The Band Guestbook, December 2016

Entered at Sat Dec 31 21:31:47 CET 2016 from (96.239.25.33)

Joan.

Entered at Sat Dec 31 20:33:41 CET 2016 from (114.75.90.181)

Wallsend

I wonder if this deal about the commercial licensing of The Weight in 1994 played a role in Levon's hostility towards Robbie. After the Steve Davis book came out Levon seemed to back peddle a bit on some of the content but then in later interviews he was very hostile again. That struck me as odd but if there was bad feeling about this deal it would explain it.

Entered at Sat Dec 31 18:56:14 CET 2016 from (86.25.242.77)

Ian W

Dave H, I'm very pleased that you said that. I canvassed some views on this a while back and, while folk were less categorical than you, the consensus was that the drummer on the "Crawl Out" single was not Levon.

Is it possible, I wonder, that Dylan and/or producer Bob Johnston were not happy with Levon being the studio drummer and that this was a factor in Levon's decision to leave the touring Hawks?

Entered at Sat Dec 31 18:29:48 CET 2016 from (74.69.80.176)

Dave H

Entered at Sat Dec 31 16:57:35 CET 2016 from (208.181.205.134)

Rockin Chair

Subject: About Bruce (For Al Edge)

You may recall in July - August 1993, Bruce wrote this song for the movie Philadelphia. He won an Academy Award for "Best Original Song" along with 4 Grammys. He shares the honour with Neil Young for Neil's "Philadelphia" which some say is the better song.

I don't know if any one recalls. I have to laugh every time I think of it. I haven't looked but it is probably on Youtube. When Bruce was announced and came on stage to accept his Academy Award, he comes walking out in a Tux, looking very out of place for "The Boss" and he says quite nervously, "Thanks for inviting me to your party". It was priceless! A real down to earth kid.

Entered at Sat Dec 31 16:51:15 CET 2016 from (67.71.41.191)

brown eyed girl

New Year's Eve Dance....with bloopers.

New Year's Resolution..."Forgiveness means that you do not carry the baggage of an experience."

Entered at Sat Dec 31 16:29:26 CET 2016 from (67.71.41.191)

brown eyed girl

New Year's Eve

Entered at Sat Dec 31 16:20:59 CET 2016 from (67.71.41.191)

brown eyed girl

Hello to Carol and Lil.

For Peter V because he asked....No particular order and song list can change daily as it's my prerogative. ;-D

Bob Marley...Get Up Stand Up...Anthem plus Bunny Livingston and Peter Tosh here with Peter singing a verse.

Robbie Robertson...Making A Noise...Anthem..."You can bet your ass I won't go quietly. Making a noise in this world. Everyone has a song....."

Van Morrison...Tupelo Honey with Tony Marcus as her violin playing elevates an already beautiful love song.

Bob Dylan...Shooting Star...I can watch the stars nightly and reflect.

Louuuu Reed...Sweet Jane...Signature song that's just rock and roll with a few chords but Louuu says a lot here.

Garland Jeffreys...Any Rain...Positive Vibrations plus I get to hear his voice....No one can sing like Garland as well as James Maddock's tasteful guitar playing. I also get to remember the two parties I attended....If I had to be on an island with one of these musicians I'd choose Garland!

The Waterboys...Cover of Dylan's Girl From The North Country because I'm one of them plus Mike Scott does one of the best if not the best cover here. Also, I get to hear his signature......"oooh's" and love when he just stops singing and speaks. "I wonder if she remembers me at all." Love this Scotsman!!!!!!

Mink Deville...Spanish Stroll...Classic Deville with Spanish verse, edgy punky street lyrics. Willy DeVille was from Connecticut but his soul wasn't.

Since I don't like to follow rules I'd add....

Joseph Arthur...In The Sun..."I would apologize if I could see your eyes."

Otis Redding...Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay....Just me and Otis. :-D

Entered at Sat Dec 31 13:20:47 CET 2016 from (86.7.70.30)

Al Edge

Subject: Bruce on Desert Island Discs

I think Pete commented on this last week.

It serves as a nice complementary double header to the documentary. As Pete said in his post it's all about the lack of pretentiousness in his 8 selections - every track right at the forefront of the music we all know and love and admire - is what sticks out a mile and says everything about the fella's down to earth character.

:-0)

Entered at Sat Dec 31 13:02:16 CET 2016 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

Just checked … October 31st, Halloween, was a Tuesday … Robbie was adamant that it was a Tuesday and they drove to NYC to meet him. Was it the day he arrived? And so he didn't go? Don't think that figures.

Incidentally, Levon's book is 23 years nearer the events than Robbie's. John Simon's interview with Lee G (1999) was 14 years earlier than his interview with Relix.

Entered at Sat Dec 31 12:54:23 CET 2016 from (86.7.70.30)

Al Edge

Subject: Bruce Springsteen "In His Own Words" documentary on Channel 4 [UK]

Linked above

Thought it was absolutely superb. Only criticism being it really did demand to have been at least two or three times longer. Still, it was great - and so wonderful to witness such candid and honest personal insight, still so beautifully uncontaminated by the usual bloated trappings of the arena he inhabits even after all these years. That as much as the amazing music and performance levels is why I adore the guy.

And what a fucking prose writer he is too.

Thing is, having taken something of a Bruce sabbatical this past year or so, fuelled partly because of my disgust at ticket prices and the continued absence of one of THE spiritual homes of modern music on his tour list and partly since I poured so much of my own musical devotion into the creative ambition of our very own GB friend's hugely talented all singing/writing/performing daughter, it was marvelously refreshing to re-connect with some honest to goodness raw and earnest Brucie soul searching which has nourished so much of my own musical fervour these past 30 years or so.

Highly recommended to any kindred soul-searchers.

Entered at Sat Dec 31 11:36:51 CET 2016 from (114.75.201.17)

Wallsend

In the linked interview John Simon says Levon returned the day before he met The Band. This seems to contradict what he said in the Lee Gabites interview.

Entered at Sat Dec 31 11:15:54 CET 2016 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

Subject: Mid-South Fair 1967

Google has improved since I first researched the Mid-South Fair in 2005. Link is to the programme. September 22nd-September 30th (LINKED) and Levon would have seen Marty Robbins, LeRoy Van Dyke and The Auctioneers and Roy Rogers. "Right after" gets us much earlier than John Simon'a account, but I wouldn't call the first week of October "late in the fall of 1967" either.

Entered at Sat Dec 31 11:12:50 CET 2016 from (99.229.224.79)

John D

"John D: Levon’s book says he was at Massey Hall for two shows (p 139 of first edition) which was mid-November." I don't have to admit this; but yes I have the same sources Peter; but was too lazy to go downstairs and find; what you took the time to do. Good on you and Ian and Jerry.

Jerry just sent me the entire set lists of Nov. 14 & 15th. That's something I will treasure. Thank you so much Jerry for taking the time to send it to me.

Entered at Sat Dec 31 11:07:01 CET 2016 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

The questions will never be answered but … in favour of the return to NYC after Washington, Mickey Jones delights in the fact that his deal included hotel bills, the Hawks didn’t.

That brings up another point about group dynamics. Mickey said Rick and Richard roomed together and he shared with Garth. That leaves Robbie in a single … or he mentions a two bedroom suite with Bob at one point. If you’d been on the road with a band then, finances often dictated sharing rooms. Some bands had a lottery every night for the single. In others one guy always got it. It kind of indicates who was “leader” (though it might indicate who had the smelliest feet or worst flatulence).

On Levon’s return to the fold, I spent ages trying to work that out. Robbie maintains the 1975 stance of muddying the waters and maintaining the idea of five for much of the basement, rather than the actuality of four.. This is all on the site somewhere.

LEE GABITES INTERVIEW WITH JOHN SIMON:

JOHN SIMON: And one night (Halloween), it was Howard Alk's birthday and there was this Godawful sound coming from outside, and there were the guys from The Band - not Levon because he wasn't there on the scene yet - in funny costumes playing instruments that they really couldn't play, serenading Howard for his birthday. Howard had been on the road with the last Bob Dylan tour and they were buddies. So that was how I first met them. And Howard said the only thing that he knew of theirs was a tape called "Even If Its A Pig Part Two" which hasn't really surfaced. It had Garth singing vocals. It was really a send up, you know.

LEE: You have answered one of my next questions by saying that Levon wasn't around. Nobody seems to know when Levon arrived in Woodstock. This was the Basement Tapes period.

JOHN SIMON: Yeah. He arrived after the Basement Tapes and just right before we went into NYC to cut the first tracks for Music from Big Pink.

LEE: So … after October 31st.

BARNEY HOSKYNS: (p 144)

“Levon instantly fell for Woodstock’s charms when he returned in late October.”

But not if he wasn’t there on 31st October.

LEVON’s BOOK:

“Towards the end of 1967 … the boys cut a demo that I’ve never heard ……… That’s when Rick called me in Memphis …”

Then Rick Danko is quoted:

RICK : I called Lee and told him we signd the deal with Capitol. “They wanna give us a couple hundred thou, Lee. Better come and get your share.

“LEVON: I took the Cavette Sisters to the Mid-South Fair then flew up to New York.”

(The 2005 Fair is Sept 23rd to October 2nd – it says it’s usually this fortnight)

“It was late on an autumn afternoon (when I arrived in Woodstock”

“It’s late 1967. The boys told me they’d been working with Bob on songs and demos since March. (elsewhere he said “for 6 months”)

ROBBIE

Robbie moves around and follows moods rather than strict sequences. He has Levon arriving on a specific Tuesday night (but not which one). He agrees that Rick calls Levon, but at this point in Robbie’s account they’ve done two demos so as to seek a contract … intriguingly Ruben Remus, plus an early version of Chest Fever (which has never emerged) with “a session drummer.” These tracks would be shown to Columbia and Warner. In Robbie’s account, the Capitol contract is a few pages AFTER he describes Levon’s return. Levon and Rick seemed pretty clear that it was the other way. Pity, David Powell would turn up the date of the Capitol offer! Also Rick had said “we signed”.

Robbie also has Levon back on his first day for I’m In The Mood, Tupelo, I Forgot To Remember to Forget, Kickin’ My Dog Around. These are right back on Disc Two of the 6 CD Complete Basement Tapes. Then he mentions Levon in the context of This Wheel’s On Fire, I’m Your Teenage Prayer, Crash on The Levee, Sign on The Cross, Minstrel Boy.

We will never tie in down. In John Simon’s account, Levon was not there on October 31st. I’d say meeting The Band for the first time was a bigger life event for him, than it was for the Band members. He says Levon was not back. With his distinctive accent and powerful personality, it is hard to believe he failed to notice him. On the same Halloween, mentioned page after Levon’s return, Robbie says “We all …” without naming names.

Levon describes Thanksgiving at The Traums, which does put an end stop on speculation. The Mid-South Fair makes early to mid October likely BUT John Simon’s account moves it to early November. Phew, all these books and we’re still confused over around a month.

Entered at Sat Dec 31 10:16:37 CET 2016 from (86.25.242.77)

Ian W

What I should have pointed out regarding "the city's finest in full uniform" was that the photo was taken not in the 'electric' half of the show but in Dylan's solo acoustic half. Perhaps the policemen were drafted in because the girl with the scissors had struck earlier.

The photo appeared in the issue of a small-scale Washington fanzine called DC MONUMENTS that was about folk-rock, as I recall. Despite the poor quality image, you can see three policemen quite clearly and the rest less clearly. However, there are spots of light visible, more or less in line, and these appear to be reflections from their cap badges. If so, this would make a line of at least seven policemen.

Levon's drum-kit is clearly seen behind Dylan and Dylan does appear to be wearing the same suit and shirt as in the better quality photos.

Entered at Sat Dec 31 09:30:31 CET 2016 from (187.216.84.50)

JT

Subject: Yes, it was Levon

My recollection was that Levon was indeed on drums in Toronto at the Nov. 15, 1965 show that I was at. (Massey Hall) My reading says he left later as Ian and others have noted here and that has been written in many accounts.

Entered at Sat Dec 31 05:19:40 CET 2016 from (114.75.201.17)

Wallsend

An article about Kathleen Chitty but it doesn't say anything about her meeting Levon.

Entered at Sat Dec 31 05:12:57 CET 2016 from (114.75.201.17)

Wallsend

Interview with Elliot Landy.

Entered at Sat Dec 31 05:03:00 CET 2016 from (76.66.112.132)

Bill M

Bonk: Doing well, thanks. Very well. You too, I trust - now and throughout 2017.

Wallsend: Could he have wound up on the same bus as Paul Simon and his girlfriend and the others who'd all come to look for America? Jeez, I hope Levon wasn't wearing his gabardine hat.

Entered at Sat Dec 31 03:23:27 CET 2016 from (99.229.224.79)

John D

Thanks Ian and Peter. Bill Avis who was road manager for Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks and later The Hawks, was extremely close to Levon. He told me how hurt he was to wake up the next morning and Robbie assembled them all together to tell them that Levon had left. Robbie was the only person Levon told that he was leaving.

Entered at Sat Dec 31 03:13:27 CET 2016 from (96.54.61.38)

BONK

Just in my mind thanks to the book. How are you man?

