"Dear Dr., Professors Are Calling"
Again a Song here, on the Stands The Human Being Substack, soon to be recorded with Rivers Answer Moons.
A song that came to me with Dr. John’s passing in June of 2019.
“Dear Dr., Professors Are Calling”
(A) Doctor Doctor Doctor----Please (B) Dear Dr.— Dear Dr.— Dear Dr. — Dear Dr. (C) Can you give us some fun (call) Bottomless deep and boundless wide (answer) Can you bring your Band (call) Shuffle the deck and ride the Stride (answer) Can you roll that Rock (call) Raise the Spirits and cleanse our Souls (answer) Can you make us the One (call) And the Two, Three, Four--Dah-Da-Dee-Oh (answer) (D) With your scarves and Gris Gris and Rembrandt Hat With your Heart and JuJu and Skee-da-da-dee-At With your twists of the Wit from the Yat and the Dat With your Home on the Road and your Always Look Back (A) Doctor Doctor Doctor----Please (E) Little Mac came up in 1950s’ New Orleans Water-coolers for Whites and NOT for Blacks Ruby Bridges cursed with a Coffin As Marshalls marched her to the Frantz School Mac the knee-high heard Rhythm and Blues Then fell UP under a Professor Longhair attack, Rhumba-Magic carried across Continents, Then Booker Beethoven with a Debussy touch, Colors of Indians' Red, Cuban beans, French Waltzes, Cajun violins-- Whole Mix-a-Stuff here to riddle A Head with its Lagniappes. Sure he'd run errands, sit and stand in, Sure he'd put pieces together like Allen, Bumps, Cosimo said they might Go Make the Thing like this and make It like that Roll that Rock, Rock that Roll, Bundle and spread it and toss it like Golden Splinters that decades enrich with Trombones, Flutes, Chorales, Orchestras like a Revolution's Indignation and Beauties sound from the Lower 9th Ward And make those Chords and Notes dance out-tah your Hat1 (B) Dear Dr.— Dear Dr.— Dear Dr. — Dear Dr. (C) Can you give us some fun (call) Bottomless deep and boundless wide (answer) Can you bring your Band (call) Shuffle the deck and ride the Stride (answer) Can you roll that Rock (call) Raise the Spirits and cleanse our souls (answer) Can you make us the One (call) And the Two, Three, Four--Dah-Da-Dee-Oh (answer) Don Paul, March 18, 2025 First written June 27, 2019
URLS and MORE
From Lily Keber’s very good documentary about James Booker, “Bayou Maharajah”
Dr. John (Mac Rebenack) tells Clint Eastwood about the all the “bad cats” playing piano when he was a youngster and hence turning him to the Guitar so that he could have “a job in music.” Followed by Professor Longhair (Roy Byrd) talking about pianos that he assembled from pianos left on-the-street as trash and playing and singing “Tipitina”.
