Musician’s ‘Back Door’ a Cajun anthem
D.L. MENARD /
NEW ORLEANS — D.L. Menard, the Cajun musician whose song “The Back Door” became an anthem for his culture and carried him to 38 countries on State Department tours, has died at the age of 85.
Menard died Thursday at the home where he lived with granddaughter Nelda Menard in Scott, Louisiana, a funeral home said.
Including covers by other artists, the Cajun French song has sold more than 1 million copies over the decades, according to Floyd Solieau, whose Swallow Record Co. released “La Porte en Arriere” as a single in July 1962.
Menard, whose albums were twice nominated for Grammy Awards, became a goodwill ambassador for Cajun music and culture, the heritage of people who settled in the bayou country of southern Louisiana after being expelled from Acadia in French Canada 250 years ago. Speaking with The Associated Press in late June, Menard said the resurgence of Cajun culture in the past few decades made him feel “terrific. Because that was us. It was us.”
“The Back Door” is a jaunty ditty about a man who gets so drunk that he sneaks into his home through the back door. Nearly every youngster who wants to play Cajun music learns “The Back Door,” said folklorist and retired French professor Barry Jean Ancelet during a July 2 tribute to Menard and the song’s 55th anniversary.
Menard wrote the song while working at a gas station, and for much of his life, music was a part-time gig.