Late Summer Vacay Time

Late Summer is here, and that must mean it's time for last dips in the pool and snipe hunts in the pucka brush. If you're also taking a Labor Day vacay, Curly and Bear hope you have a great one, and they'll see you again real soon in September, as will Your Host and Jailbait Jones.

Episode 58 - Jody's Got Your Girl and Gone

1. [Jody Cadence - U.S. Army]

Episode 58 - Jody's Got Your Girl and Gone

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John Henry, Johnny Appleseed, Hiawatha, Bre'r Rabbit. Davy Crockett. Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox. Stagger Lee. King Washington. Pecos Bill and Widder-maker. Even Uncle Sam. Most of their stories have faded away, the stuff of Disney movies now if remembered at all.

But there's one American legend that's still alive and well in 2000 and 8, his story still told in bars and barracks, pool-halls and whore-houses. His song sung every day by both white boys and black.

Jody. Even if you don't know who he is, you know he's trouble. While you somehow got your sorry ass into the Army, Jody was smart enough to stay home. And now he's sniffin' around your girl.

You can't call her, because Jody's always seems to be on your damn telephone. Your telephone, racking up phone bills to God knows where-all. You get a picture from home in the mail, and that's nice, but wait a second. Who the hell is that leaning up against your Cadillac, your Cadillac, the one that's supposed to be in your garage until you get back?

That would be Jody, and you read, "oh, honey, Jody says it isn't good for a car to be sittin' that long. He says he's keeping it nice and greased up for you."

Yeah, and what the hell else is he keeping nice and greased up?

Jody. Smart-lookin', fast-talkin'. Jody's got your girl.

Joe de Grinder

Jody has had many names, and I suspect that if you traced him back far enough, some of those names would be Trickster, Coyote, and Anansi. But in black oral folklore and music we first hear of him as "Joe the Grinder," grinding being a euphemism for, ah, the sexual act. As time passed, "Joe the" turned into "Joe de" or "Joe D." until the two words eventually merged into "Jody." The "Grinder" part and Jody's last name were more or less dropped from the legend, although in at least one song he's known as "Jody Ryder."

The first known recording of a "Jody song" - more appropriately labeled as a "levee holler" by Alan Lomax - was sung in 19 and 39 by one Irvin "Gar Mouth" Lowry, a prisoner at the State Farm in Arkansas. Until he moved to preying on soldier's wives and girlfriends, Joe the Grinder seemed to have spent a good portion of his time chasing after the women of jailed men. It makes sense. Both soldiers and prisoners have a lot in common - a lack of women, your life dictated by powers outside of your control, and no way to get home... at least legally.

Jodie Man

Here's a Theme Time and Dreamtime favorite, Louis Armstrong, doing a song about "Jodie Man." Jodie Man sounds like it's going to be a straight instrumental, but hang in there, and I promise you'll hear some interesting lyrics about our friend Jody.

2. [Jodie Man, Louis Armstrong, 1945]

From 19 and 45, Louis Armstrong and Jodie Man.

During World War II, Jody's legend migrated off the work farm and into the Army, where he became the title character in cadence marching songs, such as the one we heard at the beginning of the show. Jody was almost certainly first introduced into the Army by African-American soldiers, and then had his story picked up by the general service population when the military desegregated.

Woody Guthrie in "Born to Win", says, "The best of marching I saw in my eight months in the army was to the folk words of a folky chant tune that went: "Ain't no use in writin' home/Some joker got your gal an' gone." Woody - probably not the best of soldiers - may have misheard "joker" for "Jody," or the lyrics may have evolved into this variant, but it's definitely another "Jody" call.

In fact, the Jody story became so ingrained in Army lore that by the time I was drafted in the early `70s, all Army cadences were known as "Jodies," as they still are to this very day. And just like Woody, one of the few good memories I have of my time in the Service is marching to a drill Sergeant's rhythmic imperative that I might as well settle down and enjoy Army life, because there was nothing left for me at home - girl, job, and car all taken by Jody.

"Ain't no use in feelin' blue. Jody's got your sister too."

"You're Right!" "You're Right!" we all sang back to the drill instructor.

Uncle Sam Blues

You remember King Records and its eccentric owner, Syd Nathan. Mr. D. likes to play Syd Nathan's recorded rants to his salespeople in-between cuts on Theme Time Radio Hour.

Well, after Syd Nathan, the main man at King was Alphonse Thompson, better known to one and all as Sonny. If you dealt with King as a musician, you were dealing with Sonny Thompson. He was the guy who set up your recording session, booked the musicians, arranged the tunes, even occasionally wrote one, and now and then sat in on a session himself at the piano.

Sonny's recordings aren't easy to find, but well worth the search. Recorded in 19 and 51 on the King label, here's a story about a worried soldier heading for Korea asking Uncle Sam to find something for Jody to do - like dodging bullets - to keep him away from his girl. Sonny Thompson is on the piano, Jesse Edwards is doing the vocals. Uncle Sam Blues.

3. [Uncle Sam Blues - Sonny Thompson, 1951]

Joe the Grinder

While Jody was torturing serviceman his counterpart, Joe the Grinder, was still alive and well back in the civilian world.

