Bob Dylan is 70 today. Rather than explain why I find the rasping septuagenarian so endlessly fascinating and add to the screeds being written to mark the occasion I thought I'd simply showcase some of my previous posts about the birthday boy.
Tom Waits on Radio Bob
Another hugely popular post - all of Tom Waits' comical riffs from Theme Time Radio Hour. Waits is my number one musical hero so you can imagine my reaction when I first heard him contribute to Dylan's brilliant radio show.
Bob Dylan @ The Roundhouse
There was a ludicrous amount of hype before Dylan's 'intimate' concert at the Camden Roundhouse in 2009. Radio 4's Today Programme even ran a piece ahead of the gig. Dylan live can be a mixed bag. As I wrote then, my policy is always "to go with low expectations and an open mind". See the whole post for my full review and MP3s of that night's renditions of Like A Rolling Stone and a version of I Don't Believe You influenced by The Faces.
It's A Mad Mad Mad Bob World
Like so many things in the realm of Dylan, Todd Haynes' film I'm Not There divided audiences. This was what I thought of it after watching it for the first time.
Around North London with Bob Dylan
A very enjoyable post to write, inspired by an impromptu stroll to Crouch End last year. A little bit of record buying, lunch where Bob once ate and one of my favourite Dylan anecdotes.
Bob Dylan at Newport, 1965
I wrote this after reading Joe Boyd's book White Bicycles. The post includes MP3s from one of the most infamous music performances of all time.
Dylan in China: The First Song
My most recent Dylan post. The was a right brouhaha about Bob's first ever gig in China and whether the authorities there censored his set list. Bob's now had his say on the matter. I speculated that starting the concert with Gonna Change My Way of Thinking was an anti-establishment decision.
You probably know that Bob Dylan played his first ever gig in China last night in front of 5,000 fans at the Worker’s Gymnasium in Beijing. You also probably know that the Chinese government only granted Bob permission to play if he stuck to an approved set list (The Times They Are A-Changin' seems to have been vetoed).
In my experience Bob puts some thought into what song he starts a gig with so I was particularly intrigued to see what he played first in Beijing.
He kicked off with Gonna Change My Way of Thinking, a fairly obscure track from his first Christian album Slow Train Coming, and one he'd previously only played 64 times before*, mostly during his Born Again phase in the late 70s and early 80s. A deliberate choice then.
Although the Communist censors put the kibosh on his early protest classics it's still interesting that they did approve a song that mentioins Jesus, God and a "kingdom called Heaven". And Gonna Change My of Thinking does contain lyrics that can be interepretd as anti-establishment. It starts:
Gonna change my way of thinking
Make myself a different set of rules
Gonna change my way of thinking
Make myself a different set of rules
Gonna put my good foot forward
And stop being influenced by fools
So much oppression
Can’t keep track of it no more
So much oppression
Can’t keep track of it no more
Sons becoming husbands to their mothers
And old men turning young daughters into whores
Here's the full set list from Beijing.
Gonna Change My Way Of Thinking
It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
Beyond Here Lies Nothin'
Tangled Up In Blue
Honest With Me
Simple Twist Of Fate
Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum
Love Sick
Rollin' And Tumblin'
A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall
Highway 61 Revisited
Spirit On The Water
Thunder On The Mountain
Ballad Of A Thin Man
Like A Rolling Stone
All Along The Watchtower
Bob's got another concert in China tomorrow before he heads to Vietnam. Let's see if the set list changes.
Woody Guthrie was born today in 1912 in Okemah, Oklahoma. He needs no introduction. I imagine his music has seeped into the lives of nearly every artist I've ever featured on Carnival Saloon. So, to mark what would have been his 98th birthday, here are Woody Guthrie songs by four of my favourites.
