Bob Dylan - With God on Our Side (Live on BBC, 1964)

Greenwich Village In The '60s

It is Friday afternoon, and my boot heels don’t want to go a wanderin’ today, so I thought I’d write a few words about Bob Dylan inspired by a 2CD compilation I’m listening to at this very moment. It is called Greenwich Village In The '60s. It was seeing the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown recently that reminded me to give it another listen. As you may know I have long been interested in the music of this place and time and have written pieces previously about many of the musicians who lived and played in Greenwich Village during this era. People like Dave Van Ronk, Eric Anderson, Fred Neil, Tim Hardin, Tim Buckley, Phil Ochs, Karen Dalton, and Judy Collins who all contribute to this album.                                                    However, It was a song on the album by somebody I hadn’t heard of previously that got me thinking, and wondering about Bob Dylan and what motivated him during this time. The song is called Go ‘Way From My Window by John Jacob Niles. The lyrics Go 'way from my window, Go 'way from my door, Go 'way, way way from my bedside, And bother me no more, are so similar to Dylan’s It Ain’t Me Babe, Go away from my window, Leave at your own chosen speed, I'm not the one you want, babe, I'm not the one you need'. There can be no doubt where Bob got the idea for his song from.

The Clancy Brothers from Ireland also have two songs on the album. They had emigrated to New York and Bob saw them perform frequently in such places as the Gaslight Poetry Café, Gerdes Folk City, and the Café Wha. When Bob heard their song The Patriot Game which was written by Dominic Behan, he soon appropriated the traditional melody and altered Dominic’s words to create With God On Our Side and claimed it as a Bob Dylan original. Dominic criticised Bob publicly for claiming the song and called into question the provenance of Dylan's entire body of work.

I have read that during a tour of the UK by Bob, Dominic rang him at his hotel room with an angry tirade. When Bob Dylan suggested that "My lawyers can speak with your lawyers", Dominic replied, "I've got two lawyers, and they're on the end of my wrists” I can believe that story because it reminded me of a scene in the documentary Don’t Look Back where during an after show party in a hotel room Bob asked if there were any poets in Britain like Allen Ginsberg, and somebody suggested Dominic Behan, Bob replied, “I don’t wanna hear any Dominic Behan”, which suggests that there might have been a bit of bad feeling between them. I expect it was also the Clancy’s version of The Parting Glass that Bob heard in Greenwich Village that he soon changed to Restless Farewell. I’m not sure whose version of the traditional song Lord Randall Bob heard first, but it provided him with A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall in 1962, introducing each verse with variants of the first lines to each verse of Lord Randall. People often think Bob wrote it as a reaction to the Cuban Missile Crisis, but in fact he first publicly performed the song a month before the crisis began.

Bob realised that one of the great things about traditional songs was the fact that they didn’t have any copyright on them, which meant you could help yourself to the melody, then change the words and voila! a brand-new song by Bob Dylan. While the likes of Joan Baez and Pete Seeger were quite content to keep the traditional ballads unchanged in their repertoires, Bob saw an opportunity to become the most famous songwriter of the 1960s. As Bob is quoted as saying, ‘Anyone who wants to be a songwriter should listen to as much folk music as they can, study the form and structure of stuff that has been around for 100 years. Opportunities may come along for you to convert something—something that exists into something that didn’t yet.” He carried on with this philosophy on his first visit to England where he heard many trad songs around the folk clubs. Hearing Martin Carthy perform Scarborough Fair provided him with Girl From The North Country and Boots Of Spanish Leather. Paul Simon also cashed in with that same song a short time later.

There are many other examples of Bob Dylan taking traditional songs he heard from other singers and making them his own, and other people have sometimes criticised him for this, but it was the words that Dylan wrote that marked him out as one of the greatest poets since Keats or Shelley. Once Bob had exhausted the rich mine of traditional folk music he found in Greenwich Village he was ready to enter his greatest era and create masterpieces such as Mr Tambourine Man, Visions Of Johanna, Desolation Row, and dozens of other inspirational songs that nobody could accuse him of stealing. I believe in centuries to come it will be as a poet that Dylan is remembered. This is why he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature, and nobody has deserved it more.

