Someone Ought to Wave the Flag - George M Cohan and Bob Dylan

Above a <1-minute audio clip of Bob Dylan and the Cowboy Band playing a snippet from George M. Cohan's Yankee Doodle Boy (more popularly known as Yankee Doodle Dandy) yesterday, July 4, in the Year of Our Lord 2000 and 9, which I will suspect will be grist for a blog post by our friend over at RightWingBob.

And below, a fascinating, if politically incorrect, 9-minute clip from the little-known The Phantom President of 19 and 32. What makes this film especially unique is that it features the original song-and-dance man and Yankee Doodle Boy born on the 4th of July - George M. Cohan - who was trying to move from a sagging theater career into film with he Phantom President.



Cohan would make but one more movie in 1934 (Gambling), that - like Phantom President - would meet with indifferent public reaction.  Cohan would return to Broadway in his last successful show, the Rodgers & Hart hit of 19 and 37 I'd Rather be Right, where he'd play a dancing FDR. Watch Cohan's blackface routine in this clip and it's easy to see where Jimmy Cagney got his spot-on phrasing and moves for Yankee Doodle Dandy, which by the way, re-creates a scene from I'd Rather be Right in its opening sequence.

Stick around for the entire 9-minute clip, and you'll also catch appearances by Jimmy Durante and Sidney Toler. Toler is probably best-known for playing the lead in the equally politically incorrect Charlie Chan series. An entire generation has grown up without knowing anything about Jimmy Durante, which is their loss. The Ol' Schnozzola was a Runyonesque one-of-a-kind who for a period of time was one of the most popular performers in the U.S.  I'm old enough to remember his TV show, and was always delighted as a kid when an old movie would air on one of the UHF stations and feature Durante. These days you'll still occasionally see/hear a Durante cartoon impersonation on The Simpsons or Family Guy, although I suspect most of the audience doesn't have a clue that it even is an impersonation.

Outside of not being that good - Cohan plays a surprisingly unsympathetic character - one of the reasons that The Phantom President is seldom seen anymore is the blackface, of course. As regular readers of Dreamtime know, I'm fascinated by the medicine and minstrel show genres, which have a history stretching from the 19th century to Spike Lee's Bamboozled. Blackface routines in movies of the `30s and `40s, and even somewhat unbelievably into the `50s, were more common than you might expect.

Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland would appear in blackface in 1939's Babes in Arms and 19 and 41's Babes on Broadway.  Jimmy Stewart in 1939 for It's a Wonderful World. Shirley Temple in 1935's The Littlest Rebel. Fred Astaire put on the cork in 1936's Swing Time. Bing Crosby appeared in blackface in 1942's Holiday Inn, the precursor to the better-known White Christmas, released in 1954, and which also included a minstrel show number, but which, happily, was not done in blackface. Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin donned blackface for the original Ocean's 11, released in 19 and 60. The Black and White Minstrel Show was a popular British television series with a 20-year run into the `70s that presented traditional American "Deep South" songs - often performed in blackface.

Among Jefferson Airplane fans there's a story that Grace Slick deliberately put on blackface in 1968 for a Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour appearance, fueled by the fact that Slick closed her performance with the Black Power salute, and occasionally appeared on stage wearing a Hitler mustache. But video of the Smothers Brothers segment shows Slick looking more like she had had a very bad session at the tanning salon rather than doing a deliberate blackface turn.  Slick later noted in an interview that the makeup hadn't meant to be political, more of a statement antithetical to her white-bread appearance or something after she had been given unsupervised access to the makeup table, but she did regret not doing the full "Al Jolson with the lips."

For obvious reasons most of the films I noted above aren't broadcast widely anymore. You can occasionally find a bootleg edition of  The Phantom President on eBay. If you share my fascination in the old time minstrel shows and the very strange - and very racially insensitive, it should be noted - art of blackface, you may also be interested in a film I've mentioned before: Yes Sir, Mr. Bones, a 54-minute movie from 19 and 51, which contains the only known footage of the legendary blackface singer and comedian Emmett Miller in action.

The movie is available as 1/2 of Showtime USA, a DVD that also contains Square Dance Jubilee, featuring Spade Cooley. As a commenter noted on the Amazon page, Yes Sir, Mr. Bones is probably as close as we're likely to get to a reconstruction of an actual minstrel show, from the opening "end man" comedy routines, featuring Miller, to the "olio" including sentimental ballads performed by an "Irish Thrush," to an amazing softshoe on sand routine, to the closing burlesque numbers. The movie supposedly takes place in a show biz retirement home; a young boy wanders in and the residents - thanks to the magic of imagination - recreate a minstrel show.

If you're offended by blackface material - some of it very crude, by the way - you don't want to watch Yes Sir, Mr. Bones, as one of the audio commentaries puts it right at the beginning. If you're interested in it as a historical document - especially of Emmett Miller - you do.

