Take Me to the Mardi Gras

The record

“Take Me to the Mardi Gras” was written by Paul Simon and first appeared on his 1973 album There Goes Rhymin' Simon, recorded in 1972 at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Alabama with Roger Hawkins on drums, David Hood on bass and the Onward Brass Band. Bob James recorded an instrumental version as the opening track of his second CTI album, Two. The album was produced by Creed Taylor, recorded in December 1974 and January 1975 at Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, and released on May 29, 1975. Andrew Smith played drums on the track, with Ralph MacDonald and Arthur Jenkins on percussion across the album, and Discogs credits Eddie Daniels on clarinet and Tony Studd on trombone. Two reached number 2 on the Billboard jazz albums chart and number 28 on the soul albums chart.

The break

The part that DJs and producers wanted is the intro, where the drums play alongside a pattern of bells before the melody enters. Because it comes at the very start of the record, a DJ can find it quickly on each copy. It is often compared with another much-used instrumental break, the Soul Searchers' “Ashley's Roachclip”.

Into hip hop

The Crash Crew built their 1982 record “Breaking Bells (Take Me to the Mardi Gras)” around the break. In 1986 it appeared on T La Rock's “Breaking Bells”, on Grandmaster Flash's “Freelance” and on Run-DMC's “Peter Piper”, the opening track of Raising Hell, which brought the bells to a mass audience. N.W.A drew on it for “Straight Outta Compton” in 1988, and Young MC opened Stone Cold Rhymin' with “I Come Off” in 1989.

Legacy

The break stayed in use as sampling became more layered. Eric B. & Rakim's “Step Back”, from Let the Rhythm Hit 'Em (1990), and Run-DMC's “Pause”, from Back from Hell (1990), both drew on it, the latter credited alongside T La Rock and Jazzy Jay's “It's Yours”. Dance producers such as the Prodigy also used it, and Röyksopp later sampled another track from Two, “You're as Right as Rain”, for their 2001 single “Eple”. Specialist labels have since reissued extended edits of the intro on 7-inch vinyl for DJs, a sign of how much demand there still is for the break on its own.