Entered at Sat Dec 31 03:08:32 CET 2016 from (114.75.201.17)

Wallsend

Entered at Sat Dec 31 02:49:55 CET 2016 from (76.66.112.132)

Goldie H

Umm. Could Levon have caught a bus to Fayetteville (or Memphis) at 11:00 pm in NYC?

How fine were Washington's finest if they were there for security but let a scissors-wielding girl get through their cordon? Does Levon say who stopped her?

Entered at Sat Dec 31 02:26:12 CET 2016 from (173.3.49.54)

Jeff A.

A lawyer & a blonde were seated next to each other on a plane. The lawyer had a few drinks, & made a blonde joke. blonde jokes. Then he wanted to play a game of intelligence. She demurred...Finally, the lawyer offered her 10 to 1 odds, and said every time the blonde could not answer one of his questions, she owed him $5, but every time he could not answer hers, he'd give her $50.00. The blonde reluctantly accepted to shut him up.

The lawyer asked, "What is the distance between the Earth and the nearest star?" Without saying a word the blonde handed him $5. Then the blonde asked, "What goes up a hill with 3 legs and comes back down the hill with 4 legs?" The lawyer looked puzzled. He looked up everything he could on his laptop and made phone calls trying to find the answer. Finally, angry and frustrated, he gave up and paid the blonde $50.00 The blonde put the $50 into her purse without comment, but the lawyer insisted, "What is the answer to your question?" Without saying a word, the blonde handed him $5.

(I just heard that today).

Entered at Sat Dec 31 02:23:36 CET 2016 from (114.75.201.17)

Wallsend

Does anybody know anything about this book? Also, do we have a definite day for when Levon came back?

Entered at Sat Dec 31 01:29:07 CET 2016 from (86.25.242.77)

Ian W

Yes, John D, Levon on the drums in Toronto. It is possible that the crowd and press reaction there, unexpected on their home turf, was the point in time (mid-November) when Levon really began to think about whether he should go on.

Peter V's comments are entirely valid. It is indeed likely that they returned to NYC immediately after the Washington show. Whether it was La Guardia or not, I cannot say. The Washington show was advertised as an 8.00 pm start and, with two (say) 45-minute halves, an intermission and possibly a delayed start, it would easily have been by 10.30 pm that they finished. They could have been back in their rooms in New York by 1 am or 2 am, as Peter suggests.

It's really a question of whether Levon's "very late that night" means the early hours of 29 November 1965 or the late evening of the same day. Robbie's account (about ten o'clock) suggests that latter and I went with that but, as we so often comment here, musician's memories can be fallible.

In respect of the Washington show itself, there are a couple of very good quality photos around showing Dylan performing but I also have a poor quality B&W one. Probably taken by an audience member, it shows is a line of the city's finest in full uniform along the front of the stage. That in itself suggests an intimidating atmosphere.

Finally, those photos of Dylan playing the bass guitar were, in my opinion, most likely taken at the 30 November 1965. And it was one those photos that Columbia used to advertise the "Crawl Out" single, as I recall.

Entered at Sat Dec 31 00:06:18 CET 2016 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

EXACT QUOTE: LEVON “In the dressing room, Bob had a scared look in his eyes after that one. We flew back to New York. We were living at the Irving Hotel, down near Gramercy Park, where Albert Grossman lived. Very late that night, I knocked on Robbie Robertson’s door and told him I was pulling out.” END QUOTE

I read the chronology this way. Say they finished at ten … I can’t think it would be much later. After a show, no one is going to sleep for four or five hours because the adrenalin has to subside. You have the Lodestar. You’re paying for accommodation in NYC. Generally, bands didn’t overnight if they could get back to base in a couple of hours … no one’s sleeping anyway. National Airport (which became Ronald Reagan Airport later) is 3 miles from downtown Washington. It’s a 240 mile flight to La Guardia. So even at Lodestar speed, and loading equipment (nothing by modern standards), taking off and landing, they could get back in two hours … probably in their rooms in Gramercy Park by 1 a.m or so. If the next few days are set to be in NYC, that’s what most bands would do. It’s even what I’ve done on publisher tours … it’s always worth travelling late, then getting 2 nights in one hotel, if not three so you can do laundry, and have a whole day, instead of a day split by travel. Levon says “very late that night” which I read as the early hours of 29th November from Levon’s account.

Entered at Fri Dec 30 23:20:06 CET 2016 from (99.229.224.79)

John D

So I take it that Levon was on drums in Toronto?

Entered at Fri Dec 30 22:52:41 CET 2016 from (86.25.242.77)

Ian W

John D,

The Washington DC concert was on Sunday 28 November 1965 at the Washington Coliseum (3rd and M Streets, NE). Levon left after this show and before the run of California shows that started on 3 December 1965. Dylan was in fact in San Francisco from 2 December. I suspect the remaining Hawks flew out with him on the Lockheed Lodestar.

In TESTIMONY, Robbie says that, "one night ... around ten o'clock" back In new York after the Washington show, Levon told him he was leaving and took a taxi for the bus terminal and left. This cannot have been directly after the Washington show on 28 November 1965 and cannot have been on Tuesday 30 November 1965 because they were recording with Dylan.

The liner notes for THE CUTTING EDGE list Dylan and all the Hawks except Levon at that 30 November 1965 session, with Bobby Gregg on drums. According to the Artist Contract Card for Dylan, Gregg was paid $2009.73 for this session

My conclusion is that Levon left the Hawks on the evening of Monday, 29 November 1965 and, based on TESTIMONY, that Robbie told the other Hawks on the morning of 30 November 1965, the day of the "Freeze Out" / "Crawl Out" session, which began at 2.30 pm and went on to (probably) 10.30 pm. I could imagine that the Hawks were not exactly focussed on their musical performance that day.

I'd like to add to my previous post by saying that the "release card" (I don't know its actual title but that's what it seems to be) for "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?" has a box headed DATE RECORDED & LOCATION". This is given as "11-30-65 NYC".

Out of interest, this "release card" has a note for the label of the disc which emphasises that there should be a line under the the word YOU and that YOU and the question mark should be in bold type and should stand out from the rest of the title. In other words, when speaking the song title, you should emphasise the word YOU and should inflect at the end of the title such that it becomes a question. I'm not sure that this is how it sounds on the record but, John D, this is certainly the way you are supposed to announce it on the radio.

Entered at Fri Dec 30 22:17:11 CET 2016 from (76.15.96.45)

Jed

Before seeing him last night I had seen him over the summer sit in with local musicians at the pizza shop in town.I know he played at the last waltz but don't know much about him or his background.Anyone have any info on him?

Entered at Fri Dec 30 21:12:18 CET 2016 from (99.229.224.79)

John D

Ian, wasn't Levon gone; from The Hawks by the end of November? I saw Bob Dylan & The Hawks just a few days before the 30th at Massey Hall. I could not see the drummer; as he was in darkness. I've been told it was not Levon; but Bobby Gregg; as Levon left the Hawks after the Washington concert???

Entered at Fri Dec 30 19:57:39 CET 2016 from (64.150.190.129)

pennstate vsusc

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Entered at Fri Dec 30 19:02:48 CET 2016 from (86.25.242.77)

Ian W

Adam,

The recoding session date for the "Crawl Out" single and the related matter as to whether Levon was the drummer on it are questions that much debated in Dylan and Band circles. My view is quite clear - it was recorded on 30 November 1965 and Levon is not the drummer. I'll give my reasons in a moment but I will start with the opposing view and why I don't accept it.

The opposing argument is that it was recorded at the 5 October session (and thus has Levon on the drums) and that, on 30 November 1965, the 5 October 1965 recording was mixed for release as Dylan's next single. Two arguments put forward in support of this view are:

[1] the "Crawl Out" recording was not only mixed for release as a single but also mixed in stereo and that this was the stereo mix that later "escaped" into collectors' hands. My counter-argument is that nobody mixed stereo singles in 1965. So, even if part of 30 November 1965 studio time was used for mixing this track for release, why on earth would they do a stereo mix? It was, after all, set up as a singles session, as shown by the contemporary documentation.

[2] The other argument is that, if you look at the Artist Contract Card that covers the 30 November 1965 session(it's reproduced in THE CUTTING EDGE), Bobby Gregg is shown against "Freeze Out", which was recorded at that session, but not against "Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window". This is true but I would argue that this is a complete misunderstanding of the way that these cards were not typed up. If you look at Dylan's Artist Contract card for 2 August 1965, Lester Chambers' name is lined up with "Highway 61 Revisited" but the Chambers Brothers didn't sing on this track. Likewise. for the 15 January 1965 session, Angeline Butler's name lines up with "On The Road Again" but she was not on this song.

For my side of this disagreement, I would point out that the Tape Identification Data sheet for the 30 November 1965 session (which is a log of what's actually on the reel of tape from the session) gives "Crawl Out" the number CO 88582, exactly one after CO 88581, the reference number for "Freeze Out" which nobody disputes was recorded at the session. It also shows 10 takes of "Crawl Out", which hardly smacks of a mixing session and there is nothing on the T.I.D. sheet to indicate that "Crawl Out" was being treated any differently from "Freeze Out".

I would add that the first reference to a stereo mix of "Crawl Out" that I can recall seeing in Columbia documentation was in 1971. I would guess that it was mixed into stereo then for it to be considered for "Bob Dylan Greatest Hits Vol.2" (aka "More Bob Dylan Greatest Hits"); it didn't make the cut.

Levon Helm, in his book, says he was at the 5 October 1965 recording sessions and then that the next Bob Dylan single was "Crawl Out". Levon does not actually stae that he was on the "Crawl Out" single. To me, this is quite telling but, in truth, it may or may not be significant

Entered at Fri Dec 30 17:26:58 CET 2016 from (87.152.124.42)

Norbert

Ed (JTullFan) many thanks, fly now brother.

Joan, Norm & JQ, thank you.

A few words on the brink of 2017.

“Happy New Year” is defining happiness as a state of mind. That is utopian thinking: it could be better. Láter, when I'm retired….. or have that Porsche 911, or finally share a bed with Bill & Peter. We don’t understand what happiness is. The French have a better word for it: ‘bonheur’, a nice hour. Happiness comes by coincidence, it ‘happens” sometimes in a fragile moment of balance.

Happiness is a door that opens to the inside so knocking on heaven’s door won’t help us here. But love can…. love means to surrender and just for a moment believing Gott exist.

Anyway, like Pessoa wrote dear Band fans; MAY YOUR 2017 LIFE BE SOBER, SO THAT EVERY LITTLE THING CAN BE A MIRACLE (with thanks to my friend Awee Prins).

Entered at Fri Dec 30 16:58:03 CET 2016 from (76.66.112.132)

Billl M

Subject: Larry Packer

Seeing Larry Packer's name sent me to Wikipedia to see if his early '70s band, Cat Mother and the All-Night News Boys is there. It is, in considerable nice-to-see detail. I note, though, that there is no mention of the Mary Martin's old charges, the Dirty Shames, having included both Roy Michaels and Bob Smith, or that Charlie Chin played banjo on the extended version of Buffalo Springfield's "Bluebird". Come to think of it, though it mentions Michaels having been in the Au Go Go Singers with Stills and Furay, it doesn't mention that he stayed with Stills when the Company split away and went rock and roll - and horsed around musically with Neil Young and the Squires in Fort William (now Thunder Bay).

Entered at Fri Dec 30 16:17:32 CET 2016 from (76.15.96.45)

Jed

Last night Louie(Aaron) Horowitz and the Crowmatix celebrated Rick's birthday at the Bearsville Theater.We had a fine old time hearing great interpretations of Ricks songs,solo stuff and Band songs.Larry Packer's violin playing was a highlight.Louie's stories and keyboards were fantastic and on a very cold,snowy evening in Woodstock we had a chance,once again,to celebrate Rick's life.

Entered at Fri Dec 30 05:40:00 CET 2016 from (65.92.194.150)

Bill M

Bonk: Are you in town physically or just in your mind thanks to "Testimony"? I haven't gotten as far as "Ophelia" in the book. If Robbie's thinking of Hamlet, does he make it clear whether it's the Danish prince or the dog that Rick got from Bob?

That reminds me to ask, Did I read somewhere that Rick changed Hamlet's name to something more 'ordinary'? In any case, I persist in thinking that Rick's verse in "The Weight" refers to the real-life hand-over - which is why Rick got to sing that particular verse. I also can't help but think that John Simon's "My Name Is Jack" is about the same canine, though at an earlier time, when he lived at the back of Dylan's small-town refuge. "I vaunt to be alone - you don't know vut a drag it is to see you."

Entered at Fri Dec 30 01:49:46 CET 2016 from (96.54.61.38)

Bonk

Subject: Memories

Just finished reading 'Testimony' Loved it as I loved reading 'This wheels on fire' My only beef, if I'm allowed one, was that Robbie's book seemed to speed up and jump things near the latter part of the book that I was really getting into. Oh well. I guess the missing 300 pages might one day solve that. I guess for me, the one thing that came through really strong was the fact that the two writers have/were completely different personalities. One was rough and tumble the other was not. Like John D alluded to, memory can be a bitch. One of the things that stood out for me was the two completely different takes on Ophelia. Levon mention's Minnie Pearl and Robbie mention's Hamlet. Which one was it? It must be maddening to think that you have to explain yourself and your memories after 50 years.