On the Road with Mr. D. : The Wiyos and The Two Man Gentleman Band

Reportedly after impressing Bob Dylan's Brooklyn-based factotum with their latest CD, the Wiyos, a Brooklyn-based band, not the street gang, will be joining Mr. D., Willie Nelson, and John Mellencamp on their barnstorming tour of ballparks around the country. The Wiyos specialize in what they call "Old Timey American music": vaudevillian ragtime blues, early swing, jugband and old time country. According to their PR kit, "The Wiyos transport listeners back to a time before TV and mass-media, to the days when music could be heard on live radio and at community dances, juke joints and house parties. The Wiyos perform acoustic whenever possible, or in front of two condenser stage microphones to preserve a performance style that is visually stimulating." All of which hints at why Mr. D. and company might find them an appropriate opening act.

Making a Theme Time Radio Hour connection any way that we can, we offer up the Wiyos above performing "Corn Bread and Butterbeans" in honor of the "Food" episode of TTRH.

According to the tour info, the Dayton, OH, Eastlake, OH and the Orange Beach, AL shows will feature another band out of New York The Two Man Gentleman Band, proudly sponsored by Kazoobie Kazoos - "We keep the World humming!"

According to their press kit, "After performing together in several dreadful rock bands, [Andy] Bean and [Fuller] Condon began playing acoustic music together in 2005 as buskers in New York City’s streets and subways. They appeared regularly on the streets for two years, during which time they entertained thousands of passersby, were featured in a documentary on street musicians, had more than a few chance encounters with celebrities, and sang themselves quite hoarse. Since taking their act on the road in 2007, The Gentlemen have embraced the lifestyle of barnstorming vaudevillians. They now play nearly 200 shows per year all across the USA..."

Seems to be a ah-hah! theme going on with the opening acts here. The Two Man Gentleman Band could also have easily found a slot during the "President's Day" special episode with this little ditty about the U.S.'s largest president, William Howard Taft.

Lucinda Williams on the Dylan Hank Williams Project

via: "Ramblin' The Official Fan Forum for Lucinda Williams" a March 2009 posting by one "tntracy" who apparently has access to Williams...

Many of you are already aware of Bob Dylan's Hank Williams "Lost Lyrics" project. For those that are not, Dylan acquired the rights to the "lost lyrics" that were reportedly found in Hank Williams' briefcase after his death in 1953. These were lyrics only - no music had been written for them (or at least, none that has been found). Dylan invited several songwriters & artists to pick a set of lyrics, write the music for them, then record the song for an upcoming album. Lu was asked to do one of the tracks. (Additional info can be found, here and here). I have some additional info on Lu's contribution I'd like to share w/ everyone.

Lu has written the music for and recorded a song entitled "I Am So Happy I Found You". I was so very fortunate to hear this song along with stoger in Birmingham last month when Lu played the Alabama Theater (February 27th). That night, after the show, Lu & Tom invited stoger & me onto the bus, where Tom played the song Lu recorded for us on his MacBook Pro. Needless to say, stoger & I were both blown away.

The song was beautiful and, as the title suggests, a somewhat uncharacteristically "happy" Hank Williams song. Lu did an amazing job with the vocals, but I was even more blown away by the music she wrote to accompany Hank's lyrics. I was struck by how "authentic" the music sounded - like Hank had written it himself. In fact, after the song ended, I looked across the bus at Lu in amazement and asked, "Lu, that was amazing. Did you feel like you were 'channeling' him?" I'll never forget her response. Looking down, she paused a second than said, "Yeah, I did" with the emotion very evident in her voice. It was a moment I'll never forget.

Stoger & I were also very blessed to hear a live recording of Lu performing an Emmylou Harris song, "Boulder to Birmingham", that she sang at Emmylou's induction in the Country Music Hall of Fame. Far from an easy song to sing, Lu did an amazing job on that as well. And we got to admire Lu's new engagement ring that Tom just bought when they were in New Orleans for the HOB show this tour. It is a beautiful silver (or maybe platinum - I do not recall) ring with three snakes wrapped around Lu's finger - one with a ruby eye, one with an emerald eye and one with a sapphire eye. Surrounding the snakes were sparkling diamonds. Lu told us proudly it was an antique ring from the 1920's. It was absolutely beautiful, and so very, very "Lu".

But the highlight of our time on the bus was the Hank Williams song. What an incredible moment. And how appropriate is the song's title "I Am So Happy I Found You" given Lu and Tom's relationship as symbolized by the beautiful & unique ring we admired. Lu, Tom - thank you SO much.

Stoger, your thoughts on the song? I'm sure you can put words to the moment better than I can...

Tom

P.S. Tom didn't know for sure when the Hank Williams "Lost Lyrics" CD was going to be released - he thought maybe this summer.

According to Colin Escott's "Hank Williams: The Biography" the H. Williams/L. Williams song was originally titled "I Am Happy I've Found You," dated 19 and 50.

For those keeping track, here's the incomplete tracklist as we know it right now...

Norah Jones - "How Many Times Have You Broken My Heart?" written by Hank Williams in 19 and 47.

Sheryl Crow - "Angel Mine" written by Hank Williams in 19 and 47.

Lucinda Williams - "I Am Happy I've Found You," - 1950.

Jack White - "You Know That I Know" - 1947.

Willie Nelson - ?

Alan Jackson ?

Vince Gill/Rodney Crowell (with Don Helms on steel guitar) - "I Hope You Shed A Million Tears" (undated)

Bob Dylan - ?

