Update: Odetta did do a version not available on-line on her "Odetta Sings Dylan" album!
However, after reacquiring A Thousand Words by mega-underappreciated eighties SoCal punk band, Mad Parade (more to come), I discovered that they'd interpolated the first verse from "Long Ago, Far Away" into the album's stand-out tune, "Animal Riot". While I recommend taking in all the nice little arrangement tricks the band pulls out over the course of the song, if you need to get right to Bobby D.'s part, it starts at 2:39, after the break-it-down part and the guitar solo, but before the ultra-brief Robert plant tribute.
Well, Bob Dylan's song, "Wagon Wheel" has hit #1 of the country charts, via Hootie (a.k.a. Darius Rucker). It's been a long, strange trip so let's review (and don't forget to weigh in on the song in the COMMENTS section when you're done!):
Gittin' Started
Back in 2001, Ketch Secor, of string-band revivalists Old Crow Medicine Show, took an unreleased fragment from Bob Dylan's soundtrack to the 1973 film, Pat Garret and Billy the Kid, originally called. "Rock Me, Mama", added his own verses to it, and created the 2st century standard, "Wagon Wheel".
Secor revised Dylan's rough draft to tell a story of a
pivotal point in his own life, in a manner both particular and universal.
The on-going, cross-genre appeal of "Wagon Wheel" today is a reminder just how
effectively older idioms can express contemporary experiences.
In November 2011, Secor, celebrating the song's reaching gold status, considered its origins in the blue tradition, " So, from Big Bill to Big Boy to Bob and on down to me, “Wagon Wheel”
has become a true American folksong, borrowed, half-stolen, and sung out
far and wide."
The First Wheel: The Blues and Mr. D.
How much of Dylan's original fragment comes from blues sources is unclear, at least to this listener. Ethno-musicological battles are best left to rock-critics-turned-blues-scholars like Greil Marcus, who hold the blues tradition as their rightful territory. While the wagon wheel is a well-established blues trope, the Broonzy version, often credited as the direct forbear, has different chords, melody, tempo and, where you can hear them, lyrics. So while Dylan may have begun by riffing on this blues standard, what he came up with was a new, if incomplete, thing. It's that new thing, with its indelible hook, that OCMS's Secor picked up and ran with.
And, for an alternate take on history, Jason Webley and Rev. Peyton tried to cover Dylan's version as closely as possible:
The Second Wheel: Old Crows and Under Grads
Despite the song being a product of the Internet age, it took a few years
for this song to spread to others who exist in the same musical Twilight Zone,
between darkness and light, ancient and modern, popular and acclaimed and enter the lexicon of the indie-folk
elite, including Scotland's Bodega, England's Mumford & Sons and upstate New Yorkers (and OCMS allies) The Felice Brothers.
Eventually, the song crept into the repertoire of both blues artists (Matt Anderson and Shane Dwight) and mainstream country aspirants like Jeremy McComb Jason Lee Wilson (both of whom altered the beloved-by-college audiences 'had a nice long toke' line in their own special way.) and Nathan Carter from Ireland.
Likely via former teenage anarchist, Tom Gabel (now Laura Jane Grace) of Against Me!, the song entered the punk vernacular. Gabel's versions, solo or with the band, both cleave close to the accepted style of the song. Scranton, Pennsylvania's The Mezingers add a bit of bite, newer Chicago punk band, The Fuckers dive bomb the song and Indiana ska'ers Green Room Rockers go at it in a two-tone style.
The often humourless Wikipedia has designated the song, "the new "Free Bird"" and boy does YouTube ever bear that charge out. Literally dozens of homebrew takes on the song are on tap for your consumption and believe me the variations are plentiful enough to make you woozy. Interestingly, one of this sort of amateur pick-up version is what inspired Mr. Rucker to tackle the song.
