Fun In 81

After spending two months traveling through Mexico via Mexico City and up to the Yucatan peninsula, my traveling companion and I flew across the Gulf of Mexico to New Orleans, where we spent seven days during Mardi Gras.

Seven wonderful days of drinking, eating, sightseeing and did I mention eating.

Last week I was thinking about New Orleans because I was singing a song I wrote about these people we met there who invited us to a party where they do the diddlin dance. We didn’t go to the party to find out more about this diddlin dance but I wrote a partial song years ago that went:

Song Title: Diddlin Dance
written by: Phil Kane (??)

Jump up Johnny, saddle up Sue, boogie woogie Betty you can come along too.
Let's all do the diddlin dance, 
all you got to do is get up and move, 
all you got to do is get up and groove		

I started thinking about all the wonderful food we ate while in New Orleans and thought I should write a new song. So I called my good friend who was one of the four of us that stayed seven days and nights at the Hummingbird Hotel. I asked about some of the places we went to and what we ate, she had a pretty good memory of this and I took notes. I wrote the song in less than half an hour.

Here it is I hope you like it.

Song Title: Fun in 81
written by: Phil Kane (2022)

We had a lot of fun in 81, down in New Orleans
Excuse me, NawLens, I mean

We ate beignets at Café Du Monde, with powdered sugar on the wind
We ate crawdads and gumbo and jambalaya too
We ate red beans and rice in Treme, with andouille sausage     
We ate Po Boys from Mothers, and muffalata from the Central Market

It was a good time to be alive, it was a good time to be there x2

We had a lot of fun in 81, down in New Orleans
Excuse me, NawLens, I mean

We woke up to fried eggs and grits at the Hummingbird Hotel
After a night of hurricanes at Paddy O’Brian’s Place
We saw women showing their tits for beads and dancing on a bar
We saw a drag queen pageant, The Mardi Gras Bourbon Street Awards

It was a good time to be alive, it was a good time to be there x2

We had a lot of fun in 81, down in New Orleans
Excuse me, NawLens, I mean
 
Late one night on a side street in the French Quarter
We saw a sign pointing to a bar that read: Where The Real People Go
So we went in for a drink, where we saw people from Seattle
There was Artis, The Spoonman and that fiddle player
And a woman named Yoka

It was a good time to be alive, it was a good time to be there x2