1966 Songs: Working in the Coal Mine

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Welcome to rain over Louisville! The festival event is called Thunder Over Louisville, but hopefully we won’t have any thunderstorms. Not with half a million people down at the waterfront with very little, if any, shelter! I’m staying home and celebrating the music that, like me, is celebrating a birthday this year. Here’s the next song on the list. Working in the Coal Mine - Lee Dorsey Who was Allen Toussaint kidding? New Orleans is four feet below sea level, so there aren’t any coal mines there! Aw, that doesn’t matter. Toussaint was such a brilliant songwriter. You may remember many years ago, when he died, I did a countdown in tribute to him. Lee Dorsey was from New Orleans, too, so this was a conspiracy! Dorsey had a number of R&B hits, but his two biggest pop hits were 1961’s “Ya Ya” and this one. This has been frequently covered, including, for the new wave crowd, by Devo! I still go back to this wonderful R&B classic. Working in the Coal Mine Written by Allen Toussaint Recorded by Lee Dorsey From Working in the Coal Mine - Holy Cow, 1966 Five o’clock in the morning: