Original subtitles

♪ Old Man Rhythm is in my shoes ♪

♪ It's no use a-sittin' and a-singin' the blues ♪

♪ So be my guest You've got nothin' to lose ♪

♪ Won 7 you let me take you on a sea cruise ♪

♪ Ooh-wee ♪

♪ Ooh-wee, baby ♪

♪ Ooh-wee ♪

♪ Ooh-wee, baby ♪

♪ Ooh-wee ♪

♪ Ooh-wee, baby ♪

♪ Won 7 you let me take you on a sea cruise ♪

♪ Feel like jumpin' ♪

♪ Baby, won't you join me, please? ♪

♪ I don't like beggin', but now I'm on bended knees ♪

♪ I got to get to rockin', get my hat off the rack ♪

♪ I got to boogie-woogie like a knife in the back ♪

♪ So be my guest You've go! Nothing to lose ♪

♪ Won 7 you let me take you on a sea cruise ♪

♪ Ooh-wee ♪

♪ Ooh-wee, baby ♪

♪ Ooh-wee ♪

♪ Ooh-wee, baby ♪

♪ Ooh-wee ♪

♪ Ooh-wee, baby ♪

♪ Won 7 you let me take you on a sea cruise ♪

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♪ I got to get to movin', baby I ain't lyin' ♪

♪ My heart is beatin' rhythm and it's right on time ♪

♪ So be my guest You've go! Nothing to lose ♪

♪ Won 7 you let me take you on a sea cruise ♪

♪ Ooh-wee ♪

♪ Ooh-wee, baby ♪

♪ Ooh-wee ♪

♪ Ooh-wee, baby ♪

♪ Ooh-wee ♪

♪ Ooh-wee, baby ♪

♪ Won 7 you let me take you on a sea cruise ♪

♪ Feel like jumpin' ♪

♪ Baby, won't you join me, please ♪

♪ I don't like beggin', but now I'm on bended knees ♪

♪ Ooh-wee ♪

♪ Ooh-wee, baby ♪

♪ Ooh-wee ♪

♪ Ooh-wee, baby ♪

♪ Ooh-wee ♪

♪ Ooh-wee, baby ♪

♪ Won 7 you let me take you on a sea cruise JV'

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We had orchestra and a brass band too.

And don't you know, all them fellows in that brass band dead but one.

One fella who's livin' today.

How old are you now?

- Eh? - How old are you now?

I'm 80.

How do you get to be so much alive?

Well, look - Just look -

I tell you - You know one thing?

You know, most everybody comes to the Preservation Hall...

they don't ask nobody about their age but me.

You know what I tell 'em? I say, “I'm 100.”

And I just let 'em go with that.

“Oh, you ain't no hundred!”

I say, “Oh, yeah, I am. Next birthday I'll be 101

- You know what I mean? - And, uh -

Some of 'em believe it and some don't believe it.

But I tell them that all the time. I really tell 'em that.

And, uh, people say, “Why you tell that to people?”

I say, “I don't want no one to know my age.”

They're so interested in my age. You know what I mean?

And I say, well, I say, the thing about it -

Thank God - I say, thank God the man let me stay that long.

You know, look - I'm gon' tell you -

I'm gonna tell you what a man say - You know what them fellas say one time?

He say, “You know one thing?

If I knew I was gonna live that long, I'd have took care of myself.”

But you see, when he realized that, it was too late. He died.

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You be here today, you're gone tomorrow, you know.

You don't know what to look...

for after death.

But you always can see what you can see in front of you.

You know.

But like me, you know, I like people to have a nice time.

And when I leave this face of the earth...

I'd like a little band behind me...

and my friends having a nice time, see me leave this place.

But I'm livin' now...

and I'm not gonna wait, you know...

till I'm in the ground and be laid out, you know...

to have some fun in the streets.

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Second-line bands, the bands that march in the street...

uh, initially was done for funerals.

Maybe even before that for something else.

But by the time we can talk about it - This is what I know about it.

It was done for funerals -

to march real slow on the way to the funeral and cut up on the way back.

That's how you'd lay the dead away -

with a band.

You'd take 'em on out and you'd boogie back.

And the people who are behind the band and doin' their things...

is the second line.

Hey!