"We Sampled His Ass" - No Sleep Till Brooklyn - The Beastie Boys

"When Mike D., MCA, and Ad-Rock produced Cooky Puss*, a song about their favorite Carvel ice cream cake in 19 and 83, everyone thought The Beastie Boys were just a flash in the pan.

["Hello, I'm Cookie Puss..."]

But New Yorkers are much tougher than that, and they made it through all sorts of changes in music. Here's one of their early ones, from 19 and 86 - a shout-out to one of the five boroughs, No Sleep Till Brooklyn, The Beastie Boys." ~ Bob Dylan, Theme Time Radio Hour, "New York"

***
From "Boys will be boys: Beastie Boys Talk Hot Sauce Committee Pt. 1" interview on Drowned in Sound.


DiS: Nas and Santigold appear on [Hot Sauce Committee Pt. 1] but there’s no sign of, as previously claimed, Bob Dylan. Was that, in best Beastie Boys tradition, a cheeky fib?

Ad-Rock: Bob Dylan is guesting on ...Pt 2. He talks about us. More of a spoken word thing...

MCA: We sampled his ass.

Mike D: He has a radio show on satellite and he was speaking about Beastie Boys...

Ad-Rock: He played one of our songs and was talking about us; he’s a big fan.

Mike D: So we collaborated with that.

DiS: Is he one of your big musical heroes?

Mike D: Oh, first off, he’s one of the first b-boys, if not the first. What more to say?

Ad-Rock: Billy Joel is the fifth b-boy. That’s just a side note. Bob Dylan is one of the greatest songwriters of all time.

Mike D: When you think ‘songwriter’ you think him, Gordon Lightfoot; there’s not many others.

Ad-Rock: Carl Carlton. Carl Douglas. There’s a lot of Carls.

***

The guitar riffs and solo of No Sleep Till Brooklyn, which really should be No Sleep 'Til Brooklyn, sez the didactic Fred, are played by Slayer guitarist Kerry King, who was brought in by by Rick Rubin, writer and co-producer of the Beasties' 19 and 86 debut album, License to Ill. The song's name is a joking take on on Motörhead's No Sleep 'til Hammersmith..

"We just got signed to Def Jam, and we were in the same studio, and Rick Rubin was working with both of us. And he just came down and said, "Hey, what do you think about doing the lead down the hallway?" That was about all there was to it. It took five minutes. It might have taken two takes, because it wasn't supposed to be anything intricate. They were spoofing metal, so to speak, on "No Sleep Till Brooklyn," so I just went in and did something, out of tune in parts, and [with] feedback - was just one of those totally spur-of-the-moment things, I didn't think about it at all." - Kerry King, excerpted from The Skills to Pay the Bills by Alan Light, 2005

Hot Sauce Committee Pt. 1 is slated for a September release. It remains to be seen whether Mr. D.'s sampled ass will actually appear on Pt. 2.

* I wouldn't be a good New Englander without giving a nod to Cookie Puss of Carvel ice cream fame, who Our Host gives a brief mention in his commentary on The Beastie Boys. CP is pictured to your left.

Source: BeastieMania

Pushin' Too Hard: Sky Saxon - 19 and ? - 2009

"Before Green Day, before Casualties, before Black Flag, before The Clash, The Sex Pistols, The Ramones. Before even The New York Dolls and The Stooges, there was The Seeds."

Having nothing to say about Michael Jackson that someone, somewhere hasn't already said, I decided to note the passing of Sky Saxon, front man for the seminal garage/proto-punk band The Seeds, who also died last Thursday in Austin, Texas of an "infection of his internal organs." As appropriate to the man of mystery that was Sky Saxon, his exact age was unknown, his birth year claimed at various times to be 1937, 1945, and 1946. Saxon was born Richard Marsh in Salt Lake City, UT, and began his career in the early '60s as a doo-wop performer, billing himself as Little Richie Marsh.

Muddy Waters once called The Seeds "America's own Rolling Stones," in his liner notes to their 1967 album, "A Full Spoon of Seedy Blues". The Seeds were lead singer and bass guitarist Sky Saxon, keyboardist Daryl Hooper, guitarist Jan Savage and drummer Rick Andridge. Pushin' Too Hard was The Seeds only national Top 40 hit, charting in 19 and 66 at #32 after its second release as a single.

By `68, the original Seeds lineup had changed, and for all intents and purposes the band had dissolved, although Saxon would front various groups under the name until the early `70s. The original Seeds would reform in 19 and 89 to headline the so-called "Summer of Love" tour.

During the early `70s, Sky Saxon joined the Yahowha religious sect, added "Sunlight" to his name, and was an occasional member of the sect's Yahowha 13 psychedelic band.

"Well, I think you could retire when you die. I don't, however, believe in death, so I guess I will retire when I leave my body. But I plan to continue writing and performing in heaven" ~ Sky Sunlight Saxon March 2009

It's Nothing to Me - The "Harry Johnson" Mystery

"I first heard this next record when it was on a compilation called 'God Less America,' and that's about all I know about it. Here's Harry Johnson with a song about a bar fight, 'It's Nothing To Me.'"