Entered at Fri Dec 30 01:39:21 CET 2016 from (24.105.223.158)

Lil

Entered at Fri Dec 30 01:16:41 CET 2016 from (99.16.133.205)

Adam

Robbie says he and Levon were playing it (p 190). Was this the earlier demo attempt in Oct, or did they go and recut it in Nov. with a different drummer?

Entered at Thu Dec 29 23:38:39 CET 2016 from (114.75.193.87)

Wallsend

This is so sad.

Entered at Thu Dec 29 22:56:27 CET 2016 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

Entered at Thu Dec 29 22:55:52 CET 2016 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

Entered at Thu Dec 29 21:55:17 CET 2016 from (63.142.158.9)

JQ

Hi Carol, thanks for coming back - come back more often!

Entered at Thu Dec 29 21:23:25 CET 2016 from (24.105.223.158)

Lil

Hope everyone here has a nice new year.

Entered at Thu Dec 29 20:03:57 CET 2016 from (108.58.253.98)

Carol

Subject: Rick

Rick would have been 73 today, but he'll always be forever young. God bless him wherever he is.

Entered at Thu Dec 29 19:59:56 CET 2016 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

It's true that many artists failed to archive their own releases. You see quotes that they never listened to an album after it was made etc. Some musicians kept their complete discography, others never did. Especially true of people who did sessions.

Entered at Thu Dec 29 13:10:25 CET 2016 from (99.229.224.79)

John D

Memories can play tricks on you. I have conducted interviews with artists for 50 years. I am now going to speak generally. Not every artist falls; under this comment. Many of the artists I have interviewed have clouded memories about their own career. They were not documenting what was going on (like Bill Wyman) they were too busy living it. I have found that journalists who have documented artists over time; are in many cases a better source for facts.

Also from time to time I would bring an album; with me to an interview hoping I might get it signed at the end of the interview. Interestingly enough many of the artists were shocked to see the copy of the album I had with me and would say, "You know I don't own any of those albums anymore." Again. That wasn't everyone I spoke to; but many of them. When I interviewed Sir George Martin and son Giles I brought out my mint copy of "Off The Beatle Track." His face lit up and proudly showed it to son Giles. He was just so excited to see it. Just a couple of observations. Peter I'm sure you have stories like that; about people you have interviewed over the years.

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John D

Just a small note here. Ronnie & The Hawks recorded two versions of Bo Diddley; in the early days. The very first version on Quality records here in Canada; was recorded in a garage and financed by I believe by Gord Josie. The second version; which we are all familiar with; was the one that made it to Roulette Records. Elvis Costello; when finding out I owned the original version; asked me for a copy; when I interviewed him for the first time. I taped it for him and gave it to the Columbia rep at the time to give to him. He was a big Ronnie Hawkins and The Hawks fan.

Entered at Thu Dec 29 09:34:20 CET 2016 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

What we have is the 500 page Testimony, not the 800 page first draft, so stuff has been cut and probably conflated. It is not an annotated discography. The Band never had a Bill Wyman … who as we know kept a diary, every ticket stub, newspaper ad, as well as a list of groupies.

The Mary Martin quote from Schneider is really surprising:

“I had heard them play one of his (Dylan) songs, so I knew the combination could work.”

That goes against what both Robbie and Levon have said about Dylan being largely off their radar, disliking strummers etc. Though doesn’t Robbie say he had heard “Freewheelin’”? There’s no Hawks tape with a Dylan song on.

My guess, if she’s right, and based on British bands of the era, would be a version of House of The Rising Sun, based on The Animals #1 hit, not Dylan. They were a band that had to attempt some covers. That was prominent and a classic blues. Like all of them they would be covering The Animals rather than Dylan.

I’ve discussed this before, but on the 1964 release, Eric Burdon told interviewers that both their singles, Baby Let Me Take You Home (i.e. Baby Let Me Follow You Down) and House of The Rising Sun were learned from the first Dylan LP, “Bob Dylan.” Ever after, Burden denied this, claiming they learned it from folk singer Johnny Handle in Newcastle (who had learned it from Clarence Tom Ashley’s 1933 recording). Bollocks, Eric. The irony is that Dylan had in turn lifted the arrangement from Dave Van Ronk. Joan Baez had also done it in 1960.

It’s the only “Dylan” song that I can imagine Levon & The Hawks playing.

Entered at Thu Dec 29 06:17:58 CET 2016 from (64.229.12.88)

Bill M

BEG: I'm pretty sure that Hawkins's contract with Roulette ran from '59-'69, but covered just the US. Hence Ronnie's ability to release material on his own Hawk label in '64-'66 and then on Yorkville in '67 and '68. Free of Roulette, his two albums with Duane Allman were done in '69 and '70. I suspect that Jason Schneider has the Roulette contract ending in '64 because he assumed it to be continent-wide in effect - in which case it would have to have ended before Hawkins recorded for Canadian labels.

Peter V: Thanks for all of your input on the dates, etc., of "Bo Diddley" and "Who Do You Love". The Roulette liner notes date it as "c. 1/'63", not "c. 1963". I suspect that the use of 'circa' indicates that dating was done by comparing the matrix numbers to those of other Roulette 45s released around then. So early February may be just as likely. Since it's safe to assume that the musicians didn't compare matrix numbers or keep receipts, they may well have relied of memories of whether or not it was snowing (snow=winter), whether it was after we went home for Christmas, after we did that big new year's blast uptown, before I surprised my sweetie on Valentine's day, etc.

Back to the Roulette dates: There's a note saying that "Arkansas" and "Mojo Man" were recorded in 2/2/62, but were overdubbed later and provided with later matrix numbers, i.e., from '64 or '65 - when the songs appeared on "The Best of Ronnie Hawkins" LP. (That LP was released only in Canada, and was still in print in 1972 when I bought a sealed copy in a regular record store with my first-ever paycheque.) Maybe Roulette did the same with "Bo Diddley" and "Who Do You Love", including overdubbing.

Adam: That reminds me. Even if it's Buchanan on bass / Rick on rhythm for one session, as a general rule I'd say it's Robbie on rhythm / Rick on bass / Robbie on overdubbed lead. Listen to "What A Party"; what's missing?

And then there's jazz bassist George Duvivier, who Levon has on one of their recordings. Which? Could he have arm-wrestled Buchanan but lost?

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Rockin Chair

Subject: Country Roads

A few weeks back when I announced my retirement, one of my long time friends here said, "Don't be a stranger and don't stop with the Playing For Change, I believe this place needs that."

I very much appreciate that comment. This video is so different and so good, I'm sure John Denver would approve, (god rest his soul).

Please listen to these people from all over the world who have so much soul.

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brown eyed girl

Female Musicians for island disc. No particular order.

Joni Mitchell
Amy Winehouse
Annie Lennox
Patti Smith
Ani DiFranco
Stevie Nicks
Joan Armatrading
Rickie Lee Jones

Mary Martin clarifies in Schneider's book....or does she just downplay her role in The Hawks meeting Dylan?
"When I went back to New York, I became Albert's assistant secretary, and by that time I firmly believed The Hawks were about as good as it got. I started yammering about this band from Toronto and how good they were, so one day I was hauled into a meeting when Bob was there, during which I basically told him to go to Toronto to hear them for himself. I had heard them play one of his songs, so I knew the combination could work. But he also had heard about them through John Hammond Jr., who himself spent a fair amount of time in Toronto. Dylan probably checked with John to see what he thought, and that is important to me because I've often been given the credit of putting The Hawks and Dylan together, but I really feel, in retrospect, that John Hammond was truly integral to all of that. Dylan will always say it was me, but I was just the chick."

After the phone call to Helm in New Jersey, Grossman scout Danny Wiener was dispatched to Tony Mart's, and within days Robertson was summoned to New York to rehearse with the assortment of musicians Dylan had assembled."

....Then it was a warm homecoming back in New York, at Carnegie Hall on October 1, where the fans from Forest Hills knew what to expect. After two more shows, an extended break prompted Dylan to get the band into the studio on October 5, primarily to re-record "Can You Please Crawl out Your Window," a song that had been left off of Highway 61 Revisited, which he now wanted to release as a single."

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brown eyed girl

"Roulette still had Hawkins under contract until 1964, and was determined to squeeze whatever it could out of him. Sensing a resurging interest in R&B, someone at the label suggested that Hawkins take another crack at Bo Diddley, whose songs were still the backbone of the Hawks' set. In January 1963, with Henry Glover producing, the band recorded "Bo Diddley" and "Who Do You Love", a Diddley hit from 1956.

"Bo Diddley" b\w "Who Do You Love" was released in March 1963....."

Whispering Pines The Northern Roots of (North)American Music...From Hank Snow to The Band
Jason Schneider

Joni Mitchell-Girl of the North Country (Johnny Cash Show)

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Wallsend

Entered at Thu Dec 29 02:14:13 CET 2016 from (99.16.133.205)

Adam

Ok sorry - Not to jump to another topic, but I just found a very similar part to the Hawks thing on "Testimony" page 190:

Robbie talks about the Hawks being asked to record with Dylan a few days into October, which was October 5 1965: Medicine Sunday, Jet Pilot, I Wanna Be Your Lover, and Instrumental. But then, talks about CAN YOU PLEASE CRAWL OUT YOUR WINDOW and the blues VISIONS OF JOHANNA, recorded later in November WITHOUT Levon. It's after all this studio talk that Levon leaving the Dylan tour happens...

Just want to say I'm not criticizing TESTIMONY at all, I'm just reading this looking for certain sessions, dates, etc.

Entered at Thu Dec 29 01:40:42 CET 2016 from (99.16.133.205)

Adam

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Adam

Thanks for the talk here. I've got copy notes and printouts of the musicians to read as I go along. Ronnie Hawkins' official site has a session list. It says January 1963, Roy Buchanan on bass, Rick on rhythm guitar. I think the Hawks recordings with a basic rhythm guitar behind Robbie's solos must be Rick. And Roy Buchanan on bass, or vice versa.

Entered at Wed Dec 28 23:23:54 CET 2016 from (114.75.95.211)

Wallsend

Entered at Wed Dec 28 16:41:01 CET 2016 from (67.71.41.191)

brown eyed girl

In Ronnie Hawkins Last Of The Good Ol" Boys by Ronnie Hawkins and Peter Goddard...Paul Godfrey sent this book to me and then I sent him a brown eyed girl mixed CD.....later bought my own copy.....Roy Buchanan is mentioned on some p;ages.....but only at the back of the book re Who Do You Love 1963 Roulette.

Re only eight artists I made a big mistake leaving out The Waterboys!!!!!! So here is my updated list no particular order and songs to follow another time Peter. I'm basically a Rock Reggae Soul kind of music fan. Only one came immediately to mind was Robbie's Making A Noise!!!!

Bob Marley
Robbie Robertson
Van Morrison
Bob Dylan
Louuuu Reed
Garland Jeffreys
The Waterboys
Mink Deville
If list included ten I would add Joseph Arthur and Otis Redding

Keep the river on your right
and the highway at your shoulder
and the front line in your sights, pioneer
Keep your eye on the road
remember what you told her
this is all in code, my dear

Entered at Wed Dec 28 14:18:56 CET 2016 from (187.216.84.50)

JT

Subject: Do you swear to tell...?

In general, I liked the book. Only mild criticism. Too much on the use of drugs repeatedly throughout the book. I could have done with less of that. It felt 'over the top'. Good detail otherwise. It felt thought out and as careful as one could be after all these years and all these events. 1997.

Entered at Wed Dec 28 13:17:44 CET 2016 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

A Musical History and Ian Wallis's The Hawk agree on the personnel (no saxes, no Garth) and on the January 1963 date. It's "The Roulette Years" that produces these unheard saxes and a vague date. Levon says February, but a couple of days either way does that. Both Levon and Robbie are "early 1963."

The "Musical History" notes agree that it had been Ronnie's star turn for years, and notes that it was odd to leave Garth out as his "mad scientist" solo had become a live feature of the song. The clue is in Levon's statement that it was meant to cash in on the R&B boom, thus a move to a more expected basic line up: drums, two guitars, bass, piano. Listening to that swooping bass with the finger slides on the strings, it is most unusual and extremely powerful. My bet is that Roy Buchanan as a guy Robbie says was into weird stuff about being a werewolf, was on because his very presence contributed to the mood and the feel of it.

I'm sure after going along the bookshelf while listening, that the two tracks sound different to earlier Hawks stuff (Levon's 18 month gap) and I'll go along with what everyone says: it's Roy Buchanan on bass.

Also, the Ronnie Hawkins & The Hawks version is up there with Little Richard's Lucille, Eddie Cochran's C'Mon Everybody, Elvis's Hound Dog as one of the best rock songs ever recorded.

Entered at Wed Dec 28 10:23:56 CET 2016 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter v

Entered at Wed Dec 28 09:50:25 CET 2016 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

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Peter V

There are two 1963 sessions in the liner notes.

Bossman, High Blood Pressure, There's A Screw Loose are "7/5/63" and looking back at "13/9/61" the notes use the British date order, so 7th May 1963.

BUT that classic "Who Do You love" / "Bo Diddley" session is listed as "c. 1963" so "circa 1963." This is odd as the other sessions are dated.

