
time; they'd just finished recording Stevie's Songs in the Key of Life, and
were considered one of the hipper rhythm sections. We flew over, went up to
meet Van in Oxford, and we were sitting at the table eating when Ray Parker
started getting nervous 'cause his guitar hadn't come through customs. A
high-strung person, Ray began to laugh, which is how he acts when he gets in a
new situation that sets him at angles. At one point, Van got the idea that Ray
was laughing at him--he'd missed the origin of Ray's hilarity. We wound up the
next day with Van firing Ray Parker. Now, this was a time when Ray was playing
on sessions with Diana Ross, Marvin Gaye, and heaps of other stars. He'd cancelled
stuff like that to come do the gig with Van, and Van shot him down before he
even got started. Suddenly we ain't got a guitarist, and Ray's pissed with me
because I'm the one who contracted him. I told Reggie and Ollie, "Look,
guys, we're going to make this record no matter what," and even though
they were a little weirded out, they stuck it out because they wanted to go
through with it.
We all hung in there because Van just draws in musicians on
account of his powerful singing; he may not have the best personality to deal
with people, but the mystical quality of his voice could make you go through
hell in dealing with him. During the session I have strange memories of him
auditioning a lot of guitar players--a group that included many of the premier
players of England, who had driven up from London to Oxford to make the gig.
There were players all over the studio; I'd give one guy a downbeat, he'd hit
one note, and Van would cut him off--"Next!" It went on and on like
that: The whole Chris Barber Band came there to play on a tune, and they all
got axed real fast, too. It was one long continual confusement, and it all came
out of the Ray Parker fiasco. We never did find a steady player, so Van and I
ended up splitting the guitar duties ourselves. We finally used Marlo
Henderson, who along with Reggie and Ollie was a member of Stevie Wonder's
recording band. Marlo recorded his lead guitar parts during overdubbing
sessions later in LA.
The same troubles hampered our work throughout these
sessions. I had written some horn charts for the album and came to the studio
ready to do the horns, but Van had fired most of the horn section! We had to
wing it with just Jerry Jumonville and Joel Peskin on saxes, a sudden change of
direction that made the horn charts useless, because I had written them for six
horns. I shouldn't have been surprised at all this. I'd heard stories about how
difficult Van could be from Stuart Levine and Joe Sample and the Jazz
Crusaders, who had collaborated with Van on an album not long before. At the
time, the Jazz Crusaders were the premier band in the land, but whatever went
down, apparently it wasn't right on the nail enough for Van. After they
finished the record, Van changed his mind, decided he didn't like the album,
and erased it. He's probably one of the few guys that I ever felt like punching
out in the middle of a session, but I didn't do it--not because I didn't feel
like it but because I respected his singing so much. I really did get that mad
at him sometimes; he's a very hard guy to deal with, but he has a thing about
him that I iust dig. His music is powerful. He's a mystical cat and I got to
respect that in him. I figure the more talent there is in people, the bigger
pain in the ass they usually are”.
Despite the difficulties in that recording Van and the doctor became firm friends. They did gigs together. I have a bootleg somewhere called The Wonderland Tapes from a concert they did in The Netherlands.
Van even mentions him in the song Russian Roulette on the Days Like
This album of 1995. ‘I think that you've caught on, that you've been
used and all, I'm going down New Orleans, I've got to see Dr. John, Got
my mojo working everything will be fine. Stop playing Russian Roulette
with my mind’. Dr. John popped up again when he appeared on the Skiffle
Sessions album of 1998 with Van and Lonnie Donegan. I think that
came about purely by coincidence because Dr. John happened to be playing at
another venue in Belfast at the same time and came along to Van’s gig and
played piano on some of the tracks. Dr. John also co-wrote the song Quality
Street on the Hymns To The Silence album of 1991. If you scroll down
you can see a fabulous video of Van singing Moondance on an American TV
show. As well as Dr. John it also features Carlos Santana, George Benson,
Etta James Tom Scott and others. It really is brilliant.
I think because of his friendship with Dr. John and his
admiration for other musicians from New Orleans Van has always had a special
affinity with that great city which is why he might have contributed the song Blue
And Green to an album to raise money for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
The two of them remained firm friends right to the end and I’m sure Van must be upset today to hear that his friend has passed away.