R.I.P Marianne Faithfull

The Words In Between by Dave Evans.

On this rainy January day I thought I’d tell you about a CD which arrived here recently called The Words In Between by Dave Evans. No, I hadn’t heard of Dave Evans either, until recently when I stumbled across a video of him playing on BBC’s The Old Grey Whistle Test in the 1970s, (See video below) I liked what I heard, particularly his acoustic guitar playing, and because I’m always interested in discovering musicians who I missed first time around I ordered his first album from 1971. It was quite expensive because I think it has been out of print for a while, but well worth it because I love this album. The copy I received is a reissue from 2001 which also contains five songs from Dave’s second album Elephantasia from 1972. The album was originally released on the Village Thing label, named after Clifton Village in Bristol, and Greenwich Village in New York. The Village Thing label was the brainchild of Ian A Anderson (No, not the singer in Jethro Tull) and John Turner. 

The recording was made at Ian’s house in Royal York Crescent, Bristol on a Revox tape recorder. It is just Dave on guitar and vocals, a second guitarist Pete Airey, and occasional harmonica and some backing vocals. Simplicity itself, but beautiful. As soon as I listened to the words and music it evoked memories of the early 70s, college rooms and bedsitter images. Al Stewart came into my head and Clifton In The Rain, but all that idea was probably accidentally planted in my head subliminally from the sleeve notes. Dave was originally from Bangor in North Wales. He went to college in Loughborough in the 60s where he ran the Folk Club and was friends with Steve Tilston. Eventually he moved to Honiton in Devon and worked in a pottery. It was after seeing Michael Chapman perform at Exeter University that Dave decided to take his music seriously. He was invited to play on Steve Tilston’s debut album which led to Dave moving to Bristol and becoming a regular performer at The Troubadour folk club in Clifton where he was soon spotted by Ian A Anderson and persuaded to record for Village Thing. 

I should mention that Dave was multi-talented and even made his own guitar. I won’t discuss every song on the album, but most of them seem to be personal observations of places and people that Dave encountered. Some songs such as Circular Line, Grey Lady Morning, and Now Is The Time were inspired by Barbara his love of those days. Rosie was his outrageous landlady who won a kissing contest at the local disco called The Pit Club by kissing a soldier nonstop for 44 minutes. City Road and St Agnes Park are named after places near his Bristol home and feature some of the characters he knew such as a man called Yorkie who had a wooden leg. Beauty Queen is about a lady of the night called Nancy who paraded up and down City Road after dark. Doorway is a poignant song about an old lady who lived in Albert Park Place and would stand for ages in her doorway staring at her overgrown garden. Some of the last five tracks from his Elephantasia album feature some excellent piano playing by Steve Swindells. There is a song called Lady Portia which was the name of Steve Tilston’s cat.

I like all of Dave’s songs, but it his fingerpicking guitar playing that is his forte. I have never played a guitar in my life, but to my ears he is playing in the same league as Bert Jansch, Davy Graham, Nick Drake or any other great British guitar player you care to mention. I don’t think Dave was all that concerned about the trappings of fame or fortune and eventually moved to Belgium with his girlfriend and earned a living repairing and restoring musical instruments. I think it is a shame that he isn’t more recognised. I couldn’t even find a Wikipedia entry for him. I did find out that Dave died peacefully three years ago aged 80. I suppose if he had died young in his 20s, he would be a cult hero now, but I’m sure he was satisfied to have had a long happy life. I hope his reputation as a great guitarist and singer-songwriter continues to grow, and I also hope this album is reissued soon. PS, The song Dave sings in the video below isn’t actually on this album, but it gives you a good idea of his singing and playing.

Dave Evans - Keep Me From The Cold

How Sad, How Lovely by Connie Converse.