Then the last tracks on the CD, Arkansas / Mojo Man, which are placed after the 7 May 1963 tracks, are 2/2/62 … 2nd February 1962. Otherwise the disc is in chronological sequence.

So that odd "circa 1963" stands out. Were they, as Bill suggests, earlier? Incidentally, I have heard those liner notes questioned before.

Entered at Wed Dec 28 04:12:06 CET 2016 from (64.229.12.88)

Bill M

To recap, Robbie specifies that Ronnie invited Roy to attend "the next recording session" in NY, which happened to be in September '61 (according to the CD liner notes in "The Roulette Years" by Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks). However, Robbie has Roy turning up at the January '63 session ("Bo Diddley" and "Who Do You Love") and playing bass (which is what same CD liner notes say). So something's off.

While I've always trusted those liner notes for dates, I've never trusted their lineups. For one thing, they list two saxes on "Bo Diddley" and "Who Do You Love", whereas none can be heard. For another, I know from one of the participants that the lineups were in some cases decided by assembling the thoughts, guesses and understandings of a bunch of record collectors, some of who may have known but didn't cared to invest their knowledge and some who cared to invest but didn't know.

My suspicion is that Roy turned up at the '61 session as per the invitation, and played bass on a number of songs (at a time when Rick was still fairly new to the group, as was Jerry Penfound). And that Robbie remembers him recording but erroneously decided on the basis of the half-assed liner notes that it must have been the "Bo Diddley" session that he was remembering. (It's worth remembering that by January '63 Rick could have played "Bo Diddley" and "Who Do You Love" in his sleep - so why would Henry Glover let Roy intrude?)

Another possibility is that "Bo Diddley" and "Who Do You Love" were really done in the '61 session but sat in the can for 14 months before being released with new matrix numbers.

Entered at Wed Dec 28 01:09:21 CET 2016 from (99.16.133.205)

Adam

Just a question about Testimony. I'm reading the first portion carefully, dealing with The Hawks years. Robbie talks about Roy Buchanan a bit, and Ronnie inviting him to participate in recording sessions in New York. Robbie says how this was the first time they worked with Henry Glover in NY, but talks about "Hey Bo Diddley" and "Who Do You Love" which were recorded a couple of sessions later in 1963. There's no mention of the September 1961 sessions produced by Glover, with YOU KNOW I LOVE YOU, SEXY WAYS, COME LOVE, SEARCHING, HONEY LOVE, the outtake WHAT A PARTY, then I FEEL GOOD, SUZIE Q, MATCHBOX, FURTHER ON UP THE ROAD, NINETEEN YEARS OLD, etc.

Am I correct? This is around page 100

Entered at Tue Dec 27 20:50:07 CET 2016 from (114.75.88.240)

Wallsend

Entered at Tue Dec 27 20:11:16 CET 2016 from (24.196.109.82)

Pete

A straight factual question for which I am having a hard time finding an answer: When did Robbie and Dominique get divorced?

Entered at Tue Dec 27 20:01:57 CET 2016 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

Subject: By A Sleepy Lagoon

Bill M, I don't think any guest has done that. It would make a fun programme. The theme tune, By A Sleepy Lagoon by Eric Coates has been running since the radio show began in 1942. Link is to original version, though I think it's been speeded up and pepped up considerably since.

Entered at Tue Dec 27 19:54:02 CET 2016 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

Angelina, you have to narrow it down to just eight songs. So which ones by your selected eight artists?

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Bill M

BEG: Sandy Konikoff drummed with at least four of your guys - Robbie, Van, Bob and Garland. A trend.

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brown eyed girl

Of course there's always just one more! I can't wait for Garland Jeffreys' upcoming CD and DVD......April 1!!!!!!

Many thanks again to Louuuu who exposed me to Garland Jeffreys!!!!!!! The power of radio John D. I was listening in the mid-seventies to late seventies CFNY? and the DJ puts on Garland's "Wild In The Streets" and then let's the listeners know that he's one of Louuu's favourite singer-songwriters!!!!!! That's all it took..... ;-D

Entered at Tue Dec 27 17:43:33 CET 2016 from (67.71.41.191)

brown eyed girl

My list would include if only eight allowed, otherwise I'd add Sam Cooke and The Band...no particular order:

Robbie Robertson
Otis Redding
Lou Reed
Van Morrison
Bob Dylan
Garland Jeffreys
Mink Deville
Bob Marley

"The Contortionist" by Garland Jeffreys was shot in New York City by Devereux Milburn. Background vocals by Lou Reed and Savannah Jeffreys.

Entered at Tue Dec 27 17:13:59 CET 2016 from (67.71.41.191)

brown eyed girl

New Year's Resolution

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JQ

He did an hour with a Terri Gross yesterday; you can hear it at NPR - Fresh Air. Mostly in regard to his book -

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Jed

Entered at Tue Dec 27 16:56:10 CET 2016 from (86.25.242.77)

Ian W

Subject: Extended version of Springsteen on Desert Island Discs

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0855znp I don't know if this is available overseas but I hope so.

Entered at Tue Dec 27 14:37:09 CET 2016 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

Entered at Tue Dec 27 14:34:42 CET 2016 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

Bruce Springsteen's Desert Island Discs was quite remarkable, in that I would have been happy with his eight, and also no one else has chosen such major songs as Bruce. Not an obscurity in there:

Hound Dog - Elvis Presley

I Want To Hold Your Hand - The Beatles,

It's All Over Now - The Rolling Stones

Madame George- Van Morrison

What's Going On - Marvin Gaye

Out of Sight - James Brown

Like A Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan

Baby I Need Your loving - The Four Tops

His "you can only have one" was Like A Rolling Stone. Notice the time scale too- all but one were 1964-1971. I could tweak it a bit … he's right that you have to have Motown with a great singer, but mine is Reach Out I'll Be There to hear Levi Stubbs. I'd have a later Beatles (Strawberry Fields Forever) or an earlier one (From Me To You, or Twist and Shout). I might put in Otis Redding instead of James Brown … though my normal Atlantic / Stax choice is Private Number by William Bell & Judy Clay. For Elvis, either His Latest Flame or its B-side, Little Sister.

But all in all, I'd be thrilled with Bruce's eight in its entirety. So the "interviewee with the best taste" ever on the show.

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jh

Entered at Tue Dec 27 02:37:50 CET 2016 from (173.3.50.9)

Jeff A.

Congratulations again. I hope that your grandson's strong resemblance to you gets grown over quickly.

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Peter V

Our new addition is on my Facebook page (linked) at one day old.

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Joan.

Congratulations On your new grand child.

Norbert That was a beautiful story A lovely tribute to Serge.Your stories are very special a

Entered at Mon Dec 26 20:24:46 CET 2016 from (173.3.50.9)

Jeff A.

Entered at Mon Dec 26 17:29:53 CET 2016 from (86.25.242.77)

Ian W

I am slowly working my way through TESTIMONY (I have several books "on the go" at the moment). Robbie Robertson clearly thinks Dylan and the Hawks did play Seattle (p.199 near the start of Chapter 15) but I have doubts about this. The date for this (supposed?)Seattle concert is usually given as 1 December 1965. My doubts on this topic are rooted in two things: logistics and a lack of contemporary evidence.

In respect of logistics, the problem starts with the recording session in New York City on 30 November 1965. According to Michael Krogsgaard’s researches in the Sony’s files, this session ran from 2.30 pm to 5.30 pm and then restarted at 7 pm. but no finishing time is noted. On the Artist Job Sheet (included in THE CUTTING EDGE), the session is given as from 2.30 pm to 10.30 pm. This, of course was in Manhattan, so we have get Dylan and the Hawks (not to mention Bobby Gregg) to a local airport to fly across to Seattle for a show the next day. This was not impossible at that time but also not easy. Robbie mentions (on page 205) that they “got back (from the West Coast) on the Lodestar, headed for New York”. The Lockheed Lodestar was a WWII-era plane. Indeed, Dylan’s Lodestar had a very commendable war record, having made 83 flights as a civilian airliner from Scotland to neutral Sweden during WWII (across hostile territory, subject to flak and night-fighters with on-board radar) and back. In theory, the Lodestar just about had the range to cross the States but the safety margin was too tight. Its normal range was about 1800 miles, so it would have needed to land to refuel at least once. It’s speed was about 200 mph, so we’re talking, say, 15 hours flight time plus a refuelling stop plus however long the ground transportation and administration took at either end, not to mention time for sound-checking and the like. As I said, not impossible but not easy.

My second concern is the lack of contemporary documentation (so far?) for a Seattle show on 1 December 1965. At least, I can’t recall any. I would be delighted if someone can produce something to contradict me but I’ve never seen any adverts, previews, posters, handbills or reviews.

My conclusion in this is that, in writing his memoir, Robbie has fleshed out his recall with some specifics that are taken from outside sources (and these outside sources are not necessarily well-founded).

Brickbats, anyone?

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Jeff A.

Dressed in their white gowns, they entered the chapel for their symbolic marriage to Jesus, making them "Brides of Christ."

Just as the ceremony was about to begin, four Hasidic Jews came in and sat in the front row.

The Mother Superior said, "I am so honored you want to share this experience with us. May I ask why you came?"

"We're from the groom's family."

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brown eyed girl

George Michael's Last Christmas

I only have one song downloaded from his days with Wham...Careless Whisper, but I also liked from this smooth singing artist One More Try (Teacher).

Entered at Mon Dec 26 03:45:49 CET 2016 from (107.77.97.107)

JQ

This is likely old news to most here but his site has many early Hawks and Toronto pics I hadn't seen before. Thanks for the reminder Norbert; I hadn't thought much about the disagreeable(?) Mr Daniloff in years - RIP though; I know he was a great, great fan and interesting fellow.

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Bob F

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John D

Well I thought we were in the home stretch of 2016; but yet another pop icon has died. George Michael of Wham fame. I wasn't a fan; but sorry another entertainer has passed. He was 53. Cause of death not mentioned.

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Rod

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Jeff A.

Subject: Remembering Mose Allison

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Rockin Chair

Subject: With Respect And Giving Thanks

Norbert! With all that happens in Europe and particularly your country these days with the hate and violence you must understand how good it is to hear your stories and know that you are safe and happy.

Today is our Christmas day we will lift a glass of good red wine at dinner this evening to toast you and your Mrs. Very Merry Christmas my old friend! :-)

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Norbert

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Norbert

No! I said half loud to myself after half an hour drinking beer in silence...

“What?” asked Lotte, the 65 year old owner of the little Imbiss stand on that grey industrial parking lot corner, pressed between the Autobahn to Berlin and an enormous Ikea building.

“No, I won’t let the year pass without saying something about Serge Daniloff” ….. ….

“Sounds Russian….” Lotte said as she opened another bottle of beer for me.

“Yes, he and his family came from Russia. ….the Daniloffs wanted to go to America but stranded in La Havre in France, they managed to cross the ocean only long after the war. He liked good music, as Russians do, in fact he was a Band fan too.”

“What about him?” Lotte asked ………

“He died this year” ……

“Was he a friend of you?”

“No, think he didn’t have many friends, he wasn’t always easy. Fighting was part of his Russian heritage, a remnant of hundreds of years of suppression. He liked Vodka too, to protect his soul from Russian’s dark winter melancholy..... No he wasn’t easy, but still he was a good man, you can feel that sometimes...... Do You remember 1997 when Porsche went water? ”

“Who doesn’t” …. Lotte interrupted wonderingly, flipping 7 Bratwursts at the speed of lightning.

“The air cooled engine was good, but outdated. In order to meet the strict environment rules Porsche had to change, that’s not always easy, but Porsche survived. Serge stayed too long in Russia, something like that I mean. He couldn’t change, he was trapped in his Russian soul … he stayed in the cold just a little too long. That wasn’t his fault, it was just … you know….one of those things that happen sometimes…… he was the kind of guy you don’t always like, nevertheless when times get rough he was just that person that could save you.”

“Do you know such a person too, Lotte?”

“Old famer Max Radelmacher, now that is your man” Lotte pointing her Bratwurst tong towards me. “He was moody and people didn’t like him much and he never went to church...... Still people respected him, I don’t know why, he had something special about him. Not long ago we found out Max and his wife Elsa had saved 4 Jewish children during the war, nobody knew they had hidden them, even after the war they told nobody. At his funeral four big men came, all the way from Israel, special for him. They placed a Jad Wasjem decoration on his coffin and saluted, only then we knew and we all felt shame an guild.”

“Where they the children he saved?”

“Nobody knows …. ” Lotte answered before she put a large slice of Curry wurst in her mouth.

“Max Radelmacher did good, and he didn’t look back …. they’re the ones that save our world …. men Kipling writes poems about ….. I know somehow Serge belongs there too ” ….. I murmured.

“You definitely have to say something about your Serge somewhere, just to release him” Lotte said.

And then we both turned our heads, from a distance of over 10 miles we could hear bells ring through the fog night from the little chuch of Salzbergen.

“That’s strange, I work here for over 40 years and never heard those church bells here, this is the first time…” Lotte said truly amazed.

“For whom the bells tolls ….” I replied slowly

“Maybe I need to release myself, maybe we all need to release ourselves by honoring those people and now is just the right time.” I added.

