HOW MUSIC CHANGED, PART 133h – BOB DYLAN’S “BASEMENT TAPES"

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Even in absentia, Dylan’s influence on his audience was palpable. It also raised an array of questions. For instance, Dylan was once lauded by many as a ‘spokesman’ for his generation, and then reviled for turning his back on their expectations. Fans of his ‘folk’ phase booed him relentlessly when he did not remain fixed under their microscope. Once he removed himself from the insanity that surrounded his every move, these very same people were like Native Americans holding their ears to the ground, listening for any tiny piece of news regarding Dylan’s whereabouts, and his activity. If they hated him so much for his alleged betrayal, why did they care so much about his actions? With the music scene itself changing rapidly, what did this fan base expect? Dylan’s self-imposed exile only increased the mystery of his intentions.
It is also very interesting to note that the controversy surrounding Dylan revolved around two issues – his electrification, and his de-politicization. In his absence, pop music shifted heavily toward electrified rock and roll, especially the psychedelic variety. It also developed a political presence, with a burgeoning youth movement that grew more and more politicized by America’s presence in Vietnam. Between 1964 and 1966, Dylan almost single-handedly opened up these doors, and yet he found himself fending off an endless array of complaints and animosity. It’s no wonder he retreated to the relatively peaceful environs of upstate New York, but it sure must have been weird for Dylan to see pop music effortlessly absorb the very attributes that caused him so much grief.
From the evidence of his own music created during that period, it appears as though Dylan could not care less whether his stylistic inventions had become mainstream. While electrified psychedelia and youthful protest music flooded the charts, Dylan played some the most laid back, relaxed and non-commercial music imaginable, especially by the standards of 1967. Old ‘traditional’ songs like “See That My Grave is Kept Clean” provided as much inspiration as 1950s pop songs such as “All American Boy” and “See You Later Alligator”. Even contemporary radio hits like Bobby Gentry’s “Ode to Billie Joe” influenced his lyrics. All in all, Dylan’s Basement Tapes make for a fascinating hodgepodge of Americana, but none of this saw official release until 1975. The mix of fascinating recordings and intense curiosity eventually spawned the inevitable, when rock and roll’s first ‘bootleg’ recording, entitled “Great White Way”, became one of the most sought after collectible items of the era.
Here’s a list of material that we cover in today’s show (all performances by Bob Dylan unless otherwise specified);
1) Obviously 5 Believers
2) All American Boy – Bobby Bare
3) All American Boy
4) Ode to Billie Joe – Bobby Gentry
5) Clothes Line Saga
6) See You Later Allen Ginsberg
7) Quinn the Eskimo
8) Million Dollar Bash
9) Crash on the Levee (Down in the Flood)
10) Odds and Ends
11) Nothing Was Delivered
12) This Wheel’s On Fire
13) You Ain’t Going Nowhere
14) I Shall Be Released

HOW MUSIC CHANGED, PART 133g – BOB DYLAN’S “BLONDE ON BLONDE” ERA

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When Neil Young sang “It’s better to burn out than to fade away", he very well might have been thinking about Bob Dylan. Few musicians in the history of recorded music have attracted as much attention as Dylan did in 1966, and even fewer musicians were quite as willing to fly in the face of people’s expectations. While the anti-electric contingent grew more and more vocal, Dylan never yielded to them. In many ways, it appeared as though their attitudes provided fuel for his astounding output and energy level. He continued to march to the beat of his own drummer, and this resulted in a continuous series of showdowns during most live performances. Meanwhile, his record sales increased, and his name recognition rose to gargantuan proportions.
From today’s perspective, it’s very easy to see Dylan’s stylistic changes as a steady growth toward the inevitable, but in the heat of the moment it was difficult to determine the logic of his path. You must remember that in 1966 there were no guarantees that a new audience would embrace Dylan, especially in light of the fact that his strongest fan base now attempted to define him as “Judas”. He deliberately set sail into uncharted territory, and the old-school folkies were the modern-day equivalent of “Flat earth” believers. Many of them left the impression that they hoped that he would sail over the edge. In a sense, they would get their wish.
By the summer of 1966, everything was reeling out of control, but Bob Dylan tried very hard to stay focused on his creative muse. With some difficulty, he assembled a band to accompany him on a tour of the United States and Europe. He also accumulated enough material to release a double album, the first of its kind for a ‘pop’ album. While the whirlwind blew all around him, Dylan grew tired of the verbal assaults, the negativity, and the blind resistance to change. He stood his ground, but it forced him to burn the candle at both ends. Eventually, he just burned out. On July 29, 1966, the brakes on Dylan’s Triumph motorcycle locked and threw him to the ground, breaking his neck. This incident began a period of ‘convalescence’ that would last for almost two years, or the same length of time since he recorded “Another Side of Bob Dylan,” which was four albums ago, and maybe as many lifetimes. The accident gave him cause to rethink his situation, and he knew he did not want to jump back into the fray, so he took the opportunity to sit things out and reassess his situation from within. With Dylan suddenly out of the limelight, his rabid fan base – and especially those who criticized his motives – started to miss him. Suddenly, they didn’t have Bob Dylan to kick around anymore.
Here’s a list of songs covered in today’s program;
1) I Wanna Be Your Lover
2) Rainy Day Women #12 and #35
3) I Want You
4) Memphis Blues Again
5) Most Likely You Go Your Way and I Go Mine
6) Absolutely Sweet Marie
7) Just Like a Woman (live version)
8) Visions of Johanna (live version)
9) Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat (live version)
10) Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands (edited)