On BBC Radio 4 this afternoon I listened to an excellent programme presented by poet Emily Berry called Dreaming Of Connie Converse. I was pleased that Connie is getting some long overdue recognition. It inspired me to dust off and update this story I wrote several years ago......... 

The story of Connie Converse is one of the saddest in the history of music. Over 50 years after she disappeared music fans around the world are beginning to realize her importance in the history of modern music. In the summer of 1974 she wrote farewell letters to family and friends saying that she was leaving to start a new life. She waited for the news that Nixon was finally resigning as President and then packed her belongings in her Volkswagen Beetle and drove away, never to be seen again. So who was Connie Converse and why is she so important?. She is important because she was years or decades ahead of her time. Connie Converse was one of the first ever female singer-songwriters and she left a small but brilliant legacy of music behind.

I had never heard of Connie until recently. I discovered her music purely by chance on Youtube while looking for a song by Anne Briggs. I stumbled across Connie and listened to one song which aroused my interest and I ordered a CD called How Sad, How Lovely which is the title of one of her songs. I must say it is a most attractively designed album as well. It contains a nice booklet which includes contributions from her brother and also the man who first recorded her songs.

I'll just tell you briefly what I know about Connie. She was born Elizabeth Eaton Converse in 1924 in  New Hampshire into a strict Baptist family. At School she was quite brilliant and won a scholarship to Mount Holyoake College, but dropped out after two years and moved to New York City where she lived in Greenwich Village which was the centre of the bohemian world in 1950's America. It was here that she acquired the nick-name Connie because she came from Concord.  It was at this time that Connie first began to write poems and songs and accompanying herself on guitar. She came to the attention of Gene Deitch a famous animator who recorded Connie's songs at his home in the mid-50's. She failed to attract any commercial interest apart from one appearance on a TV Show presented by Walter Cronkite. 

In 1961 the year that Bob Dylan arrived in New York she left Greenwich Village and moved to Ann Arbor Michigan. I think that was a shame because a year later the whole world was following the Folk Scene in New York and she could have been part of it and got the attention her music deserved. Over a decade after she dropped out of college Connie returned to academic life and worked her way up to being Managing Editor of 'The Journal Of Conflict Resolution'. Her only music interest was playing for family & friends. By the early 1970's she was suffering with depression and her employer and friends pooled together to send her on a six month sabbatical to England. Connie described this trip as one of the only times in her life she was allowed to have 'unproductive fun'. I wonder where she went in this country and who she met?. Finally in 1974 she made her decision to disappear.

 After I had read the booklet I played the CD and I must say now after listening to it twice I am very impressed indeed. Nine of the eighteen tracks are the recordings she made with Gene Deitch and you can hear little snippets of conversation between the songs. Connie sings in a very formal style. This is the 1950's you must remember, before singers started slurring the words and calling everyone Babe. It is the subject matter of hanging around in bars, playing poker, and being taken home by strangers that makes the songs ahead of their time. White middle-class women didn't sing about these subjects before. Although a lot of the songs sound quite jolly you can sense an underlying sadness below. There is no other singer like Connie Converse. Just on a couple of songs I could hear vague echoes of Dory Previn, another great singer who came along a lot later who I really like as well. A lot of the songs began life as poems and you can hear that in the very poetic imagery of a lot of the songs.

 There is some sort of a happy ending to the story because in 2004 Gene Deitch who had recorded Connie 50 years before was invited onto a radio show, and he played one of her songs. Two listeners of the show Dan Dzula and David Herman were inspired to track down her recordings. Gene Deitch was happy to collaborate. Also, they found a filing cabinet at Connie's brother's house containing further treasures which Connie had left with him, all neatly filed and labelled as if she meant them to be found. The album which I received was finally released. The legend of Connie Converse is finally beginning to grow.

What actually happened to her? I find it hard to believe that she took her own life. If that was true why did she pack her car so meticulously?. I have wondered if she returned to England where she had previously spent a happy six months. We shall probably never know but I am really pleased that her music is finally after 50 years getting the recognition that it deserves.