For Record Store Day 2013, Columbia put out a Bob Dylan single with an unreleased demo of "Wigwam" on the A side and a previously unreleased recording, "Thirsty Boots" on the B side. The songs are from the forthcoming
Bootleg Series Vol. 10, which is rumored to consist of material from 1969 to 1973, likely meaning outtakes from Nashville Skyline, Self Portrait, New Morning, the Greatest Hits Vol. 2 sessions and the Pat
Garrett & Billy The Kid soundtrack.
It's an effective tease for the next volume of the Bootleg series, which, era-wise, is certainly in more dangerous waters then most of the others. "Wigwam" is a demo version, dominated by piano rather then the brass section which Self-Portrait producer Bob Johnson employed. Even better is Dylan's sturdy take on Eric Andersen's 1966 ballad, "Thirsty Boots", which has the passion that so many of the tracks that actually made it onto Self-Portrait lacked.
(Sooner or later this song will get yanked down...)
Bob Dylan is an artist of such power and presence that even his fiascoes can be fascinating. When contemplating the range of Dylan's spectacular falls, whether its Tarantula, Isle of Wright, Self-Portrait, Live at Budakon, "Street Rock" or Hearts of Fire, the four-hour improv experiment/concert film Renadlo and Clara certainly looms large. What we have below isn't the entirety of the critically-drubbed film (synopsis) but it's over half of it and even then it can be endurance-defying. Thankfully, the footage of the Rolling Thunder Revue is incredible. So, thanks to the wonders of modern technology, those less interested in plumbing the depths of Dylan's work, can just skip to the concert scenes. Via.
"Americans are spoiled. They expect art to be like
wallpaper, with no effort, just to be there."
Bob Dylan on critical reaction to Renaldo and Clara.
Let us know what you think of Dylan's Renaldo and Clara in the COMMENTS section.
When I did a post that invoked Bob Dylan, as a brief aside, in my post about music and politics (see HERE)*, I received an avalanche of negative feedback, with one reader even going so far as to imply Dylan had become a birther!
Now it turns out that during a performance of "Blowin' in the Wind" on November 5th, in the crucial swing state of Wisconsin, Dylan said, “We tried to play good tonight since the president was here today.” Then he laid it all down, “Don’t believe the media. I think it’s going to be a landslide.”
'But he didn't say he was voting for Obama!" the Right Wing Bobbers will howl. These, of course, are the same people who tried to downplay his unusually direct praise for Obama in '08!
To be fair, I not only believe Dylan is likely incorrect in his prediction of an overwhelming victory (though I would be ecstatic to be wrong!), I also believe Dylan left himself enough wiggle-room to avoid having his words being called an 'endorsement'
However we parse his words, it seems plain that Dylan's true devotion is to his work and that politics are merely an aside.
* A couple of the comments are priceless and worth perusing!
Metacritic's aggregation of reviews of Bob Dylan's more recent albums:
Love & Theft = 93%
Modern Times = 89%
Together Through Life = 76%
Christmas in the Heart = 62%
Tempest = 84%
When reading about new Dylan albums, it may be best to lop off at least 10% of the average reviewer's rating to
account for respect, awe and a fear of blacklisting by the Dylan camp. That said, Tempest proves that the blood is still dancing in Dylan`s veins. Sure, this isn't exactly Jack Palance dropping and giving the Academy twenty one-handed push-ups but it`s still more vigorous then we`ve any right to expect, especially after the not-as-bad-as-we`d-feared Christmas in the Heart and the worse-than-we`d-feared Together Through Life. For a late career album, Tempest, solidly engineered by Scott Litt, is a piece of some heft, akin to Modern Times (overpraised upon its release but undervalued now) though it may not be a match for the wit and fire of `Love and Theft`.
