Listen: Dance, Dance, Dance / Crazy Horse
Dance,

It would probably be unfair to suggest Neil Young lifted the idea of this song from Doug Kershaw’s ‘Louisiana Man’, so let’s just say it was a rather obvious influence, possibly a result of Bobbie Gentry’s supreme version which was released a little earlier. Her’s is one of over eight hundred in fact.

Or maybe the song was simply due to Neil Young’s genuine knowledge of cajun music. Regardless, discovering ‘Dance, Dance. Dance’ when released was fascinating. The record really is a great one.

Not surprisingly then, the first Crazy Horse album, possibly a perfect production by Jack Nitzsche and Bruce Botnick, was full of top songs, including several singles, like this UK only one.

Somehow, all the 45′s from the band’s first album mingled nicely with a bunch of others in my collection, mostly English stuff, and my positive opinion of it prevailed despite a general disinterest for the west coast’s growing soft rock sound. Yeah, there’s just something I love about this thick UK promo pressing.

Listen: Louisiana Man / Bobbie Gentry
Louisiana

Even when covering material, like this Doug Kershaw song, she always picked just the right stuff lyrically, as well as for her voice, often coined husky by the press. Not unlike the self written ‘Ode To Billy Joe’, thematically this is southern trailer trash. Probably more respectable descriptions prevail, but I like to think of them more as part of the America’s scummy underside. And what other singer could really pull these songs off?

‘Louisiana Man’ had the unfortunate misfortune or perfect luck, depending on your take, of reaching BILLBOARD’s Top 100 for one lonely week, peaking at #100.