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Re: Johnny Can't Dance

Hey Big Nick, what did you do to my got dam "Edit" button? I can't edit my mistakes nor add extra thoughts to my comments if I come back within 30 minutes.
Just saw "The Battle of New Orleans" was written in the mid 1950's, recorded in 1958, and made popular by Johnny Horton's version in 1959. It went to number 1 that same year. The time line might work out, but it's a little late for Lawrence to have copied it....or maybe not.

Re: Johnny Can't Dance (a story)

How about this story concerning Johnny can't dance

"It's no use, Maman," said Johnny on Saturday afternoon. "I'm just no good at dancing."
His mother made a clucking sound. "Cher," she said, "I showed you over and over. You got to keep trying."
"But--"
"Tonight will be different, you'll see. Try a turn with that pretty Lisette Theriot. I've known her mama since the second grade."
Johnny sighed and went outside, banging the screen door behind him. Under his arm was the old black Monarch accordion his grandfather had given him. He threw himself down under the mimosa tree and pulled open the bellows. He loved to play the old Cajun songs he had heard all his life. His fingers moved nimbly over the little silver buttons. Before long, he had forgotten all his problems.
Every Saturday night since he could remember, he and his parents had gone to the dance at the Chinaball Club in Scott, Louisiana. Every Saturday night, Johnny's hero, Monsieur Alcide Mouton, played the accordion and the guitar with his band, the Sundown Ramblers.
It used to be the best night of the week, but lately everything had changed. Now that Johnny was older, he was expected to ask a girl to dance at least once a night. He could dance all right when he practiced by himself at home. But as soon as he had to dance in public, he got confused and flustered and made a fool of himself every time.
As the sun began to set, Maman called him in to wash up. He pressed the air out of the accordion in a loud sigh and snapped the leather strap shut.
The Chinaball Club was already reverberating with music when Johnny and his parents arrived in their old green pickup. Maman straightened his collar and said, "Now don't forget to dance with Lisette Theriot."
"Oui, Maman," said Johnny. He followed them inside, his newly shined shoes pinching his toes.
He tried to concentrate on the music, but the dreaded dance was too much on his mind. At last he summoned the courage to approach Lisette.
She was standing with a group of girls, sipping lemonade. Her shirt was blue with big red flowers, and she wore a big red bow in her dark brown hair.
The girls nudged each other as Johnny approached. His cheeks burned. He stopped in front of Lisette and stammered, "May I have this dance?"
The other girls giggled. One of them pushed Lisette from behind just as Johnny offered her his hand, and the lemonade sloshed on her shirt.
"I'm sorry," said Johnny, flushing a deeper shade of red. He pulled his handkerchief from his back pocket and dabbed at the stain.
"That's all right, Johnny," said Lisette with a little smile. "I'll dance with you." She led the way to the dance floor and waited a moment for him to begin the waltz. Johnny counted silently to three, missed the beat, and began counting for the second time. Lisette gave up and took the lead. This threw him off, and he was lost.
The other couples glided by them in a large, graceful circle. Johnny struggled to keep up with Lisette's smooth steps, but he was always one beat behind her. He stumbled and trod on her toes.
A group of boys had joined the girls to watch. Johnny could hear snickers and guffaws. Then he heard Pierre Landry, the captain of the football team, say, "Look at that--I swear Johnny Broussard has two left feet!" Peals of laughter stung his ears.
That did it. Johnny broke away and ran outside, leaving Lisette standing in the middle of the dance floor. He spent the rest of the evening waiting for his parents in the pickup truck.
Johnny vowed never to go to another dance, no matter what his mother said. He would miss hearing the Sundown Ramblers, but at least he wouldn't be humiliated again.
The next Saturday he stayed away from the house most of the day, playing his accordion to the turtles on the bank of the creek.

Late in the afternoon, Johnny saw a blue car pull up to the house in a cloud of dust. A man dressed in neat khakis and a black hat emerged from the driver's seat. Johnny went closer.
It looked like ... it was! Monsieur Alcide Mouton himself! Papa came out of the barn to meet him.
"What brings you out our way, Alcide?"
"I'm craving some of your prize sweet potatoes," said Monsieur Alcide. "Will you sell me a crate of them?"
Papa nodded. "I'll go fetch you one," he said. "You know my boy, Johnny?"
"Why, sure. Comment ca va, Johnny? What you got there?"
Johnny timidly shook the outstretched hand and then held up his accordion.
Monsieur Alcide whistled. "An old Monarch, eh? That's a nice accordion, son. You play?"
Johnny nodded.
"Play me something."
"Oh, no, I ... "
"Come on, what's your favorite song?"
" 'The Bosco Stomp.' "
"Well then, let me hear that."
Johnny sat down on a stump, stretched out the bellows and began to play. Monsieur Alcide's eyes widened, and when the song was over, he let out a whistle.
"How'd you learn to play like that, boy?"
"Monsieur, I been listening to you since I was a bebe!"
Monsieur Alcide nodded. "You been listening good, too. Hold on, I got my guitar in the car. Let's play a few tunes together, want to?"
"Sure!"
They sat on the porch steps and played all the songs Johnny knew. He even got up the courage to sing a little.
The sun was setting when Monsieur Alcide stood up. "I got to be going if I'm gonna get to the Chinaball on time. You coming tonight, eh?"
Johnny ducked his head. "I-I'm not sure."
"Well, sure you are. Bring that accordion with you, and you can play some songs on stage with the Ramblers."
Monsieur Alcide paid Papa for the sweet potatoes and drove off, leaving Johnny staring open-mouthed after him. Papa clasped Johnny's shoulder as they went inside to get ready.
At the Chinaball Club, Johnny scanned the crowd for Lisette and her friends. He spotted them and skirted the room in the opposite direction. He sat down with his parents, hiding his accordion under the table.

