Marie Laveau

This song was written by Shel Silverstein and first recorded by Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show. Silverstein's nephew Mitch Myers is an expert on Shel's work and wrote the book Silverstein Around the World. Myers explains: "Marie Laveau has been described and conjured in history books and legends of voodoo women in New Orleans for decades and decades. And all the research points to the fact that there was a Marie Laveau, and she lived at a certain time, and she was supposed to be a witch of certain powers. But beyond that, she was repeated in fable-type proportions in song and in oral storytelling for as long as I can remember. And I don't know how far back it goes, to the early 1900s or whenever, but the legend of Marie Laveau has been repeated in books, in song, in poems, every way you can. So Shel's was just one more version of this same character, putting her in a particular situation, and that was probably made most famous by the version that was recorded by Bobby Bare." (Learn more about Shel Silverstein in our interview with Mitch Myers.)