Louisiana 1927 by Randy Newman

What has happened down here is the winds have changed
Clouds roll in from the north and it started to rain
Rained real hard and it rained for a real long time
Six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline

The river rose all day
The river rose all night
Some people got lost in the flood
Some people got away alright
The river have busted through clear down to Plaquemines
Six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline

Louisiana, Louisiana
They're tryin' to wash us away
They're tryin' to wash us away
Louisiana, Louisiana
They're tryin' to wash us away
They're tryin' to wash us away

President Coolidge came down in a railroad train
With a little fat man with a note-pad in his hand
The President say, "Little fat man isn't it a shame what the river has done
To this poor cracker's land."

Louisiana, Louisiana
They're tryin' to wash us away
They're tryin' to wash us away
Louisiana, Louisiana
They're tryin' to wash us away
They're tryin' to wash us away
They're tryin' to wash us away
They're tryin' to wash us away

Me too, only I keep hearing "sittin' on the levee, sittin' on the levee, waitin' for the Robert E. Leeeee..."

"I went down to Georgia, seekin' shelter from the storm".



And the last verse of a Lightfoot tune-

"But the living soon were rescued, the ones who lived to tell.
And from the star they watched as she died there in the swells.
Like a toy ship on a millpond, she burned all through the night.
Then slipped beneath the waves in the mornin'".

Led Zepplin -

If it keeps on rainin', levee's goin' to break, [X2]
When The Levee Breaks I'll have no place to stay.

Mean old levee taught me to weep and moan, [X2]
Got what it takes to make a mountain man leave his home,
Oh, well, oh, well, oh, well.

Don't it make you feel bad
When you're tryin' to find your way home,
You don't know which way to go?
If you're goin' down South
They go no work to do,
If you don't know about Chicago.

Cryin' won't help you, prayin' won't do you no good,
Now, cryin' won't help you, prayin' won't do you no good,
When the levee breaks, mama, you got to move.

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee...

And when the sand was gone and the time arrived
In the naked dawn only a few survived
And, in attempts to understand a thing so simple and so huge,
Believed that they were meant to live after the deluge.
Let the music keep our spirits high
And let the buildings keep our children dry
Let creation reveal its secrets by and by
When the light that's lost within us reaches the sky.
— Jackson Browne
Me too, only I keep hearing "sittin' on the levee, sittin' on the levee, waitin' for the Robert E. Leeeee..."It was never there on time. . .
— Tom Lehrer

Hope all our Louisiana members are slogging through this thing somehow!

"And the graveyards of the rusted automobiles".

"We gotta get outta this place, if it's the last thing we ever do..."
--Animals

With a purposeful grimace and a terrible slam
He pulls the city's high tension wires down

Helpless people in the Superdome
Scream "My God" as he looks in at them

He picks up a bus and he throws it back down
As he wades and stomps through the center of town

On no, they say he has to go
Godzilla

Oh no, there goes the bayou
Godzilla

History shows again and again
How nature points out the folly of man

Hurricane...Godzilla

Mighty Day(as recorded by the Chad Mitchell Trio


Album: "Mighty Day On Campus"
(There are different lyrics to this song,
but this is the version recorded by CMT.)


Dm A7
I remember down in Galveston,
Dm A7
When storm winds swept the town,
Dm Bm
The high tides from the ocean, Lord,
A7 Dm
Put water all around.


[Chorus:]
Dm G Bb7
Wasn't that a mighty day, (a mighty day) a mighty day
Dm
(a might day) a mighty day, great God that morning
A7 Dm
When the storm winds swept the town

[Chorus]

The winds began to blowin'.
The rains began to fall.
The lightning shafts were cracklin', Lord,
And the thunder started to roll

[Chorus]

The trumpets warned the people,
You'd better leave this place.
But they never meant to leave their homes
Till death was in their face.

The seas began to rollin'.
The ships they could not land,
I heard a captain crying, God,
Please save this drowin' man

[Chorus]

The trains they all were loaded
With people leavin' town,
The tracks gave way to the ocean, Lord,
And the trains they went on down.

The waters like some river
They went a-rushin' to and fro
I saw my father drownin', Lord,
And I watched my mother go

[Chorus]

Now death your hands are icy.
You've got them on my knee.
You took away my mother now.
You're comin' after me.

[Chorus] (twice to finish)

row row row your boat?

The one that's sticking in my head is "Walking on Sunshine" by Katrina and the Waves which, while not an appropriate song for this time, does have a title that sums up what just happened.

Jim

All I can think of is that stupid repetive song they always play at soccer games:

"I get knocked down,
I get up again,
Ain't nothing gonna keep me down"

Riders on the storm
Riders on the storm
Into this house were born
Into this world were thrown
Like a dog without a bone
An actor out on loan
Riders on the storm. :o

"Proud Mary", in remembrance of the good times.

Granted, I've never been to the area, but here's hoping people will get to relive their lives.

José

New Orleans has always been, to me, one of the few places in the US where I felt that could feel at home. Who knows...maybe someday I'll still have the chance.

