{"id":435,"date":"2008-01-27T23:48:00","date_gmt":"2008-01-27T23:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/docwiggly.wordpress.com\/2008\/01\/27\/inspiration-for-the-new-orleans-song-from-or-the-whale\/"},"modified":"2008-01-27T23:48:00","modified_gmt":"2008-01-27T23:48:00","slug":"inspiration-for-the-new-orleans-song-from-or-the-whale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/2008\/01\/27\/inspiration-for-the-new-orleans-song-from-or-the-whale\/","title":{"rendered":"Inspiration for The New Orleans Song from Or, the Whale"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Artists In Their Own Words]<\/p>\n

The Inspiration<\/h1>\n

behind their New Orleans Song \u201cCall and Response\u201d on
\nLight Poles and Pines<\/i> by SF band Or, the Whale<\/h2>\n

[Excerpted from an email sent to the editor by Alex Robins – Or, the Whale]<\/i><\/p>\n

You had previously asked what the inspiration for \u201cCall and Response,\u201d or \u201cthe New Orleans song\u201d as most people know it, was and I\u2019d love to answer your question. Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast on the same day I started the long moving drive from Ann Arbor, Michigan (where I previously lived) to San Francisco (where I now live). When I arrived in the city, news and images began coming in of the devastation and chaos that was occurring. Details about racism and poverty were drudged up and most of the pictures from New Orleans only drove these points home.<\/p>\n

Being a history major, I have a good amount of background into this country\u2019s history and the repeated offenses and problems that tend to reoccur throughout the decades. It wasn\u2019t just that the storm devastated the region, it actually acted as the hand pulling the curtain on the \u201csecret\u201d (or ignored) problems that this country tries to undermine and underestimate.<\/p>\n

With all that said, I thought writing a song about it would put into words some of the feelings that I had about the situation. I have never written a political song before (and haven\u2019t since) and in a lot of ways, it\u2019s not really a political song. I tried to personalize the situation and the voice of the song is the voice of the dead, past and present. \u201cThey,\u201d having more to fear than a hurricane, are those in local and federal government that wouldn\u2019t and won\u2019t acknowledge the problems that existed in New Orleans before Katrina and exist there now, over two years later. Using God and piety as a way of judging their own character and yet allowing something like this to happen to poor, black people who are probably just as religious and God-fearing as they (the politicians) are is somewhat ironic.<\/p>\n

Basically, the main point is that history doesn\u2019t forget. President Bush and FEMA and local Gulf Coast governments and the mainstream media can all act like nothing happened and we\u2019ll be talking about the rebuilding of New Orleans and it\u2019s thriving tourist economy 5, 10, and 20 years from now. But no one seems to talk about the fact that Katrina wasn\u2019t the problem. Racism, poverty, and trickle-down economics buried New Orleans and much of the South long before the hurricane whipped through Bourbon Street and uncovered the truth. And they still seem to ignore it. I just thought that my viewpoint was as good as anyone elses. I also acknowledge that there\u2019s plenty of great things happening in the rebuilding process of the Gulf Coast region and hopefully there will be a dialogue about the ingrained issues that exist.<\/p>\n

Sorry for being so long winded. I guess no one\u2019s really ever asked for the real inspiration behind the song. Short version: pissed off, punk rock-country song about the ghosts of the South rising to get revenge on those that put them there in the first place.<\/p>\n

Hope to see you in March.<\/p>\n

Best,
\nAlex Robins and Or, the Whale
\nhttp:\/\/www.orthewhale.com
\nhttp:\/\/www.myspace.com\/orthewhale<\/p>\n

[Or The Whale plays at The Casbah with the Silent Comedy on Saturday, March 22nd. ~Ed.]<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Artists In Their Own Words] The Inspiration behind their New Orleans Song \u201cCall and Response\u201d on Light Poles and Pines by SF band Or, the Whale [Excerpted from an email sent to the editor by Alex Robins – Or, the Whale] You had previously asked what the inspiration for \u201cCall and Response,\u201d or \u201cthe New Orleans song\u201d as most people […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[209],"class_list":["post-435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","tag-inspiration-for-the-new-orleans-song"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9780,"url":"https:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/2013\/11\/23\/ben-johnson-and-tourettes-lautrec-story\/","url_meta":{"origin":435,"position":0},"title":"Ben Johnson and Tourettes Lautrec story","author":"Reviewer Rob","date":"November 23, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"[Coming Soon]On Tour With Tourettes LautrecA Ben Johnson story of high-gnarliness on the road in New Orleans with Tourettes Lautrec will be posted here soon, kidz ... 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