(Photo by Laura Levine)
Ahmet Ertegun found out about the Gris-Gris album only after the recording was complete. The strange sounds he heard did not sit well with him. Dr. John tells the story: “I was doing a session for Bobby Darin when Ahmet Ertegun walked into the studio looking for me. ‘Why did you give me this sh*t? How can we market this boogaloo cr*p?‘ He wasted about 15 minutes of Bobby Darin’s studio time just yelling at me. And I’m thinking ‘Oh, this record is never going to see the light of day.’” But Say what you will about Ertegun, money was not his only motivation. The man had an ear and passion for music, and he agreed to release the album.
The stage performances that followed helped make the album a minor counter-culture hit: “It was a show in the New Orleans tradition. We were lucky with it, because all those love-ins and be-ins and freak-ins were happening at the same time. I got Chicken Man and some other guys that did a real voodoo show. That was too much for some people, so I toned it down when I began promoting the record. Basically, I kept the snake dancer and the backup singers and a small version of the band”. It was enough to secure Mac Rebennack four more album recordings with Atlantic. His music changed and took a different direction over the years, but the gris-gris psychedelic vibe of his debut album still remains the most enduring for me in his rich catalog.
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