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One time I went and followed a parade, me and my girlfriend...

and we kept on followin' the parade.

She thought I knew where we was going and I thought she knew...

and when we come to find out neither one of us knew where we were.

We were way uptown in New Orleans, you know...

following the parade uptown.

So she said, “Where we at?” I said, “I don't know. Don't you know?”

She said, “No.” I said, “I don't either.”

So then we started asking people...

you know, where we was...

and we started running.

We ran all the way back home.

We was way uptown somewhere.

But we kept a-dancin' and a-skippin' with the music and kept on goin'.

And we never did that no more.

I never - I don't remember...

following a parade after that day.

I'd go about a couple of blocks...

and that was the furthest.

But I never followed a parade after I got lost.

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Come on, man!

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Many places I've traveled over the country...

beans were used in a salad.

The idea of stewing beans, you know, combining beans and meat...

wasn't well known or wasn't too popular.

But places that I have prepared just red beans and rice...

have really went over a lot, you know.

They say, “Wow, I wish we'd have known this, because we could have been doing this.”

You know, 'cause it's so flavorful and simple.

It's really a simple, everyday meal.

In the army, we had red beans...

but it was like a vegetable dished on the side, you know.

It had no seasoning or anything. It was just boiled beans, you know.

It just happened to be one week we had bivouac...

had to stay at headquarters company that week.

I didn't get to go out.

So I had to cook for the headquarters people...

and we run out of rations - there wasn't no rations.

All they had left was beans and ham...

and rice.

So that's what I fixed - beans, ham and rice.

And, you know, it went all over the base, you know...

how the beans and rice tasted, you know.

So now it's a part of the menu in the service.

Put one whole green pepper...

at least four or five cloves of garlic...

and take three celery stalks, the long ones, and finely chop it.

If you chop it real fine, it'll cook all up in it. You won't even know it's in there.

And your onions. Everything goes in at the same time.

And some people say put a bay leaf in it, you know...

or add a teaspoon of sugar.

I don't put the sugar, and every now and then I think about the bay leaf.

I might throw it in there and I might not.

Depends on what I'm thinkin' about that day.

But, you know, you cook 'em slow. The slower you cook 'em-

Get 'em to boiling first and then turn the fire down...

and cook 'em at medium heat...

and you'll get a gorgeous pot of beans like I had yesterday.

And he turned 'em on and burned 'em!

I went back to sleep, I think.

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- N - ♪ A little grits and fish giblets ♪

♪ Boiled greens and tomato paste ♪

♪ How about a little stew ♪

♪ I went on down to the deep blue sea ♪

♪ And they all asked for you ♪

♪ They all asked for you ♪

♪ You know, they even inquired about you ♪

♪ I went on down to the deep blue sea ♪

- ♪ And they all asked for you ♪ - ♪ Wha-hoo! ♪

♪ The sharks asked, the whales asked ♪

♪ And the barracuda asked it too ♪

- ♪ Yes, they all asked for you ♪ - ♪ In the mornin' ♪

- ♪ They all asked for you ♪ - ♪ In the evenin' ♪

♪ Everybody there, they wanna know where ♪

♪ They all asked for you ♪

- ♪ They all asked for you ♪ - ♪ Everybody ♪

- ♪ They all asked for you ♪ - ♪ Everybody ♪

♪ Everybody there, they wanna know where ♪

♪ They all asked for you N

N

This here, the live ones will fall into the baskets...

and the dead ones will stay.

And this process is to separate...

the live crawfish from the dead crawfish?

The live crawfish from the dead.

This here's crab boil.

Now, I'm going to the cayenne pepper...

which makes the crawfish have the pepperish taste.

All right, everything that I put in here...

is the salt, garlic, the crab boil, cayenne pepper...

and then I'm gonna put some Louisiana hot sauce.

This here's Louisiana hot sauce.

This also gives a tang to it, a pepperish taste.

See, a lot of people, when they go to eat crawfish -

The proper way to do it, you put it underneath your tongue with your teeth...

you squeeze and pull out.

Then you suck the heads.

But a lot of people that would eat crawfish that's not too familiar with it...

they would break it, then have to peel it...

then turn it around like that, then squeeze...

and then pull it out with their fingers.