***

["Harry Johnson" - It's Nothing To Me]

Take your drink to the end of the bar, buddy
Let her stay there, now don't be a fool
I'd as soon have a hot seat in Sing-Sing prison
Than to sit down by her on that stool.

What's that you say?
I guess you're right... it's nothing to me.

See that man? She belongs to him, buddy
Better drink up and go while you can
I can tell by the way he looks at you, buddy
That he's sure a quick-tempered, jealous man.

What's that you say?
I guess you're right... it's nothing to me.

[gunshots]

There you are stretched out on the floor, buddy
Now you see what you made him do?
Here they come to take him off to jail, buddy
And tomorrow someone will bury you.

Oh well, that's life
Or it was... it's nothing to me.

***

"That was Harry Johnson, 'Ain't Nothing to Me.' Always enjoy a song with a story attached. It's like getting a two-for-one. And he makes a good point. Mind your own business! You don't have to get involved! You don't know the whole story! Before you go jumping in, take a moment, look at the situation. Ask yourself, 'Will I really be making this better?' I guarantee ya, nine times out of ten, the answer is, 'Nooooooo!'" ~ Bob Dylan, Theme Time Radio Hour, "Nothing"

Although bobbling the title in his outro, perhaps momentarily confusing the song with The Coasters' version, "T'Ain't Nothing To Me" (more on that later), Our Host was right that there's nothing about "Harry Johnson" to be found. And that's because there was no "Harry Johnson," even though that's the name of the artist listed on the "God Less America" compilation.

The Singer

"It's Nothing To Me" is actually being performed by Sanford Clark, a rockabilly guitarist and protégé of Lee Hazlewood probably best known for his 19 and 56 hit "The Fool."

Perhaps Mr. D. was himself fooled by the "Harry Johnson" moniker, but it's more likely not, as he had played "The Fool" by Clark way back in Season 1 during the "Fools" episode, remarking at the time, "I always thought it was one of the best Elvis Presley records that Elvis never made." While Clark was in country mode for "It's Nothing To Me" and doing pure rockabilly for "The Fool," his voice is distinctive enough that it's hard to miss the connection... although to tell you the truth, I did miss it until it was pointed out to me.

Sanford Clark was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 19 and 35 but grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, which he'd claim as his hometown. Guitarist Al Casey, who gigged with Clark at various Phoenix clubs and would later back him on most of his albums, turned then-disc jockey Hazlewood on to Sanford Clark. Lee Hazlewood was looking for someone with a distinctive voice to record a song he had just written, "The Fool," and Clark fit the bill. Casey and Clark went into the studio, recorded the song, and it was originally released in May of 19 and 56 on the tiny local M.C.I. label. "The Fool" was credited to a "Naomi Ford," Lee Hazlewood's wife, probably because radio deejay Hazlewood was worried about someone pointing out that his playing a song that he had also written and produced stunk a bit of payola.

As it turned out that wasn't a concern, as the 500-copy M.C.I. release of "The Fool" sank without a trace, and Sanford Clark started delivering soda pop in the Phoenix area to keep body and soul together. Luckily, a Cleveland disc jockey thought the song deserved a second chance if it could get some decent distribution, and passed it on to Dot Records. Dot called M.C.I. in Phoenix and cut a deal with Hazlewood. Sanford Clark signed with the Dot label, which re-released "The Fool." By August 19 and 56 the song had hit Number 7 on Billboard's pop charts and sold more than 800.000 copies, proving once again that we all deserve a second chance.

Sanford Clark wouldn't release "It's Nothing To Me" until 19 and 67 when he signed with Ramco Records after an uneven career and not much luck in the music business past "The Fool." Clark cut the song as part of a session that produced 12 singles, including a remake of his hit from a decade earlier.

"It's Nothing To Me" was released as the A-side of Ramco-1987, backed with "Calling All Hearts." As with most of the singles Clark produced in his career, "It's Nothing To Me" didn't do much of anything. Although always keeping one foot in the music business, by the 1970s Clark was making his living in construction and as a blackjack gambler. Sanford Clark is now retired and living in Mayer, Arizona.

The Song

"It's Nothing To Me" has more of a Theme Time Radio Hour connection than just Sanford Clark. The song was written by one "Pat Patterson," a pen name of Leon Payne's, author of the very weird "Psycho," which Mr. D. mentioned in an aside during the "Luck" episode of TTRH, "... a song about a serial killer [that] never got a lot of airplay, but has become quite a bit of a cult favorite."

Leon Payne was a blind songwriter and singer based in San Antonio, Texas. Among country music fans, Payne is probably best remembered for the classic, "Lost Highway," recorded by Hank Williams Sr. as well as "I Love You Because," "You've Still Got A Place In My Heart," and "They'll Never Take Her Love From Me."

Payne wrote hundreds of songs during his career, and apparently - like all good country music writers - had something of a soft spot for murderers, at least in song. He probably wrote "It's Nothing To Me" sometime around 19 and 56. A year later it was published by Lee Hazlewood's Gregmark Music and first recorded by yet another member of Hazlewood's Phoenix music mafia, Loy Clingman, on the Liberty Bell/Dot labels in February, 1957.