“They ‘re all up in Heaven, your friend is up there too now“…. Charlotte said …..”Yes, he is” I said with a smile.

“Merry Christmas….”……..I stepped into my car, and slowly crossed the dark empty parking lot, and only now I noticed the carol singers in front of the closed Ikea building singing Silent Night in perfect harmony, I stopped and listened, odd, but it was wonderful.

I closed my car window and speeded up on the sharp Autobahn U-turn heading home. I passed the parking lot again and looked at it for the last time … I only saw Lotte turn out the lights and closing her little Imbiss stand for Christmas Eve, the carol singers were gone and the church bells had all silenced.

A few miles further up the road I knew that I had just witnessed my best Christmas ever on this abandoned parking lot and I was thankful.

I pushed the throttle to the limit on the empty highway, crossed the 100 miles zone easily and whispered “THANK YOU” and with the engine roaring now, wasn’t it Jack Keroauc that taught us to spell the name out loud? S-E-R-G-E .. D-A-N-I-L-O-F-F.

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brown eyed girl

Peter and Family...especially to Chloe!
Good News!
The Waterboys

Drop your guns
and hear the news
The war is won
and we've called a truce
The key is found
and the circle complete
And the higher ground
is beneath our feet

Like the turn of a page
or a change of gear
A brand new age
is already here
And even while
men pursue their doom
A magical child
is kicking in the womb

I'm preparing for birth
I'm not the only one
I'm a part of the Earth
I'm a drop of the Sun
I'm in step with the stars
I'm in a league with the land
I'm a functioning part of the Master's Plan!

Entered at Sun Dec 25 16:32:07 CET 2016 from (184.66.251.127)

JT

Subject: Congratulations

Good news, Pete. All the best.

Entered at Sun Dec 25 15:37:44 CET 2016 from (174.7.179.50)

John D

We have our third grandchild coming in March. Another trip to the west coast. Can't beat a Christmas baby.

Entered at Sun Dec 25 15:25:17 CET 2016 from (173.3.50.0)

Jeff A.

Entered at Sun Dec 25 14:27:02 CET 2016 from (86.7.70.30)

Al Edge

And a special one to Pete, his better half and their exhausted daughter and her new Christmas day arrival - not forgetting hubby and the four siblings of course!!!!!

:-0)

Entered at Sun Dec 25 14:07:27 CET 2016 from (70.26.123.113)

Mike Nomad

Entered at Sun Dec 25 11:46:09 CET 2016 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

We got a Christmas baby! Our grandson was born at 34 minutes past midnight, Now you know why the right words of that song mean so much to me.

Entered at Sun Dec 25 05:56:24 CET 2016 from (174.1.36.190)

Lisa

Entered at Sun Dec 25 03:38:33 CET 2016 from (67.71.41.191)

brown eyed girl

John D...I remember you told me that Christmas was your favourite time of year. It's already here for Fred and almost here for us. I had no idea that Robbie and I think alike re covers....and many others of course. lol It just makes sense to me, especially when the original is so great.

I've linked Rick singing Christmas Must Be Here Tonight (second song in concert in NJ 1977) with Terry Danko and Band. Again, I had no idea that he covers himself here....or did he cover Robbie's faster tempo of the song he wrote? No....because Robbie sang this song for the soundtrack Scrooge. I bought someone a scrooge plant hoping....no luck.

Hi Fred! I always feel a calmness whenever you visit..... :-D

Any news yet Peter?!

Merry merry, merry
May everyone's dreams come true

Entered at Sun Dec 25 02:52:11 CET 2016 from (125.174.241.231)

Fred

Happy Christmas and Merry Holidays to one and all. : )

Entered at Sun Dec 25 02:21:30 CET 2016 from (208.181.205.134)

Rockin Chair

Subject: Rick's Bass

Bill, I think this is the original you refer to, (by far the best). The scenes put to the song here are beautiful, (I think I put this up last year).

It has always sounded to me that Rick does what my bass player Joel Sacks used to do. He tunes his bass 2 octaves low for the heavier harmonic sound. I love it. I was listening one time when I caught on and Joel just showed me what he did.

Entered at Sun Dec 25 01:59:04 CET 2016 from (154.5.149.228)

John D

BTW Beg. It was Robbie that first said to me; in an interview; "when you do a cover....make it your own."

Entered at Sat Dec 24 22:44:02 CET 2016 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

Rick Parfitt of Status Quo just passed. RIP.

Entered at Sat Dec 24 22:08:09 CET 2016 from (67.71.41.191)

brown eyed girl

Peter....If you're going to cover a song make it your own. I've been watching Jose Feliciano making performing music since I was a child so he warms up my heart.

How could I forget Toronto's own....The Skydiggers version of "Good King Wenceslas".

Unfortunately I had to give up my ticket two nights ago to see them at The Horseshoe...... :-((((

On the bright side they have performed at our Cabbagetown Festival for free. Another group green eyed girl knows from back in the day.

Entered at Sat Dec 24 20:51:01 CET 2016 from (64.229.12.88)

Bill M

Much as I like all of Robbie's mixes of "Christmas Must Be Tonight", my favourite version is still the Band's with Rick. And it's not even Rick's vocal so much as the sound of his bass, something that always gets me. His sound often has an extra rumble - as if is strings are looser than the norm - though of course always in tune.

As of now, the rest of my Cool Yule Five would be "Nothing For Christmas" by Eartha Kitt, Santa Baby by Eartha Kitt, "Elf's Lament" by the Barenaked Ladies with Michael Buble and "I Believe In Father Christmas" by Greg Lake.

May peace be with all of you.

Entered at Sat Dec 24 20:50:34 CET 2016 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

Love the Amy Helm version.

However, Feliciano and Hall stray a LONG way from the lyrics. Wildly out though they get the gist of it.

Entered at Sat Dec 24 19:53:10 CET 2016 from (173.3.48.155)

Jeff A.

Entered at Sat Dec 24 16:54:56 CET 2016 from (67.71.41.191)

brown eyed girl

Just one more from Jose Feliciano and Daryl Hall!

:-D

Entered at Sat Dec 24 16:42:35 CET 2016 from (67.71.41.191)

brown eyed girl

"Christmas Must Be Tonight"

Amy Helm, Connor Kennedy, & Catherine Russell
Levon Helm Studios

Entered at Sat Dec 24 16:29:42 CET 2016 from (208.181.205.134)

Rockin Chair

Subject: Unkown????

Has any one heard this version before. I really like it. I don't know what language this name is.

Entered at Sat Dec 24 16:18:47 CET 2016 from (67.71.41.191)

brown eyed girl

Jose Feliciano and Daryl Hall....and who is the guitar picker?

Entered at Sat Dec 24 13:41:43 CET 2016 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

Subject: Christmas Bells

Link to Bellowhead's cheerful 2013 Christmas single. (Again)

Entered at Sat Dec 24 11:12:18 CET 2016 from (31.53.17.247)

Dunc

Subject: Some Like It Hot

Here's the Shell scene from 'Some Like It Hot' to cheer everybody up. I love this.

Entered at Sat Dec 24 11:01:20 CET 2016 from (31.53.17.247)

Dunc

Subject: Film

Merry Xmas everybody.

Our Christmas film was 'Some Like It Hot'. Brilliant. Every time Tony Curtis does Cary Grant I laugh. (I'm pretty good at doing the impression too...mmmm).

And Jack Lemon and Marilyn Munro are brilliant too. Love this film.

Entered at Sat Dec 24 05:43:30 CET 2016 from (173.3.48.106)

Jeff A.

Entered at Sat Dec 24 05:00:29 CET 2016 from (208.181.205.134)

Rockin Chair

Subject: No - no- no

There is videos right here on youtbe from a movie, (I forget the name) of Mimi Rogers getting a massage from a guy she is nude! and most definitely a red head.

I have seen her in movies where she is made a brunette, but she is not.

Entered at Sat Dec 24 04:49:21 CET 2016 from (173.3.48.106)

Jeff A.

Entered at Sat Dec 24 00:27:03 CET 2016 from (208.181.205.134)

Rockin Chair

Subject: Mimi Rogers

Now I won't sleep tonight thinking about her.......I have this thing for red heads!

Entered at Fri Dec 23 22:07:59 CET 2016 from (96.239.25.33)

Joan.

I just want to wish everybody a safe and happy holiday. I don't feel like I have to pleaseTrump ump don't have to please Trump. Seasons greetings are good enough \ 3want wish everyone a safe and happy Holiday TO helkl with Trump I wilkl say it as I want

Entered at Fri Dec 23 21:14:19 CET 2016 from (24.222.133.112)

joe j

Youngest son requested 'Christmas In The Heart' last night. Becoming a Christmas tradition.

The 17th annual Feast of Cohen returns to the LSPU Hall this year, Jan. 4-7. All four nights are already sold out.

Entered at Fri Dec 23 21:06:20 CET 2016 from (114.75.202.163)

Wallsend

A clip of Bob performing Mighty Quinn in 2003. The song seems to suit his current voice.

Entered at Fri Dec 23 21:00:14 CET 2016 from (24.44.153.18)

Bob F

Subject: Cry Of A Tiny Baby

I've always found it interesting that Bruce Cockburn's great song Cry Of A Tiny Baby is not on his Christmas album. I wonder how many people purchased that record assuming the song was on it.

Entered at Fri Dec 23 21:00:48 CET 2016 from (173.3.48.106)

Jeff A.

Entered at Fri Dec 23 20:20:04 CET 2016 from (24.44.153.18)

Bob F

Kev, thanks for the movie tip. I've got Hell or High Water ready to go off of Amazon Prime. Waiting for the kids to get home. I'll squeeze it in between our annual must watch holiday films, It's A Wonderful Life, The Family Man and The Family Stone. Really great soundtrack on the Hell or High Water film.

Entered at Fri Dec 23 19:09:16 CET 2016 from (208.181.205.134)

Rockin Chair

Subject: Finding Maubee

Not sure if you know Peter. The movie "Mighty Quinn" is from a book entitled "Finding Maubee" written by A.H.Z. Carr. Maubee is a character in the movie he is special in a way I won't explain. You may want to see it. It is an old movie from the 80's I believe.

On your video of Manfred Mann, on the side bar to the right, (at least on my machine) you will see a picture of Denzel, and underneath "Mighty Quinn" if you click on it you will see the scene from the movie I described here.

Entered at Fri Dec 23 19:01:50 CET 2016 from (208.181.205.134)

Rockin Chair

Subject: Mighty Quinn

That's what works Peter. In the movie Denzel Washington is the chief of police in Jamaica. He ends up with lots of problems with a murder and the governor.

He comes in the bar quite depressed, sits down at the piano and begins to play. These old black fellows get up behind him and pick up their instruments and start to play behind him. They gradually swing him into "Mighty Quinn". The whole bar starts to sing behind him. This very pretty black girl (who is his friend) comes up and sings the verses. A real great part in a good flick.

Entered at Fri Dec 23 17:57:20 CET 2016 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

I can see a jug band feel to it… it has a great swing to it. It also sounds great with 1200 people singing the chorus. I like The Isle of Wight version too, .

Entered at Fri Dec 23 17:34:25 CET 2016 from (170.223.207.72)

Bruce in Boston

Condolences to J Tull Fan's family and friends. I always enjoyed his writing. In fact, he influenced me to go back and listen to Jethro Tull from back in the day. Great music, wish I had thanked him.

Entered at Fri Dec 23 17:32:43 CET 2016 from (173.3.48.106)

Jeff A.

JTull seemed like a pretty good guy. Bama's husband also seemed like a pretty good guy.

Entered at Fri Dec 23 17:24:33 CET 2016 from (208.181.205.134)

Rockin Chair

Subject: Heavy Metal

Funny thing is Peter, I don't like heavy metal but it just struck me as livening up that song the way those Swiss guys play it.

Don't know if you ever watched the movie "Mighty Quinn" with Denzel Washington. The way the song is played by a bunch of old black jug band guys in the movie is quite wonderful.

Entered at Fri Dec 23 17:24:25 CET 2016 from (173.3.48.106)

Jeff A.

Entered at Fri Dec 23 17:23:03 CET 2016 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

Subject: The Mighty Quinn

Here we are, Manfred Mann with Mike D'Abo from 1968 … I prefer it to The Band Basement cut actually. Mike d'Abo sounded just the same a couple of weeks ago. Now they do it as a long audience participation piece … earlier in the year they just had Paul Jones, later they had both Paul and Mike d'Abo. Both of them can do Mighty Quinn very well. It's the lightness of touch which benefits the song.

Entered at Fri Dec 23 17:15:56 CET 2016 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

Manfred Mann got more or less first pick at the Basement acetate, having had sold so well on If You Gotta Go and With God On Our Side, so it is the first release. They chose well.

The heavy metal version by Gotthard is, to my ears, abysmal. Sorry, Norm., but we can't all agree. They steamrollered and massacred the song with that awful heavy metal thump and prog band high pitched voice. I came back and heard it right after the supermarket where they played awful modern covers of Streets of London and Angel of The Morning one after the other. The cover of Streets of London changed "the sun don't shine" to "the sun doesn't shine" which adds a syllable so it doesn't scan.