In 19 and 52, Dave Bartholomew was a talent scout for Imperial Records, a New Orleans label. Bartholomew was the person who had brought Fats Domino to Imperial, and he was looking for another discovery. He found Allen Matthews, who sounded like a clone of ClydeMcPhatter, and paired him up with a gospel group looking to move into R&B, The Humming Four.

After running through a variety of names for the new group, including "Fat Man" Matthews and the 4 Kittens, they settled on the much more manly name of The Hawks, which probably better suited the raunchy song they released on the Imperial label in 19 and 54, Joe the Grinder.

4. [Joe the Grinder - The Hawks, 1954]

The Hawks even have a TTRH connection. You may remember Mr. D. talking about "Morgus the Magnificent" way back in the 2006 Halloween episode. Morgus was a New Orleans TV personality who aired old horror movies, kind of a male version of Elvira. Morgus decided to do a cover of a popular novelty single called Flying Saucer and hired The Hawks to provide backing vocals. The group, which had never made much of a stir outside of New Orleans, signed on and that was their last single, as The Outer Spacemen, gamely providing back-up to a guy dressed in a monster costume.

Marv Goldberg's R&B Notebooks

The Old Man From the Mountain

Like their music, black and country legends are closely intertwined, and you'd be as likely to hear mention of Joe the Grinder in an Bakersfield bar as you would on a New Orleans street corner. The Old Man From the Mountain was another one of Merle Haggard's 38 #1 hits, charting in 19 and 74. In The Old Man From the Mountain Merle's warning that Joe the Grinder better be out of his bed by the time he gets back home.

5. [The Old Man From the Mountain - Merle Haggard, 1974]

Merle Haggard's story is so incredible nobody would believe it as a work of fiction. After three stints in jail, Haggard met Lefty Frizzell and decided to try his hand as a musician, eventually building a solid reputation as a local talent in Bakersfield, CA. But Haggard's devil was still riding on his shoulder, and he was arrested for robbing a Bakersfield tavern in 19 and 57 and eventually sentenced to San Quentin for 10 years.

It was in the Big Q that Merle Haggard first saw Johnny Cash and again vowed to turn his life around if he got out alive. In 19 and 60, Merle Haggard was paroled, and though he later said that there were days when he wished he was back in prison, he walked the line and had his first national hit in 19 and 64.

If you're around my age, you probably best remember Merle for the semi-tongue-in-cheek, semi-yahoo Okie from Muskogee, recorded in 1969, when all of us were choosing sides over Vietnam. Whatever your opinion of Merle's politics, it's worth noting that his music has been recorded by artists way on the other side of the political spectrum, including The Grateful Dead and Joan Baez. Good music always transcends politics.

The Jody Golden Age

We're going to be playing a lot of music from the `70s in this episode, and that's because there was something of a Jody Golden Age during that decade, including Johnnie Taylor's monster hit for Stax in 19 and 71, which takes the line from the military cadence as its title. We're going to play two songs back to back: Jody's Got Your Girl and Gone and then an answer song to the Taylor hit, the very funky Jody, Come Back and Get Your Shoes by Bobby Newsome.

6. [Jody's Got Your Girl and Gone Johnnie Taylor, 1971]

7. [Jody, Come Back and Get Your Shoes, Bobby Newsome, 1971]

Jody's Got Your Girl and Gone may hold the all-time record for spawning answer songs. Just to name a few: Jean Knight's Don't Talk About Jody, I Finally Caught Up With Jody by Big Joe Hamilton, Bobby Patterson's Right On, Jody, and Sam and Dave's Jody Ryder Got Killed, which is one of the very few songs to give Jody a last name.

This next song is from 19 and 70, so it's too early to be a response to Jody's Got Your Girl and Gone, but You've Been Gone Too Long is still something of an answer song to the eternal question about how Jody got your girl.

8. [You've Been Gone Too Long, Ann Sexton, 1970]

Ann Sexton is a lady you probably haven't heard of unless you were caught up in the great Northern Soul Craze. Not to be confused with the poet, who spelled her first name with an "e," our Ann Sexton recorded a string of soul records for the Nashville-based Seventy-7 label during the `70s.

Like a lot of artists, Ann Sexton never really struck it big, and she retired from music in the late `70s. But after being encouraged by a co-worker, Ann took to the stage again in Europe after a 30-year absence, and now says she intends to keep performing as "long as she's alive." Right on, Ann.

Trackin' Down Jody

Now here's a group and a song and even a label I can't tell you much about. I couldn't even track down its release date. Obviously recorded sometime in the `70s - dig that crazy Theme from Shaft wah-wah guitar - for the tiny Austin, Texas A.C.R. soul label, Trackin' Down Jody sounds like it was meant for a blaxploitation movie that never got made.

9. [Trackin' Down Jody - Darker Shades Ltd., 197?]

As far as I can tell, it's the only cut that Darker Shades Ltd. ever recorded, and may be the only record that the A.C.R. label ever released.

You may have thought that the music cut off a little bit abruptly, and you'd be right to think so. Trackin' Down Jody was too long to fit on one side of a 45, and was released as Parts 1 and 2 on the A and B sides. Unfortunately, Part 2, which I'll betcha was one long funk groove, seems to be lost in the mists of history. But we still have Part 1 of Trackin' Down Jody, and you just heard it.