If an artist recorded "It's Nothing To Me" between the late `50s through the late `60s, you can pretty much bet that artist had some connection to Lee Hazlewood, a music impresario best-known for his work with Duane Eddy during the fifties and Nancy Sinatra in the sixties. After his first hit with Sanford Clark's "The Fool," Hazlewood would go on to produce, write, or co-author "The Theme from Peter Gunn", "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" and " "Sugar Town." Hazlewood also wrote "Houston", a near-breakthrough single for Sanford Clark, until his version was overshadowed by Dean Martin's monster hit in 19 and 65.

"It's Nothing To Me" would be covered by Hazlewood acquaintance Buddy Long on the Demon label in 19 and 59, and more successfully by The Coasters in 19 and 64, who would use their comic version of the song, "T'Ain't Nothing To Me," to reclaim a slot on the pop charts after a string of unsuccessful releases.

Recorded live at the Apollo Theater in 1963, and featuring a clowning interchange between two of The Coasters, "T'Ain't Nothing To Me" would be #64 in the Hot Hundred in April `64, and climb to #20 in the R&B charts over a 10-week period. The Coasters were managed at the time by Lester Sills, Lee Hazlewood's partner and co-founder of Gregmark Publishing.

Let's see: Sanford Clark, Nancy Sinatra, The Coasters, Leon Payne... all played or mentioned on Theme Time Radio Hour. All these things tie together, as Mr. D. would say.

As well as Sanford Clark's/Harry Johnson's release in 19 and 67, "It's Nothing To Me" - sometimes under its alternate title of "Ain't Nothing To Me" - has also been covered by Jim Reeves, The Sadies, Harlan Howard, and Johnny Winter among others. It remains a staple of honky-tonks, bar, and saloons.

In an elegiac coda, Lee Hazlewood would record "It's Nothing to Me" for his final album, Cake or Death, released in 2006. Hazlewood would pass away a year later. Here's "It's Nothing to Me" as performed by Lee Hazlewood.



The Mysteries

There is more than one mystery surrounding "It's Nothing To Me." We know nothing about how Leon Payne came to write it, although like most of Payne's story songs, I suspect there's a great story behind it. According to Payne's daughter, Myrtie, he wrote "Lost Highway" when he was desperate to get back to his family after a long road trip. "Psycho" came about from the movie of the same name. Payne and his wife were both big movie fans, although with both being blind, Myrtie had to describe to them what was going on on-screen. According to Myrtie, Payne called Johnny Cash after returning home, described the "Psycho" experience to him, and sat down and wrote the serial killer song minutes after getting off the phone. I wish we had a similar story about "It's Nothing To Me."

And why is "It's Nothing To Me" credited to Harry Johnson on "God Less America" rather than to Sanford Clark? That mystery is probably easy to explain. The L.P./CD, released in the mid-90,s bordered on the semi-bootleg, compiling material both in and out of copyright, but studiously avoiding paying royalties on anything. As well as "Harry Johnson" "God Less America" also tags at least one other artist with a pseudonym to avoid eagle-eyed legal beagles. "Drunken Driver," a lubrigious a tune as the title implies, is credited to a "Grandpa Joe," although it is actually a 19 and 54 Ferlin Husky recording.

Finally we come to the mystery of the gunshots. While those were apparently included in Clark's original 19 and 67 release, I have two separate reports from people who own "Shades," a CD compilation of Clark's work, that the gunshots aren't on the version of "It's Nothing To Me" in that collection.

Maybe the Bear label, which released "Shades," used the master of "It's Nothing To Me," before the gunshots were dubbed in. Maybe there were two different versions of the song.

Maybe we'll never know.

Sources and Additional Reading/Listening: A visitor with the handle of "flotser," made exactly one post to the TTRH forum at ER, noting that "Harry Johnson" was in fact Sanford Clark - referring to him with the British spelling of "Clarke" - and then disappearing back into the aether, never to be heard from again.

"flotser" and regular ER (and sometime Dreamtime) contributor "The Great Wandu" both state that the version of "It's Nothing To Me" on the Sanford Clark compilation put together by the Bear Family label, "Shades" does not include the gunshots that can be heard before the last stanza of the song included on "God Less America."  In fact, "The Great Wandu" goes further, and says that the 1967 Ramco release is also without the gunshot overdub. I'm not sure this last is correct, but having neither heard the 45 or the "Shades" compilation, I'll take the claim at face value until presented with better evidence.  That leaves another mystery, of course, about how and when the gunshots came to be dubbed in, but as I said in the main article... we may never know.

Mystery of the missing gunshots aside, one thing I am certain of is that "Harry Johnson" is Sanford Clark.  While I was unable to find the full track, various places on the Web have an excerpt of Clark's "It's Nothing To Me," including the Amazon page for the "Shades" compilation.  You can follow the link above if you want to satisfy yourself on the subject.

"God Less America," has had an appropriately unusual history, originally released on vinyl either in 1995 or 1997 on Crypt Records by compiler Tim Warren, who a reviewer noted has "...been churning out amazing compilations under a variety of label names to avoid close, copyright-wielding eyes -- 'Sin Alley', 'Down And Out, and 'Loo-key Doo-key.'"

