Dr. John was a rare breed of musician who made a tremendous impact on popular music as a whole without bogging himself down in the mainstream mire. From his prolific session work to the somewhat insular New Orleans music scene, Dr. John built his career on the shadowy outskirts of “commercial” success. He was a musician lauded by his colleagues and contemporaries, despite the fact that, compared to them, he was relatively lesser-known.
For his first several solo albums, this distance from the spotlight was intentional. Speaking to Rolling Stone in 1973, Dr. John contemplated the paradox of being wary of commercialism while also helping countless other artists achieve chart success as a session player. “It’s hard to put this in anything that sounds sensible. I’ve been making commercial records for all the other artists for a long time,” he admitted. “I feel there’s a certain point at which some records get hurt if they’re trying to be commercial.”
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“But then there are some records that are commercial that’s good,” Dr. John continued. “Originally, I felt to go commercial would prostitute myself and bastardize the music. On reflecting, I thought that if without messin’ up the music and keeping the roots and elements of what I want to do musically, I could still make a commercial record I would not feel ashamed from, I’m proud of, and still have a feel for, then it’s not a bad thing but it even serve a good purpose.”
How Dr. John Turned This Collaborative Effort Into 1973 Hit, “Right Place, Wrong Time”
Dr. John stumbled upon this Goldilocks blend of commercial sensibility and musical integrity in 1973 with what would become his biggest career hit, “Right Place, Wrong Time”. The single came from his sixth album, In the Right Place. It peaked at No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 6 in Canada. Dr. John had many critically acclaimed singles and albums over his decades-long career. But “Right Place, Wrong Time” catapulted him into the pop sphere for the first and last time.
This was a strange place for Dr. John to be, even by Dr. John’s standards. But perhaps it was the collaborative effort of “Right Place, Wrong Time” that helped soften his concerns about being a commercial artist. “A lot of different artists pitched in to give me lyrics on the song,” Dr. John later recalled in his memoir, Under a Hoodoo Moon. “Bob Dylan started it off by laying a line in me. ‘I’m on the right trip, but in the wrong car.’ Then, Bette Midler gave me one. ‘My head’s in a bad place. I don’t know what it’s there for.’ Doug Sahm also pitched in. ‘I was in the right set. But it must have been the wrong sign.’ Everybody gave me a little something.”
Dr. John pulled from “old Ninth Ward slang” for some lines. Notably, the one where he talks about needing “a little brain salad surgery.” The pianist explained that the phrase was a New Orleans euphemism for oral sex. That phrase then bled over into Emerson, Lake, and Palmer’s orbit, who were working with the same record promoter as Dr. John. The trio got such a kick out of the slang term that they used it for the title of their 1973 prog-rock album.
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