During their courir in 2025, Russell “Potic” Rider was still leading the Basile Mardi Gras in their song with the same resonant voice that you hear on the recording I made in 1999 immediately before the Mardi Gras left from their starting point at the Basile City Park barn.
Embedded Files
Russell “Potic” Rider Sings
the Basile Mardi Gras Song
Before the Run in 1999
Listening to Russell “Potic” Rider's resonant voice leading the Basile Mardi Gras in their begging song is a truly memorable experience. On Mardi Gras day in 1999 when I made this recording, the Mardi Gras gathered under an open barn (known at the "Pig Barn") near dawn at the Basile Town Park to hear instructions from Capitaine Potic Rider. (He is now president of the Basile Mardi Gras Association.)
After undergoing the once traditional search for weapons, they sang their song before they loaded on trailers and began their run. The excitement and enthusiasm of the Mardi Gras are obvious, even in this recording made with a small hand-held machine. When the song was over, the Mardi Gras surrounded me, each begging insistently until I produced at least "cinq sous." They returned to beg again and again, even while the co-capitaines whipped them in a vain attempt to keep them under control.
You can see the Basile Mardi Gras singing their song at the barn in a 2013 YouTube clip, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5huDXYg1d0, or view performances of the song while on the run in this 2010 clip, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=US8eeIbV5Vk.
The Basile Mardi Gras Song
Sung by Russell Potic Rider and the Basile Mardi Gras in the Basile Town Park Barn immediately before the start of the courir, February 16, 1999. French transcription by Helena Putnam supplied by the Basile Mardi Gras Association. The song is led by the captain with the Mardi Gras joining in to sing the refrains.
Capitaine, capitaine, voyage ton flag et hale ton camp.
Chorus: Tout le tour autour du moyeu.
La route est grande, la nuit est longue, et les belles sont pas invitées.
C'est les Mardi Gras, ça vient une fois par an demander la charité.
Une fois par an, c'est pas trop souvent pour vous quand même.
Chorus: C'est hip, c'est hip, c'est hop, et mon cher de camarade.
C'est hip, c'est hip, c'est hop, et mon cher de camarade.
C'est les Mardi Gras ça devient de loin, ça devient de l'Angleterre*.
Chorus: Tout le tour autour du moyeu.
C'est les Mardi Gras c'est tout des bons jeunes gens,
Des bons jeunes gens ça devient de bonnes familles.
Chorus: Tout le tour autour du moyeu.
C'est pas des malfecteurs. C'est juste des chamondeurs**.
Chorus: C'est hip, c'est hip, c'est hop, et mon cher de camarade.
C'est hip, c'est hip, c'est hop, et mon cher de camarade.
C'est les Mardi Gras, ça demande à la maitresse,
À la maitresse pour une petite poule grasse et du riz ou de la graisse.
Chorus: Tout le tour autour du moyeu.
Pour faire leur grand gumbo ce soir à Grand Basile.
Chorus: C'est hip, c'est hip, c'est hop, et mon cher de camarade.
C'est hip, c'est hip, c'est hop, et mon cher de camarade.
Tu me promettrais ci, tu me promettrais ça, mais tu m'en donneras pas.
Chorus: Tout le tour autour du moyeu.
C'est hip, c'est hip, c'est hop, et mon cher de camarade.
C'est hip, c'est hip, c'est hop, et mon cher de camarade
Capitaine, Capitaine les sauvages*** ça peut plus chanter à force que leur gorge est sec.
Chorus: Tout le tour autour du moyeu.
Une bonne petite bière fraide [froide] les ferait chanter meilleur.
Chorus: C'est hip, c'est hip, c'est hop, et mon cher de camarade.
C'est hip, c'est hip, c'est hop, et mon cher de camarade.
Captain, captain, wave your flag and move your group.
Chorus: All around, around the hub. [Repeated as a refrain.]
The route is long, the night is long, and pretty women aren't invited.
It's the Mardi Gras that come once each year to ask for charity.
Once a year isn't too often for you anyway.
Chorus: It's hip, it's hip, it's hop, and my dear friend.
It's hip, it's hip, it's hop, and my dear friend. [Repeated as a refrain.]
It's the Mardi Gras that come from far away, that come from England.*
It's the Mardi Gras, they're all good young people,
Good young people that come from good families.
They're not evil doers. They're just beggars.**
It's the Mardi Gras that ask the mistress [of the house],
Ask the mistress for a fat little chicken and some rice or lard
To make their big gumbo this evening in big Basile.
You'll promise me this, you'll promise me that, but you won't give me anything.
Captain, captain, the Indians*** can't sing anymore because their throats are dry.
A good little cold beer would make them sing better.
* The Basile song, like the popular Mardi Gras song sung during the Mamou, Eunice, and many other courirs, says that the Mardi Gras come from "l'Angleterre" or England. This would seem to be an unlikely point of origin for the Mardi Gras in Southwest Louisiana. Years ago, after consulting some dictionaries, I conjectured that perhaps the phrase was once "langue de terre"-referring to a tongue of land, i.e., a peninsula. According to Caroline Ware in her book Cajun Women and Mardi Gras: Reading the Rule Backwards (University of Illinois Press, 2007), Potic Rider sings "les langues de terre," carrying the metaphorical meaning of "far away" (footnote 36 on page 201).
** The Dictionary of Louisiana French's main entry for this word uses the spelling "tchamandeur" with "quémandeur" as another alternate. According to Ware, footnote 37 on page 201, Potic Rider sings "les queues d'en bonheur" or "les queues de bonnes heures," - "good-timers" or "early risers" - though, in either case, I don't know what "queues" means in this phrase. To my American ears, Rider sings "chamondeurs" in the 1999 version I recorded, but you can hear the other phrase in the YouTube videos from 2010 and 2013.
*** My speculation is that the noun "sauvages," translated in dictionaries as "Indians," here also includes the meaning of the adjective "sauvage" - "wild" or "untamed" - in reference to the Mardi Gras.
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