``Duquesne Whistle`` is the first new Dylan composition worthy of his name since the highlights of Modern Times. `Narrow Way`is a nice reminder that Dylan can still roll out some nice lines (``I can`t work up to you - you`ll surely have to work down to to me someday`) while recycling the blues. We do get some of that romantic crooner material, like `Soon After Midnight`` but that`s counterbalanced by the re-emergence of the angry Dylan here in fire-spiting songs like, `Pay in Blood` (`I pay in blood but not my own``) and ``The Angel`` (`He`s a gutless ape with a worthless mind`). The oft-discussed Titanic-themed song `Tempest`, while intriguing is just too damn long at forty-five chorus-less verses in just over fourteen minutes to not drag the album down a little. The other historical song, `Roll on, John` just seems to be mashing up words and ideas about John Lennon to limited effect. The last two tracks aside, Dylan`s delivered an album that adds to his body of work
It might be a bit generous but a 74% and a ``recommended for mid-level Dylan-ites`` seems fitting.
Let us know what you think of the latest Dylan work in the COMMENTS section.
WARNING: This is seventies humour via National Lampoon. While I'm not sure there's a coherent enough statement to be properly offended by here, if you, understandably, feel differently please avoid this curio.
While we had a great reaction to our posting of the Beatles (X 2), The
Rolling Stones, the Ramones, Nirvana, Dr. Feelgood, the Sex Pistols and the Dead Kennedys comics (see HERE), MRML is not planing on becoming a 'scan blog'. However, all these rock n' roll comics got me to thinking about the Bob Dylan one that I'd once been so excited to find years ago. So now, via punkhart, here it comes.
Gotta say The Ventures of Zimmerman was a huge disappointment when I found it in the coolest comic store I'd ever seen back in 1981. My expectations were high, as I was in my first Dylan-ite stage at the time, I worshiped the artist, Neal Adams, and I was steeped in the adolescent-yet-adult humour of National Lampoon. But something went wrong when these elements combined. At the time, I was let down just because most of the references went over my head, even though I loved that "Gotta watch those parking meters" gag below.
National Lampoon (a Judeo-Christian alliance) followed in the Lenny Bruce tradition of shock for shock's sake. So, course the racist jokes were meant ironically back in 1972 (an "Approved by the Elders of Zion" stamp is a wink too far). However, the playing off stereotypes gags already looked wonky by 1981 and by now it just looks dated and hollow. On the other hand, Adams' art is fun and it's a great game see how many of the in-jokes you do get. So enjoy this for what it. Or don't.
So (big breath in) what do you make of this Dylan item?
Is it out-and-out tasteless or a fitting caricature for its times?
Listening to the new box set, from Billy Bragg &
Wilco, Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions got me thinking about what
are the best adaptions of Woody Guthrie's words to the music of others:
1: Bob Dylan & Joan Baez: Deportees (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)
When schoolteacher Martin Hoffman set this 1948 Guthrie poem about the dehumanization of immigrants to music he really could not have know how germane those words would be to
American politics fifty years later or that he would start a trend still
booming to this day. His version was spread by Pete Seeger and became a centerpiece of Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue of the mid-seventies.
2: Billy Bragg & Wilco: Way Over Yonder in a Minor Key
The nineties may not have been Brit folk-punker Billy Bragg's best decade as a solo artist but his success in bringing Woody Guthrie into the 21st century, a task for which he was anointed by Nora Guthrie, will remain one of the most celebrated accomplishments of his life.
3: Wilco & Billy Bragg: California Stars
Despite having a less reverent, historically-minded view of the task of adapting Guthrie's words than Mr. Bragg, Chicago alt-country/NOT alt-country band Wilco drew up a stellar set of songs in order to play The Band to Bragg's Dylan.
4. Jim James, Jay Farrar, Will Johnson, and Anders Parker: Careless Reckless Love
Curious that Nora Guthrie chose to have Jay Farrar, former partner of Wilco's Jeff Tweedy, into the archives but the results are pretty as hell, so let us ignore any subtext in her choice.