A Complete Unknown. (My Review)

American audiences have been able to view A Complete Unknown the new biographical film about Bob Dylan for three weeks now, and yesterday it was finally released in Britain. I went to see it last night at the Odeon in Trowbridge, so I thought I would give you my thoughts. The film begins in 1961 with Bob arriving in New York in search of his hero Woody Guthrie. It catches the bohemian atmosphere perfectly with such little details as when Bob reached Greenwich Village there is a poet ranting from a soapbox on a street corner which presumably  would be Allen Ginsberg. Bob tracks down Woody to Greystones Hospital where he also has a fortuitous encounter with Pete Seeger who introduces Bob into the New York folk music scene. I thought Edward Norton who played Pete Seeger was outstanding, especially when I found out that he sang and played the banjo himself. Shortly after his arrival Bob meets Sylvia Russo played by Elle Fanning. Now, I have read that Bob co-operated in the making of the film and approved of Timothee Chalamet playing him, but requested that the name of his real-life girlfriend of the time which was Suze Rotolo not to be used, hence we get Sylvia Russo. It seems a bit strange because all the other major characters keep their real names. 

Many of the famous faces from Greenwich Village are featured, such as Joan Baez, Dave Van Ronk, and Maria Muldaur. I was hoping that Karen Dalton would be mentioned, but she wasn’t, also Dylan knew the Clancy Brothers in Greenwich Village who were a big influence, but they didn’t appear. The mood of the times was captured vividly, with the Cuban Missile Crisis, Kennedy’s assassination and the Civil Rights movement being portrayed. Dylan used all these dramatic events to his advantage by writing songs which tapped into the collective consciousness of the times, but he himself was apolitical. 

He also used Joan Baez as a stepping stone to fame and fortune, she was the girl on the half-shell, already famous when Bob arrived and gave her the little boy lost act. In all fairness she used him as well and got her hands on his songs. I thought Dan Fogler gave a fine performance as Bob’s manager Albert Grossman. Anyone who has seen the documentary Don’t Look Back will know what Albert was like in real life, shrewd and hard as nails, but quite comical. He gets one of the best lines in the film where Pete Seeger is almost pleading with Bob not to do an electric set at Newport. Albert says to Pete something like, “You wanna give them candles, but Bob’s selling lightbulbs”. 

Another performance I thought was very comical was Muddy Waters son Big Bill Morganfield as blues singer Jesse Moffette who meets Bob on Pete Seeger's TV show and they share a bottle of whiskey. I think Jesse is a fictitious character. I have never heard of him, but it was a very funny scene. Johnny Cash played by Boyd Holbrook also deserves a mention. Although Dylan approved of Timothee Chalamet’s performance Bob himself doesn’t come over as a very nice person in the film, often appearing to be supercilious and insulting to other people. The songs speak for themselves however, nobody in popular music has written words as poetic as Dylan. It can be hard to be humble sometimes when you know you’re the best. Also, you have to have sympathy with Dylan because when he had mined the folk scene for all it was worth he wanted to move on, experiment, and shake up rock music. The traditionalists like Joan Baez & Pete Seeger wanted him to serve up more of the same. He felt pressurised and irritated by this. 

I think Chalamet deserves an Oscar for his performance, not just for the acting, but also for the hard work he must have put in practicing the singing and guitar and harmonica playing. Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez was also excellent. I don’t think I learned anything new from seeing this film, except I didn’t know that Joe Boyd was the sound man at the Newport Folk Festival when Pete thought about putting an axe to the cables. Joe Boyd later moved to the UK and produced some of the greatest albums in British folk-rock. Speaking about Newport I was slightly irritated when someone in the audience shouted out, “Judas”, at Dylan, and Dylan replied, “I don’t believe you, you’re a liar, play it loud”. Any Dylan fan worth their salt knows that this happened at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester.

It would be churlish though to complain about little historical inaccuracies, because I thoroughly enjoyed this film portrait of one of the greatest figures of the last 100 years. I can’t stop wondering though if Bob Dylan really was the voice of a generation, how come people like Trump become President. It doesn’t make sense.