"Woody Guthrie tore everything in his path to pieces. For me it was an epiphany,like some heavy anchor had just plunged into the waters of the harbor." That's Bob writing in Chronicles Volume One. It's part of a wonderful two pages recalling the impact hearing Woody for the first had on him. This version of Guthrie's most famous song is from a concert at the Carnegie Chapter Hall in 1961, the year before Bob's first album came out. Find it on No Direction Home
Bruce fans will probably know his version of This Land is Your Land that's on the Live 1975-1985 album. This is more obscure (and one of Bob Dylan's early Guthrie favourites too). It's from a 1996 concert that Ani DiFranco organised and is commemorated on the album 'Til We Outnumber Them (which also features Bruce's version of Deportees). Find it on Til We Outnumber 'em
When I first saw Tom Russell live, at the Cambridge Folk Festival in 2006, the way this song encompasses so much of Guthrie's life, work and legacy in all its multi-faceted glory really hit me as a masterpiece. Find it on Hotwalker
Whenever Wilco play London I always cross my fingers in the hope that they'll invite Billy on to join them to sing one of the songs off Mermaid Avenue. Anyone who's seen the documentary Man in the Sand knows it's unlikely to ever happen. This is one of few times they have performed together, on Conan O'Brien's old show Late Night. Find the original on Mermaid Avenue
If that's whet your appetite and you want to get back to the source there are tons of Guthrie compilations available. I'd also highly recommend Joe Klein's book Woody Guthrie: A Life.
I was not at work today and ended up taking a sunny stroll to Crouch End, a leafy enclave of North London I'd not visited for years. My first stop was the excellent Flashback Records where I bought a CD called Nobody Sings Dylan Like Dylan. It's a new Righteous Records release that compiles original versions of the folk and blues songs Bob Dylan recorded on his early 90s acoustic albums Good As I Been To You and World Gone Wrong. The purchase turned out to be prophetic.
After picking up some other goodies at Oxfam I stopped at Banners restaurant, a local institution that prides itself on a family atmosphere and "global home cooking". By coincidence I was directed to a small table under this plaque:
I've been to Banners a few times and knew that Bob had apparently eaten here in 1993 but until today had never seen the table he'd enjoyed his burger at.
An August '93 story in The Independent claimed that as well as enjoying Crouch End's casual dining scene Dylan had also been house-hunting in the area. The paper reported that Bob "viewed a semi-detached house priced at around £310,000 two weeks ago. Sandra Parker, who owns it with her husband, Stephen, answered the door to a tall man and a woman. 'Behind them was a little guy,' she said. 'I was a bit annoyed because they were an hour early and I told them to wait so I could get the dog out. When I realised who the little one was, I was speechless.'"
All Dylan related Crouch End tales are in some way linked to local resident Dave Stewart. A month before Bob ate his meal at Banners Stewart directed the wonderful video to Blood in My Eyes in Camden Town. In his Bob Dylan EncyclopediaMichael Gray (no fan of Mr Stewart) reckons "it's one of the few Dylan videos that's any good". What do you think?
The Mississippi Sheiks original, titled I've Got Blood in My Eyes For You, is one of the tracks on the Nobody Sings Dylan Like Dylan compilation and I thoroughly recommend the Dylan Encyclopedia entry on the group.
Dylan wrote good liner notes to World Gone Wrong. About the Sheiks he opines "all their songs are raw to the bone & are faultlessly made for these modern times (the New Dark Ages) nothing effete about the Mississippi Sheiks."
I can't write about Bob Dylan, Dave Stewart and Crouch End without relating one of the greatest of all Dylan anecdotes. In 1985 while Dave and Bob were recording together the former Eurythmic invited Dylan to his house. The Sunday Telegraph reported the rest of the story:
Dylan, at a loose end one afternoon, decided to take him up on it and asked a taxi driver to take him to Crouch End Hill. With the bewildering array of streets in the area all named for various permutations of Crouch, End and Hill, the cabbie accidentally dropped him off at the right number but in an adjoining road.
Dylan knocked at the front door and asked the woman who answered if Dave was in. As it happened, her husband was also called Dave, so she said: "No, he's out on a call at the moment", and Bob said he'd wait. Twenty minutes later, Dave - the plumber, not the rock star - returned and asked the missus whether there were any messages. "No", she said, "but Bob Dylan's in the living room having a cup of tea".
