I am fixated on the Black Mardi Gras experience in these posts, I know. Besides my natural attraction to the people and the culture of Black Americans in any case, it is made even more pointed by the absence of Black culture in Italy. The Venetian Carnevale certainly has its beauty and attraction, but I miss the funk, you know? Oh, and don’t even get me started on the music in Saint Mark’s Square. Electronic, yes, but no; You can’t dance in them tight blue-jeans. Not a smidge of soul, not a note. Americans don’t know how much the African experience has contributed to their joy in life. Stateside, everyone is so steeped in Black culture that they don’t even notice it. Until, like me, it’s gone.

That said, let’s talk about Donna Summer and Giorgio Moroder. No funk here, but certainly a soul, a type of soul. And, in the ’70s, a new type of soul, one that no one had heard before, one that started a revolution we are still dancing to today. Bad Girls is not the album on which “I Feel Love” first appeared, so I included the cover of I Remember Yesterday for the image. They just stuck all the 12-inch versions of her songs on the “Deluxe” version of Bad Girls. It’s not a bad album at all, we listened to it nonstop as we mucked out the horse stables in the barn, but my favorites are the dark electronics of “Our Love”, “Lucky”, and “Sunset People”.  That leather-slapping drum sound sends me every time. “Chase”, from Midnight Express, “Call Me”, from American Gigolo, and, of course “Love to Love You”, by Donna Summer, all of these were background music in my late teens. No wonder I’m a wreck.

And, finally “Witch Queen of New Orleans”, was a standard on New Orleans radio, though that happened all over the world, from the looks of this video. Just a note, this is amazing – live – but of course the recording is more polished and powerful. Redbone is a Native-American Cajun band from California – ? – made up of two brothers and members of Yaqui, Shoshone, and Mexican heritage. Uncommon in the 1970s. Uncommon today, for that matter.

Tonight’s post was inspired by this article from a famous local New Orleans entertainment paper, Gambit. It is an article, a sweet article, about the man and his daughter who help produce the coconuts that the Krewe of Zulu hands down from the floats. They used to throw the coconuts, but after a few not-so-fun beans on heads, it was outlawed. The coconuts are treasures, considered the gold standard of Mardi Gras throws. I’m not sure I would ever put them in the “trinkets and trash” pile, but more on that later. . .. Be sure and read the article. Five thousand hand-painted coconuts. That’s dedication, dude.

Tonight runs Krewes Hermes and Morpheus. Tomorrow night is Endymion, which is legendary. I would write more, but I gotta sleep.