Texas Soul Recordings

Run, Jody, Run

10. [Run, Jody, Run - Jimmy Coe, 1953]

We went all the way back to 19 and 53 for Run, Jody Run, cut by Jimmy Coe and His Gay Cats of Rhythm for the States label. Jimmy wasn't quite sure who Jody was, telling an interviewer, "Jody's like an Army guy who's hanging out at the girl's house and he has to run," but he still played a mean saxophone.

Jimmy Coe liked to tell the story that the first time he ever soloed on the alto sax, Charlie Parker was in the audience. After the set, Jimmy introduced himself to Parker and asked him what he thought about his number. "Sorry," Parker said. "I fell asleep and missed it."

The Jimmy Coe Discography

Joe Grind and Jody Man

While Jody was busy dodging the draft in the good ol' U.S. of A., Joe the Grinder's itchy feet had him taken him down Jamaica way, where he shortened his name to "Joe Grind" and became a well-known figure in the shanty towns and dance halls. Here's a band called The Aggrolites, who have been a backing band for both reggae superstar Derrick Morgan, and for Prince Buster, and who released their debut album in 2003. From that album, Dirty Reggae, here's Joe Grind.

11. [Joe Grind - The Aggrolites]

Jody Man and Finis

If you can remember that far back, we started our Jody episode with Louis Armstrong's Jodie Man, and we're closing out tonight's show with another Jody Man that Slim Harpo recorded for the Excello label.

Slim's not all that well-remembered these days, but if you're a fan of The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, Pink Floyd, The Doors, or Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, the chances are you've heard of Slim Harpo. Slim passed in 1970, a few days after his 46th birthday. Jody Man was released by Excello a year after his death in 19 and 71.

12. [Jody Man - Slim Harpo]

Given the state of the world today, the chances are good - or bad, I guess, that Jody songs will still be sung far into our future.

As far as I can tell, it hasn't happened yet, but given the increasing role of women in the military, it's probably only matter of time until we'll hear the lament on some foot-track, or on some off-base juke-box...

Jodie's Got Your Guy and Gone

It kinda makes you wonder whether Jody picked that name on purpose.

Sources: Outside of the links noted above, I commend your attention to WFMU's Beware of the Blog, where you can find much of the music I played in this episode. Soul Trivia and the Soul Detroit Forum also provided valuable information.

***

Thanks for listening to the Dreamtime podcast. Show notes, sources, and tonight's script can be found on the Dreamtime blog, dreamtimepodcast.com.

Some house-keeping to take care of before we wind up. We wanted to pass on our congratulations to Kevin R., the Dreamtime winner of the tickets to the New American Music Festival. Kevin wrote up a great trip report for us, and you can find that on the Dreamtime blog, too.

If you haven't heard the news, Dreamtime is now airing on Wednesdays on Tangled Up in Bob, at dylanradio.com. It's a great way to catch up on our old shows. Go check out the site at dylanradio.com, all Bob Dylan, all the time. I think you'll like what you hear.

Thanks to everyone for your emails and comments on the past few shows. Much appreciated. Jailbait, Curly, Bear and I all want to pass on our thanks to everyone who's used Dreamtime as their starting point for their Amazon purchases. It's much appreciated by all of us. If you're heading back to school, or know someone who is, and are planning on buying your school books or supplies through Amazon, please start your shopping through Dreamtime.

And finally, the Dreamtime team is on its semi-annual late Summer vacay for the next couple of weeks, and I suspect when we get back Mr. D. will have announced the return of Theme Time Radio Hour too. Hope you're looking forward to Season 3 as much as we are, and we'll be back with another Dreamtime real soon.

***

You've been listening to the Dreamtime podcast – occasional commentary on Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour. Dreamtime is researched and written by Fred Bals and is a Not Associated With production. As the name says, we're not associated with XM Radio, Bob Dylan, or much of anything else.

Some of the music on Dreamtime is provided via the Podsafe Music Network. Check it out at music.podshow.com.

Remember that the Dreamtime team loves to get email. You can write us at dreamtimepodcast@gmail.com

The Dreamtime top cats are Curly Lasagna and Shaggy Bear. Our announcers are the notorious honky-tonkin' sisters, Jailbait and Joyride.

Until next time, dream well.

Visit the Dreamtime Store

NAMU Festival Report

The winner of our New American Music Festival giveaway, Kevin R., was kind enough to send us a trip and concert report, and even a few pix of Mr. D., who closed out the show on August 9th. Thanks, Kevin!

***

Kevin here, the winner of Dreamtime's NAMU Festival tickets giveaway.

Have to say we had a spectacular weekend in Pittsburgh. The weather was gorgeous and comfortable (a rarity for August), and the Festival itself was pretty well put together. This festival was put together by American Eagle, and as they were the main sponsor, your tickets for the show also came with a supplementary ticket redeemable for a Festival t-shirt and water bottle. On the grounds of the main concert area, near the gates, there were water coolers that you could fill up your bottle at throughout the event. This sort of foresight -- aiding the concertgoer instead of gouging them for necessities -- was much appreciated by this concertgoer, and it's a practice that should be considered by any major music festival.

