Dylan in China: The First Song

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.

MP3: Bob Dylan - Gonna Change My Way of Thinking

Buy Slow Train Coming at Amazon

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.

*By comparison, according to Bob Dylan's website he's played Like A Rolling Stone more than 1800 times.

Related Links
Bob Dylan - official site
Expecting Rain - hundreds of Dylan-related links

More Back Chat from Kitty Wells

A few weeks ago I posted a couple of Kitty Wells' answer songs. I've since found another.

(I'll Always Be Your) Fraulein is a reply to Bobby Helms' massive 1957 hit Fraulein and simply tells the story from the girlfriend's perspective. Here's the pair.


MP3: Bobby Helms - Fraulein

Buy Behind The Legend Of The Original Radio Stars at Amazon

MP3: Kitty Wells - (I'll Always Be Your) Fraulein

Buy The Complete Kitty Wells at Amazon (a bargain!)

Another exciting discovery today is a trio of Bear Family compilations called And the Answer Is: Great Answer Discs from the '50s and '60s.

The All Music Guide review of the records is quite amusing: "The music here is for fetishists and collectors... but for any country or pop music fan with an interest in the arcane and unusual, And The Answer Is is a very enjoyable series." So, in a nutshell, tailor-made to my taste! I'll definitely be investigating further.

Related Posts
Kitty Wells Answers Back - honky tonk angels and back street affairs
King of the Road, Queen of the House - another pair of classic answer songs

Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens

I love songs about chickens. For evidence of that statement I refer you to the 'More Chicken Songs at Carnival Saloon' links at the bottom of this post.

Why am I so fond of chicken songs? Partly because they're unusual creatures to immortalise in song and partly because there are such a surprising number of them that there's a real thrill in tracking them down.

So you can imagine both my delight and disappointment when I discovered a 20-track compilation on Viper Records called Ain't Nobody Here But These Chickens: American Chicken Songs From the 1920s - 1950s.

I'd heard very few of the songs on the album so immediately bought it. It was like the compiler had read my mind. The downside of course, having discovered this motherlode of chicken songs, is I'm worried I'll never find a juicy chicken nugget ever again.

I've not listened to the record enough times to say which track's my favourite but this one by Memphis Minnie is certainly a stand-out with its combination of sauciness and sass that marks all the best poultry tunes.

MP3: Memphis Minnie - If You See My Rooster

Buy Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens at Amazon

I was unfamiliar with the Viper label before buying this record but their website reveals a catalogue of similarly brilliant compilations including songs about money, cats and even the jungle.

Finally, a fun bonus track. Here are the Muppets performing the compilation's title track:



More Chicken Songs at Carnival Saloon
Chicken Songs For The Soul
Chicken: Anyone For Seconds?
Clucking Brilliant
Thighs, Wings, Legs & Breasts
Chicken Songs For Colonel Sanders

Related Links
The Viper Label

Kitty Wells Answers Back

Carnival Saloon regulars with long memories will know that I love 'answer songs'. In my recent post about Wanda Jackson's My Big Iron Skillet I mentioned Kitty Wells' 1952 single It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels, which was an answer song to Hank Thompson's The Wild Side of Life.

What I didn't know until someone commented about that post on Facebook was that Kitty's second big hit Paying For That Back Street Affair was an answer song to the Webb Pierce track Back Street Affair. (If the name Webb Pierce means nothing to you watch this rendition of There Stands The Glass - one of my all-time favourite country songs).

Here are both of Kitty's songs and the gents who unwittingly inspired them.

MP3: Hank Thompson - The Wild Side of Life

Buy Hank Thomson - Vintage Collections at Amazon

MP3: Kitty Wells - It Wasn't God That Made Honky Tonk Angels

Buy Kitty Wells - The Collection at Amazon

MP3: Webb Pierce - Back Street Affair

Buy Webb Pierce - More And More at Amazon

MP3: Kitty Wells - Paying For That Back Street Affair

Buy Kitty Wells - The Collection at Amazon

Kitty Wells, by the way, is still alive. She's 91! Her entry in Wikipedia provides a thorough overview for those wanting to find out more about this country music pioneer.

Do tell me what you make of these tracks and if you have any favourite answer songs I might not know please leave a comment below.