5. The Dropkick Murphys: Shipping Up to Boston
Boston celtic-punks The Dropkick Murphy's earned a trip to the Guthrie Archives and came out of with one of their most famous songs and an appearance in Martin Scorsese's The Departed.
6. The Klezmatics: Mermaid Avenue
New York Jewish-folk preservationists, the Klezamtics celebrated another aspect of Woody's words with two [!] collections, Wonder Wheel (2006) and Woody Guthrie's Happy Joyous Hanukkah (2006).
So what's the most successful melding of Woody's words and modern music? Let us know in the COMMENTS section.
Back in 2001, Ketch Secor, of string-band revivalists Old Crow Medicine Show, took an unreleased fragment from Bob Dylan's soundtrack to the 1973 film, Pat Garret and Billy the Kid, originally called. "Rock Me, Mama", added his own verses to it, and created the 2st century standard, "Wagon Wheel".
Secor revised Dylan's rough draft to tell a story of a
pivotal point in his own life, in a manner both particular and universal.
The on-going, cross-genre appeal of "Wagon Wheel" today is a reminder just how
effectively older idioms can express contemporary experiences.
In November 2011, Secor, celebrating the song's reaching gold status, considered its origins in the blue tradition, " So, from Big Bill to Big Boy to Bob and on down to me, “Wagon Wheel”
has become a true American folksong, borrowed, half-stolen, and sung out
far and wide."
The First Wheel: The Blues and Mr. D.
How much of Dylan's original fragment comes from blues sources is unclear, at least to this listener. Ethno-musicological battles are best left to rock-critics-turned-blues-scholars like Greil Marcus, who hold the blues tradition as their rightful territory. While the wagon wheel is a well-established blues trope, the Broonzy version, often credited as the direct forbear, has different chords, melody, tempo and, where you can hear them, lyrics. So while Dylan may have begun by riffing on this blues standard, what he came up with was a new, if incomplete, thing. It's that new thing, with its indelible hook, that OCMS's Secor picked up and ran with.
And, for an alternate take on history, Jason Webley and Rev. Peyton tried to cover Dylan's version as closely as possible:
The Second Wheel: Old Crows and Under Grads
Despite the song being a product of the Internet age, it took a few years
for this song to spread to others who exist in the same musical Twilight Zone,
between darkness and light, ancient and modern, popular and acclaimed and enter the lexicon of the indie-folk
elite, including Scotland's Bodega, England's Mumford & Sons and upstate New Yorkers (and OCMS allies) The Felice Brothers.
The Third Wheel: Out of the Indie Rut
Recently, we've see the song creeping into the repertoire of both blues artists (Matt Anderson and Shane Dwight) and mainstream country aspirants like Jeremy McComb and Jason Lee Wilson (both of whom altered the beloved-by-college audiences 'had a nice long toke' line in their own special way.)
The Fourth Wheel: Punk It Up
Likely via former teenage anarchist, Tom Gabel of Against Me, the song has lately entered the punk vernacular. Gabel's versions, solo or with the band, both cleave close to the accepted style of the song, while Scranton, Pennsylvania The Mezingers add a bit of bite and new Chicago punk band The Fuckers tear the song up.
The Fifth Wheel: WTF DIY?!?
The often humourless Wikipedia has designated the song, "the new "Free Bird"" and boy does YouTube ever bear that charge out. Literally dozens of homebrew takes on the song are on tap for your consumption and believe me the variations are plentiful enough to make you woozy:
Bubba Flower came to fame as part of sixties-psych-pop band, The Avant-Garde. While his partner in The Avant-Garde, Chuck Woolery, went on to fame as a game show host, Fowler put out a solo album, And Then Came Bubba, on Columbia Records in 1970. At this time Fowler was also a session musician working with producer Bob Johnston and ended up playing on Bob Dylan's Self-Portrait and Leonard Cohen's Songs of Love and Hate. Fortunately for us, it's the influence of the Johnston-produced Blonde on Blonde era (and not Self-Portrait) Dylan that dominates Fowler's songs like "Listen Big City" and "The Pounding Status Quo". "Lament #1" has the mournfulness of early Cohen and "Joli Girl" sounds like Glen Campbell gettin' a little wordy. While And Then Came Bubba, isn't quite a masterpiece, it's a fascinating listen for Dylan-atics and Cohen-heads or those who appreciate all the strange the cross-pollination of sixties country, folk and pop.