Other words, if we we're out eatin' - us -

I could eat maybe four to five crawfish to maybe y'all one...

if a person didn't know how to eat it proper.

And then naturally you squeeze...

and you get the juice out...

which is the seasoning that just came from soaking.

And that's the proper way of eating a crawfish.

Here's to John, the best crawfish boiler this side of the river.

Here's to John, one of the neighborhoods best friends.

Doesn't matter how you cut it. He was a great guy and his son's a chip off the block.

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N

Hey!

Yeah! What's going on?

Down here they got a Saint Patrick's Day celebration goin'.

This is one of the only cities in the world...

that you can do what you're doing here.

Drink beer out in the street, throw the cans on the sidewalk.

It's one of the greatest places in the world.

They call it “The City That Care Forgot.”

lt's probably the last place in America that you can feel -

well, just sort of free to live, you know.

N

It's a good-time town.

And you celebrate your holidays -

You celebrate more holidays in New Orleans than you celebrate anywhere.

You celebrate Saint Patrick's Day, Saint Joseph's.

Two weeks up until Mardi Gras Day...

it builds up into something, you'd think you was in Brazil.

The businesses still going on...

but everybody's finger-poppin' and havin' a ball.

N'

♪ In Gert Town where the cats all meet ♪

♪ ls the Mardi Gras mambo with a beat ♪

♪ Shout a cheer for the Zulu king ♪

♪ And truck on down with a mambo swing ♪

♪ The Mardi Gras Mambo Mambo, Mambo' ♪

♪ Mardi Gras Mambo Mambo, Mambo' ♪

♪ Mardi Gras Mambo ♪

♪ Down in New Orleans N'

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Mardi Gras cannot be a spectator sport.

You can't come and watch Mardi Gras.

You either come and do Mardi Gras or you lose out.

The thing started when the Christian church decided...

it needed to -

to base its holidays on...

the existing celebrations...

uh, those things...

they considered pagan.

So - To get the people -

Since they were celebrating already, if they made them the holy days...

then they would be their holy days.

So... Mardi Gras...

is the last chance to blow it off...

before you have to start doing without...

to make yourself pure enough to celebrate the death of Christ -

the birth of Christ - the death of Christ - whichever those are.

But the concept of having to have a lustful time...

and then the time without...

uh, is where it came from.

To do that...

respectable people couldn't be lustful...

so you have to mask.

You have to put on a false front...

in order to be...

who you want to be anyway...

uh, before the real false front -

Of giving up everything and being pure comes along.

- Beautiful! - Whoo!

- Hey, hey! - Whoo!

Whoo!

If you wants to be white today, you can be white today.

Yeah!

- What do you want to be today? - White today!

We gonna be Kunta Kinte, you understand!

Nah! Superman! Batman! Robin Hood! You can be anything you want to be today.

But now, tomorrow, you got to be a nigger tomorrow...

'cause that's what you is!

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- ♪ Hell out the way ♪ - ♪ I got to have it ♪

- ♪ Hell out the way ♪ - ♪ I gots to party ♪

♪ Hell out the way ♪

- ♪ Hell out the way ♪ - ♪ Early in the morning ♪

- ♪ Hell out the way ♪ - ♪ Here day come now ♪

- ♪ Hell out the way ♪ - ♪ Right downtown ♪

- ♪ Hell out the way ♪ - ♪ I got the trumpet ♪

- ♪ Hell out the way ♪ - I got the trumpet ♪

- ♪ Hell out the way ♪ - ♪ Gang got the trumpets ♪

- ♪ Hell out the way ♪ - ♪ We've all got the trumpets ♪

- ♪ Hell out the way ♪ - ♪ Come on, ring ♪

- ♪ Hell out the way ♪ - ♪ Goin' there in the mornin' ♪

- ♪ Hell out the way ♪ - ♪ I'm gonna rock it ♪

- ♪ Hell out the way ♪ - ♪ Don't ever knock it ♪

- ♪ Hell out the way ♪ - LI'

