Rebel Music
His songs frequently use the racial epithet nigger and often voice sympathy for Jim Crow-era segregation and the Ku Klux Klan.
Trahan first recorded under the Johnny Rebel moniker in the mid-1960s. He employed J. D. "Jay" Miller's recording studio in Crowley, Louisiana. Miller, in fact, produced the sessions and issued the recordings on his own Reb Rebel label.
Trahan's first release — the fifth for the Reb Rebel label — was a 45 RPM single of "Lookin' for a Handout" and "Kajun Ku Klux Klan." He would record five more singles for the label, which included "Nigger, Nigger," "In Coon Town," "Who Likes a Nigger?," "Nigger Hatin' Me," "Still Looking for a Handout," "Some Niggers Never Die (They Just Smell That Way)," "Stay Away from Dixie," and "Move Them Niggers North." At least two of Trahan's songs, "Keep a-Workin' Big Jim" and "(Federal Aid Hell!) The Money Belongs to Us", were not about race, but about political issues — namely, the efforts of Louisiana district attorney Jim Garrison to solve the Kennedy assassination, and a song critical of U.S. federal aid programs.
In 1976, Trahan's song "Lâche pas la patate" ("The Potato Song"), sung by Jimmy C. Newman earned gold record status in Canada.
Two of these songs were eventually issued in album format by Reb Rebel Records under the title "For Segregationists Only".
After a hiatus of about three decades, Trahan returned as Johnny Rebel in 2001 when he issued his CD single "Infidel Anthem," recorded in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks. In 2003 Trahan released the album It's the Attitude, Stupid!, on the Try It Man record label. At least two persons or entities claim ownership of the Johnny Rebel catalog. At present, however, it is unclear who actually owns the recordings.
Johnny Rebel's songs have been covered by other singers such as Big Reb and the German band Landser. In 2005, his song "Some Niggers Never Die (They Just Smell That Way)" was used in the film What Is It? directed by Crispin Glover.
Trahan has rarely allowed himself to be photographed by anyone other than close friends and family, although he claims there are indeed images of him on the Internet. He says he has no idea where those photos originated. Trahan has owned a driving school in Crowley, Louisiana which he handed over to his son in 2008. He appeared in a front-page article of the Crowley Post Signal on December 10, 2008 (about his writing of songs celebrating area high school football teams).
A CD compilation of his works simply shows a hooded Klansman together with a depiction of the Confederate Battle Flag. The cover of the album "It's the attitude stupid" shows a hooded Klansman, holding what appears to be either a Walkman or MP3 player, and wearing headphone round.
Read more about this topic: Johnny Rebel (singer)
Famous quotes containing the words rebel and/or music:
“I can’t bear art that you can walk round and admire. A book should be either a bandit or a rebel or a man in the crowd.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“Good-by, my book! Like mortal eyes, imagined ones must close some day. Onegin from his knees will rise—but his creator strolls away. And yet the ear cannot right now part with the music and allow the tale to fade; the chords of fate itself continue to vibrate; and no obstruction for the sage exists where I have put The End: the shadows of my world extend beyond the skyline of the page, blue as tomorrow’s morning haze—nor does this terminate the phrase.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)