1. Listen Big City
2. Louise (My Cajun Woman)
3. Joli Girl
4. Sociological Bind
5. Next Year This Time
6. Pounding Status Quo
7. Lament, No. 1
8. Messenger of Life
9. Yellow Beads
10. On Tomorrow
11. Jenny Love
Let us know what you think of Bubba Fowler and his wild ways in the COMMENTS section (which is where you'll find the And Then Came Bubba link*).
*This rip was created by the hand of G O D over at Sluggisha (possibly NSFW), a most singular curator. Thank him for the Bubba!
Update: For more on Bubba, Cohen and true love go visit 1heckofaguy
Reno's pop-punk-rockabilly cats, Cobra Skulls go down to the basement cuz there's something down there - and it turns out it's a feverish take on Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues". The track is from a 2009 split release with Andrew Jackson Jihad on the Under the Influence 7" series put out by Suburban Home.
Jimmy Cliff is one of the greatest artists ever to come from Jamaica (where the competition for that honour is murderous) and hearing him cover Rancid's"Ruby Soho, The Clash's "Guns of Brixton" as well as Bob Dylan's "A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall" on the Tim Armstrong-produced EP Sacred Fire (Collective Sounds, 2011) is a sweet, sweet sensation.
Jimmy Cliff - "A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall" (Bob Dylan)
Besides the aforementioned list of covers (Rancid, The Clash AND Dylan - how could MRML not cover this!) the vinyl version also contains two Cliff originals, "Ship is Sailing" and "World Upside Down", the latter of which he recently performed live with The Roots:
This multi-volume
series features artists covering Bob Dylan
songs. All of the tracks are recordings of
independent origin (ROIO) and hence officially unreleased.
Compiler Jeffs98119 (check out his excellent blog HERE) is back, following his last entry in rapid succession, with another varied entry in this hopefully-endless series. Lots of interesting items herein but my fave was Lucinda Williams doing "Tryin' to Get to Heaven Before They Close the Door".
01 Tryin' to Get to Heaven Before They Close the Door - Lucinda Williams (Oct 29, 2011, Keswick Theater, Glenside, PA)
02 Absolutely Sweet Marie - Jay Farrar and Ben Gibbard (Jan 26, 2010, Boulder Theater, Boulder, CO)
03 Tangled Up in Blue - Bruce Hornsby (Jun 5, 1996, Community Arts Center, Williamsport, PA)
04 Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues - Lisa Hannigan (Nov 10, 2009, The Troubadour, Los Angeles, CA)
05 Cold Irons Bound - Kerri Powers (Feb 28, 2004, Blackstone River Theater, Cumberland, RI)
06 Tough Mama - Chris Robinson Brotherhood (Mar 28, 2011, The Echoplex, Echo Park, CA)
07 Meet Me in the Morning - Carolyn Wonderland (Oct 19, 2011, Iron Horse Music Hall, Northampton, MA)
08 You Ain't Goin' Nowhere - Fruit Bats (Mar 26, 2010, The Mill, Iowa City, IA)
09 This Wheel's On Fire - Julie Driscoll & Brian Auger & the Trinity (Nov 28, 1968, Berlin, Germany)
10 Boots of Spanish Leather - Mandolin Orange (Apr 9, 2011, Forty Acres Concert Series, Chapel Hill, NC)
11 Daddy You Been on My Mind - Keren Ann (Mar 11, 2011, Le Figaro, Paris, France)
12 You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome - Ron Sexsmith (Aug 15, 1995, Idiot's Delight with Vin Scelsa, WXRK-FM, New York City)
13 I Shall Be Released - Grace Potter (Jul 24, 2009, FloydFest, Floyd, VA)
14 All Along the Watchtower - Grateful Dead w/ Carlos Santana (Aug 23, 1987, Calaveras County Fairgrounds, Angel's Camp, CA)
15 A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall - Robert Plant & The Band Of Joy (Apr 15, 2011, Wanee Music Festival, Music Park, Live Oak, FL)
Your COMMENTS on the series and the artists it covers help towards keeping the series alive!!