Oddly, that's three songs in a row where I've heard the original hit versions played live in the last few weeks … The Manfreds (as Manfred Mann now are), Ralph McTell, and P.P. Arnold (backed by The Manfreds).

As P.P. Arnold says every time she sings it, The First Cut IS the Deepest. I do realise that hers was the fourth version of Angel of The Morning, but it was the hit.

Entered at Fri Dec 23 16:45:15 CET 2016 from (208.181.205.134)

Rockin Chair

Subject: Correction

Sorry, I meant Manfred Mann was the original which I thought kinda dead after listening to these guys.

Entered at Fri Dec 23 16:34:27 CET 2016 from (208.181.205.134)

Rockin Chair

Subject: Days of English Bands

Listening to J Tull got my mind to wandering back in time to a lot of good English Rockers.

To add to that , my daughter Amanda was just pleading with me to take her cats. She has to move and the place she found that she really likes her land lord doesn't accept pets. Her one cat really loves me. His name is Flynn. Which got my mind to singing Quinn tho' she explained to me she called him Flynn because in from Ireland it means son of a red haired man?.

I had to pull this (I think the original of Dylan's song) by Gotthard. These guys were great and they do a great job of this song.....it picks me up.

Entered at Fri Dec 23 14:45:58 CET 2016 from (67.71.41.191)

brown eyed girl

Let's raise our glasses one more time for J Tull Fan.

Entered at Fri Dec 23 14:32:45 CET 2016 from (67.71.41.191)

brown eyed girl

It's been a long time Brien Szzz.....days gone by. I'm sure you're continuing to create beautiful images. :-D

Ed loved J Tull, cats, political discourse, found love a second time...probably didn't love all the travelling he did for his work, but then again.

Jethro Tull's band...Loved how Ian played the flute in a rock band that sounded very British. He was a travelling minstrel who gave us very entertaining shows with his constant expressionism and theatrics. My memory of seeing this band was that we all had fun and that everyone was passing around my binocs as we were students who could only afford the cheap seats.

Entered at Fri Dec 23 10:43:44 CET 2016 from (31.53.17.247)

Dunc

Subject: JTull Fan

So sorry to hear of JTull Fan's passing. I enjoyed his posts.

Thanks for telling us Brian Sz. I enjoyed your posts also.

Entered at Fri Dec 23 10:35:16 CET 2016 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

So sad to hear about JTullFan (Ed). Didn’t he have a young child? I haven’t heard from him in some years.

Way back, Ed sent me his brilliant Christmas compilation every year, and they’re in the pile of Christmas CDs I always bring out at this time of year. Once, when I mentioned that grits were unobtainable in Britain (actually they are now, but weren’t then) he sent me a large packet from Virginia. He also compiled some Jethro Tull and Martin Barre selections to persuade me on various points. A generous man. He stopped posting here … I think politics may have intervened. I’m sure he was a few years younger than me. What a dreadful year this has been … you can’t start to list all the deaths, then you add Aleppo, Yemen, US Elections, Brexit. 2016 will go down as a truly sad year.

Entered at Fri Dec 23 09:44:58 CET 2016 from (107.77.89.56)

Jerry

Sorry to hear of J Tull Fan's passing..Condolences to those close to him..

Entered at Fri Dec 23 08:09:48 CET 2016 from (114.75.95.22)

Wallsend

Sad news indeed. I was quite partial to a bit of Tull myself. I see Yes are going to be inducted into the Rock and Roll of Fame and people are discussing whether they will play together or not. Seems there is bad feeling there too.

Entered at Fri Dec 23 05:58:09 CET 2016 from (208.181.205.134)

Rockin Chair

Subject: Thru the years

That is indeed sad news Brien. If I recall right he was not that old?

We have lost so many people this year, in that way it has been a bad year. However for us it has been the best year ever.

A couple of years ago when we were working so hard Susan said to me one day, "I wish we would just have a really good business year and then our tug and barge would sell." That is exactly what happened this year.

Next year we are looking forward to really enjoying our old ship. So it is sad to hear the loss of more people.

Good to hear from you Brien.

Entered at Fri Dec 23 05:50:21 CET 2016 from (63.142.158.9)

JQ

That's sad news and more bad news for us all here from 2016. Trying to be optimistic but I think it's rational to assume '17 will be rough too -

Entered at Fri Dec 23 05:15:41 CET 2016 from (173.243.41.134)

Kevin J

2016 was the Year of The Monkey. Good Ridance. 2017 is the Year of the Rooster. It will be a much better one.

Entered at Fri Dec 23 04:55:17 CET 2016 from (24.114.48.40)

Bill M

Brien Sz: good of you to let us know. Thanks.

Who else here will be glad to see the ass-end of 2016?

Entered at Fri Dec 23 03:56:20 CET 2016 from (69.116.27.85)

Brien Sz

It's been a long time since I've been here. But I wanted to let some of the old timers who have been around a long time that an old friend who used to frequent these pages, JTull Fan, passed away.

Entered at Fri Dec 23 02:35:13 CET 2016 from (24.114.48.40)

Bill M

Still working my way through "Testimony", and just got to Robbie and Rick (at least) catching Mingus in a club, playing "Better Get Hit In Yo' Soul". Not only is that my very favourite jazz piece of all time, but it's one I mentioned to Garth, who said is that the one that goes "... [Garth makes mouth noises] ..."? He was right of course. For the record, that conversation took place during the recording of one of the songs for Garth's "Canadian Celebration CD, which also includes a version of "I Loved You Too Much" by Hawksley Workman.

Entered at Thu Dec 22 22:54:03 CET 2016 from (23.241.116.216)

George

Subject: Latest from Greil Marcus on the Band and Dylan

The latest Real Life Rock Top Ten from Greil Marcus is heavy on Dylan and the Band. I had to listen to Rick's vocal a few times to get Marcus' comment.

Entered at Thu Dec 22 18:30:37 CET 2016 from (173.193.202.116)

agen terpercaya

Subject: buah dahdah

i love it

Entered at Thu Dec 22 14:47:22 CET 2016 from (67.71.41.191)

brown eyed girl

BC and DB

Entered at Thu Dec 22 14:40:06 CET 2016 from (67.71.41.191)

brown eyed girl

Helena Springs and Dylan wrote Coming From The Heart (The Road Is Long). Here they are singing together......but the picture mistakingly is of Joan Baez.

Entered at Thu Dec 22 13:02:29 CET 2016 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

Subject: I Love You Too Much

This Dylan rarity by Bob Dylan & H. Springs is on High on The Hog, as "I Must Love You Too Much". I may be Dylan's most boring song. I was browsing today and picked up Greg Lake's 1981 "Greg Lake" album. It's on there … I had thought The Band were the first to record it. Greg Lake's version is much longer, with Gary Moore guitar all over it. The credit is "B. Dylan / H. Springs. / G. Lake" on this version. Greg Lake version is linked.

Entered at Thu Dec 22 08:23:46 CET 2016 from (208.181.205.134)

Rockin Chair

Subject: Just Thinking

I meant to add, I am particularly missing David Powell just now. I would love to have had the chance to play a few tunes with that man.

To Jerry. This evening I watched on the CBC news the interview of some of your countrymen, (and ladies). Some survivors of that Holocaust. They were giving their opinions of the situation in Syria at this time.

To watch the pain in the faces of those old folks recounting what they went through and their wish for peace and just a common understanding of humanity and loving your fellow man was gut wrenching. You just want to give them a hug.

Entered at Thu Dec 22 08:15:58 CET 2016 from (208.181.205.134)

Rockin Chair

Subject: Bahamas - Christmas Must Be Tonight

Don't know if any of you have heard these folks before. I haven't and I was impressed.

Particularly this fellow's lap steel. I think it sounds very beautiful.

Entered at Thu Dec 22 05:15:03 CET 2016 from (64.229.12.88)

Bill M

One of the BEG's links from earlier today (which I've reposted above) shows an interesting lineup of the Hawks at 2:11 - Levon, Robbie, Rick and Jerry Penfound. While we only hear of Jerry as the saxman, he told me he was initially brought in to replace Stan Szelest on piano - plus play sax from time to time. I think this photo bears that out. After leaving the Hawks, Jerry recorded an album each with the Capers and Quorum, and plays mostly piano on both.

Entered at Wed Dec 21 22:30:10 CET 2016 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

Twas ever thus, Jed. Even the ELT Journal, an august publication from Oxford University Press, started filling its pages with total garbage from China … because that ensures every Chinese university takes out a subscription. Then you get to the academic journals way below that who CHARGE academics to publish their articles, so as to keep them on the greasy "ongoing research" ladder. Never in the course of humankind has so much shite been peddled to so few readers … i.e. people who actually read them.

Entered at Wed Dec 21 18:20:59 CET 2016 from (72.69.195.161)

Jed

I've spent many years publishing research and other professional articles in academic journals,books,magazines,etc.The primary problem this has created is my inability to write as clearly as I'd prefer given the many years of relying on convoluted language that is valued by these publications.If I was obtuse and long winded,and if I followed the "format" all was good.A late and loved colleague and dear friend,who happened to be a genius-author of over 20 books,all reviewed considered brilliant and incredibly innovative.And,he published 100's of articles in professional journals.Well,he once submitted a piece and it was rejected because it had no footnotes! A major crime.So,my friend wrote back to the editors apologizing for submitting an article containing some original thoughts.Academia is a dirty business.A step below the sewer.When Eisenhower decided to run for president he said the experience he had in politics was in a much tougher and dirtier venue than government-academia.

Entered at Wed Dec 21 14:38:46 CET 2016 from (24.114.49.104)

Bill M

Entered at Wed Dec 21 14:13:26 CET 2016 from (24.114.49.104)

Bill M

On the other hand, theirs what was done to the lyrics of TNTDODD by Joan Baez, who is see is headed to the Rock and Roll Hall of Laughs.

BEG: Austin Powers is also from Scarborough, even if he's thought of as a groovy Brit. Must've caught. Our guys with Dylan at the Royal Albert.

Simple example of fact-not-checking: "Little Caesar and the Consuls" didn't exist until 1960, when the two guys left behind when Robbie, Pete and Gene left "the Consuls" to form a new group with Scott Cushnie. Some of these guys are still around, and even in the phonebook.

Entered at Wed Dec 21 13:49:10 CET 2016 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

Bill & Jerry: I weighed my words, pondered "the big bang," "cosmic", "universal", "galactic"," earth-shattering", "volcanic" and settled on "seismic."

Entered at Wed Dec 21 13:28:42 CET 2016 from (65.94.49.149)

JT

Subject: Hyperbole

Caught in the web of hyperbole. "Seismic" is enough.

Entered at Wed Dec 21 11:54:06 CET 2016 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

Entered at Wed Dec 21 10:24:57 CET 2016 from (67.71.41.191)

brown eyed girl

Noooooo! The academic bit is not by Bowman....but by another academic.....Alessandro Bratus !!! Lost in translation I guess. ;-D

[PDF]“Look here, you bunch of basement noise”: Bob Dylan plays ... www.iaspmjournal.net/index.php/IASPM_Journal/article/download/259/566 by A Bratus - ‎2010 alessandro.bratus@gmail.com. Università di Pavia (Cremona). Abstract. Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes came at a critical stage of the singer's career, in the.

Entered at Wed Dec 21 09:54:56 CET 2016 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

And to think some of my articles were called pretentious crap upon this very forum.

Entered at Wed Dec 21 09:52:18 CET 2016 from (67.71.41.191)

brown eyed girl

Kevin J..."macro fornal features" of anyone else ! " LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL I am painfully laughing so hard here!!! Kevin stop posting when you get home late from work.......LOL LOL LOL I already have an awful cold and cough here and you're just cracking me up!!!!!!

Ok seriously.....LOL LOL LOL.....No seriously......ready? First of all I made a mistake.....Bowman is quoted in this academic paper on The Basement Tapes with pretty charts and everything but not on TOR.

Peter or Wallsend please help here! One of you download the paper and you'll see.......but you have to include the PDF...........and then click on the link online. Crap! I don't know how else to share this academic paper that Kevin J will appreciate......LOL LOL......

Anyway, I'm on chapter five and Robbie's height has been confirmed. My brother saw him at a restaurant and said he was six feet tall as he's five eleven. Check. The Brass Rail in London......The photos I contributed with no mention of name via York U......Brass Rail as Robbie states he ceilings were so low......That's all I care about.....LOL LOL LOL

You have to copy and paste all of below not just from www.....

[PDF]“Look here, you bunch of basement noise”: Bob Dylan plays ... www.iaspmjournal.net/index.php/IASPM_Journal/article/download/259/566 by A Bratus - ‎2010 alessandro.bratus@gmail.com. Università di Pavia (Cremona). Abstract. Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes came at a critical stage of the singer's career, in the.

Entered at Wed Dec 21 09:48:09 CET 2016 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

Fact-checking. As Ian pointed out over the alleged March / April Santa Monica gig (which might actually be December), there are no ticket stubs, reviews, newspaper ads to back it up.

We’re in an area on meeting up with Dylan on what different people recall, and while you CAN check that she thought this but he thought that, in the absence of diaries or notes, fact checking is impossible.

