Allen Toussaint: A Profile in Music #16

The great New Orleans writer, producer, piano man and ambassador, with Warren Zevon, Bonnnie Raitt, Linda Ronstadt, The Band, the Stones, Aaron Neville and more...

Greg Mitchell is the author of more than a dozen books (see link) and now writer/director of three award-winning films aired via PBS, including “Atomic Cover-up” and “Memorial Day Massacre” which are still up at PBS.org. Before all that, he was a longtime editor of the legendary Crawdaddy. You can still subscribe to this newsletter for free.

As I’ve noted, we’re just back from New Orleans, where I attended the annual French Quarter Festival and picked up an award for one of my films. But I never visit without thinking of one of the true giants to modern music, Allen Toussaint. Producer, arranger, piano man and one of the great writers of our time. Almost half a century ago, I edited Tim White’s landmark profile at Crawdaddy. Later, at Jazzfest in NOLA, I marveled, from a short distance, Allen alone, dressed formally and fashionably as usual (but in his famous sandals), eating a po’ boy on a plank of wood covering a patch of mud, but I did not have the nerve to approach or interrupt him. Still later, in NYC, I caught him live when he was touring with Elvis Costello after their joint album. And so on.

Anyway, I have compiled about fifteen “profiles in music” here so far but somehow missed Toussaint, so here we go today. Cartoons at the bottom. If you have not subscribed, please do so, it is still (somehow) free.

Allen wore several hats, and these selections below span most of them, with the accent on his songwriting. Note: He often wrote under a pseudonyn, using the name of his mom, Naomi Neville. As a piano master he revered Professor Longhair and Fats Domino, and in turn inspired Dr. John and others. Born in 1938, his first break came in playing piano on a Fats single with Domino’s voice dubbed. But by the early ‘60s he was a hit machine on his own, writing and/or producing.

For example, he wrote for and made Lee Dorsey a star with “Ya Ya” and then “Working in a Coal Mine” and “Holy Cow.” As I have written here, I had the pleasure of talking to Lee in the mid-’70s when he came to NYC to record with Southside Johnny on the Dukes’ debut album. Here is a wild live vid as Lee does Allen’s “Ride Your Pony.”

Irma Thomas—still performing this year at last weekend’s French Quarter Fest as the “Soul Queen of New Orleans”—spread her wings also in the early ‘60s with Allen’s classic “It’s Raining,” here later live:

His “Mother-in-Law” was a huge hit for Ernie K-Doe 60 years ago, who also broke Allen’s “A Certain Girl.” The latter became the flip side of The Yardbirds’ first single. Here much later live by Warren Zevon:

The Rolling Stones early on were among many who have covered Allen’s “Fortune Teller.”

Irma Thomas first recorded “Ruler of My Heart” in 1963. Otis Redding “borrowed” it as “Pain in My Heart,” which prompted a Toussaint law suit to retain writing credit (he won). Linda Ronstadt went back to Allen’s for her “Ruler of the Heart,” one of great songs of the era, don’t miss this, you will thank me:

In a different vein, Toussaint wrote and produced “Hercules” for Aaron Neville, see below (Boz Scaggs also covered it).

I could go on with other ‘60s songs penned by Toussaint (or “Naomi Neville”) or produced by him, but let’s transition to the ‘70 here and later, there’s still way too much to cover. His own recordings started gaining more attention, and no wonder. Here live, another one of the greatest songs of our time, “Freedom for the Stallion.” It was only ten years but a long way from “Ride Your Pony.”

He produced breakthrough singles for Dr. John (“Right Place, Wrong Time”) and for LaBelle (“Lady Marmalade”) and wrote “Sneaking Sally Through the Alley,” a hit for Robert Palmer. He collaborated with McCartney and Wings and produced The Meters among others. His soft, reflective “Southern Nights” anchored his classic mid-’70s album of that name and became a hit for Glenn Campbell. His political “Yes We Can Can” was a smash for the Pointer Sisters in 1973. Here, his own version of that song on Austin City Limits:

Allen’s “On Your Way Down” got a splendid cover by Lowell George and Little Feat.

It was Toussaint who wrote the unexpected but crucial horn charts for The Band for their epic “Rock of Ages” live set in 1971, their “Cahoots” album and then for “The Last Waltz.” Here from 1971 is “Don’t Do It.”

Bonnie Raitt covered two Toussaint classics in the mid-70s, “What Is Success” and “What Do You Want the Boy to Do?”

Alex Chilton of the Box Tops and Big Star would cover Allen’s wonderful “Lipstick Traces.”

Well, I believe we are out of space, but I hope this encourages you to plunge more deeply yourself into all things Toussaint. In parting here from his Grammy-nominated sessions with Elvis Costello, “Who’s Gonna Help Brother Get Further.”

Hurricane Katrina flooded Allen’s studio and home and forced a long spell in NYC, but eventually returned to NOLA. Toussaint’s sudden death from a heart attack while touring Europe in 2015 shocked the music world, inspiring one of the great NOLA funerals, with everyone from Irma Thomas to Arcade Fire turning out. Elvis C called him “our elegant prince, modest, gracious, and ever-curious.”

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