Thanks to Jeffs98119 for compiling these, to pdiamond for the images, to slugline for the spreadsheet and to Karl Erik Anderson @ Expecting Rainfor tagging these for iTunes.
For V.'s 1-37 of Nobody Sings Dylan Like Dylan go here
Anyone whose visited MRML before knows that I maintain a fanatic devotion to both the works of Bob Dylan and the musical archives of the BBC. BBC recordings are crucial historical documents, which map a midway point between the polish of an artist's studio recordings and the immediacy of their live work.
Now, as the liner notes above will explain (click to read), this is NOT a bootleg of any material in CBS/Sony's vaults. These Recordings Of Independent Origin (ROIO) are, in fact, surprisingly clear recording of two solo concerts concerts Dylan did for the BBC in June of 1965 that were RECORDED DIRECTLY OFF THE TV BY DIE-HARD FANS!
That said, if Web Sheriff, the web monitoring group Dylan's management employ, still believe that this ROIO is not fair game it shall be taken down at once. (I would prefer to do the deed myself, if necessary, but when this POST, also exclusively composed of ROIO material, was judged improper, it was pulled for me). In all fairness, while I do believe that Web Sheriff can overreach, they are nowhere near as heavy-handed as the RIAA et al and do not confuse obsessives with criminals.
Tracklist:
01. Ballad Of Hollis Brown
02. Mr Tambourine Man
03. Gates Of Eden
04. If You Gotta Go, Go Now
05. Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll
06. It Ain't Me Babe
07. Love Minus Zero/No Limit
08. One Too Many Mornings
09. Boots Of Spanish Leather
10. It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)
11. She Belongs To Me
12. It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
recorded 1 June 1965;
(tracks 1-6 broadcast 26 June 1965
tracks 7-12 broadcast 19 June 1965)
Your thoughts on this Dylan rarity are most welcome and can be left in the COMMENTS section (where the link for the BBC Sessions resides).
While there may be greater fans of The Band in the world than me, I do know an historical find when I see one. While this bootleg is a little distant-sounding (let me remind you that this is live audience recording from nineteen-fricken'-sixty-nine!) it's a stunning document that derives from the absolutely sweetest period in The Band's history. That is, of course, the time following the recording of both Music from the Big Pink and the eponymous follow-up, The Band. This is the time after The Band's collaboration with Bob Dylan had rocked the world (and resulted in The Band's having three Dylan compositions - two of which were rare co-writes - in the set; "Tears of Rage", "This Wheel's on Fire" and `I Shall Be Released`. Of course The Band`s own song-writing was at its absolute peak in this time as the slew of songs branded into our consciousness from this set list like, `The Weight`, `Cripple Creek`and `The Night They Drove old Dixie Down` prove. So please accept this rarity as my belated Canada Day present to you (heck a present to myself as this was recorded four months after the date of my own birth!)
