{"id":49790,"date":"2019-06-24T04:04:40","date_gmt":"2019-06-24T10:04:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=49790"},"modified":"2019-06-24T04:04:40","modified_gmt":"2019-06-24T10:04:40","slug":"op-ed-goodbye-to-the-good-doctor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/op-ed-goodbye-to-the-good-doctor\/","title":{"rendered":"OP-ED: Goodbye to the good doctor"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By ALAN SMASON<\/p>\n<p>While there was nothing particularly Jewish about Mac Rebennack, the iconic New Orleans singer, arranger, composer and sometime voodoo adherent who was laid to rest on Saturday, there may never have been someone who was more attuned to the history and the heartbeat of our city.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_49791\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Mac_Rebbenack.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-49791\" class=\"wp-image-49791 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Mac_Rebbenack-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Mac_Rebbenack-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Mac_Rebbenack-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Mac_Rebbenack-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/225;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-49791\" class=\"wp-image-49791 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Mac_Rebbenack-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Mac_Rebbenack-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Mac_Rebbenack-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Mac_Rebbenack-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-49791\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mac Rebennack ( 1941-2019) (Photo by Alan Smason)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The Dr. John character he invented was based on actual New Orleans characters of the past and became his most famous role and alter ego. Yet,&nbsp; Mac Rebbenack was something of a musical genius who could recall literal line and verse of the Crescent City&#8217;s previous musical repertoire and could recite stories of the characters (or whom he lovingly mispronounced as &#8220;char-actors&#8221;) of the past.<\/p>\n<p>And while it is the mission of the Crescent City Jewish News to cover the Jewish community of New Orleans, there is really no separation from the greater whole when it comes to music. Mac was a local who connected to <em>every<\/em> segment of the city &#8211; be it African-American, Latin, Mardi Gras Indian or Caucasian. He was truly a man of the people and a citizen of the world.<\/p>\n<p>Like many other gifted musical souls, Mac also wrestled with many demons. His drug usage may have kept him at abeyance during his most prolific and productive period, but he always seemed to manage it rather than allow it to overtake him and destroy his creativity. In fact, he was too busy enjoying life than to celebrate death.<\/p>\n<p>But, as many people alluded to his spiritual nature,&nbsp; Mac always kept one foot in this life and one in the afterlife too. Perhaps that was why his music with roots in jazz, blues, rhythm and blues, funk and Afro-Caribbean connected to us all.<\/p>\n<p>For 77 years, New Orleans got to share him with the world and now his musical legacy is left to join the lexicon of others, like him, who are also gone. These include giants like Professor Longhair, Allen Toussaint, James Booker and Fats Domino, but also lesser-known, but to Mac very special performers, like Bobby Charles, Bobby Marchan, Prince Lala, Tuts Washington and Archibald.<\/p>\n<p>We mourn the loss of our city&#8217;s great friend and musical mentor. With six Grammy Awards and his selection to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Dr. John (aka Mac Rebennack) has secured his place in the musical heavens and in our deeply New Orleans hearts.<\/p>\n<p>God bless the good doctor and God bless New Orleans.<\/p>\n<p>,<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"OP-ED%3A%20Goodbye%20to%20the%20good%20doctor\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[10067,10065,9340,8790,8795,10066,757,8788,10068],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49790"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49790"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49792,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49790\/revisions\/49792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}