Bob and Dave's ramshackle North London sessions are immortalised in this Whistle Test sequence that also features fellow Crouch Ender Andy Kershaw bravely asking Bob's thoughts on his dire Live Aid performance and whether he's been "going wrong in the past"
The result of Dylan and Dave's musical efforts can be found on the 1986 album Knocked Out Loaded, a record that's been called a "depressing affair" and "the absolute bottom of the Dylan barrel".
It is rare indeed that I will be enticed on to a dance floor. Yet anyone who has seen me at the monthly London club night Uptight will know that it only takes a few bars of Jonathan Richman's Roadrunner or an early REM track to get me under the disco ball. The music you hear at Uptight is so great that when Jo and I thought about who would DJ at our wedding there was no question who we'd ask.
This Saturday (24 April) the last ever Uptight takes place at the Albany on Great Portland Street. After 10 years of spinning everything from Donna Summer to Spacemen 3 my pals Wayne Gooderham, his brother Marc and Gary Rose are hanging up their headphones.
I have lots of fond memories of Saturday night's in the Albany's basement. Most notably perhaps when my friend John Barner thought he could become Christina Ricci's friend by lighting the pint-sized actress's cigarettes.
To mark Uptight's passing I've asked Wayne to share some of his essential Uptight tunes. For one week you can download the whole lot together, all nicely tagged with artwork etc. The link is at the bottom of the post. If you like what you hear get down to the Albany on Saturday night. I'll be the one punching the air to Born To Run.
"Not only one of the best things The Fall have done in recent years, but one of the best things they’ve done period. But don’t bother with the album version though. It’s the Peel session version yer wantin’." Find it on The Complete Peel Sessions| The Fall Online
"Obviously the studio version is perfect and the live '66 version has its own ragged charm (to put it mildly), but the live '74 version from Before The Flood is more fun for the dance floor: sing-a-long-an-alienation." Find it on Before The Flood| Bob Dylan official site
"His finest three minutes. A perfect pop song with a bridge that lesser talents would have settled for as a chorus. Industrial Motown sez I." Find it on Viva Hate| Morrissey official site
One of the many ways my life will be poorer if the BBC axe 6 Music is that as well as being exposed to less new music I won't discover as much great old music either. On Gideon Coe's show last Wednesday I heard Roy Harper's cover of Bob Dylan's Girl From the North Country for the first time. Gid played a beautiful version Harper recorded for the BBC in 1974. This is how it appears on the album Valentine.
Hearing it sung by an Englishman brings the song full circle. Dylan wrote it at the start of 1963 during his first trip to Europe. He'd recently met Martin Carthy in London who'd taught him English folk songs like Lord Franklin (whose melody and some lyrics Dylan later used for Bob Dylan's Dream) and Scarborough Fair.
Carthy recalls the first time he heard Girl From the North Country: "Bob came down to The Troubadour and said, 'Hey, here's Scarborough Fair' and he started playing this thing. And he kept getting the giggles, all the time he was doing it. It was very funny. I think he sang about three or four verses and then he went. 'Ah man ah,' and he burst out laughing and sang something else... It was delightful, lovely. 'Cos I mean he... he made a new song... I took it as an enormous compliment, to the song and, if you like, to me... It was a great thing to have done."
Girl From the North Country holds the unique position in the Dylan cannon of being the only song he's recorded for two different studio albums. It first appeared on The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan in 1963.
Second-time round Dylan recorded it as a duet with Johnny Cash as the opener to Nashville Skyline in 1969. This clip is from the first episode of Johnny Cash's TV show, filmed at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, in June 1969.
Seeing the short-haired, timid Bob sat on that hokey stage, it's hard to imagine the wired and spindly Dylan that shocked English audiences with his electric guitar just three years before.
On Monday my employer, the BBC, announced that it plans to axe my favourite radio station, 6 Music. Carnival Saloon's regular patrons will have read previous posts here about songs I've discovered on 6 Music and I doubt there's another station in the world that plays Tom Waits so regularly. That in itself is worth my licence fee. Jude Rogers has written a great piece in the Guardian that's spot-on in summing up my own feelings about the station.