The Band Philadelphia Academy Of Music Philadelphia, PA October 26, 1969
1. This Wheel's On Fire (5:03) 2. We Can Talk (2:47) 3. Don't Ya Tell Henry (3:26) 4. Caledonia Mission (3:48) 5. Chest Fever (5:44) 6. I Shall Be Released (3:27) 7. Lovin' You (3:36) 8. The Weight (4:20) 9. Long Black Veil (2:51) 10. Tears Of Rage (5:27) 11. Don't Do It (4:12) 12. Unfaithful Servant (4:18) 13. Up On Cripple Creek (3:57) 14. Slippin' and Slidin' (3:35) 15. Look Out Cleveland (3:26) 16. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down (4:02)
"This one is absolutely essential for any Band fans - recorded a month after the release of the second album, the band is in fine form. The recording itself is remarkable for a mono audience tape from the late sixties. All the instruments are well balanced and clear, and the audience is present but never overpowers the music. Spectral analysis shows that it is lossless and as far as I know it's never been shared in any form before. I got the show in a private trade over a decade ago - apparently, my source got it from the original taper who was concerned about possible bootlegging and requested that the recording keep a low profile. I've abided by that request for years, but this show is too great to keep it hidden for any longer. "
mrbun2729
NOTE TO LISTENERS: At the explicit demand of the original uploader, mrbun2729, this show is offered here only in .flac format. If you are at all uncomfortable with this wonderful-sounding but wildly cumbersome format simply convert it 320 kbps MP3's using a FREE version of a program like Switch Sound Converter.
As someone who once compiled a bootleg collection of Billy Bragg doing Bob Dylan covers (see HERE) I was excited to see this collection British folkies, ancient and modern, covering Dylan's second album, The Freewheelin Bob Dylan, in its entirety. As this programme arrived amidst the ONSLAUGHT that accompanied Mr. Dylan's 70th birthday, I filed it in the bulging "Blog Ideas' folder. Then as my Billy Bragg series (see much, much more HERE) grew more obsessive, I thought this was the time to present it to those MRML readers who like music where you can hear fingers striking guitar strings and where singers 'lean forward just a bit'.
01. Programme Intro 02. Blowin' in the Wind - Seth Lakeman 03. Girl from the North Country - Thea Gilmore 04. Masters of War - Martin Simpson 05. Down the Highway - While and Matthews 06. Bob Dylan's Blues - Ewan McLennan 07. A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall - Karine Polwart 08. Don't Think Twice, It's All Right - Ralph McTell 09. Bob Dylan's Dream - Martin Carthy 10. Oxford Town - Coope, Boyes and Simpson 11. Talkin' World War III Blues - Billy Bragg 12. Corrina, Corrina - Cara Dillon with The Scoville Units 13. Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance - Rory Mcleod 14. I Shall Be Free - Rab Noakes with Fraser Speirs
NOTE TO LISTENERS: At the explicit demand of the original uploader this programme is offered here only in .flac format. If you are at all uncomfortable with this wonderful-sounding but wildly cumbersome format simply convert it 320 kbps MP3's using a FREE version of a program like Switch Sound Converter.
Until I came across an actual copy of the above-pictured L.P. last week, I had no idea that seventies sideman-to-the-stars, Rob Stoner had ever released any solo work. But there's nothing like a flip through the vinyl bins to disturb the slumbers of history.
While Rob Stoner, a New York City multi-instrumentalist/song-writer, had worked in the studio with many folk artists, his first taste of fame was likely his role in Don Mclean's mythopoeic "American Pie" (for which McLean apparently felt the sideman important enough to drag along to the 1972 Grammy Awards.)
(I think Stoner's back there but I might be wrong...)
No matter how enduring "American Pie" may be, the item most likely to dominate Stoner's obituary somewhere down the line, will be his mid-seventies role as bassist/band leader for both the traveling circus that was Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue and the chaotic recording sessions for Dylan's 1976 album, Desire. On the tour, Stoner not only lead the band known as Guam but he also got to sing lead on his own song, "Too Good to Be Wasted (But Too Wasted To Be Any Good)".
