Listen: Go – Go Girl / Lee Dorsey LeeDorseyGo-GoGirl.mp3

Lee Dorsey, poor soul, never did top the sound of ‘Working In The Coalmine’, probably to most people that is. I mean it’s a pretty hard one to improve on, but to have even scaled that high is huge. Technically, his first ever Top 100 single ‘Ya Ya’ peaked at #7, whereas ‘Working In The Coalmine’ got to #8. Great as that first single is, it’s the sound and production I’m referring to. Still, I must have a dozen of his 7′s, and you just can’t go wrong picking up any that you see.

‘Go – Go Girl’ has a strange tame studio thing going on. It certainly showcases his voice, always nice upfront. But the mix and realtive low volume of the instruments aren’t in Allen Toussaint’s usual style. The whole point is dirty New Orleans funk.

Well that makes this one even more intriguing. Plus I love a mid-chart flop every time (#62).

Listen: Get Out Of My Life, Woman / Lee DorseyLeeDorseyGetOut.mp3

Listen: Working In The Coalmine / Lee Dorsey LeeDorseyWorking.mp3

The Paul Butterfield Blues Band’s version from their EAST / WEST album was my inroduction to Allen Toussaint’s ‘Get Out Of My Life, Woman’. Seemed like all of a sudden, I was seeing Allen Toussaint’s name in the fine print on a bunch of records. All those ignored-by-everyone-else details on the labels were fireside reading for me. A $1.99 mono cut out of his RIDE YOUR PONEY / GET OUT OF MY LIFE, WOMAN album was irresistible around the time, brimming with Allen Toussaint this and that. I was hooked.

‘Working In The Coalmine’ always felt just like…working in a coalmine. Even though I was a youngster addicted to English rock music, it still left loads of room to fantasize about the deep south and it’s chitlin circuit. Anything ethnic was a big magnet, and always on first listen. I’d heard Sam Cooke’s ‘Chain Gang’ but this sounded like working on a chain gang. The pipe clinging sound effect probably being the clincher for a kid. Yeah, Lee Dorsey has the vocal torture down pat too. Definitely rivals ‘Honky Tonk Women’ for best intro.