Related Links
King of the Road, Queen of the House - another pair of classic answer songs
Wanda Jackson - My Big Iron Skillet - fantastic protofeminist twang

State Songs #23: Michigan

You thought I'd given up? I'm making no promises as to when this journey will end but, at last, I'm back on my musical journey around the United States.

Before the tunes, one great piece of trivia about the Great Lake State. Did you know that Michigan is home to the self-proclaimed "magic capital of the world"? That's Colon, Michigan, the world's largest manufacturer of magic supplies. Me neither.

Right, let's get to it.

MP3: Sufjan Stevens - Say Yes! to M!ch!gan!

It would have been silly to have a Michigan post without a track from Sufjan's album about his home state. I'm still disappointed that his own musical trip round America foundered after just two states.
Buy Greetings from Michigan at Amazon

MP3: Josh Rouse - Michigan

I've grown a bit tired of Josh Rouse in recent years; he just hasn't released anything particularly exciting. This is from a disc simply called Rarities that comes with the DVD The Smooth Sounds of Josh Rouse.
Buy The Smooth Sounds of Josh Rouse at Amazon

MP3: Bobby Bare - Detroit City

A Grammy-winning bona fide country classic, the lyrics of which suggest the Motor City just wasn't the place for poor Bobby.
Buy The Essential Bobby Bare at Amazon

MP3: Lefty Frizzell - Saginaw, Michigan

The song mis-situates the city on Saginaw Bay, about 15 miles to the north. It's another classic and in 1964 reached number one in the country charts.
Buy Leftty Frizzell - That's the Way Life Goes at Amazon

As always, tell me what you think of the selections and let me know what I've left off the list. Hopefully the next instalment won't take 12 months to arrive!

Neighbouring States
State Songs #15: Indiana

The Journey So Far
State Songs - links to every post on this musical road trip

Wanda Jackson - My Big Iron Skillet

Until this morning I thought my favourite song to mention a skillet was definitely by Woody Guthrie but listening to a Wanda Jackson compilation on my way to work reminded me that perhaps this is the greatest frying pan song ever written.

MP3 Wanda Jackson - My Big Iron Skillet

Buy Wanda Jackson - Rockin the Country at Amazon

Whatever Tammy Wynette's intention, songs like Stand By Your Man don't help the argument that country music isn't a genre where women know their place and that place is wherever men tell them to be.

But there's a great tradition of country songs by women that show them not only standing up to men but telling fellas what's what in no uncertain terms.

My Big Iron Skillet is definitely one of best of a list that includes Kitty Wells' It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels and Loretta Lynn's classic Don't Come Home A Drinkin' (With Lovin' On Your Mind).

Which got me thinking. If we were making a compilation, let's call it A Feminist's Introduction to Country Music, what should be on it? Do leave a comment below.

Related Links
Wanda Jackson - official site; the Queen of Rockabilly is still going strong

Jim & Jesse Give Chuck Berry a Bluegrass Makeover

The ever-reliable All Music Guide calls Jim & Jesse "one of the greatest bluegrass bands in history" and the McReynolds brothers enjoyed a remarkably long and successful career from 1947, when they performed daily on a Virginia radio show, until Jim's death in 2002.

As well as traditional music the virtuoso pair were never shy of turning their talents to contemporary sounds. One of their finest excursions beyond mountain music was the 1965 album Berry Pickin' in the Country, a cracking collection of Chuck Berry covers. What I love about it is it's definitely not a novelty record à la Hayseed Dixie. The Chuck Berry songbook really suits the bluegrass style, testament I guess to Chuck's lyrical genius.

The album has been unavailable for years and I'm not sure it's ever had a proper CD release. So imagine my pleasure last weekend when I discovered it on Amazon to download for under a fiver!

Here's the brothers' take on one of my favourite Chuck Berry tracks.

MP3: Jim & Jesse - Too Much Monkey Business

Buy Berry Pickin' In the Country at Amazon

And here's Chuck's original...

MP3: Chuck Berry - Too Much Monkey Business

Buy Chuck Berry 'His Best, Volume 1' at Amazon

And while we're at it, here's Elvis' terrific version, which you can find on a brilliant compilation I've mentioned before called Tomorrow Is A Long Time.

MP3: Elvis Presley - Too Much Monkey Business

Buy Tomorrow Is A Long Time at Amazon


Do you have further suggestions of other great Jim & Jesse tracks? Or indeed brilliant Chuck Berry covers? Do leave a comment below.

Related links
Jim & Jesse official site