Need to know who cam up with Johnny Can't Dance, or if it's considered public domain trad.

Recorded it with the G Hohner, the link is above on website link #1. Refresh the page if you hear silence

~ Jim

Dude that's awesome! Berry, berry zydeco sounding with dat gee. Kinda creepy, too... but creepy in a good way. Like fishing in Caddo Lake... at night... under a full moon... with a thunderstorm on its way... in the month of October... with a sasquatch sneakin' up on ya...

Hey! Have any of y'all ever been too drunk to fish?

...R!CK

PS: Here's some more dots if you need 'em ... ... ... ... ... just copy and paste 'em ... ... ... they work pretty good...

Hey Jim, how does the G compare in playability compared to C or D. Takes more air? slower to respond? Just curious.

Jim, send me an email when you get a chance. houndsman911@yahoo.com

I'm most likely wrong on this but I want to say that Lawrence Walker was the one who made the original Johnny Can't Dance.

Good golly Miss Molly that sounds good. My computer is on replay and I have listened to it for a half hour. Nuts to 2500-dollar fancy pants accordions. This Hohner rocks! And yer pretty good yerself! -L-

Tq

Cheers, many thanks people. I need to find out exactly who wrote that song. I'm not having any luck on google. I need to credit whomever wrote it for the myspace page.

Toby, I'll email you

Rick, I thought it sounded kinda spooky too. Love that lowwww G with a little echo and highpass/lowpass adjustment for spooky effect

I've been curious about the origins of this song myself in the past and have come up with the following conclusions:

Lawrence Walker did record it in the 50's but it was originally recorded under the name Jolie Can't Dance. He later recorded it under the name Johnny Can't Dance. I can't recall the name of the original record label.

Aldus Roger then took it and changed it around a little and recorded it on the Swallow label in the 60's.

I've also heard recordings of the song by Bebe and Eraste Carriere and Canray Fontenot, so there might possibly be some Creole influence going on there. *side note* get a copy of the Carriere CD, their version is awesome.

What I've read: Raymond Francois (in Ye Yaille, Chere) said that his father told him the song entered the Cajun repertoire through a children's book called The Rabbit Stole The Pumpkin.

After looking into the history behind The Rabbit Stole The Pumpkin I found out that it was originally recorded in Chicago of all places in 1929 by John Bertrand and Milton Pitre. Most people think this song sounds very similar to J'ai Ete Au Bal, which it does... but I can still hear similarities to Johnny Can't Dance. I highly doubt that the song was ever adapted from a children's book, but it wouldn't surprise me at all.

I hope some of this helps or at least wasn't that boring to read.

John

I think you'll find that most older cajun songs are pretty much impossible to find origin info on. Finding who first recorded it is easy, just ask Neal, but that hardly ever means that person came up with the song.

Jim,

Rusty's right, it was Lawrence Walker first. Didn't know about the Jolie Can't dance name though.

Story I heard was he named it after Johnny Alan who was playing guitar for him as a teenager. Since he was on the bandstand all night, he couldn't dance and voila, there you have it.

For the off-color footnote to the story, email me off forum....

It's such a great song. Unfortunately, if I claim that this song is a traditional song on my website, someone will think ill.

I honestly don't care at this point. I'm a little drunk.

Tomorrow will be fun in the morning, I think. Music in the woods at Oregon Ridge! I'm looking forward.

Taking the D Acadian and the G Hohner. Gonna be one hell of a good time

The First person that I know of playing it was, Clifton Chenier.. if there was anyone before him I dont know