Thursday, October 9, 2025

Jolie Blon (Pretty Blonde)

I've talked several times about one of my favorite authors, James Lee Burke.  I especially like his "Dave Robicheaux" novels with Clete Purcell as his sidekick.  I've read all of them, and I'm going back and re-reading them on audiobook with the Libby App from my library.  I just finished Jolie Blon's Bounce.  James Lee Burke's prose drips from the pages like honey on a summer Sunday afternoon, inviting the reader into the scene being described where you can not only see from the vantage point of the protagonist, but you can smell the scents in the room.  You suddenly are reminded of memories dredged to the surface from another time or place - even from places that no longer exist.

In case you aren't familiar with his work, I've cut & pasted an excerpt that I had to go back and read two or three times:

"A love affair with Louisiana is in some ways like falling in love with the Biblical Whore of Babylon.  We try to smile at its carnival-like politics, its sweaty whiskey-soaked demagogues, the ignorance bred by the poverty and insularity of its Cajun and afro-Caribbean culture, but our self-deprecating manner is a poor disguise for the realities that hover on the edges of one's vision like dirty smudges on a family portrait.  The State roadsides and parking lots of discount stores are strewn, if not actually layered, with mind-numbing amounts of litter thrown there by the poor and uneducated and the revelers for whom a self-congratulatory hedonism is a way of life.  With regularity, land developers who are accountable to no one, bulldoze down stands of virgin cypress and 200 year old live oaks often at night so the irrevocable nature of their work cannot be seen until daylight when it is too late to stop it.  The petrochemical industry poisons waters with impunity, and even trucks in waste from out of state and dumps it into open sludge pits usually in rural black communities.  Rather than fight monied interests, most of the State's politicians give their constituencies casinos and power ball lotteries and drive-by daquiri windows along with low income taxes for the wealthy and 8.25% sales tax on food for the poor."

James Lee Burke
Jolie Blon's Bounce

Ouch!  That's scathing.  James Lee Burke is from New Iberia, Louisiana.  That's 62 miles away from our home.  Only a local can talk this way with an understanding of problems that plague our area in honest terms.  At the same time as confronting painful realities in our state, there is a deep love for its people and the beauty of the landscape.  A heart that yearns for better times and better outcomes.

As I listened to that paragraph from Jolie Blon's Bounce, my mind went back to memories of driving past Cypress swamps that are beautiful as any picture you want to see, and yet, someone has dumped an old washing machine or a black plastic bag full of crawfish heads from a recent boil over the bridge.  I was going to drive out and take a photo to document that, but decided against it.  Nature's beauty, but man has marred the landscape.  Why do we do this?  I don't know or maybe I don't want to know.  

Jolie Blon means pretty blonde.  It's also the name of a song that has been deemed the Cajun National Anthem and may be the most famous Cajun song of all time.  It has been sung by numerous people (Buddy Holly, Waylon Jennings, Bruce Springsteen, and Jo El Sonnier, to name a few) and each made it a little different.  It was first written and recorded in the 1920's, but made famous in 1946 when Harry Choates' French version was recorded.  It has been said that he sold the rights to the song for $100 and a bottle of whiskey.  The song is a waltz.  As you listen to it, you can count 1,2,3  1,2,3 as it draws you to the dancefloor, even if, like me, you can't dance.  It is a sad, haunting song about a pretty blonde that has run off and left him for another lover.  McNeese State University in Lake Charles, LA, named Jolie Blon their fight song and each time the Cowboys score, the Pride of McNeese marching band plays Jolie Blon.  

If you've never heard it, I've attached a You Tube link below to Harry Choates' ENGLISH version where you can hear the sad fiddle and hear the heartbreak of a man who has experienced great loss.  Click the arrow below.  Forgive me in advance if the tune stays stuck in your head like it has been in mine!



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