The bootlegger may have been himself bootlegged, as a CD version was released in 2001, but its unclear whether it was officially under the Crypt label, or someone else just using the label name. In any case, used copies of the CD can be found at Amazon, U.S. or Amazon U.K. at somewhat ridiculous prices.  The tracks also sometimes float around the Web either together or separately. The L.P. occasionally appears on eBay, in fact one is being offered for sale right now through the 30th. You should be forewarned that unless you're an aficionado of rare - and weird - country-western music, you may find "God Less America" somewhat disappointing.  Personally, I like it, and have churned out several Dreamtime articles thanks to that compilation. But caveat emptor.

The great honky-tonker Leon Payne doesn't get the attention he deserves, little-remembered today except for "Lost Highway" and the novelty number "Psycho." However, there is one CD compilation available of Payne's Capitol Record singles, put out - naturally - by the Bear Family label under the title, "I Love You Because." Another compilation has a Theme Time connection, "George Jones Sings The Great Songs of Leon Payne."  Both sets are highly recommended, as is anything associated with Leon Payne. For a taste of Payne's music, check out his MySpace page, maintained by his daughter, Myrtie.

Most of the information about Lee Hazlewood and his connection to the various artists and versions of "It's Nothing To Me" was taken from "The Lee Hazlewood Story." I also used Hazlewood's Wikipedia entry for background.

Additional information on Sanford Clark came from a Rockabilly Hall of Fame article and Clark's MySpace page. I've emailed Clark several times to see if I could get more information on his recording of "It's Nothing To Me" - especially about those damn gunshots - but have never received a response.  Unfortunately, Clark is apparently in poor health these days.  We wish him the best.

The Coasters' comic turn on the song, "T'Ain't Nothing To Me" can be found on the CD compilation "Apollo Saturday Night" or as a standalone mp3 at Amazon. The song aside, "Apollo Saturday Night" is recommended for those wanting a feel at what a night at that historic theater in the early `60s was like.

More Bits and Pieces: The Hank Snow Transcript & the TTRH Archives

A couple of more random notes, too ephemeral for a full blog post. Lot #234, the "Bobby Zimmerman" transcript of Hank Snow's "Little Buddy" that we blogged about last month goes on the auction block today at Christie's with some other Dylan material, including a 1958 Hibbing High School yearbook with a "Bob Zimmerman" inscription, a couple of Broadsides with Dylan's autograph, and a concert handbill for the Bob Dylan & Joan Baez 1965 US Tour with art by Eric Von Schmidt, which you'll be familiar with if you have a copy of David Hajdu's Positively 4th Street.

That handbill is estimated at only $1,000-1,500, a bargain in my mind, but what do I know? Conversely, I thought the $10-15,000 estimate for the "Little Buddy" manuscript was grossly over-priced even when Christie's was claiming it as a Bob Dylan early original. I'd rather look at a piece of art than words on a page if I were collecting something. But again, what do I know?

It'll be interesting to see what the "Little Buddy" transcript will sell for. It'd be nice if an anonymous buyer from Minnesota, New York City, or Malibu picked it up for the full auction value for the benefit of Herzl Camp in Wisconsin, and then pack it away with whatever other mementos he might have from the early days.

UPDATE:  The "Little Buddy" transcript auctioned off for $12,500, including buyer's premium, a nice contribution to the rehabbing of cabins at Herzl Camp.

***

Dreamtime internet pal, Patrick Crosley, better-known to the hoi polloi as "Croz" has transmorgified his namesake site once again, taking the primary content offering "Recordings of Indeterminate Origin" off-line except to members-only access, while leaving the main site up, now labeled the Theme Time Radio Hour Archive. And that's what it is, the complete recordings of Seasons 1, 2, and 3 in zip archived mp3 format. If you're interested in finding a particular show or shows - and about a 1/3 of the people who come to Dreamtime through a search engine are looking for TTRH downloads - Croz.fm will probably satisfy your desire.

Regular readers know I'm a little leery, and more than a little inconsistent, about the whole "illegal downloads" thing. If there were an "official" alternative to getting permanent copies of TTRH shows, I'd point you there. But there isn't. I know Croz, as I know many of the people who were involved in distributing TTRH over the internet, and I know he's a generous, good-hearted soul whose dedication to offering access to TTRH to the widest possible audience was often much more trouble for him than it was worth. And he still did it. As I noted in my TTRH FAQ, sites like Croz's may be the only complete record that will ever be easily accessible to researchers, scholars, and fans, especially with TTRH in its re-run twilight.

Do both yourself and Croz a favor, and read his introduction before doing any downloads, okay? I've talked before about the Tragedy of the Commons, and it would be a tragedy if greedy people drove Croz's server hamsters into overload.

Remember Me (When the Candlelights Are Gleaming)

"I used to know that song, I don't know... Oh," the young Bob Dylan says before breaking into Scott Wiseman's Remember Me (When the Candlelights Are Gleaming), with what seems a very uncomfortable Joan Baez providing harmony.

Remember Me was written in 19 and 39, and released by Wiseman and his wife/singing partner Myrtle Cooper under their stage names of Lulu Belle and Scotty on the Conqueror label in September 19 and 40. The song was the B-side to a now mostly forgotten Lulu Belle and Scotty tune, Did You Ever Go Sailing?  proving once more Mr. D's contention on Theme Time Radio Hour that we're the poorer in these Modern Times without singles and flip sides which often held more interesting and enduring music than the A-side.

