I agree, but I’m not gonna get my panties in a bunch over it. I figure the only way you could confuse these ppl is if you did not know one or both of them well at all.
A Leon Redbone/Dr John concert would kick SO much ass. Hope they’ll play me a set when I get there one day. Hmm. . . heaven as a non-stop series of concerts in various halls, dive bars, night clubs, outdoor venues, etc. I could get behind that.
I saw the Neville Bros with Aaron during the week in Tokyo circa fall 1991. Great show. A couple of days later it was a Sat show and Aaron was a no-show. Consolation was Dr John joined the bill. I doubt if any of the Japanese audience knew who he was. It as a great show with a completely different set from a couple days before. I still remember they led off with Wang Dang Doodle, and my girlfriend at the time was impressed I could sing along for the first verse when the mic/speakers weren’t working.
Ah, jaycat just said that because he knows I’d dig Laura out of the grave and do a Frankenstein on her if it would get her to make more songs and concerts and maybe let me screw her. And that I’m not a Carey fan, and had no idea she knew how to play the piano.
Anyway, I’d like to cap all that off and stanch the bloodflow by apologizing to you, jaycat. Dr. John was multifold musical genius over Redbone, and I shouldn’t have denigrated him with the comparison. You are right. I was wrong. It may have been the memory of the “Frosty the Snowman” vid that started me down that path…Redbone clearly out-acted Mac in it.
In the ‘60s and ‘70s, she was famous for sleeping her way through many of the top male rock stars. Then was married to a man for several years. Then produced a son. It was only late in her life that she realized she was gay. I would Frankenstein her back to 1968.
Saw Dr. John twice, at a small music club then at some outdoor event I was at and was pleasantly surprised to catch him performing. The first time at the club was a great show. He played guitar on one song and I seem to remember him telling the story about how he used to play the guitar but switched to piano after getting shot in the hand, as Merneith mentioned. I’ll listen to “Dr John plays Mac Rebennack” at work today in his memory, a nice low-key solo album of him playing piano and sometimes singing.
Blues artists always seem to have lived interesting lives. I met blues piano legend Pinetop Perkins when he was 90 and still performing. He told me that when he was a young man he played guitar and had “many girlfriends”. One night he was playing guitar at a bar and one girlfriend showed up and caught him with another girlfriend. She grabbed a knife from behind the bar and sliced up his one arm so badly he never played guitar again, forcing him to learn piano quickly.
I’m surprised that in more than one case playing piano was seen as an “easier” choice for someone with a damaged hand/arm than playing guitar. I guess for someone with reduced finger strength it might be easier to hit piano keys than fretting notes and chords.