I saw all the looters running in the streets
I saw the busted Superdome
I saw where the levee just gave away
It's like the last days of Cajun Rome
I saw those poor people in Biloxi
I saw that man cry in pain
I saw the waters rising in America
It went to hell at the end of the rains
(chorus)
Oh, the mask is slipping at the Mardi Gras
Oh, the jig is up and gone
We are dancing in the water in New Orleans
And the water rises more at dawn
We are dancing in the water at dawn
The Big Easy, well it ain't so easy now
Ain't no Satchmo, ain't no Jellyroll
They drank all the Bourbon on Bourbon Street
And there's no other place to go
I saw all the people on the interstate
Seeking refuge from the sea
Salt water headin' up the Mississippi
Headin' north where a slave can be free
(chorus)
Oh, the mask is slipping at the Mardi Gras
Oh, the jig is up and gone
We are dancing in the water in New Orleans
And the water rises more at dawn
We are dancing in the water at dawn
Some guy on the television started talking
Wondered where was the National Guard
Seems he's been living in a cave for a couple years
Didn't know they were off in a war
The hurricane blew in and then blew out
The way hurricanes often do
And just like a party that went too far
It left behind a bill that's due
(chorus)
Oh, the mask is slipping at the Mardi Gras
Oh, the jig is up and gone
We are dancing in the water in New Orleans
And the water rises more at dawn
We are dancing in the water at dawn
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Image is from here.
123.21 Capture of New Orleans, c1863, by John S.C. Abbott, The History of the Civil War in America & Naval and Military Engagements, Vol. I, Springfield, Mass
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Comments
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Think of the
We are dancing in the water in New Orleans
And the water rises more at dawn
We are dancing in the water at dawn
part as a kind of chorus of looters, and maybe also as profiteers, who steered money away from levee reinforcements, etc. Who dances in the toxic water, who celebrates the life?
I think New Orleans deserves honesty and love, perhaps more so because it has had the shit kicked out of it by Hurricane Katrina. I love Jelly Roll Morton and Louis and Jack Teagarden and ODJB and Dr. John and all of the Jazz Cats, and anyone who got drunk and laughed and fucked and puked and cried in The Big Easy. I hope everyone cherishes their good times there, and understands that the only thing certain in life is change.
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