It wasn't long before Pierre Landry walked by and said, "Hey, Leftie!" The other boys all laughed, and Johnny sank lower in his chair.

The Sundown Ramblers played for a long time before Johnny finally heard Monsieur Alcide call his name. He picked up his accordion and went to the bandstand, his eyes on the floor.
"Mes amis, I got a surprise for you tonight," Monsieur Alcide said into the microphone. "Young Johnny Broussard is going to join us for a few numbers on his accordion. He sings, too. Johnny, let's do
The Bosco Stomp.' "
Trembling, Johnny stepped up on the platform. He could hear a smattering of applause as Monsieur Alcide lowered the microphone for him. He began to play, and the drummer, guitar, and fiddle players joined in behind him. He sang all the verses he knew.
When the song ended, he heard cheers and whoops of approval. Lisette was smiling up at him from the dance floor.
"Play 'Jolie Blonde'!" someone shouted, and Johnny did. "Do you know 'The Evangeline Special'?" called someone else, and he played it.
Johnny kept playing until the dance was over. As he snapped his accordion shut, Monsieur Alcide said, "You did a fine job tonight, son. You go home and practice all week, then come back and play with us again next Saturday night. Who knows, there might even be a little money in it for you."
"Yes, sir!" said Johnny. He hopped off the stage and joined his parents.
As they went outside into the warm humid evening, Johnny saw Lisette and her friends in a little cluster near the door. They all stopped talking when they saw him. He stumbled on the stairs.
Lisette stepped forward, smiling. "You played real good tonight, Johnny," she said.
"Merci beaucoup," Johnny blushed.
"Will you be playing again next week?" said Lisette.
"I think so."
"Well, bon soir," she said.
"G'night," said Johnny. As he walked on, no one laughed or called him "Leftie." Pierre Landry even moved out of the way for him to pass.
Johnny climbed into the truck and patted his accordion. Come to think of it, in his whole life, he had never once seen Monsieur Alcide Mouton out on the dance floor.

Re: Johnny Can't Dance (a story)

To Meloderon....That was an awesome story! Where did you get that? Or did you create it? Or did it happen in real life back in the day?
You got my attention! Made me forget all my worries and troubles and even a little hate rolled off my shoulder. I heard it hit the floor with the quietest of sounds. Just a little hate.

Re: Johnny Can't Dance (a story)


I picked it from the internet a few years ago, but can't find it anymore.

I take a big part of the text and then I get a hit on a Chinese/Japanese website.
I don't have the guts to enter it because I don't trust it.
A few years ago it was on a "normal" website.

Re: Johnny Can't Dance
Re: Johnny Can't Dance

WF, I went to all three websites and I still am not able to put Johnny Cant Dance down in my head as being influenced by Rabbit Stole the Pumpkin or Je Etais au Bal. I'll keep it in mind though and keep looking for the connection. They sure as hell made it plain as could be on all 3 links that's for sure, but I'm still skeptical. I did see on another site that Johnny Cant Dance was recorded in 1951 Lawrence Walker. That was 8 years before Johnny Horton recorded "The Battle of New Orleans", so Lawrence Walker couldn't have made Johnny Cant Dance from the Battle of New Orleans. But those two songs sure sound similar to my ear and feel similar to my hands.

What I did learn and liked a lot form those 3 links you posted was the below description of Iry Lejeune's playing style...
"Iry Lejeune played in an ornate driving style that was loved by dancers, listeners and musicians alike."
I have been seeking to master this "ornate, driving style loved by all since the first time I heard a CD titled "Louisiana's Brightest Star" Iry Lejeune. I heard and made a copy of this CD when I was in about my 23rd year of playing accordion. It was this CD, and its clarity that allowed me to finally play along with Iry really for the first time. Some of the songs are in "C" and others in "D". Every other recording of Iry I ever had before that was not of good quality or his accordion was recorded off key for what ever reason. I think that's why so many accordion players have a hard time learning to play like Iry Lejeune could, because of those off key recordings and the crazy speeds and tempos Iry could keep tend to baffle the would be accordion player's mind. Getting back to Lawrence Walker...I feel like a lot of accordion players avoid him too even though most all of Lawrence Walkers recording sessions are on key, clear, and in the key of "C". I am guilty of this myself. Lawrence Walker didn't excite me too much in the beginning of my endeavor, and for that matter still doesn't. But he sure has a lot of tricks that are revealed in his recordings for the listening ear that can hear. I only ever learned "The Ossun Two Step" off of Lawrence Walker's recordings after I heard that confounding son of a @#$%^^ Steve Riley make the "show off song" titled the Lawrence Walker Melody. Only then did I turn to Walker's version of The Ossun 2 step and learn from the actual Master after having wasted so many years trying to learn Steve Riley's style

Re: Johnny Can't Dance

"Ye Yaille, Chere" by Raymond Francois it says, " the song entered the cajun repertoire of songs through an elementary school song book. The song came from The Rabbit Stole A Pumpkin and changed over the years."