Lulu Belle and Scotty were both from North Carolina, hooking up in 19 and 33, when Scotty was 24 and Myrtle 20 and Scotty joined The National Barn Dance, the nation's most popular country music radio show during the 1930s and 1940s, broadcasting from Chicago on station WLS.  Lulu Belle was already an established star on the Barn Dance, Myrtle Cooper having assumed the persona of a wisecracking, boy-crazy rube and partnered up with Red Foley in an act the audience loved, Lulu Belle and Burrhead.  But Foley had recently married, and his new bride wasn't particularly enthused about his 19-year-old co-star, so Lulu Belle and the then-"Skyland Scotty" tried a few routines together.  They hit it off, both with each other and the Barn Dance listeners, and by 19 and 34 they were married and known as "The Sweethearts of Country Music."  The two were almost married on the air, but Scotty vetoed the idea.  A few jealous girlfriends were still in the wings, and Wiseman was concerned about what would happen if they got to the "any reason why this marriage shouldn't take place" part and one of his ex-'s decided to air their dirty laundry on the air.

Remember Me was written when Lulu Belle and Scotty were starring in their own radio show, Boone Country Jamboree, airing from Cincinnati on station WLW. "In our guest room at home when I was a child there was a fancy old cup and saucer which sat on the dresser," Wiseman later recalled for Dorothy Horstman's book, Sing Your Heart Out, Country Boy. "The phrase 'Remember Me' was on the cup in fancy gold lettering. We children were not allowed to touch this memento of the sentimental Gay Nineties, somehow connected with the courtship of Mother and Dad. Feeling a bit homesick and sentimental during the bustle of radio shows and road trips, I  made up the song while riding in the car to personal appearance jobs."

Besides composing Remember Me, Wiseman had a hand in the classic (Good Ol') Mountain Dew, rewriting the lyrics to a melody originally composed by Bascom Lunsford. "Lulu Belle and I cut a Vocalion record of it in 1939 in Chicago," Wiseman  wrote. "Roy Acuff and other Nashville singers learned it from our record and started singing it. Station WLS, where we sang for 25 years, would never allow any mention of giggle water or tobacco in those days, so we were never allowed to sing it on the National Barn Dance."

Lunsford traveled to Chicago, heard the reworked version of Mountain Dew, gave it his approval, and said, "I believe I know how to pay my bus fare back to Asheville; I'll just sell Scotty my interest in 'Mountain Dew' for $25." Wiseman would later instruct the publisher to send Lunsford 50 percent of the song;'s royalties.

Lulu Belle and Scotty's best known song is probably Have I Told You Lately I Love You? of 19 and 45, a contender as one of the first country songs to make a successful crossover into pop and covered by everyone from Hank Williams Sr., to Bob Hope, to the Andrews Sisters, to Lulu Belle's one-time partner, Red Foley. Confined to the hospital for several weeks in 19 and 44, Scotty Wiseman composed the song after Lulu Belle whispered the words in his ear. He wrote the song in one night, and sang it to Lulu Belle the next day. Gene Autry made the first recording of the song in late 1945 on Columbia, with Lulu Belle and Scotty releasing their own version on a Vogue Picture Record, patriotically displaying a serviceman embracing his love.

Another Picture, Another Thousand Words

Demonstrators in Imam Khomeini Square, Tehran
Photograph: Saeed Kamali Dehghan

via RightWingBob, the official BobDylan.com Twitter feed, and The Guardian.

Odds & Ends

A couple of bits and pieces, nothing substantial enough by itself to mandate its own post.

You'll find the "Dreamtime Podcast Episode Guide" and the "Expecting Rain Theme Time Forum" links over in the right-hand column and in the FAQ broken for the moment and possibly for the next several weeks.  The Expecting Rain administrators abruptly shut down all the forums yesterday for "maintenance."

Reading between the lines, it's obvious that some of the ER forums are suffering from that disease that all online forums seem to eventually succumb to.  Human self-interest always seems to triumph, even when you know you're destroying something.

It's unfortunate, we hope the ER admins. can work something out, and we wish Karl Erik the best.  Expecting Rain is probably one of the best examples of why labors of love are so much better than labors for money.  But this incident is also a good reminder about why you shouldn't put your trust in on-line reference sources, which have a tendency to disappear without warning.  Over the past three years, I've lost valuable TTRH facts and trivia that were posted by various people at the "White Man Stew" forums (the first, and for a time, the best, on-line forum about the show) and Expecting Rain.  At times when I'm doing research I think, "I should download and archive this."  And, of course, I never do.

***

On a happier note, Sirius XM has released its long-promised application for the iPhone/iTouch, and if you're a user of either you can download it now, for free, at the iTunes Store.  If you're an internet subscriber, either standalone or as an add-on to your Sirius XM radio subscription, the app gives you access to what the press release claims are 120 channels on your iPhone.