This was a 2-day concert with two stages chockful of bands ranging from groups we hadn't heard of (French Horn Rebellion, The Depreciation Guild) to bigger acts like Gnarls Barkley, Spoon, The Raconteurs, and Bob Dylan and His Band. The concert site was Pittsburgh's South Side Works, which happens to be where American Eagle's headquarters are located.

Late in the program on Saturday, August 9th, festival curator Anthony Kiedis spoke briefly to the crowd about getting to pick what he referred to as his dream lineup. This seemed like it was going to be a big deal in Pittsburgh - such a wide range of acts under one banner hadn't been seen here since the touring days of Lollapalooza. As an ex-Burgher myself, I was a bit dubious about this festival's ability to carry it off at said location, which really isn't a concert venue but more a public square type of place. That being said, I was wholly impressed at the Festival's organization and facilities, and would definitely attend a future version of this event.

Mr. D arrived onstage after 9pm on Saturday night, the Festival's second day, to close it all down. We knew he had to be done around 11pm, as it seemed there were curfews negotiated with the South Side's residents and businesses.

The band came, and they came to play - most of the crowd were ecstatic as they recognized the opening number, "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35". Bob stood at his keyboard the whole set, and the band were tight as always. Having seen a few dates of the Never-Ending Tour in the last decade, it once again was tremendous fun playing "name that tune" with our friends as each number started up in an unfamiliar fashion. Personal highlight for me was "Summer Days," as it was a glorious one that night, and it happened to be my birthday to boot. While this wasn't a full-length set, the band did leave the stage after closing with "Ballad of a Thin Man." The time had ticked slightly past 11 at this point, and the stage lights went down.

Stage lighting came back up as the band reassembled. Then that CRACK of the snare that the world recognizes as the start of "Like A Rolling Stone" burst forth as Bob's giant logo banner fluttered down from the rafters. The audience members hoping against hope for an encore got one of the best songs of the night. All told, the band was hot and Mr. D's voice was a little bit croaky this evening... but the entire experience made for a fantastic night.

Thanks very much to Dreamtime and the New American Music Union for making this weekend possible. For more info and Festival highlights, check out the videos at the NAMU site:
http://www.ae.com/web/77e/music/festival/index.jsp

"Now, close your eyes and think of Hank." Don Helms: Master of the Steel Guitar 1927 - 2008

You can hear Don Helms' trademark steel guitar on Patsy Cline's Walking After Midnight, Stonewall Jackson’s Waterloo, the Louvin Brothers’ Cash on the Barrelhead, Lefty Frizzell’s Long Black Veil and Loretta Lynn’s Blue Kentucky Girl, pretty much a Theme Time Radio Hour roll call.

And of course, as one of the Driftin' Cowboys, Helms was featured on over 100 Hank Williams recordings, including 10 of the 11 Hank Williams #1 hits. Helms played with Williams on his last recording session in late 19 and 52, a session that eventually produced Kaw-Liga, Take These Chains From My Heart, and Your Cheatin’ Heart.

Helms was the last of the Driftin' Cowboys, and was working up until his death. In fact, according to his obituary in the New York Times, at the time of his death Helms was working with Vince Gill on an album of uncompleted Hank Williams songs. Emphasis mine, as I suspect that this is the so-called "Briefcase Songs" album that we discussed back in Episode 48 - That Fateful Day: The Lost Songs of Hank Williams. and adds Vince Gill to the roster of artists thought to be on that album, including Norah Jones, Jack White, Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan.

The full NY Times obituary on Helms can be found here and is well worth the read. Our title is taken from the phrase Helms used in concert to introduce a medley of Hank Williams' tunes... "Now, close your eyes and think of Hank."

Pandora at the Gates: An Argument for a New Payola

I keep on meaning to do a Dreamtime on Pandora, the "internet radio station," that is much, much more than an internet radio station, but if I'm going to do a show featuring Pandora, it looks like I better move fast.

According to various reports, including this one at TechCruch, and its companion Washington Post piece, Pandora, which has seemed at the brink of collapse for the past year, may finally be looking at the end.

Why is a company that has a listening audience of 1 million a day, attracts an average 40,000 new listeners a day, and has one of the most popular iPhone applications available in the iTunes store on the brink of shutting its doors?

Thank SoundExchange, brought to you by those wonderful people at the RIAA, who are nominally charged with collecting royalties on behalf of the artists for all work broadcast over the internet or satellite radio. I say "nominally," as many artists say they've never seen a dime from the millions that SoundExchange has reportedly collected, and many artists don't want SoundExchange doing anything on their behalf. But SoundExchange trucks on nonetheless.

Consider this: Unlike what you might have thought, traditional over-the-airwaves radio stations pay not a dime for the music they play, although SoundExchange is trying to change that too.

Satellite radio such as the newly renamed Sirius XM Radio pays around a royalty rate of 1.6 cents per hour per listener - at that rate, XM pays around $38,000 in royalties for each TTRH aired. That's an estimate, based on published reports that TTRH has a listening audience of around 2 million. The actual royalty figure is probably lower, as I doubt whether anyone is still collecting royalties on some of the music TTRH plays. In any case, the same music played on Pandora for an hour will cost the company almost double the satellite radio rate - an estimated 2.9 cents per hour per listener. Pandora estimates that rate will cost them over $17 million a year, or about 70 percent of their annual revenues. Which is way too much to pay out for the start-up to survive.