- ♪ Hell out the way ♪ - ♪ Ba-bop-a-lu-la ♪

- ♪ Hell out the way ♪ - ♪ I walk the river ♪

- ♪ Hell out the way ♪ - ♪ Early in the mornin' ♪

- ♪ Hell out the way ♪ - ♪ Early in the mornin' ♪

- ♪ Hell out the way ♪ - ♪ I walk the water ♪

- ♪ Hell out the way ♪ - ♪ I walk the water ♪

- ♪ Hell out the way ♪ - ♪ Yeah, yeah ♪

- ♪ Hell out the way ♪ - ♪ I walk the water ♪

- ♪ Hell out the way ♪ - ♪ Walk on the water ♪

- ♪ Hell out the way ♪ - ♪ There's funk on the water ♪

- ♪ Hell out the way ♪ - ♪ Oh, my, my, they jumpin' ♪

- ♪ Hell out the way ♪ - ♪ My, my, they jumpin' ♪

- ♪ Hell out the way ♪ - ♪ My, my, they's runnin' ♪

- ♪ Hell out the way ♪ - ♪ I plan on runnin' ♪

- ♪ Hell out the way ♪ - ♪ I plan on runnin', boy ♪

- ♪ Hell out the way ♪ - ♪ The bayou, the bayou, the bayou ♪

♪ Hell out the way ♪

- ♪ Hell out the way ♪ - N'

♪ Hell out the way ♪

♪ Hell out the way ♪

N'

Here you're working with these beautiful colors...

colors that you like, you know.

Then you're combining these colors to form and design.

And this design is gonna represent something, you know...

that's gonna be something said in the whole pan of you, you know.

And then you'll have many of these, maybe, in different parts...

some for your vest, some for your chest piece...

some for your front apron, some for your back apron...

some on your armband, some into your head crown.

And each one of them saying something different.

Or relative in design, you know...

like patches of assimilation for both sides to balance on.

And here's something done stitch by stitch.

Thousands upon hundreds of thousands of stitches...

are made to perform this.

No one goes to school to learn this.

This is something you just have to automatically pick up...

like somebody beating a drum with a stick -

boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

No one tells you. You just feel it.

It all comes from one thing - your wanting to do it.

N'

- ♪ Hell out the way ♪ - N'

- ♪ Hell out the way ♪ - ♪ Early in the mornin' ♪

♪ Hell out the way N'

The closer it gets to Carnival, the more it costs.

We have this trouble every year.

The last minute. And then I have to run all over town.

I'm supposed to be workin', I gotta be running all over town...

trying to find accessories.

Right. And each year it's the same thing. “Oh, we'll do better next year.”

Start off right after Carnival, you know, right after Carnival...

but then fall through along the way, and at the last minute here we go.

I burn up about $40 worth of gas...

running from Jefferson Parish to Saint Bernard Parish, all across the river.

What's involved in being the queen?

Oh, it's a - a lot of things, man.

You know, like -

lt's like taking on...

this thing you have to do.

But practicing every day like you see here...

and... just having fun.

That's it.

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♪

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♪ Well, I got a little chief ♪

♪ Little chief ♪

♪ He's the chief of the nation ♪

♪ The wide, wide creation ♪

♪ Oh, he won't go down ♪

♪ Down on the ground ♪

♪ Oh, how I love to hear you call ♪

♪ My Indian Red N'

♪ Mighty cooty fiyo ♪

♪ Ee-yi-yay ♪

♪ Ee-yi-yay ♪

♪ Mi-Mi-Mighty cooty fiyo ♪

♪ Ee-yi-yay ♪

Whoo!

♪ Ee-yi-yay ♪

- ♪ Oh, there is the big chief ♪ - ♪ Big chief ♪

R Big chief r

♪ Big chief of the nation ♪

♪ The wide, wide creation ♪

♪ He won't bow down ♪

- ♪ Down on the ground ♪ - Whoo!

♪ Oh, how I love to hear you call my Indian Red ♪

♪ Hey, hey, hey ♪

♪ Mighty cooty fiyo ♪

♪ Ee-yi-yay ♪

♪ Ee-yi-yay ♪

Ooh!