Ironically, the press release trumpets, "SIRIUS and XM subscribers can also listen to 100% commercial-free music featuring exclusive shows from SIRIUS XM's satellite radio service such as Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour" as well as shows including Tom Petty's Buried Treasure, Bruce Springsteen's E Street Radio, The Grateful Dead Channel, Eminem's Shade 45, Jimmy Buffett's Radio Margaritaville, "Little Steven" Van Zandt's Underground Garage and Outlaw Country channels, B.B. King's Bluesville, Willie Nelson's Willie's Place, Elvis Radio, Siriusly Sinatra, and Metropolitan Opera Radio.

I haven't tried the application yet, but comments on its page at the iTunes Store indicates most people are satisfied with it, the major complaint being that the odious Howard Stern, as well as MLB, NFL, and NASCAR programming are all unavailable, probably because of licensing issues.

Ironic, as I said, as the application probably would have opened up a whole new audience for Theme Time Radio Hour, which was, at its peak, the top music show at XM Radio according to my sources.  But I guess the re-runs still will attract new listeners, probably many of whom won't even realize they are listening to repeats.  The shows are in many ways timeless, designed, as one of the people I interviewed for my book said, "to live forever."

"It's Just Kind of An Accident" - Bob Bogle: 1934-2009

via The Washington Post

Bob Bogle, 75, whose driving, twanging electric guitar made the group he co-founded, the Ventures, the most successful instrumental band in rock-and-roll history, and whose recordings of "Walk, Don't Run" and "Hawaii Five-O" propelled the group to the top of the charts in the 1960s, died June 14 in a hospital near his home in Vancouver, Wash. He had non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Full obituary is here.

"Walk, Don't Run," recorded in 1960, sold more than 2 million copies and rose to No. 2 on the pop charts. The instrumental helped to launch the surfing craze of the early sixties, as well as the surf music craze itself. It was one of the pieces of music - as well as a slew of beach party movies - that inspired the young Fred to take up surfing and the beach bum way of life when his family moved from Maine to Californi-ay in the late `60s. According to the Post's obituary, Bogle learned "Walk, Don't Run" from a 1957 album by Chet Atkins. You can hear Atkin's version - an interesting comparison - in the video below.

If you're a bit younger than Mr. D. and myself, you may remember The Ventures' 19 and 69 theme music to the TV series "Hawaii Five-O" better, another instrumental which would peak at No. 4 on the charts. Over the course of their career, The Ventures released more than 250 records and over a 12-year span - from 1960 to 1972 - had 37 albums on the Billboard charts.

For one brief shining moment, The Ventures were bigger than The Beatles in the early `60s, outselling the mop-tops in Japan, and required to don Beatlesque disguises whenever they ventured out in public.

"I think our sound is unique because we're self-taught musicians, and that happens to be the way we learned how to play," Mr. Bogle said in 1998. "It wasn't something we tried for. It's just kind of an accident."

I'm Not There: One Picture/One Thousand Words

(Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images North America)

There is a great set of pictures here of Bob Dylan and band taken during the AFI Lifetime Achievement Award: A Tribute to Michael Douglas held at Sony Pictures Studios on June 11, 2009 in Culver City, California. The shot above of Dylan in shadow is my personal favorite, saying everything I love about the Dylan mystique.

Aficionados will note Mr. D. is on guitar, something you don't see all that often anymore.  Reportedly he made a surprise appearance to play Things Have Changed, the song he was awarded the Oscar that you'll now often find perched on an amplifier case during Dylan's live shows.

The dinner will be broadcast July 19 on the "TV Land Prime" channel.

Dylan's Hank Williams Project Coming in October?

Add Sheryl Crow to the list of contributors to the Hank Williams' Project, which we seemingly have been blogging about for centuries. And we may even have a release date. Via The Sons of Champlin site:

James [Preston] also worked on another project involving Bob Dylan’s tribute to the late Hank Williams with Sheryl’s contribution being a tune called "Angel Mine", lyrics by Hank Williams found in a notebook of lyrics after he passed away. The Hank Williams/Bob Dylan CD will be released 10/28/08 (sic).

One assumes the "08" is a typo. On the other hand, Most of the "News" section of the site seems to be from circa late Fall 2008. As Sean says in the comments, "Let us hope so."

In Samson's Diner

As I've said before, one of the fun things about working on my book about Theme Time Radio Hour, Night Time in the Big City, is learning about the counterparts of the Abernathy Building, Studio B, Carl's Barber Shop, Elmo's, and more.

Are any of those places real?  Tell me what "real" means, and I might have an answer for you.

I like the pictures in my mind's eye of the Abernathy and Studio B more than the reality, to tell you the truth, although it's still pretty cool to see one of the stages where the Theme Time show was produced. But the real-world doppelgänger of Samson's - pictured to your left - is everything it should be, I think.  Imagination can't improve upon it.

It's rumored that the crew of Theme Time Radio Hour could often be found at the counter after a long shift in Studio B.  Tex Carbone was said to especially favor the burritos.

And no, I'm not going to tell you where it was... yet.  That's called a teaser.

On another note, posting here at Dreamtime is going to get sporadic during the summer, as we finish up the book. I love blogging, but items I'd normally post here are ending up there, as they should.  We're not going totally away, and will continue to post as circumstances and desire allow.  Stick with us.  We'll make the wait worthwhile.

~ Fred, Jailbait, and the Top Cats