Although not coming right out and saying it, Pandora CEO Tim Westergren is hinting that the time may be at at hand where Pandora literally pulls the plug, and shuts down. And that would be a shame. While Pandora isn't perfect by any means, I've been a fan since its launch and recently fell in love with it again thanks to its new mini-application for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Pandora, for those of you who don't know it, allows listeners to create their own "radio stations" which you can listen to through your computer, or now through an iPhone, and if you have a docking station for your iPhone, through your stereo or media center. One of Pandora's quirks - again due to music licensing restrictions - is that you can't build a specific playlist or request a particular piece of music. You give Pandora an artist like Bob Dylan, or a song like Mississippi, and it goes out and creates a playlist based on music similar to your selections. Eventually you'll probably even get Dylan's version of Mississippi, but Pandora's strength - as well as its weakness - is through offering songs and artists that have something in common with your requests. It's a great way of discovering music you've never heard before.

As I said, Pandora is not perfect, and can be quite quirky in its music offerings. I've always had this suspicion that the algorithm occasionally tosses in something that you'll almost certainly hate, just to ensure that you're paying attention.. However, if Pandora coughs up a particular piece of music that you really dislike, you have the option - within limits - to get it off your playlists.

Over the last couple of years, I've been building various Theme Time playlists in Pandora, using the artists and music from shows stretching all the way from Weather to Cold as my templates. An example of the results can be heard by clicking on the image above.

Some of the music on my TTRH stations is pretty good, if not quite as good as what Our Host might pick. And some of the music is exceedingly strange, such as my Mother station, as one might expect from a playlist that includes stuff from LL Cool J, the Rolling Stones, Merle Haggard, and Ruth Brown. The Drinking one is pretty weird too.

As Michael Arrington notes in his TechCrunch article, what entities such as the RIAA, SoundExchange, and the record labels don't seem to get is, "Recorded music is nothing but marketing material to drive awareness of an artist" Period. The end.

Pandora and other internet radio entities, satellite radio, traditional radio all should be considered valuable marketing and advertising tools, not another revenue stream to try to shore up the music industry's failing business model. In fact, I think a strong case could be made that the various record labels should be paying Pandora, et al for promoting their music. And yes, I know what I'm talking about is payola, but you know what, that's not necessarily a bad thing. What's wrong with a, "this hour of music was presented by Sony, Arista..." NPR-like announcement at the beginning of each hour of Pandora? Good music will still rise to the top. Crappy music will sink. Play enough crap and you'll be out of business, no matter how much payola you're taking.

But that makes too much sense.

Episode 57 - Yes We Can! An Interview with Maria Muldaur.

It's a different sort of Dreamtime this time around. I recently had the opportunity to interview one of my favorite vocalists and interpreter of Bob Dylan songs, Maria Muldaur, and our Episode 57 focuses on Maria's latest release, Yes, We Can! which showcases the work of a variety of songwriters, including Marvin Gaye, Allen Toussaint, Earl King, Garth Brooks, and Bob Dylan himself.

A couple of show notes before we get started. As one of the Moscow Rules states, "Technology will always let you down." I had an equipment melt-down about 10 minutes before I was scheduled to call Maria, and ended up jury-rigging a last-minute Rube Goldberg recording system in order to capture the interview. I was left with the option of either capturing Maria's voice clearly, or my own, and of course decided for the former. You can tell how badly the recording sounded on my end towards the close of the interview. So, in any case, Maria wasn't indulging in a monologue, but was responding to my questions, which I edited out, but which I think you can figure out from the context of her answers.

Maria also notes in the interview that there should be a free download of a song that had to be left off Yes, We Can! on the Telarc site. As of the the time of this podcast's release, which should be around August 12, 2008, the song had not yet been posted on telarc.com. I'll put a post and a link on the Dreamtime blog when the song becomes available.

So, without further ado, here's Maria Muldaur, and a few clips from her latest release, Yes, We Can!

Direct link to mp3.

Subscribe to the Dreamtime podcast

Listen now with the Dreamtime Player

Further Viewing/Reading/Listening

Urgent Message from Mother: Gather the Women, Save the World, Jean Shinoda Bolen

Yes We Can! Maria Muldaur

Heart of Mine: Love Songs of Bob Dylan Maria Muldaur

Naughty, Bawdy and Blue Maria Muldaur

Maria's Web site and her page at Telarc.

and upcoming gigs...

August 2008

*22 Crest Theater, Sacramento, CA - Benefit For Francis House featuring Holly Near & Tracy Nelson

*23 & 24 Yoshi's, Oakland, CA - CD Release Event with Special Guests Holly Near & Linda Tillery