The death knell was rung in the BBC's Strategy Review, a lengthy and wide-ranging document entitled Putting Quality First, that outlines proposed changes to all of the corporation. Although one of the five "content priorities" the review says the BBC will now focus on is "bringing knowledge, music and culture to new minds, eyes and ears" 6 Music's demise is justified on page 39.
Radio 6 Music presents a different challenge. Although small in audience, reaching around 700,000 listeners a week, it plays a wide range of music that listeners do not hear elsewhere and it introduces many listeners to music that is new to them. The BBC Trust’s recent review of Radio 6 Music confirmed that it is popular amongst its fan base and its music offering is distinctive. However, although it has achieved good growth in recent years, it has low reach and awareness and delivers relatively few unique listeners to BBC radio. And whilst 6 Music does not have a target demographic audience, its average listener age of 37 means that it competes head-on for a commercially valuable audience. Boosting its reach so that it achieved appropriate value for money would significantly increase its market impact. Given the strength of its popular music radio offering from Radio 1 and 2 and the opportunity to increase the distinctiveness of Radio 2, the BBC has concluded that the most effective and efficient way to deliver popular music on radio is to focus investment on these core networks.
This argument baffles me. The BBC are unwilling to try to increase 6 Music's reach because they believe commercial radio will well serve its average audience. Really? On page 56 the report states, "it is clear that commercial radio effectively delivers mainstream popular music broadcasting to younger and middle-aged adults. This audience is commercially attractive and the BBC’s digital services in this space (for instance, Radio 6 Music) do not currently deliver significant enough public value to justify their intervention." But which commercial stations are going to step up and fill the void left by 6? Certainly none of them do so at present. In a blog post last week Adam Bowie, who works for Absolute Radio, wrote, "One less major brand is never a good thing. Perhaps there'll be opportunities for services like Xfm or NME, but I'm really not sure."
I agree. One of 6 Music's great appeals is the vast and diverse array of music it plays in from many genres and eras. According to the Compare My Radio website in the last 30 days 6 Music played a whopping 2723 more unique tracks than XFM and 1317 more than NME Radio. Another of 6 Music's unique selling points is its creative and extensive use of the BBC archive. How will commercial rivals tap into this wonderful resource?
I think the Strategy Review's authors, gentlemen who evidently don't know their Art Brut from their Elbow, are confusing mainstream music with popular music. They are right that there's plenty of mainstream music on commercial radio (as there is on BBC Radio 1 and 2). But 6 Music is not a mainstream channel and it's frustrating to read that they think the station lacks significant public value. It's closer in spirit to Radio 3 than Radio 1 or Radio 2 in that its witty and engaging DJs expose their listeners to the rich cultural seam of popular music (in the very broadest sense) from the last 60 years.
On Wednesday's edition of Radio 4's Media ShowJohn Tate, the BBC's Director of Policy & Strategy, stated that his review "sets Radio 1 and 2 a challenge to take up the best of what Radio 6 (sic) did and so become even more distinctive". Mark Thompson told Jon Snow on Channel 4 News the previous day that, "Some of the best stars and some of the best output on 6 Music could find a place on other networks".
This not only seems wrong-headed but also contradictory to what Putting Quality First proposes is "the most effective strategy for its popular music radio services" namely that "Radio 1 focusses on its target audience of 15-29 year-olds" and to "implement the findings of the recent Trust review on Radio 2, including the need to ensure that the average age of the station's audience (50) does not fall and, if at all possible, goes up". So presumably if some elements of 6 Music do migrate to Radio 1 or 2 then the station's 37-year-old average listener will not be encouraged to hear them.
It's unlikely that the playlist dominated output on Radio 1 and 2 will ever appeal to 6 Music fans especially if Radio 2 adopts the Strategy Reviews's proposal to commit "to at least 50% speech during daytime". This means that if elements of 6 Music's output do find a new home they'll likely be in "specialist music" slots. The joy of 6 is that you can turn it on at any hour of the day or night and hear a new song you've recently discovered, an old one you've forgotten you loved or something amazing that you've never heard before. Best of all, for the most part you'll be guided to that music by a presenter who's passionate and knowledgeable about what they are playing.