Yet another personal example, In 1967 I was studying drama, and the university drama department did “A Yorkshire Tragedy”, one of several “allegedly” Shakespeare plays, not in the official list, though in the Third Folio. I’ve been working on some short stories set in 1967-68 and have been trawling through old letters etc seeking events for for inspiration and I thought I might get a funny story around a fictional similar production. OK, when you do amateur dramatics, rehearsals tend to be on wet rainy autumn and winter evenings. I remember the production as “before Easter” and it should be checkable, because the play is so rarely performed and interesting for its apocryphal position, that they managed to lure reviewers from the national newspapers, a big event for us. Our director, the head of drama, had previously directed the Comedie Française for years, so is well-known. I tried. I couldn’t find a thing online. So I found an envelope stuffed with tickets and programmes from the era. We performed it in late June. My memory for dating it as March, was at the “95% sure” level, but I was three months out.

That’s why I think it’ll be hard to get further than “Robbie says … but Mary Martin says …” on the chronology.

Take another example … Cathy Smith is “Katie” in 1965, but “Cathy Smith” in 1976 … yes, people do have different short names, and maybe the 300 page edit lost stuff.

In the end, you take Robbie’s account as the template, and see what others say in relation to it. Some surprising bits, like being at the “Like A Rolling Stone” recording are proven with photographs. Otherwise we’ll have to wait to see if Dylan discusses it in Chronicles II, if there is one.

Entered at Wed Dec 21 08:18:03 CET 2016 from (24.114.77.119)

Kevin J

.....paragraph 3 of my previous post should not have had inverted commas as those were my comments and not the "macro fornal features" of anyone else !

Entered at Wed Dec 21 08:08:32 CET 2016 from (24.114.77.119)

Kevin J

Say What ! ...BEG quoting Rob Bowman ( someone I very much like - but Oh My ! in this case...) on "Tears of Rage"

"The analysis based on this kind of material allowed me to clearly identify what criteria led to the selection of certain compositional solutions instead of others, and to understand how the various constructional levels of a song are reciprocally correlated. All these considerations led me to understand that there is a consistent plan capable of joining all the phases documented in these recordings together, mainly linked with their overall communicative project, conceived a priori by its author or authors, and that this plan functions be......"

" Oh fuck, noooooooo, it's not the drink or drugs or that crazy GiGi wanting more........it's an out of control academic attempting to analyze a rock song..." Love ya, Rob....you know that but "reciprocally correlating ?"

Entered at Wed Dec 21 07:10:24 CET 2016 from (67.71.41.191)

brown eyed girl

Hi Zzzz. What's up with you these days?

Looks like the previous academic paper I posted also has quotes by Bowman. Here is part of one example.

2.4. ‘Tears of Rage’ and the dynamics of composition in a popular song The last example analyzed, ‘Tears Of Rage’, is one of the few songs released in three different interpretations on the bootleg I am using as the main source for my study, allowing me to delve deeper into observations related to the gradual elaboration of a song. The theoretical and practical dynamics in popular music composition are of rich thematic interest and are usually difficult to approach because of the restricted availability of recorded material preceding the official released record. In the case of ‘Tears Of Rage’ I had the opportunity of examining a song as a result of a coherent compositional project, discovering that the musicians are primarily concerned with achieving the best possible union between the general structure of the music and the lyrics, focusing their attention either on the macro-formal features of a song or on the micro-formal organization of the individual instrumental parts, depending on the different necessities of the individual song.

Figure 6 summarizes the overall shape of the three versions of ‘Tears of Rage’, gathering both their formal (marked by the column) and audio features (marked by the different lines on the left and right channel).

I@J vol.1, no.1 (2010) http://www.iaspmjournal.net Alessandro Brutus 14

I@J vol.1, no.1 (2010) http://www.iaspmjournal.net

Alessandro Bratus 16 Examining the three versions, it is possible to underline some crucial points:
• the introduction of the song is gradually reduced from four to one measure, in order to obtain a more concise expression of the same musical idea;
• the verse length is the same in all the versions, but the chorus does not have a regular duration: in the first version it can be composed by ten, nine or eight bars, in the second by nine or eight, in the third finally all the choruses consist of eight bars;
• in ‘Tears of Rage’ #2 there are some elements discarded in the first and third versions, like the ternary time signature and the presence of the backing vocals only in the chorus. In versions #1 and #3 the signa- ture is in both cases binary and the choir, formed by Richard Manuel and Rick Danko, and starts to sing some vocals in the second half of the verse after the first chorus.
• in ‘Tears of Rage’ #3, the definitive one, the backing vocals has a louder volume than in the previous versions, revealing its structural role in the composition as a whole.

The dynamics implied in the transformations of ‘Tears of Rage’ are not an isolated phenomenon, but mirror a widespread situation in the repertoire considered. After a fairly complete survey of the recordings made in Woodstock during 1967 on the Genuine Basement Tapes bootleg, I was able to see that the other songs recorded frequently go along the same lines during their elaboration, as a product of a coherent compositional project. These songs are also offered as they are before the operations of mixing and mastering - required before commercial release – that were done for the official 1975 release. An analysis based on this kind of material allowed me to clearly identify what criteria led to the selection of certain compositional solutions instead of others, and to understand how the various constructional levels of a song are reciprocally correlated. All these considerations led me to understand that there is a consistent plan capable of joining all the phases documented in these recordings together, mainly linked with their overall communicative project, conceived a priori by its author or authors, and that this plan functions behind the song as a hidden system capable of linking different features of a song. From this point of view, I believe that such observations could may be applied not only to the Basement Tapes, but are also fully operational in other popular music repertories, outlining tendencies and principles comparable with what happens in different examples and contexts. I@J vol.1, no.1 (2010) http://www.iaspmjournal.net

Again, for the academics if interested you have to copy and paste the entire blurb not just the link to see entire academic paper on fours songs (Apple Suckling Tree, Clothes Line Saga, Lo And Behold and Tears Of Rage) from The Basement Tapes including PDF

[PDF]“Look here, you bunch of basement noise”: Bob Dylan plays ... www.iaspmjournal.net/index.php/IASPM_Journal/article/download/259/566 by A Bratus - ‎2010 alessandro.bratus@gmail.com. Università di Pavia (Cremona). Abstract. Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes came at a critical stage of the singer's career, in the.

References

Bowman, Rob. 1995. ‘The Stax Sound: A Musicological Analysis’, Popular Music, Vol.14, No. 3, pp. 285-320.
Chester, Andrew. 1970. ‘For A Rock Aesthetic”, New Left Review, No. 59, pp. 83-96.
Covach, John. 2001. ‘Popular Music, Unpopular Musicology’, in Cook, N. & Everist, M. eds.
Rethinking Music, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 452-470.
Kubic, Gerhard. 1999. Africa and the Blues, University Press of Mississippi, Jackson.
La Via, Stefano. 2006. Poesia per musica e musica per poesia. Dai trovatori a Paolo Conte, Carocci, Roma.
Marcus Greil. 1997. Invisible Republic. Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes, Henry Holt & C, New York.
Marqusee, Mike. 2003. Wicked Messenger. Bob Dylan And The 1960s, Seven Stories, New York.
I@J vol.1, no.1 (2010) http://www.iaspmjournal.net

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brown eyed girl

Check out actual phone interview at 33:49 re Rob Bowman stating he was hired to fact check for Robbie and how precise Robbie is when it comes to dates, etc. I guess we can contact Bowman for any inaccuracies.

Garth Hudson re Dylan: "We went from the bars to the stars."
I think Dylan influenced Robbie in particular with his writing. However, I think Dylan's writing was more similar to Marley's in that both couldn't say how certain songs came to them but that they were otherworldly.....During 60 minutes Dylan starts reciting one of his masterpieces and says there's no way songs like that could appear ever again.....Listening to Robbie talk about songwriting it appears he had to work harder at completing a song. Interesting to note is that one writer felt that if Robbie would have been a more consistent songwriter and kept up the quality of songs he was capable of writing that he also could have earned a Nobel Peace Prize.......but what about Cohen? The Band simply....took Dylan where he wanted to go musically.....aggressive, explosive, urgent.....It was a beautiful marriage until they outgrew each other and had to move on as The Hawks did from The Hawk.

Btw The Barnaked Ladies are also from Scarborough as well as others. Another positive.....very good Guyanese food. ;-D

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Bill M

Re fact-checking for "Testimony", I don't know that there was any beyond Robbie perhaps looking a few things up when documents were available to him. Years are off, events are out of sequence, names are left out, at least one group is minorly misnamed ... Nothing yuge, and nothing that most of us wouldn't've done if we'd attempted the same project. Robbie gives a big thanks to Rob Bowman for his insights, but that's not the same as fact-checking.

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Kevin J

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Peter V

At some point, I'll try cutting together all the references. "Judas" gets their singles wrong, their impact wrong, the instrumentals wrong. BUT he has spent years trying to note Dylan day by day.

The "participant observer" is likely to error too. Years ago, a friend I worked with with bands and I compared notes on what we remembered over a season. Some things matched, some things (my friend had a diary) I had zero recall of, though I know I must have been there. His diary proves I was in certain places on certain days, though I would have sworn I'd never been to those places. I will eschew the Paul Kantner quote this time.

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Jeff A.

Dave, check your FB messages

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Otto Greenleaf

Subject: Robbie Robertson's "Testimony".

Hello to all. Hope you're doing fine. Just finished reading Robbie Robertson's bio "Testimony". Great book. Just one thing. Robbie said that David Geffen persuaded him to move to Malibu from Woodstock, NY. He and his wife had(he claims)17 cats. Does anybody know if he took the cats to Malibu with him? Merry Christmas! Cheers, Otto

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Zzzz

Happy Holidays, Friends! Hey, I'm trying to get a hold of Jan Haust. Anybody got a workable email for Jan or Andrew?

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Peter V

I agree with JT that Dylan caused a seismic shift.

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Peter V

I agree that Buddy Holly (or Bobby Vee) sounds unlikely. There was no indication in anything I read of Ronnie & The Hawks playing the northern Mid-West. Great shame. It would be great.

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JT

Subject: Another world

Again, I agree. I picked CCR out of the sky. Could of been The Rascals. Could have been some other blues or R&B band. But Big Pink as an album came from another world and that world I believe would not have happened if the OQ hadn't gotten out on the road with Bob Dylan. Robbie in particular already had 'the writing bug' and with Dylan as a catalyst, he wrote and put out a songs that were somewhat otherworldly with a sound that was unique.

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Fred

Robbie is a guest on Alec Baldwin's podcast "Here's The Thing".

I haven't listened to it yet.

Sorry I don't have a link. But it is available from iTunes.

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JT

Subject: Duluth 1959

Bob F: Though I like the idea, Rick, Richard and Garth didn't join Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks until 1961. Also, when I looked up the poster for the Duluth armoury show, though lots of acts were on it (Big Bopper, Dion & the Belmonts, Buddy Holly et al ... no Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks). Coulda been anyway but I can't find it. Maybe Bob did see Levon with Robbie at some point in his travels. But 1959 at Duluth Armory...it would be a great story and make the timelines even more complicated.

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Bob F

I read somewhere when Dylan saw Buddy Holly at the Duluth Armory winter of 1959, Ronnie Hawkins and The Hawks were one of the opening acts. He made a mental note that after he went to New York and wrote the songs that would literally change the world, he would look these youngsters up. I'm good with that version of how it happened.

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brown eyed girl

The Ballad Of Canada's 'Colonel' Harold Kudlats

By Nick Krewen Mon, 08/22/2016

"Gradually, Jimmy Ray and the Arkansas players were replaced by the guys who became The Band," said Helm, referring to the Canadian squad of Robbie Robertson, Rick Danko, Richard Manuel and Garth Hudson. "Kudlats recalls that The Hawks "started with me in 1958."

"They were a good bunch of boys...a good bunch. I remember Robbie. He came from a poor family. He didn't have a dime. He learned everything from the bottom up. He'd practice, practice, practice."

His association with Ronnie Hawkins, however, didn't last. After Kudlats helped Hawkins secure a record deal with Roulette Records, the performer gave the agent his walking papers.

A few weeks later in 1963, the band later to be known as Levon and the Hawks were waiting for Kudlats one morning, told him they were splitting from Hawkins and asked if he would represent them.

Kudlats agreed and booked Levon and The Hawks steadily, including the gig at Tony's Mart in Somers Point, New Jersey, where Bob Dylan, on the advice of Albert Grossman secretary Mary Martin, first connected with the group that was shortly thereafter renamed The Band.

"Albert Grossman had a secretary from Canada and she knew the boys. When I booked them into Tony Mart's, he connected with them there and they stayed with him for a couple of years."

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brown eyed girl

MARY MARTIN TO RECEIVE 2011 MMF CANADA PIONEER AWARD

Posted January 4, 2011 by Music Manager's Forum

"In Grossman’s employ, Martin introduced Dylan to Levon Helm and her friends in a band called The Hawks, who would soon be better known as The Band, the same band that toured and recorded with Dylan as he progressed from solo acoustic folk idol to electrified major international rock star. (The Band’s many hours of practice tapes and demos recorded with Dylan became some of the most storied bootleg recordings in history, but were not officially released until the 1975 double album The Basement Tapes.)

Following her four-year apprenticeship with Grossman, Martin took on music as a permanent calling by managing and helping to launch the enduring careers of Leonard Cohen, Van Morrison and Rodney Crowell among others."