Top 20 ‘Count-Up’ from the Summer of Love

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This summer, we’ve celebrated the 40th Anniversary of the Summer of Love in many different ways, with shows dedicated to album tracks, relevant singles, the Monterey Pop Festival and of course, an entire show dedicated to “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” While prepping for today’s show, I happened to be reviewing the singles chart from July 29, 1967, and I realized that we already covered a good number of these songs, but the remainder also seemed significant. To paint an accurate picture, we decided that we could “count up” (i.e., start with #1) the singles chart, playing each of the songs we neglected in previous coverage. If you wish to hear the songs we DON’T play in the course of today’s show, just peruse through our previous shows and you’re sure to find them.
Below is a copy of the top 20 from 7/29/67. Song titles in bold type are featured in today’s program;
1) Light My Fire – The Doors
2) I Was Made to Love Her – Stevie Wonder
3) Windy – The Association
4) Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You – Frankie Valli
5) A Whiter Shade of Pale – Procul Harum
6) Little Bit O’ Soul – Music Explosion
7) Mercy, Mercy, Mercy – The Buckinghams
8) White Rabbit – Jefferson Airplane
9) Up, Up, and Away – The 5th Dimension
10) C’mon Marianne – The Four Seasons
11) San Francisco (Wear Some Flowers in Your Hair) – Scott McKenzie
12) I Take It Back – Sandy Posey
13) Come On Down to My Boat – Every Mother’s Son
14) Jackson – Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood
15) Here We Go Again – Ray Charles
16) Carrie Ann – The Hollies
17) Silence Is Golden – The Tremeloes
18) Soul Finger – The Bar-Kays
19) A Girl Like You – The Young Rascals
20) There Goes My Everything – Engelbert Humperdinck

HOW MUSIC CHANGED, PART 133f - BOB DYLAN

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To some, it might appear incredible that it has taken us six entire episodes of “How Music Changed” to cover Bob Dylan’s first six albums. It might appear as though we are belaboring the point by paying too close attention to each nuance. I, however, feel quite contrary to that point. I would argue that the previous six shows could barely contain the essence of Dylan’s relevance, and that we hardly wasted a single second of our allotted one-hour time slot. By constantly changing and metamorphosing himself through a multitude of changes, Dylan may be the single most influential musician of the ‘60s, and possibly of the entire 20th century. Today’s show drives that point home.
Our sixth episode on Dylan covers approximately two months of Bob Dylan’s life, but it was a tumultuous two months, full of events and aftershocks that still cause the world to tremble. We start with his last acoustic tour of Europe, which had been met with considerable resistance by those unable to accept his musical growth. D.A. Pennebaker filmed this tour and the footage was assembled for a stunning documentary entitled “Don’t Look Back.” Upon his return to the States, he recorded a rambling diatribe of loathing entitled “Like a Rolling Stone,” which became his first top 10 hit, despite its 6-plus minute length. He appeared at the Newport Folk Festival for the third year in a row, but this time he brought along an electric band to accompany him, a move that upset quite a few people, and shocked almost everyone. He then assembled many of the same players to record an album made up almost entirely of rock and roll arrangements, calling the album “Highway 61 Revisited,” and then released yet another top 10 single.
We try desperately to fit all of this information into one program, with only 7 ½ songs. It’s a virtual impossibility, but we hope you listen to hear how hard we tried.
1) Ballad of a Thin Man
2) Like a Rolling Stone
3) Tombstone Blues
4) It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry
5) Highway 61 Revisited
6) Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues
7) Positively 4th Street
8) Desolation Row (edited due to time limitations)