Next up was a multi-year association with New York Rockabilly revivalist Robert Gordon, who always had a killer sense of what makes a good sideman (Gordon hired first Link Wray, then Chris Spedding and then Danny Gatton as lead his guitarist, all during the time that he also employed both Stoner and his fellow Guam member Howie Wyeth as his rhythm section!) When Stoner left, Gordon picked Tony Garnier to be his bassist - the man who would go on to play bass for Bob Dylan's touring band for twenty-two years and counting!
The album, 1980's long out-of-of-print Patriotic Duty, is fine seventies-styled rockabilly album akin to some of Dave Edmunds' material but even more hyper-focused on that boom-booming Sun Records sound. Rolling Stone's David Fricke described it as, "High octane punkabilly, cool vocals and energetic, heady New Wave attack" and, in The Rolling Stone Record Guide, John Swenson gave it four stars.
As if all that isn't enough, the LP also features a cover of the rare mid-seventies Dylan tune, "Seven Days" to recommend it to Dylan obsessives:
Comments on this rarity and the history we've awoken here today would be most appreciated, dear readers.
The link for "Patriotic Duty" can be found in that COMMENTS section.
P.S. The rip of the vinyl come from the great viacomclosedmedown on youtube over at the amazing resource that is Down Underground - please go visit them, you have nothing to lose but a few gigs of space on your hard drive!
The Secret Policeman's (Other) Ball concert, featuring the old and the then-new guard of British rock (and comedy), was one of a series of cross-generational events staged, starting in the mid-seventies, as benefits for Amnesty International. The break-through show from 1981 (it went around the world on the then new VHS format) climaxed, as such things must, with a near-full cast run-through of a Bob Dylan song, in this case. "I Shall Be Released". The band, labeled The Secret Police, was lead by Sting and included Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Phil Collins, Bob Geldof, Midge Ure and a helluva lot of tambourines.
While a DVD compilation of the entire series's highlights is now available, the music itself has been out-of-print since the early 90's. Now, MRML's prime directive, to not post anything that harms an artist, is doubly in-effect for charity organization like Amnesty. So, if you are willing to help give voice to the voiceless political prisoners of this world, then please make a donation HERE.
The film foreshadows how earnestness, do-gooderism and mullets would dominate the eighties but were those things (mullets aside) really the worst aspects of that gaudy decade?
So what did you make of this early all-star get-together?
The Secret Policeman's Other Ball (The Music) link is in the comments Support Amnesty here
Get the DVD box set here here and the music DVD here.
Chief amongst the virtues of Jack White was his reverence for so much of the best that had gone before him. And chief amongst his revered elders was none other than Mr. Bob Dylan. (more rare White Stripes here.)
Fortunately, White often interpreted some of the less beat-to-death items of the Dylan catalog, whether it was "Lovesick" , "Outlaw Blues", "One More Cup of Coffee or "Meet Me in the Morning".
As the art indicates, this collection of Dylan (and Dylan-related) live cover songs was expertly compiled, annotated and designed by StewART, though I can't yet determine if he ever made a volume two!
Leave us a comment about what you make of Jack White's Dylan obsession.
Speaking of comments that's where you'll find the link for The White Album
Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher sure inspired some unforgettable protest anthems. From The English Beat's "Stand Down, Margaret", To Elvis Costello's "Shipbuilding" to The Exploited's "Let's Start a War" every musician in England seemed united against the Iron Lady's Conservative government. The Specials (more here) responded to this avalanche of agitprop, by trying to update one of Bob Dylan's more abstract "protest" songs, "Maggie's Farm.
It used to go like that, then, for a few minutes, it went like this:
So, this early aughts CD bootleg of the Live at the Lyceum L.P. from 1979 tacks on nine more live and rare tracks, including a version of "Maggie's Farm".
Live at the Lyceum (Deluxe CD) link is in the comments
Speaking of comments, what do you make of The Specials doin' Dylan?
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Re: Re-Ups
MRML does not plan to restore all of the content lost in The Great Mediafire Gutting of 2012. Polite requests may be made in the appropriate section, regular commenters will get priority.