September 2008

*06 142 Throckmorton, Mill Valley, CA

*17 The Upstage, Port Townsend, WA

*18 The Yale, Vancouver, BC, Canada

*19 SALMAN Classic Theatre, Salmon Arm, BC, Canada

*20 Burn Care For Kids Benefit, Flames Central, Calgary, Canada

*23 & 24 Dakota Jazz Club, Minneapolis, MN

*26 The Washington, Burlington, IA

*27 The Livery, Benton Harbor, MI

*28 Nighttown, Cleveland, OH

*29 Sportsmen's Tavern, Buffalo, NY

October 2008

*1 Pepper Jack's, Hamilton, ON, Canada

* 2 The Night Eagle Cafe, Binghamton, NY

* 3 Center For The Arts, Natick, MA

* 4 Barnstormer's Theatre, Tamworth, NH

* 5 The Town Crier, Pawling, NY

* 7 Hugh's Room, Toronto, Canada

* 8 Sydenham St. Church, Kingston, ON, Canada

*10 Colonial Theatre, Bethlehem, NH

*11 Common Fence Music, Portsmouth, RI

*12 One Longfellow Square, Portland, ME

*13 Slates, Hallowell, ME

*16 Puck, Doylestown, PA

*17 Outpost In The Burbs, Montclair, NJ

*18 Avalon Theater, Easton, MD

*20 Gravity Lounge, Charlottesville, VA

November 2008

*15 The Red Barn, Los Osos, CA
*16 SOHO, Santa Barbara, CA

December 2008

*06 My Pecan Farm, El Paso Texas - Festival w/Buddy Guy & Taj Mahal /Benefit Concert For Food Bank

***

Thanks as always for listening, and remember to enter our Dreamtime Constant Listener Contest, underway right now. Send us an email with your guess on the date that Theme Time Radio Hour returns with Season 3, and get the opportunity to win a copy of Million Dollar Bash, as well as a CD of Poetry Readings direct from the Dreamtime studio with those nifty stewART covers.

***

You've been listening to the Dreamtime podcast – occasional commentary on Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour. Dreamtime is researched and written by Fred Bals and is a Not Associated With production. As the name says, we're not associated with XM Radio, Bob Dylan, or much of anything else.

Some of the music on Dreamtime is provided via the Podsafe Music Network. Check it out at music.podshow.com.

Remember that the Dreamtime team loves to get email. You can write us at dreamtimepodcast@gmail.com

The Dreamtime top cats are Curly Lasagna and Shaggy Bear. Our announcers are the notorious honky-tonkin' sisters, Jailbait and Joyride.

Until next time, dream well.

Visit the Dreamtime Store

Isaac Hayes - 1942-2008

He will be missed.

I'm getting of the age where hearing the phrase "a musical legend/icon/giant/etc. has passed away" as a network news teaser fills me with dread, wondering who it is this time.

The clip is from the great film, Wattstax, which I heartily commend to your attention. Besides Hayes and the very young Jesse Jackson, there are appearances by the Staple Singers, an equally young Richard Pryor, Rufus Thomas doing an incredible Funky Chicken, Albert King, The Bar-Kays and many more Stax artists.  As a musical document you may find the many incomplete sets in Wattstax frustrating.  On the other hand, it's probably the best video document of what Watts was like in the early `70s.  I know.  I was there, teaching on 101st Street.

I didn't make it to Woodstock.  But I made it to Wattstax, and spent one of the best days in my life, 36 years ago come this August 20th, one of the few white faces in a sea of black faces, not scared, not even nervous, just boogeyin' to the music along with 10,000 other people.

Six (!!) Versions of Tell Tale Signs?

According to a report in rec.music.dylan, the latest edition of ISIS magazine claims that there will be a total six different versions of Tell Tale Signs. Unfortunately, the person writing the post doesn't list the six. Adding to the confusion, the ISIS web site only lists four. If the report is accurate, it appears that the various Tell Tale Sgns packages will include:

• The basic 2-disc set featuring 27 songs, and including a 60-page booklet.
• 4-LP vinyl edition including the same track list and booklet as the 2-CD version.
• 3-CD "deluxe limited" package including photo book and vinyl single.

Those three are the "known" versions, all currently being offered at bobdylan.com. In addition, the ISIS site lists a 3-CD set without the vinyl single. The ISIS site doesn't note the contents of that package, although the rec.arts.dylan article claims that the photo book will be included. Just to add to the confusion, the rec.arts.dylan article goes on to state that there will be an iTunes version of the 2-CD Tell Tale Signs set which will include a bonus track available nowhere else.

And then there's the mystery "sixth package" which I suppose could be anything from a 3-CD set without the photo book, to a 6-LP vinyl version, to something else entirely.

The saga continues.

In other Tell Tale Signs news, I've had a few emails and comments from readers noting that the Dreamin' of You mp3 was no longer available at bobdylan.com. That site is either in a constant state of flux and/or the site managers are experimenting with the download offer. At various times I've seen it offered only to registered bobdylan.com users, offered to anyone, offered as a straight mp3 download, and offered as a zip archive. This weekend, the offer had disappeared from the main page, but would appear if you registered or logged in if you were already a registered user. Today, the offer is back on the main page, and apparently available to anyone again.

If you want the mp3, my suggestion is you don't delay on downloading it. Eventually it will go away. I had an email from a reader this weekend asking if I could help him locate a copy of the electronic version of the TTRH poster, which had been on bobdylan.com for almost a year. But, when he finally decided he wanted it, it was gone.

Dreamtime Gets Tangled Up in Bob

I'm pleased to announce that Dreamtime is joining up with Pete Freckelton's wonderful webcast, Tangled Up in Bob.  A Dreamtime episode will be airing every other Wednesday on TUiB at 1 PM ET (2 PM station time) during the Theme Time hiatus and will be moving to an every Wednesday slot at the same time when TTRH Season 3 begins.

