The 50 must-have New Orleans records
Lee Dorsey – "Yes We Can" – Polydor - 1970
If this album only had Lee Dorsey on it, it would be genius. But you add Allen Toussaint’s hand in the production, his touch on the piano and his sweet backing vocals and the Meters as the backing band, and it’s perfection.
Smooth, sly, with an easy-going funky style, Dorsey’s genius has been known to New Orleanians for some time, but it is his work with Toussaint that is his best – and might be their best collaboration. And yet, like so many records, this one, one that is chock-full of incredible numbers, from “Yes, We Can” to “Sneaking Sally Through the Alley,” found little love on the charts.
Nonetheless, early New Orleans funk is blooming on this record, and Ringo Starr, Robert Palmer, and The Pointer Sisters would all cover material on this record.
Aside from the national artists that found material in the record worth covering, bits and parts of this record can be found in so many later New Orleans albums. Relatively unknown to people not familiar with New Orleans music, Dorsey was and is an essential link in the chain of New Orleans music.
This record is a nice bridge from the R&B that dominated the '60s to soulful and hard funky sounds that would emerge in the '70s, and 41 years after it was cut it still sounds fresh.
(Sidenote: Lee passed decades ago but he found a bit of a career resurgence when President Barack Obama was campaigning, as “Yes, We Can” was reworked.)
- Michael Luke
Video: Lee Dorsey - "Yes We Can"
More Lee Dorsey video:
- Lee Dorsey - "Occapella"
- Lee Dorsey - Live in Finland, 1967 - "Ride Your Pony"
- Lee Dorsey - "Give it Up"
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