Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Mardi Gras Mambo - The Hawketts
2. New Orleans - U.S Bonds
3. Good Rockin' Tonight - Roy Brown
4. Let The Good Times Roll - Shirley & Lee
5. West End Blues - Louis Armstrong & His Hot Five
6. St James' Infirmary - Bobby Bland
7. The House Of The Rising Sun - The Animals
8. Mardi Gras In New Orleans - Professor Longhair
9. Stack O Lee - Archibald
10. Rockin Pneumonia And The Boogie Woogie Flu - Huey 'Piano' Smith & The Clowns
11. Blue Monday - Fats Domino
12. I Hear You Knocking - Smiley Lewis
13. I Don't Want To Do It - The Spiders
14. No Use Knocking - Bobby Charles
15. I Know - Barbara George
16. The Things That I Used To Do - Guitar Slim
17. Lawdy Miss Clawdy - Lloyd Price
18. Lucille - Little Richard
19. Lights Out - Jerry Byrne
20. Stagger Lee - Lloyd Price
21. Country Fool - The Showmen
22. Country Boy - Snooks Eaglin
23. Iko Iko - Dixie Cups

Disc 2:

1. Come On (Part 1) - Earl King
2. I Like It Like That (Part 1) - Chris Kenner
3. Ooh Poo Pah Doo (Part 1) - Jessie Hill
4. Ooh Poo Pah Doo (Part 2) - Jessie Hill
5. Bad Neighbourhood - Ronnie & The Delinquents
6. Losing Battle - Johnny Adams
7. Ruler Of My Heart - Irma Thomas
8. Tell It Like It Is - Aaron Neville
9. Thank You John - Willie Tee
10. Down Home Girl - Alvin Robinson
11. Get Out Of My Life
12. Cissy Strut - The Meters
13. Groove Me - King Floyd
14. Lady Marmalade - Labelle
15. Country John - Allen Toussaint
16. Life - Dr John
17. Small Town Talk - Bobby Charles
18. Rising Sun - Snakefarm
19. Yellow Moon - The Neville Brothers
20. Bye Bye Baby - G Love & Special Sauce (feat. Rebirth Brass Band)
21. What's Hip? - Cool Bone

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #245794 in Music
• Released on: 2002-09-02
• Number of discs: 2

Customer Reviews

Swingin'!
On his Sound Of The City series of compilation CDs, esteemed writer and broadcaster Charlie Gillett draws together the diverse music of the cities that shaped the course of American music. It's such a simple idea (all the best ones are) and he has executed it brilliantly.

Sound Of The City: New Orleans is a 2CD riot of music from start to finish. To listen to these joyous, jumpin' recordings in this era of branded and airbrushed pop pap feels so great, like a musical restorative. Feeling jaded by the soporific, lumpen grumblings of the likes of Limp Bizkit, Staind and the rest of the therapy rock generation? Then put on.. let's see.. Ronnie And The Delinquents' Bad Neighbourhood. Two minutes of pop perfection that says more about being young and wild than Fred Durst will in his whole career. Co-written by Mac (Dr John) Rebennack, it's a tale of juvenile dropouts playing pool, firing slingshots through church windows and generally raising hell. It is at once supremely silly, rhythmically addictive and very, very cleverly put together. Recorded in 1960, it features sound effects of pool balls being potted and police sirens and an echo-laden trumpet solo that could have graced The Specials' Ghost Town. It's the appeal of New Orleans music in microcosm.

What strikes me more than anything about this music is the sound itself. It rips out of the speakers, and is just so physical. The limitations of the studio technology available at the time the majority of these recordings were made was, in retrospect, a positive advantage. There is a terrific live feel to the music, with plenty of room for the instruments to breathe. This is stripped-down, funky stuff - intelligent, fun and great for dancing to.

Gillett sensibly mixes up the familiar (House Of The Rising Sun, Let The Good Times Roll, Lady Marmalade) with more obscure tunes. Particular favourites of mine that were new to me are Snooks Eaglin's Country Boy (what a groove, what a voice!) and Willie Tee's Thank You John, which just swings.

The CDs are beautifully packaged, with great illustrations and an informative essay. My only gripe is that despite the reasonable price, this is costing me wallet-worrying amounts of money. Now that I've been exposed to so much great new (old) music, I have spent a fortune on CDs by the artists in question. Oh well, never mind!

Mr Gillett deserves a medal for services to my ears, and I cannot recommend this compilation highly enough. As he says in his liner notes, New Orleans is a city whose name sets the imagination running wild. Amen to that.