...sittin' on the dock of a bay... :dude:

Only change will bring
You out of the darkness
In this moment everything is born again

Reach up for the sunrise
Put your hands into the big sky
You can touch the sunrise
Feel the new day enter your life

"(Reach Up For The) Sunrise" -- Duran Duran

I was in Pensacola during Katrina's landfall. Although I didn't go for this reason, I thought I'd escape the storm there, as it was originally thought to be bearing down on Apalachicola -- almost due south of my house.

Everyone I personally care about made it through okay.

Qapla'

SSB

In light of the latest developments, I keep humming The Battle of New Orleans... :freak:

In light of the latest developments, I keep humming The Battle of New Orleans... :freak:
At least in the War of 1812, it was the Yanks fighting the Brits, not Americans looting stores and robbing and raping other Americans. Oh well, these kinds of situations always seem to bring out both the best and the worst in people.

Louisiana 1927 by Randy Newman

What has happened down here is the winds have changed
Clouds roll in from the north and it started to rain
Rained real hard and it rained for a real long time
Six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline

The river rose all day
The river rose all night
Some people got lost in the flood
Some people got away alright
The river have busted through clear down to Plaquemines
Six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline

Louisiana, Louisiana
They're tryin' to wash us away
They're tryin' to wash us away
Louisiana, Louisiana
They're tryin' to wash us away
They're tryin' to wash us away

President Coolidge came down in a railroad train
With a little fat man with a note-pad in his hand
The President say, "Little fat man isn't it a shame what the river has done
To this poor cracker's land."

Louisiana, Louisiana
They're tryin' to wash us away
They're tryin' to wash us away
Louisiana, Louisiana
They're tryin' to wash us away
They're tryin' to wash us away
They're tryin' to wash us away
They're tryin' to wash us away

Nice to see Randy Newman still has it on the Shelter for the Storm concert tonight.

Nice to see Randy Newman still has it on the Shelter for the Storm concert tonight.

Had to work late and missed it .... but ... I'm going to see Mr. Newman live in concert next Saturday night with the North Carolina Symphony. I can't imagine that he won't play that song, hopefully along with some others from his two most brilliant albums - Sail Away and Good Ol' Boys. It's some kind of crime that Mr. Newman is known by most people only for his movie scores and for two minor songs that he could have written in his sleep - I Love L.A. and Short People - although Short People at least hints at the multi-layered irony he so masterfully explores in his better works. I read an interview with Newman where he said that he actually received death threats from vertically challenged listeners who just didn't get that the song Short People is actually about the utter stupidity of mindless bigotry. It is, of course, and it's also funny as hell - which is another trademark of his. He can make you laugh, cry, and shake your head all in the same song. The word "brilliant" is absolutely appropriate. I'm glad that the evocative Louisiana 1927 is getting renewed exposure and hope that it may lead people to discover Newman's true artistry. Randy Newman is one of our greatest American songwriters - living or dead - and I mean that sincerely.

It's kinda interesting how two older Newman songs, Louisana 1927 and Let's Drop the Big One(my personal fave), sound like they could have been written literally yesterday.

I agree about the brilliant, and have read where Newman said he amazed that I Love LA was also embraced as a pro-LA song.

No one likes us
I don't know why.
We may not be perfect
But heaven knows we try.
But all around even our old friends put us down.
Let's drop the big one and see what happens.

We give them money
But are they grateful?
No they're spiteful
And they're hateful.
They don't respect us so let's surprise them;
We'll drop the big one and pulverize them.
Now Asia's crowded
And Europe's too old.
Africa's far too hot,
And Canada's too cold.
And South America stole our name.
Let's drop the big one; there'll be no one left to blame us.

Bridge:
We'll save Australia;
Don't wanna hurt no kangaroo.
We'll build an all-American amusement park there;
They've got surfing, too.

Well, boom goes London,
And boom Paris.
More room for you
And more room for me.
And every city the whole world round
Will just be another American town.
Oh, how peaceful it'll be;
We'll set everybody free;
You'll have Japanese kimonos, baby,
There'll be Italian shoes for me.
They all hate us anyhow,
So let's drop the big one now.
Let's drop the big one now.

^ Political Science From Sail Away - an album which in 12 perfect songs addresses love, death, fatherhood, God, the history of race in America, lust (you've never really heard You Can Leave Your Hat On until you've heard Newman's drippingly lascivious delivery of his own composition), and celebrity - Newman wrote Lonely at The Top for Frank Sinatra but Sinatra rejected it. If Frank had possessed a bit more sense of irony and self-deprecating humor - it would have been one of the biggest hits of his later career.

Lonely At The Top by Randy Newman

I've been around the world
Had my pick of any girl
You'd think I'd be happy
But I'm not

Ev'rybody knows my name
But it's just a crazy game
Oh, it's lonely at the top

Listen to the band, they're playing just for me
Listen to the people paying just for me

All the applause-all the parades
And all the money I have made
Oh, it's lonely at the top

Listen all you fools out there
Go on and love me I don't care
Oh it's lonely at the top
Oh, it's lonely at the top