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Louisiana 1927 Lyrics
Artist: Randy Newman
Album: Good Old Boys
What has happened down here is the wind have changed
Clouds roll in from the north and it started to rain
Rained real hard and 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 cleard down to Plaquemines
Six feet of water in the streets of Evangelne
CHORUS
Louisiana, Louisiana
They're tyrin' 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 crackers land."
CHORUS
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Comments/Interpretations
Some of the best lyric written ever... that's it
the bestest song in ever..thats it
i agree with Villy (:
It should be Louisiana 2008
I am from Louisiana and I LOVE this song!
We are singing this song in chours and it sincerley touched a part in my heart I ...even cried hearing my chrous instructure sing it. It is just a wonderful song.
What do people think of the use of the word "Crackers" in this song?
whoa
This song is some of Randy Newmans best work. He is an american legacey and everyone should know that. I am only 11 years old but I know quality music when I here it.
We are singing this song in chorus and I really really love it!
Crackers? Pretty common term in the past. Sonny Landreth changed it to "poor old cajun and creole's land" which is ridiculous. Calvin Coolidge would never have given a damn about anyone with any tint to the skin color. In fact, as much as I love this song I was disappointed to learn that the line about Coolidge is dead wrong - he never visited any of the flood sites or New Orleans after the flood. He was the GWB of the 1920's.
It touches my heart and I've never even been to Louisiana. I wonder if George W feels the same way.
In Aaron Neville's version of the song, it sounds like he changed the word from "crackers" to "farmers." Maybe an attempt to be politically correct. The original by Randy Newman and another version by Howard Tate are some of the best music ever recorded. What a song! You hear this and you just have to feel for the folks who suffered in 1927 and in 2005.
Except that GWB, like myself, was here in NOLA after the storm. So, I dunno what your GWB of the 1920's comment is supposed to mean.
my dad showed me this song. im a cajun from pecanierre and where we live was all flooded. we have pics of the local grociery store. my grandpa lived through it and he said he had to ride from port barre to opelousas whe the land was higher on the tops of trains.
idk why people think its was in new orleans though. they broke the levee to flood the country instead of new orleans, so it was completly missed! but i feel bad about katrina. the outskirts where we live were pretty bad
I think they might be referring to "Greedy White Bast..." or "Great White Bast..." or I dunno either lol .. Good day
the song is kind of fitting after Katrina. That huricane didnt try to wash away, It destroyed , leveled everything.
this song is dope!<$ i love it!
I can't help but hear the soulful refrain, "Louisiana, Louisiana...," in the wake of the grief of the oil spill of 2010.
They're tryin' to wash us away. They never could wash us away. Maybe our homes, or our bodys. But our spirit will always live and fight against the flood.
been singing this since 1990. sang it on the mississippi queen. sang it in many places. my favorite of his songs.
In that historical context, "poor crackers" is a class distinction, and an epithet, for sure. To the arrogant, Northern Coolidge, the rural south and the people affected by the flood were not seen as equals. From him, the term would have been a demeaning insult. I think it fits the message of the song, though given the events of 2005 I can understand Aaron Nevilles sanitizing of the lyric.
I love it, who wouldn't? It rocks.
They tryin to wash them away again...to see grown men cry because the cypress house they built with their own hands will be sacrificed when they open the Morganza spillway really breaks my heart..they ought to just let the river do what it wants...the big cities are more able to build back then these rural folk a few thousand of whom will lose their homes and crops.
Maybe Randy Newman can do a fundraiser for them. I live in Baton Rouge, LA and have never seen the river this high in my 52 yrs.
I love this song . I hope you people will make the same comments about Obama . He hasn't visited any of the flooded lands in Louisiana either . And these flood waters are because of the Government . GWB had no control over a hurricane . Certainly hope you aren't hippocrites .
I love this song. A group here in shreveport,louisiana in the 80's named A-TRAIN also sang this song on one of their albums.
"What the river has done to this poor clackless land"
Dry land has cracks in it.
If "crackers" offends you, don't listen to Newman's song "Rednecks", you won't get it either. It's all about context.
He definitely says "cracker's land." And propers to the 11-year-old (now 15?) who knows from music. I'm commenting to correct the first line, though. He certainly says "What has happened down here, 'cause the wind didn't change?" Maybe "...ain't change?" Usually when a storm blows into nola, or anywhere, you feel the wind change. But look it up: It was an unusual northern storm in 1927, and the wind didn't change. It just started to pour.
"Cracker" is a southern term, used largely in the south to refer to the cracking of a whip to drive cattle. Up north, you might call them rednecks. Down here, they're crackers. White boys.
It's not a racist term, except that a lot of crackers aren't fond of people of color.
It was a sad refrain for Newman, who was born in LA, but spent much of his childhood in New Orleans.
i am also a louisiana native and every time i hear this song it brings tears to my eyes. vive louisiane!
Some people might have thought of "Cracker" as a racist term, but that's not how it is used in this context. "Cracker" is used here as a derogatory term for "poor white man." The sad thing is, after doing some research, I found out that President Coolidge actually said that.
The line about Coolidge was meant to be fictitious as he never came on that train. Randy knew that when he wrote the song.
This song is but one of many terrific songs from the 1974 album "Good Old Boys" which captures and describes the heart and soul of the south. Newman is an icon in the music industry. His body of work is unparalled.
It's an appropriate song for what has happened here this year. First in March, now again in August.
There are many U-Tube videos out with this music as the sound track. I can't listen to it without getting choked-up. REGARDLESS of whether or not it's "accurate" or "politically correct", music isn't required to be. It designed to touch people. This does, ten-fold.