As you probably already know TUiB - aka http://www.dylanradio.com - is a 24 hours a day/7 days a week internet radio station playing Dylan and Dylan-related music, including episodes of Theme Time Radio Hour daily at 11 AM and 9 PM ET (again, as Pete's based out of Nova Scotia, station time is one hour later, 12:00 noon and 10 PM Atlantic).

Tangled Up in Bob has a deep selection of Dylanesque music that Pete is regularly adding to, listeners can even do requests and dedications a la all great radio stations, and if you're a fan of the man and his music, you should be listening in.  If you like what you hear, let Pete know and consider contributing to the upkeep of his site.

We're not giving up the podcast or the streaming version of Dreamtime here on the blog, but we're looking forward to making new friends and listeners through Tangled Up in Bob too.

Sony/BMG Continues To Confuse/Bemuse With Marketing Of Tell Tale Signs

I haven't made up my mind whether the marketing mavens at SONY/BMG have some sort of arcane plan beyond the comprehension of simpletons like me, or their marketing efforts are roiling around in the utter disarray and confusion they appear to be.

If I had to make a guess based on 30-odd years of experience with marketeers, I'd say the latter, but who knows? Maybe somewhere deep in the bowels of SONY/BMG, there's a master plan playbook outlining the marketing of Tell Tale Signs, a playbook designed to extract every penny possible from their customers.

In the latest chapter of the ongoing Tell Tale Signs mystery, the Dreamin' of You single is now being offered for purchase at both Amazon and iTunes for .99 cents. This would be unremarkable except that it's still also being offered as a free download at bobdylan.com. In fact, as opposed to when the single was originally offered at bobdylan.com, you don't even have to register anymore to get it. You simply click on the link and it gets downloaded as a .zip archive.

Of course there's probably some who don't have a clue about what to do with a .zip file after downloading it, and there's probably some who feel more comfortable purchasing/downloading through a familar store interface... and 99 cents is spare change to most people, obviously. But it still seems a weird, money-grubbin' thing to do (which is incidentally why I'm not providing the Amazon/iTunes links). Why not simply offer the single free in all three places and use the giveaway to continue publicizing the release of Tell Tale Signs?

I'm reserving opinion - and purchase, incidentally, SONY/BMG - of any edition of Tell Tale Signs until it's clear about whether the quickly becoming infamous third "bonus" CD will be offered in any other package beyond the so-called " limited deluxe" $129.99 edition, about $99 more than I'm willing to pay. While the hardcover book of photographs of Dylan's collected singles is kind of attractive, that and a vinyl single that is about as useful to me as an 8-track cassette can't justify the additional cost for what I actually crave, which is the additional twelve songs on the third disc. And exactly what does "limited" in "limited deluxe" mean? 5,000 copies? More? Less? As many as can be sold prior to October 7th? As many as the market will bear?

And speaking of "additional cost," to add to the confusion the "limited deluxe" version of Tell Tale Signs is now being offered at Amazon for a "discounted" price of $152.99, or nearly $30 more than the "pre-order" price at bobdylan.com. Amazon notes that the MSRP of the deluxe ediution is $169.98, a figure I'm assuming was supplied by SONY/BMG. It's also noteworthy that if you want to purchase any Dylan music or DVDs other than Tell Tale Signs, the bobdylan.com site hustles you off to Amazon. Tell Tale Signs has its own store, being managed for SONY/BMG by an outfit calling itself "Skyroo."

So, for the sake of argument, let us assume that evidence to the contrary, SONY/BMG does not have its collective heads up its asses, and actually knows what it's doing, and maybe this is all a grand experiment to find out such things as to how many people will download music and/or buy from bobdylan.com, versus going to Amazon or iTunes, and how deep the pockets of the Dylan collector community reaches. And maybe SONY/BMG is planning on offering a reasonably-priced three disc set of Tell Tale Signs on October 7th, and is holding back on that announcement until they've given the early adopter and collector market time to buy the "limited deluxe" edition. Maybe that's why there's no sign - tell tale or otherwise - of the basic 2-CD set on Amazon yet. Or failing a release of the disc, I'm hoping that the 12 songs will be offered as mp3 downloads, satisfying shlubs like me, who just want the music.

Maybe. All I know is I want that third disc in some format... as do many fans, and I'm not going to pay $129.99 to get it.

As I said, I'm reserving judgement. But I have an article with the working title: How Bob Dylan and Columbia Records Have Made Me A Criminal in development just in case.

Is the Theme Time Radio Hour Season 3 Start Date September 10 2008?

via the XM Radio XMX station guide:

"While Bob Dylan is off searching for new Dreams, Themes and Schemes – your suggestions are welcome at bobdylan@xmradio.com – XM is playing back some of our favorites from the first two seasons of Dylan's XM Exclusive show in alphabetical order.

It's Theme Time A to Y. Why 'Y'? No 'Z' theme in the catalogue. Yet."

If one is looking for, ahem, tell-tale signs on when TTRH Season 3 will begin, the list of shows may hold a clue. We're currently at "P" - for "President's Day" and "Party" which will play this Wednesday, August 6th. Shows continue to " W" and Y" - "Walking" and "Youth and Age" (one presumes this last is the "Young and Old" show from Season 2) to be broadcast on September 3rd.

