NEW ORLEANS

 The view of the Port of New Orleans, called Port of NOLA for New Orleans, Louisiana.

Lunch,

Went of a bus tour of the city.

Above is the 32-acre Louis Armstrong Park.  I asked Google AI, who is the most iconic person associated with New Orleans:

Louis Armstrong is widely considered the most famous and influential person born in New Orleans. A pioneering jazz trumpeter and singer, his international fame spanned decades, cementing his legacy as a "foundational influence in jazz" known affectionately as "Satchmo"

For example, their airport was in 2001 renamed the Louis Armstrong International Airport.  I might further add that he was born in New Orleans in 1901:

• 
  Had a career spanning five decades, beginning as an inventive trumpeteer in the 1920s
• In 1928 he recorded St James Infirmary Blues, also known as Gambler's Blues, which originated as an American folk song.  There is no true association with New Orleans because the infirmary derives from a historic London hospital for lepers.

• 
  In 1929, stole the show, Hot Chocolates, with his rendition of Ain't Misbehvin'.
• Below, I delve into music from New Orleans, and certainly, his songs rank high as favorites.
• 
  Maybe it also had something to do with the NFL New Orleans Saints, but Satchmo's When the Saints Go Marching In is mostly associated with this city, and he recorded this song in 1938.  The football team's first game was in 1967.

• 
  While there were earlier recordings, he performed Way Down Yonder in New Orleans in 1947 in the film New Orleans.

Back to the American Melody for a final cocktail party.

Final dinner.

We left the American Melody at 8:30AM and checked into the Ritz-Carlton:

The Ritz-Carlton opened in New Orleans in 2000, after a $250 million renovation of the historic Maison Blanche Building. Ideally located on Canal Street in the French Quarter, the hotel’s decor resembles the Garden District’s antebellum mansions. She’s grand and layered, with 528 guest rooms serpentining through her hallowed halls.

The original building is actually 115 years old, and looks it.  Located at the Canal Street end of the French quarter.

You can go to Wikipedia and see a couple of hundred songs that start with New Orleans.  Mardi Gras?  Another hundred or so.  

• Here is a You Tube video on What are the top 10 songs about New Orleans?
• American Songwriter has the 15 best songs about New Orleans.
• From Google AI:

Essential New Orleans Anthems

• "Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?" – Louis Armstrong/Billie Holiday: A wistful classic widely considered the ultimate love song to the city.
• "Mardi Gras in New Orleans" – Professor Longhair: The definitive Carnival season anthem, rich with piano syncopation.
• "Walking to New Orleans" – Fats Domino: A classic 1960 hit that perfectly matches a relaxed, strolling rhythm.
• "Iko Iko" – The Dixie Cups/Dr. John: A staple song of New Orleans culture and Mardi Gras Indians.
• "Treme Song" – John Boutté: Known as the theme to the HBO series, it encapsulates the modern spirit of the city. 

I lived in Louisiana almost four years, but that was from 1969 to 1972. Here are my favorites.

• I picked one from the above list, Iko Iko, mainly because I kind of liked that song from half a century ago, and only today found out that The Dixie Cups are from New Orleans. 
•  The trio of two sisters and their cousin, sang together in grade school
• In 1963, they began singing as the Meltones.

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  Within a year, Joe Jones became their manager.  You know of him because in 1960 he himself had a hit, You Talk Too Much.
• Jones took them to New York City to record for Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller.

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  In 1964, they were The Dixie Cups, and their debut single was Chapel of Love, which reached #1 on Billboard.
• In 1965 they recorded Iko Iko, which only rose to #20.
• They were just playing around in the studio about something the sisters' grandmother sung when they were young, Jock-A-Mo by James Crawford and his Cane Cutters, a 1953 song telling of the collision of two tribes of Mardi Gras Indians.  Lieber and Stoller recorded and enhanced the song into Iko Iko.  Crawford said he put together two Indian victory chants.  The original sounds go back to West Africa and the slave trade, transitioning into Louisiana Voodoo.
• There were numerous law suits regarding this song, and at the end, The Dixie Cups generally prevailed.
• 
  Me and Bobby McGee, by Janis Joplin.
• Song was written in 1971 by Kris Kristofferson, and originally performed by Roger Miller.
• "Me and Bobby McGee" is associated with New Orleans because the song's famous opening lyrics describe a journey that goes "Busted flat in Baton Rouge... [and] Took us all the way to New Orleans". The song highlights the city as a major stop on the protagonists' journey to "sing the blues". 

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  Janis Joplin recorded the song for inclusion on her Pearl album only a few days before her death in October 1970.
• Singer Bob Neuwirth taught it to her while Kristofferson was in Peru filming The Last Movie with Dennis Hopper.^[5] Kristofferson did not know she had recorded the song until after her death. 
• The first time he heard her recording of it was the day after she died.^[6] 
• The song by Joplin was posthumously released, making it up to #1 in 1971, the second posthumously released #1 after The Dock of the Bay by Otis Redding.
• Record World called it a "perfect matching of performer and material".^[7] Joplin's version topped the charts to become her only number one single; her version was later ranked No. 148 on Rolling Stone's 2004 list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.^[8]

• 
  Way Down Yonder in New Orleans, written in 1922 by Turner Layton and Henry Creamer, and one early recording that year was by Blossom Seeley and Paul Whitman.
• House of the Rising Sun, by The Animals
• This is another surprise for me.  Never associated it with New Orleans when I sometimes sang it at karaoke sessions.
• Turns out that this tune tells of a person's life gone wrong in New Orleans.

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  The real shock, however, is that that this is a folk song of uncertain origin.
• Has roots in traditional English folk songs, perhaps resembling the 16th-century ballad, The Unfortunate Rake, from which also probably came St. James Infirmary Blues.
• In any case, this was a bawdy house.
• Was said to be known by American miners in 1905, with the lyrics:

There is a house in New Orleans, it's called the Rising Sun
It's been the ruin of many poor girl
Great God, and I for one.

• Somehow, made it to Appalachia in the 1930s.
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  Roy Acuff recorded it as Rising Sun in 1938.
• In 1941, Woody Guthrie recorded a version and Lead Belly in 1944 and 1948.

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  Pete Seeger in 1958, Andy Griffith in 1959, Judy Collins aso in 1959, Miriam Makeba in 1960, Joan Baez also that year and Bob Dylan 1961.

• 
  Finally in 1964 the Animals were on tour with Chuck Berry, and began singing this song, which elicited a tremendous audience reaction, so they went into a small recording studio in London, and, after one take, released it with the now famous electric guitar A minor chord arpeggio by Hilton Valentine, which he said he borrowed from Bob Dylan.  
• Song ran for a long 4.5 minutes.
• The song was so old, it was already in the public domain when recorded.
• Topped the U.S. charts in 1964, becoming the only British Invasion #1 unconnected with the Beatles.

• 
  It is 81 miles from Baton Rouge to New Orleans.  They can best be labeled as FRENEMIES.  Thus, on a positive note I offer music played by the LSU football band.
• Fight for LSU.
• Hey Fightin' Tigers.
• Tiger Rag.

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