It' likely that Bertrand and Walker both learned the song during the pre-war years, but Walker changed it up so much, both versions veered far enough away to the point where similarities disappeared. Having said that, I still hear a faint version of Rabbit in Walker's song.

Keep in mind, 1951 is speculative on the Khoury recordings, mainly due to the difficulty in placing the song among known Khoury recordings. Because of the label color and the other tunes recorded around that matrix series, and based on musician interviews, 1951 seems to be the best time frame we have.

WF

Re: Johnny Can't Dance

To WF, I will surely be visiting that website you posted "Early Cajun Music" again. It shows a whole lot of information about the origins and comparisons of Cajun songs. But I will always view the information with a skeptical eye and mind.

I once went to hear "Horace Trahan" at the SunSet Lounge in Kaplan back when he only played traditional Cajun music. He played "Chere Tout Tout" and it was an awesome version. When he got done with the song, he made a point of telling all the people there over the microphone, "Don't let anybody tell you that they made that song." "That song was made a long long time ago." "Anybody that tells you they made that song, or they know the man dat made it is lying to you."
I now see the point he was trying to make very clearly, and we're proving that point right now, right here on the Bravenet. It aint no easy task to find the original creators of these Cajun songs because they borrowed so dam much from each other and other songs. I say borrowed...they also right out stole too, but that's the nature of learning these Cajun tunes on an accordion. You take what you can from others and try to make it your own. Only every now and then do accordion players come up with something that is actually genuinely original due to there only being 10 buttons you can press.
Hell, at the rate we're going, we're liable to find out who the killers were that ran over Amedee Ardoin's neck! We might even eventually find out that Iry Lejeune didn't get hit by a car on accident. Could it have been planned out of jealousy and hate just like the basterds did that attacked Amedee and left him for dead? Hell, all these years have gone by and I know at least one modern day accordion player that don't like Iry Lejeune's style because of what I think is jealousy! And if you haven't guessed it yet, I don't like Steve Riley's nor Marc Savoy's styles or people who try to play like them. But it's not out of jealousy anymore, its from knowing better than I used to.<< That comment ought to light a few fires within the community. LOL, but it's just how I feel.

Re: Johnny Can't Dance

Yep, proving where a song came from in Cajun music is an exercise in speculating. We can usually show who first recorded it, but whether that person "made" the song is totally up for speculation, it's influence could have come from any of many sources. What was common for the old players, especially Lawrence Walker, was the ability to take a song that may have come from anywhere, and Cajunized it on the accordion, and added his own lyrics. Cajun music is truly a gumbo of whatever ingredients were handy.

Like Greezy, at first Lawrence didn't really get my attention, until I began playing accordion. I then realized the genius of his playing. Not as fancy as many of today's players, but I'm more amazed that those old guys played as well as they did not having a lot to learn from, considering the late arrival of the accordion into Cajun music.

What is everyones favorite version/recording?

Wherever it came from, it sure is a great song. I used to think it might have been based on the old Western Swing song, "Dance All Night, Stay A Little Longer". I heard someone play the music in more or less the usual way, but they put the english words to Dance All Night with it. I know that Cajun music was greatly influenced by Western Swing during the 1930's, when the accordion kind of declined in popularity for a while. Maybe that's when someone brought in Dance All Night at that time, and then it kind of evolved into Johnny Can't Dance after some years went by?

I have heard so many renditions and I can't keep them straight. What is everyone's favorite version?



Re: What is everyones favorite version/recording?

The benchmark, in my estimation, is the YouTube recording of Ray Abshire and Courtney Granger in Stockholm, Sweden around 2009. Link #1.

Re: What is everyones favorite version/recording?

Thanks everyone for the awesome information about Johnny.
If you read the story I posted earlier we all know that Johnny Broussard must have composed that song
Ned's suggestion with Ray Abshire is great but the one with Octa Clark in the kitchen(link#2) is also fantastic. Love them both.
Laughing and playing accordion like that when you're 91 years old must be great.
Ned's video at link#3.
If you want a direct link to something, you have to remove "https://" and only paste www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSDtJqLtvNs into the website link.

Re: Johnny Can't Dance

While we're at it, let's not forget Pay Day in the Army or The Eight of January. They all seem to be variants on the same song.

Re: Johnny Can't Dance

The Battle of New Orleans is a version of Soldier's Joy aka. Payday in the Army and who knows before that.

Cross culture tune sharing is one of the great things about music.



Jamey Hall's most excellent Cajun Accordion Music Theory

Brett's all new Cajun Accordion Music Theory for all keys!

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