♪ Mighty cooty fiyo ♪

♪ Ee-yi-yay ♪

♪ Ee-yi-yay ♪

♪ I got a spy boy-l'

"r Spy BOY 4"

♪ Spy boy of the nation ♪

♪ The wide, wide creation ♪

- ♪ He won't bow down ♪ - ♪ He won't bow down ♪

- ♪ Down on the ground ♪ - ♪ Down on the ground ♪

♪ Oh, how I love to hear you call my Indian Red ♪

- ♪ Jockamo-fiyo ♪ - ♪ Hondo, hondo ♪

- ♪ In the mornin' ♪ - ♪ Hondo, hondo, hondo ♪

- ♪ Late in the evenin' ♪ - ♪ Hondo, hondo, hondo ♪

- ♪ All day long ♪ - ♪ Hondo, hondo, hondo ♪

♪ And he won't lay down ♪

- ♪ Not on the ground ♪ - ♪ Down on the ground ♪

♪ Oh, how I love to hear them call my Indian Red N'

- LI' - ♪ Ooh-na-nay ♪

- ♪ Jockamo-fiyo ♪ - ♪ Ooh-na-nay ♪

- ♪ Ay, Mama ♪ - ♪ Ooh-na-nay ♪

- ♪ Ay, Mama ♪ - ♪ Ooh-na-nay ♪

- ♪ Run tell your mama ♪ - ♪ Ooh-na-nay ♪

- ♪ Run tell your sister ♪ - ♪ Ooh-na-nay ♪

- ♪ Here come de Indians ♪ - ♪ Ooh-na-nay ♪

- ♪ Indians comin' from ♪ - ♪ Ooh-na-nay ♪

- ♪ Way up town ♪ - ♪ Ooh-na-nay ♪

Look at me!

Come on, ya! Get up -

Aww. Who is that?

Ohh!

- Can't do it. Can't do it, man. - Get this cleared off.

Look. You're on TV, man.

- What he doin'? - He's taking your picture.

What do you think he's doin'? You're on a movie camera.

- How do? - All right.

- How you feelin'? - Fine, thank you.

Fraser's my name.

Oh! Do it now!

Aw, shucks!

Let me take you for a little walk.

- Where they at? - Goin' down to the parade?

- ♪ Say, boy, be ready on Mardi Gras day ♪ - Come out here, Sandra!

♪ Handa Wanda your mama I'

Oh, do that thing!

♪ Handa Wanda your mama I'

♪ She's a pretty little girl on Mardi Gras day ♪

♪ Handa Wanda your mama I'

♪ I said, Mardi Gras day, it won't be long ♪

♪ Handa Wanda your mama I'

♪ Say, live where you want, gonna carry it home ♪

♪ Handa Wanda your mama I'

♪ Get high, what I say ♪

♪ Handa wanda your mama ♪

- Yeah! - Yeah!

Take a picture of me. I'm pretty too.

Over there! Over there!

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♪ Ooh-na-nay ♪

♪ Ooh-na-nay ♪

♪ Ooh-na-nay ♪

How long you been seeing Mardi Gras?

The last 25 years. Yeah, 25 years now.

- Sure has. - I just waits for 'em.

Are they different now from the old days?

Well, they a little bit different. They a little bit more, uh -

Better. I think they better now.

I think they coming up a little better.

What'd they used to do in the old days?

Well, some of the same things, but it wasn't quite as -

Not too much - Actually, not too much different you can say.

They're just more - They're just more modern today.

Yeah. More modern.

What kind of action did they used to have?

Well, they used to have moss. Shucks, they used to have hay, things like that.

But now it look like they get more real.

Can you tell us?

You know, they used to shoot at one another...

and hit one another with knives and hatchets and all that stuff.

You know that. Why don't you tell it like it is? That's been about 30 years ago.

How come it changed?

I don't know. The law got behind it, so it had to change.

- Misusin' one another like that. - More civilized, huh?

They got more civilized. That's right. Why don't you tell the man like it was?