The Strategy Review begins with an introduction by Mark Thompson titled The BBC and Public Space. Public space he writes is "an open and enriching environment" that the BBC is part of. He discusses ITV's cancellation of the South Bank Show in this context: "Audiences lose a precious connection to arts world; the UK television industry loses an important documentary platform; but at the same time, many artists and cultural institutions lose a significant pathway to the public. Public space is diminished".
I'd argue that canning 6 Music will have a similarly negative impact. The artists and institutions that will "lose a significant pathway to the public" are new or non-mainstream bands and independent record labels. In a joint letter to Mark Thompson opposing the the cut the chief execs of the British Phonographic Industry and Association of Independent Music write, "There is no other radio station which is remotely comparable in scale or depth for showcasing new music". Today's Telegraph quotes Radiohead guitarist Ed O'Brien on a similar point, "I wonder if those who made this decision are actually aware of the hugely important role that 6 Music plays in fostering and promoting new bands, as well as still playing the likes of the band that I am in. It literally is the radio lifeblood for music outside of the mainstream."
6 Music is not perfect. Since Bob Shennan became its controller in January last year it does seem to have developed a stronger identity and the addition of Jarvis Cocker and Cerys Matthews to its DJ roster have both been well received. Still, some its other presenters are irksome and the station could do more at defining its purpose. It does have a relatively small audience and only 20% of the population has heard of the station. But let's not forget that 6 Music is only available on digital platforms and the station has never been well publicised. The only TV ad for it has been this bizarre one that does little to promote what makes 6 Music unique and worth investigating. I am convinced that with cross-promotion and a continual and sensible marketing push 6 Music audience's could grow significantly.
As a proud BBC employee and as a licence fee payer I'll be hugely disappointed if 6 Music closes down. There is no other station like it and I doubt that another one will spring up in its wake. To my mind it epitomises what the BBC can do that no other broadcaster can or is willing to do.
The BBC Trust may yet reject the proposals. If you have any thoughts on the Strategic Review the public consultation runs until 25 May 2010 and you can feedback via the BBC Trust Website. If you've never heard 6 Music and thinks it sounds appealing start listening.
On Monday Lauren Laverne ended an emotional show with Lambchop's Up With People. This morning she kicked off with Positively 4th Street. It seems appropriate to share them both.
Along with Joan Baez, the Blind Boys of Alabama and others, Bob Dylan performed at the White House last in a special concert called A Celebration of Music from the Civil Rights Movement. I can imagine President Bartlet getting very excited about the event in an episode ofThe West Wing.
Bob sang just one song, The Times They Are A-Changin'. He played acoustic guitar backed by piano and bass. What's most remarkable is that he'd evidently practised before his audience with Obama. I've seen him mangle this song live a number of times and he's never hit as many of the right notes as this. It's the sort of performance Dylan fans pray he'll pull out of the bag when they see him torture their old favourites in concert.
Readers in America will be able to watch the whole concert on PBS on Friday evening and there's a 'special' about it on Thursday.
I've just finished reading White Bicycles, Joe Boyd's excellent memoir of the 60s ("I was there, I do remember"). The record producer and self-proclaimed éminence grise was one of the organisers of the infamous 1965 Newport Fok Festival when Bob Dylan plugged in and blew dust from the ears of thousands of folkies (scroll down for the tracks).
My favourite anecdote is when Dylan returned to play two acoustic songs after pissing off the folk faithful with the Butterfield Blues Band. He asked the audience, "Has anyone have an E harmonica? Anyone? An E harmonica?" As Boyd writes, "Only at Newport would this request be followed by a shower of half a dozen harmonicas on to the stage". You can hear them all thud in this clip:
Boyd also explains his theory behind the rumour that Pete Seeger was so incensed by Dylan's electric performance that he threatened to cut the speaker cables with an axe. It turns out that on the bill the day before Dylan's gig were the Texas Worksong Prison Group, a bunch of lifers on day release who performed one song chopping down a huge tree stump. As they rhythmically attacked the felled tree a mic cable came loose. A worried Seeger signalled to Boyd to secure the wire. "Seeger, axes, cables..." he writes, "somehow, in the way of legends, things got muddled up."