In the Heat of the Summer of Love – July 1967

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The Summer of Love had typical hot weather throughout the country, but the musical temperature in 1967 was even hotter. The burgeoning youth movement had finally coalesced into something tangible, and for the first time in history, the kids were alright, and they were doing things (mostly) for themselves. It was a heady experience, a rush, to be a teenager in those years, because it really did feel as though the world was changing before our very eyes – and ears. Most of these songs, all from July 1967, capture an element of that spirit.
Here’s a list of songs featured in today’s program;
1) All You Need Is Love – The Beatles
2) Pleasant Valley Sunday – The Monkees
3) A Whiter Shade of Pale – Procul Harum
4) Carrie-Anne – The Hollies
5) To Love Somebody – The Bee Gees
6) My Mammy – The Happenings (as a “Bad Hit”)
…and our featured album tracks…
7) Hey Grandma – Moby Grape
8) Omaha – Moby Grape
9) Holiday – The Bee Gees
10) Cucumber Castle – The Bee Gees

HOW MUSIC CHANGED, PART 133e - BOB DYLAN

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Our fifth show dedicated to the musical development of Bob Dylan features songs from Dylan’s fifth album, “Bringing It All Back Home.” At this point of his career, everything seems to reach critical mass. His musical progression has brought him (and in the process, the rest of the planet) to places that were unthinkable at the start of his career, and for every old fan who resents the development, there are a few hundred new ones who are intrigued. In 1965, Dylan’s imagination and creativity is bursting beyond the expectations – and the boundaries – that the ‘new folk’ movement attempts to impose. His previous album, “Another Side of Bob Dylan,” signified his independence from any imposed tyranny, especially those that affected his own creative instincts. If that album left the traditionalists critical and baffled, “Bringing It All Back Home” left them angry and abandoned. Rock and roll was considered crass by the folk elite, so why did Dylan record an entire album side with an electrified rock and roll band? How could Dylan be an earnest folk artist if he’s catering to the pop crowd? The time for a showdown was imminent but for now, the artistic, critical and commercial success of this album rendered any debate as moot. The controversy only fueled the media attention, and in short order, Bob Dylan soon found himself at the helm of America’s cultural scene.
Here’s a list of songs featured in today’s program;
1) Mr. Tambourine Man
2) Gates of Eden
3) It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)
4) House of the Rising Sun (excerpt)
5) Subterranean Homesick Blues
6) She Belongs to Me
7) Maggie’s Farm
8) Love Minus Zero/No Limit
9) Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream
10) It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue

July 1957 - 50 Years Ago!

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For today’s show, we’re going to take a short break from our coverage of the “Summer of Love” to look at what music sounded like ten years previous to that era. All songs featured in today’s program debuted on the music charts in July 1957. The Summer of 1957 was a strange, mixed bag of rock and roll and pop schmaltz. To paint an accurate portrait, we’ll feature a bit of both. From today’s perspective, it’s hard to believe that music changed so drastically in the course of the following ten years. As a case in point, look at the songs from today’s show, and compare them to “Strawberry Fields Forever,” or “Light My Fire.” How big of a jump is it from Pat Boone and Ricky Nelson to Jimi Hendrix and the Who? Comparatively, does anybody even sense much of a change in the music scene between 1997 and 2007? We are living in a musically creative dead zone at the moment, so it is fun, enlightening, and almost shocking to see how much growth transpired in the short span of 1957-1967. To cap our perspective, next week we will look at hit singles from July 1967.
Here’s a list of what we cover;
1) Shangri-La – The Four Coins (as a ‘Bad Hit’)
2) Whole Lot of Shakin’ Goin’ On – Jerry Lee Lewis
3) Suzie-Q – Dale Hawkins
4) Let the Four Winds Blow – Roy Brown
5) Words of Love – The Diamonds (as a ‘Bad Hit’)
6) Love Letters in the Sand – Pat Boone (#1 song week of 7/1/1957)
7) Mean Woman Blues – Elvis Presley
8) Mean Woman Blues – Roy Orbison
9) Mean Woman Blues – Jerry Lee Lewis
10) Got a Lot of Livin’ to Do – Elvis Presley
11) Loving You – Elvis Presley
12) Around the World in 80 Days – Victor Young (#1 album week of 7/1/1957)