♪ Meet de boys on de battlefront ♪

♪ Meet de boys on de battlefront ♪

♪ Meet de boys on de battlefront ♪

♪ Oh, the Wild Tchoupitoulas gonna stomp some rump ♪

♪ The Indians comin' from all over town ♪

♪ Big chief think he gonna take uptown ♪

♪ Jockamo-fiyo, eh-la-hey ♪

♪ Indians the rulers on the holiday ♪

♪ Meet de boys on de battlefront ♪

♪ Meet de boys on de battlefront ♪

♪ Meet de boys on de battlefront ♪

♪ Oh, them Wild Tchoupitoulas gonna stomp some rump ♪

N'

♪ Meet de boys on de battlefront ♪

♪ Meet de boys on de battlefront ♪

♪ Meet de boys on de battlefront ♪

♪ Oh, them Wild Tchoupitoulas gonna stomp some rump ♪

♪ This Mardi Gras mornin' won't be long ♪

♪ Gonna play Indians Gon' carry on ♪

♪ Maskers running up and down the avenue ♪

♪ Here comes the Indians Let 'em through ♪

♪ Meet de boys on de battlefront ♪

♪ Meet de boys on de battlefront ♪

♪ Meet de boys on de battlefront ♪

♪ Oh, them Wild Tchoupitoulas gonna stomp some rump ♪

N'

♪ Meet de boys on de battlefront ♪

♪ Meet de boys on de battlefront ♪

♪ Meet de boys on de battlefront ♪

♪ Oh, the Wild Tchoupitoulas gonna stomp some rump ♪

N'

♪ Meet de boys on de battlefront ♪

♪ Meet de boys on de battlefront ♪

♪ Meet de boys on de battlefront ♪

♪ Oh, the Wild Tchoupitoulas gonna stomp some rump ♪

♪ Get back home we gonna kneel and pray ♪

♪ Meet de boys on de battlefront ♪

♪ Meet de boys on de battlefront ♪

♪ Meet de boys on de battlefront ♪

♪ Meet de boys on de battlefront ♪

♪ Meet de boys on de battlefront ♪

♪ Meet de boys on de battlefront ♪

♪ Oh, the Wild Tchoupitoulas gonna stomp some rump ♪

♪ Meet de boys on de battlefront ♪

♪ Meet de boys on de battlefront ♪

♪ Meet de boys on de battlefront ♪

♪ Oh, them Wild Tchoupitoulas gonna stomp some rump N

Comin' through! Comin' through!

N

Spy!

Spy!

Spy boy!

Spy boy!

♪ Spy boy, waka-nella ♪

Spy boy!

Spy boy!

♪ Golden crown on the battlefield ♪

♪ Golden crown on the battlefield ♪

♪ Golden crown on the battlefield ♪

♪ Golden crown on the battlefield ♪

♪ Golden crown on the battlefield ♪

♪ Golden crown on the battlefield ♪

♪ Golden crown on the battlefield ♪

Spy boys meet first, you know.

They dance and talk to each other, you know, until they cut each other loose.

Then it go on down the line - flag boy meet flag boy...

on down to second chief, then down to the big chief.

But it's mostly just talkin' and dancin'. There it is.

What kind of talking?

Well, Indian talk.

There it is.

Yeah, yeah.

You'll be talkin' bull.

No, but the person who you're talking to, you know, they come back to you.

They'll answer you. Say -

Then, you know, he'll answer you, you know.

But it comes to you.

It's no set language you have, a script to follow, to say what you want to say.

You say what you feel.

♪ Golden crown on the battlefield ♪

♪ Golden crown on the battlefield ♪

♪ Golden crown on the battlefield ♪

♪ Golden crown on the battlefield ♪

This Indian thing is, like, well, something...

that every black man, I feel, should be into, you know.

And I have kids right now, and my kids is coming up.

And I want to get all my kids into it.

When it gets to the point where I have to drop out...

I want my kids to take over for me.

Some of the - the black traditions...

are not being brought forward as much as they should...

as far as tradition is concerned, you know.

This is an environment that's a pan of the people.

We wish that we can convey...

to every person, you know...

a feeling of tradition.

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Hey!

Whoa!

- N - Yeah!

The Prince of Wales is a social and pleasure club, a marching club...

that was organized August 13, 1928...

in the upper Irish Channel of New Orleans.

Well, today we're out here...

with the Wild Tchoupitoulas, you understand, as their guests.

But our annual parade...

is the second Sunday in August each and every year.

They have various social and pleasure clubs throughout New Orleans...

and each one of them parades on individual Sundays, you know...

usually in the summer months.

Well, we aid -

You know, I mean, do a little benefit, things like this...

and give to the Sickle Cell Foundation and United Fund and other things...

pick up money especially for this purpose.

But mainly our concern is to entertain our own selves, you understand?