These then are the songs that caused all the fuss...
Listening to these tracks more than 40 years after the event it's hard to comprehend why they had such an impact. The version of Like a Rolling Stone that Dylan and The Band unleashed in the UK the following year has much more power. Yet Boyd puts forward a good argument that this was rock's Year Zero.
Some loved it, some hated it, most were amazed, astonished and energized by it. It was something we take for granted now, but utterly novel then: non-linear lyrics, an attitude of total contempt fot expectation and established values, accompanied by screaming blues guitar and a powerful rhythm section, played at ear-splitting volume by young kids. The Beatles were still singing love songs in 1965 while the Stones played a brand of blues-rooted pop. This was different. This was the Birth of Rock.
If Joe Boyd is correct then this was arguably the most important gig in music history. What do you reckon?
Jarvis Cocker, BBC 6 Music's latest celebrity signing to its DJ roster, made an impressive debut on Sunday afternoon. Better still he introduced me to two great tracks I'd never previously heard.
Tim Rose's Snowed In was the perfect opener at the end of a week when "weather chaos" has blighted the nation. Until I clicked through to the BBC's Tim Rose artist page from the tracklist on the 6 Music site I knew nothing about the man. I can now tell you that Rose's version of Hey Joe inspired Jimi Hendrix and that Snowed In was released in 2003, a year after the singer's death. Make yourself a hot chocolate, throw another log on the fire and enjoy.
My second discovery was Elvis Presley's version of Bob Dylan's Tomorrow Is A Long Time. I can't believe this track has passed me by. Elvis recorded it in Nashville in April 1966 when, according to Peter Guralnick, "Odetta Sings Dylan was never far from the turntable". My Bob Dylan Encyclopedia (p.660) tells me that in a June 1969 interview with Rolling Stone Bob was asked if there were any versions of his songs he liked. He replied, "Yeah, Elvis Presley. I Liked Elvis Presley. Elvis Presley recorded a song of mine. That's the one recording I treasure the most... it's called Tomorrow is a Long Time." Michael Gray notes that at the time it was assumed Bob was joking. You be the judge.
The track originally appeared as a bonus on the soundtrack LP to Spinout, one of Elvis' many execrable movies. I found it on a wonderful album, also called Tomorrow Is A Long Time, that compiles the cream of the King's mid-60s sessions. There's excellent further reading about the record at The All Music Guide.
Back to the Jarvis Cocker Show: as well a some choice musical selections, the Sheffield stringbean also turned in a discursive interview with film director John Hillcoat and read Richard Brautigan'sWhat Are You Going To Do With 390 Photographs of Christmas Trees? Musicians reading aloud from their favourite books and music free from the station's playlist? It was like the vintage years of Mark Radcliffe and Marc Riley's old nighttime show on Radio 1!
Of course, Jarvis isn't the only musician spinning discs on 6 Music. Here's that rock star DJ line-up in full: Marc Riley (The Fall), Guy Garvey (Elbow), Lauren Laverne (Kenickie), Huey Morgan (Fun Lovin' Criminals), Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden), Tom Robinson (Tom Robinson Band) and of course... Bob Dylan (The Travelling Wilburys).
I hope Jarvis sticks around on 6 Music for a while. I really loved the programme; a genuine breath of fresh air. If you've heard his show (you can listen online anytime you like) do leave a comment and tell me what you think.
MP3s are posted for a limited time with the aim of encouraging visitors to discover music they've never heard. If you like what you hear please buy more from the artist and go to their gigs. I always post links to purchase next to an MP3 link. If you represent an artist or a label and would prefer that I remove a link to an MP3, please email me at carnivalsaloon @ gmail.com and I will immediately delete the file.
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