So what happens on Wednesday, September 10th, hmmmmm?

Hootenanny Hoot

[UPDATE: Someone at TCM apparently overwrought with concern that their ownership of an obscure 45-year-old movie might be jeopardized if the trailer is circulated freely, has had it withdrawn from YouTube, although it can still be found - but not shared - on Google Video and the TCM site itself, both plastered with advertisements for TCM.  Hoot, hoot! TCM. I'm sure all us criminals feel justly chastised.]

Hoot! Hoot! Karl Erik over at Expecting Rain notes, "...Dylan makes fun of this movie in the newly discovered Carnegie '63 CDs [Unravelled Tales - fhb] - he does NOT recommend it, but at least 2 songs are on Good As I Been To You."

Those two songs are Frankie and Albert, done by Johnny Cash in the movie as Frankie's Man Johnny, and Froggie Went A'Courtin', sung in the movie by The Brothers Four as simply Frogg.

Other songs and performers in Hootenanny Hoot include The Gateway Trio performing Puttin' on the Style and Foolish Questions; George Hamilton IV (no relation to the actor) with his hit of 19 and 63, Abilene.; Joe and Eddie with the gospel-tinged There's a Meetin' Here Tonight; the great Judy Henske, who was once known as the "Queen of the Beatniks," performing Wade in the Water and The Ballad of Little Romy; Cathie Taylor, who would later move from folk to country, performing The Frozen Logger; The Brothers Four again with Darlin' Cory; the obscure Chris Crosby singing Sweet, Sweet Love, and Sheb Wooley with Bulding a Railroad as well as performing the excrecable title song which he also wrote, Hootenanny Hoot.

Sheb Wooley had something of a career with novelty songs - he performed the 1958 hit Purple People Eater which I joyfully sang in grammar school - but he's probably better-known as a character actor, and may have been the voice behind the infamous "Wilhelm scream." Wooley even has a TTRH/Dreamtime connection, having been one of the original Hee Haw cast members, performing as the drunken country songwriter, Ben Colder.

According to Merriam-Webster, the term "hootenanny" originated circa 1929 and was used as a synonym for "gadget," either term referring to any small, inconsequential object or tool, as in "pass me that dang hootenanny over there, Hiram." How the word "hootenanny" came to be is unknown, as is the reason behind it transforming its meaning so that by the 1940s it had come to to mean "any informal social event or party."

Pete Seeger, Woody Gurthrie, and Alan Lomax all had a hand in popularizing the term to its best known meaning as a gathering of folksingers, and in 19 and 63, the word became part of the national vocabulary thanks to the short-lived but amazingly influential ABC TV show "Hootenanny." If you've heard Dylan's 1964 "Halloween" concert, you'll hear him also making fun of "Hootenanny" the television series during his performance of Talkin' John Birch Society Blues, where his sideways reference to the banning of Pete Seeger and The Weavers from the show is greeted by applause from the hipster crowd.

By the time "Hootenanny" concluded its first 13 week run, it had spawned a national craze for folk - white-bread, palatable to the mass audience, no commies under our bed here folk, but folk nonetheless. According to Wikipedia, a front-page Variety story noted that “the big demand for the folk performers in virtually all areas of show biz (records, concerts, college dates, TV, pix) is stimulating a new folk form that can appeal to a mass audience. Among writers now contributing to the new-styled folk song are Bob Dylan, Mike Settle, Tom Paxton, Shel Silverstein, Bob Gibson, Malvina Reynolds, Oscar Brand, Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie.”

Indeed. And labels would start releasing dozens of folk compilations with the word, "Hootenanny" prominent in the title.

Knowing an exploitation movie waiting to be born when he saw one, MGM’s Sam Katzman essentially recycled the script from Rock Around the Clock and produced Hootenanny Hoot in 19 and 63. The Video Beat! site describes the movie as, "basically an excuse to present as much music in 90 minutes as possible. An East Coast television executive heads west but gets stuck in traffic in Norburg, Missouri where he finds all the kids are preparing for their Saturday Night Hootenanny. He gets the idea to put on a big coast-to-coast television spectacular but has to maneuver around a former love interest/big-wig TV executive."

While a hit with the hoi polloi, "Hootenanny" was greeted with mixed reaction by "serious" folkies, both for political and aesthetic reasons. Hootenanny magazine criticized the show for diluting the essence of folk music, as well as presenting clean-cut college kids as representative of "folk." Joan Baez and Rambin' Jack Elliot among others refused to have anything to do with the show as long as it banned Seeger. And by 1964 the British Invasion was in full force, effectively putting an end to the folk craze, at least from a television standpoint. "Hootenanny" was canceled in September 19 and 64, being replaced - somewhat appropriately - on the network schedule by The Outer Limits.

And that's, as Paul Harvey would tell you, the rest of the story.

Hootenanny Hoot will be broadcast on TCM on September 19, 2008. Set your TiVo! And if you can't record it, you can pick up the DVD at that great store of `50s and `60s video treasures, the Video Beat!

Bob Hates Andy #13

My favorite web comic of all time - Bob Hates Andy - is out with a new double-sized anniversary issue.

Spread the hate, and subscribe.