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Luke

I don't think the Band would have morphed into a CCR model. John Fogerty, wrote all the songs, sang all the songs and played lead guitar. The guy was brilliant. Stu Cook, Doug Clifford, and (briefly) Tom Fogerty were competent musicians, nothing more. John Fogerty, when asked to describe CCR in an interview, said "a pretty good bar band." Regarding The Rascals, they were apparently victims of Mo Levy's thievery, and were afraid to say anything about it while he was alive! So, a word of thanks to Henry Glover, ho warned Levon and the boys not to sign with him.

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brown eyed girl

[PDF]“Look here, you bunch of basement noise”: Bob Dylan plays ... www.iaspmjournal.net/index.php/IASPM_Journal/article/download/259/566 by A Bratus - ‎2010 alessandro.bratus@gmail.com. Università di Pavia (Cremona). Abstract. Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes came at a critical stage of the singer's career, in the.

Abstract

"Bob Dylan’s Basement Tapes came at a critical stage of the singer’s career, in the shift from a production strictly based on folk-revival models to a new way of song writing, drawing on a new electric sound presented live and in the recordings of 1965. In this article a brief analytical survey of four songs from that period gives an overall indication about how to look at this repertoire and about its place in the context of the singer’s career, as well as in the history of American popular song. Keywords: The Band; Basement Tapes, American popular music, folk-revival, song analysis, creative process, song writing, analytical method."

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brown eyed girl

Wednesday, August 12, 2015
Bob Dylan and the Hawks
The Long Cool Summer of '65 Revisited - Act II Episode # - Bob Dylan and the Hawks

"Few events in the half-century history of rock & roll are considered more significant than when Bob Dylan plugged in his guitar, went electric and began playing with the Hawks.

How Dylan came to meet the Hawks has been a matter of much scrutiny and uncertainty, and there has been a lot of myth making around the legends as they grew over the years.

The most popular accounts have Dylan discovering the Hawks while on vacation in Atlantic City, or some variation of that, but after much diligent research this is the most likely account of what really happened.

By the end of June '65, Dylan's song “Mr. Tambourine Man,”....

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brown eyed girl

A Conversation With... Rob Bowman
By Bill King
03/28/2016

Article and radio interview. He was Robbie's fact checker for Testimony. He has about 2500 books in his collection. He's absolutely fascinating to listen to. I've seen him twice. One time I saw him at TLW Tribute with BARK and many other musicians including Garth and Maud. The other time he was sitting with Robbie when The Musical History came out. After Robbie signed my copy, I gave him Myron Zabol's People of The Dancing Sky to sign as well as snippets of Robbie's songs were included. Bowman looked surprised here.....I could be wrong but it appeared that he wasn't aware of this book. As I've posted before, I knew about the book as Myron is my ND's partner. Small world for sure.....When I visited Cuba for the third time I was talking about The Band.....what else? and one of Bowman's high school mates was with our Arts group and he told me that Rob already had about 1000 recordings as a teenager. Just like myself; he was around eight years old when the musical journey began....I quickly found various articles re the meeting of The Hawks and Dylan to show that there were different recollections....Levon got the call first....no Robbie got the call first....etc.

Kevin J...I actually had posted the entire interview of Mary Martin a couple of years ago. I couldn't find it so when I found the two snippets I posted them as it pertained to the current thread. I instead was more interested in listening to many musicians get together and make music for a cause as the holidays are approaching as well. Who will do it for Syria now? Anyway, I've reposted many articles as the same topics come up again or sometimes I forget what I've posted as I don't keep any of my links. You're right; encores are great especially anything to do with Mary Martin and Garth Hudson.

Bill M...I also have Whispering Pines but I didn't recall about Garth and calligraphy. Thanks for reminding me. I should also check the two books I have of The Hawk as well.

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JT

Subject: 'Mixed Up Confusion'

John D and Kevin and Peter V and anyone else who is interested: Not that it really matters, but the series of events that culminated in Forest Hills in Aug 1965 and all that followed is of great interest and multiple stories have been propagated to explain the people involved (Mary Martin, John Hammond, others) and the places (in Toronto, in New Jersey, others?) but the actual pathway chronologically has been muddied by the different accounts. (ie. who did what when). I know Robbie Robertson worked hard to recall with precision what he ultimately wrote). 'Judas' seems to tell it slightly differently. The Goldmine account is useful. Can some scholar here try to make any sense out of all of this or does it even matter. It is for historians (I like to think I'm one to some degree but I find this entire area now perplexing and confusing) like Ian W. to perhaps make some sense out of all of this. The time frame would be 1965 from perhaps March to August. Any takers?

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John D

by Rob Bowman

From the article "Life Is A Carnival", Goldmine magazine, July 26, 1991, Vol.17, No.15, Issue 287.

© Rob Bowman and Goldmine magazine.

Reprinted with permission.

That same summer of 1965, a secretary from Toronto named Mary Martin, who was working for Bob Dylan's manager Albert Grossman, suggested to Dylan that the Hawks might be the appropriate ensemble to accompany him on his first electric tour. At the same time, Martin was also working on the Hawks' end of things, acquainting Rick Danko, for one, with Dylan's current material.

The Hawks were then engaged in a four-month stand in Somers Point, New Jersey, setting a thousand or more patrons on fire nightly with their heady brew of blues and R&B. Dylan checked them out and hired Robertson initially for two gigs, in late August at Forest Hills Tennis Stadium in New York and the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. Robertson, unimpressed with Dylan's drummer, suggested Dylan also hire Helm. Robertson, Helm, Harvey Brooks on bass and Al Kooper on keyboards set out to endure the cacophony of boos that greeted Dylan's second and third electric gigs. (The first, of course, had occured at the Newport Folk Festival, where Dylan was backed up with Al Kooper and members of the Butterfield Blues Band.) Dylan wanted Robertson and Helm to continue backing him in his guerilla-warfare attack on middle America's consciousness and eventually Australia's and Europe's. They responded that they couldn't see doing it without the rest of the Hawks being along for the ride, so after a bit of rehearsal in Toronto in September 1965, Bob Dylan and the Band took to the road.

All five moved to New York, where every week they would fly out on Dylan's private Lodestar airplane, play two or three night before an audience of "folkie purists" who were engrossed in a ritual booing, viewing an electric Dylan as a sellout to the values of folk music rather than listening to music that was years ahead of its time in power and majesty.

The booing quickly became too much for Helm, who left and headed back south. "I don't think Levon could handle people just booing every night," said Robertson. "He said, `I don't want to do this anymore.'[He] didn't feel that you could do anything with it rhytmically and there was no room and there was no way to make it feel good. To me it was like `Yeah, but the experience equals this music in the making. We will find the music. It will take some time but we will find it and eventually we'll make it something that we need to get out of it.' In the beginning, it was a little bit too much bashing. It was in the making. By the time we did the Australia and Europe tours we had discovered whatever this thing was. It was not light, it was not folky. It was very dynamic, very explosive and very violent."

The whole experience culminated in late May 1966 at the Albert Hall in London, England. Columbia Records recorded the event for a possible live LP. The recordings show that, indeed, Dylan and the Band had discovered "this thing". an entity that continually ebbed and flowed as quiet sections alternated with moments of awesome volume and apocalyptic power.

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Bill M

BEG: Mary tells the same story about Garth's calligraphy in the book "Whispering Pines".

JT: Good luck with that! We have Robbie telling the met-in-Jersey story in 2006, and the met-in-Manhattan story in 2016. The general rule would be to go with 2006 on the grounds that the memory would have had an extra 10 years to fade, but in this case I'm inclined to go with the 2016 version. One, it makes more sense, and two, it's from a guy who's spent months and months trying to recall and reconstruct past events - as opposed to a storyteller who's been asked to tell a story on the fly.

I believe that Mary Martin makes the interesting observation - in one of the secondary books - that the Hawks weren't even one of the two Toronto groups she was doing her best to promote from her perch in Grossman's office. Those were a) the Stormy Clovers, who I believe were the first to record Leonard Cohen songs, perhaps from Garth's calligraphed charts (though nothing was released on record), and b) Amos Garrett's group, the Dirty Shames, who wound up doing two 45s for Philips.

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Kevin J

Item 1, JT…..1963…..a barely out of the crib Kevin J calls Rick Danko during a set break at the Concord and explains that he’s talked with Bob Dylan and Bob is on his way up to Toronto. The meeting with the Hawks takes place a few months later – up to now, this has been a secret……slipped my mind, I guess....Clinton Heylin has just started what will be a 950 page book documenting this one event.

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JT

Subject: Now I'm confused

Re: Dylan meets Levon and the Hawks: Can someone with some time put in chronological order (with dates and numbered) the events that occurred sequentially and with whom they occurred?

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Kevin J

BEG; I had posted that clip several years back of MM talking about Garth helping L. Cohen out. A welcome encore though !

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John D

OK. Just talked to a journalist friend who interviewed Mary. The part about Bob and The Hawks rehearsing at the Friars Tavern in Toronto is true; but the JHJ story and Robbie meeting Bob at The Like A Rolling session is when it happened. It's funny. The story of Bob meeting them here has been floating around for almost 50 years in town.

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brown eyed girl

Mary Martin speaks about Leonard Cohen and Garth Hudson!

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brown eyed girl

I've previously posted the complete interview but here's a snippet....

Mary Martin speaks about Bob Dylan...but Levon begins....

Video courtesy of THE COUNTRY MUSIC HALL OF FAME'S program "The Louise Scruggs Memorial Forum, November 17th, 2009"

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brown eyed girl

A Portrait of the Band as Young Hawks: Rolling Stone's 1978 Feature on 'The Last Waltz'

Robert Palmer relives the pre-Band era with Robbie Robertson

"Levon and the Hawks didn't spend all their time in the South, not by a long shot. They would play in New Jersey and Pennsylvania and pop into New York to see some of the Brill Building songwriter types they'd met when they recorded there with Hawkins: Neil Diamond, Doc Pomus, Leiber and Stoller. They spent some time in Chicago, where they got to know Paul Butterfield and Mike Bloomfield and went with them to blues clubs on the South Side. They gigged regularly in Canada. It was on one of their northern swings that they met John Hammond Jr. Hammond and Mary Martin, who worked in Albert Grossman's office and knew a lot of Canadian musicians, both told Bob Dylan about them.

"Dylan called when they were working in New Jersey," says Jonathan Taplin, who was the Band's company manager from 1968 to 1971 but knew their music much earlier. "Evidently, he went down to listen to them, returned to New York and called up Levon. He asked if they'd like to play with him at the Hollywood Bowl and at Forest Hills Stadium. And Levon's reply was, 'Who else is on the bill?' Because they were just beginning to hear 'Like a Rolling Stone' on the radio. They never bought albums, they just listened to the radio, so they had no idea how big Bob was. The way it ended up, just Levon and Robbie went to the Forest Hills gig, and Dylan got Harvey Brooks and Al Kooper to play bass and organ. See, Levon and Robbie wanted to be sure that he'd really sold out these big places....Then they got the other three guys to come on up."

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brown eyed girl

Robbie Robertson:"We were playing this place outside of Atlantic City at the time when his management called and asked if I would come and meet with him. And I did, and I thought, "I don't even know anything about this guy." But there was somebody in Atlantic City who I knew who had a Dylan record, and he played me a song called "Oxford Town," and I really liked that. It was one of those early songs that people ended up calling protest songs. So I went up there just being pretty naive about the whole situation. We talked for a little while, and then we went off somewhere with a couple of guitars and we just started playing, and something happened."

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brown eyed girl

Birth of the Band: Read Inside Story From Robbie Robertson's New Memoir

Guitarist/songwriter recalls early days with Ronnie Hawkins, meeting Bob Dylan and setting up shop at Big Pink

"Robertson, Helm and the band break off from Hawkins, hoping to record under their own name.

In the summer of 1965 we had booked a gig at a big dance club in Somers Point, New Jersey. Tony Mart's was a hot spot, a popular club that sometimes had three bands playing on separate stages over the course of the evening. In between dates, we would head up to New York City to meet with production companies that had seen us play and were interested in signing us.

One afternoon, blues guitarist John Hammond came by the hotel where I was staying to collect me for a trip downtown to a hip record store. I threw him the keys to one of the Monarchs and he floored it, ripping down Seventh Avenue. Then he hit the brakes and said, "Oh, man, I forgot something. A friend of mine is recording around the corner and I promised I would stop by. Can we go in for a minute and say hello?"

Before long we were on the elevator in the Columbia Records building heading for Studio A. In the control room people were listening to the playback of a song they had just cut. John said hello to a man in round wire-rimmed glasses, with shoulder-length grayish hair.

"Robbie, this is the great music manager Albert Grossman." Sitting in the corner silently was Dion of Dion and the Belmonts. Then John went over and gave a big greeting to his friend who was recording. He turned to introduce me.

"Hey, Bob, this is my guitar-player friend Robbie, from Canada. This is Bob Dylan." You could barely see his eyes through the dark glasses he wore, but there was high voltage in the room coming from his persona.

Bob said hello, and then to John, "You wanna hear something?" "Yeah, I'd love to."

Bob teased, "You sure you want to hear this? You never heard anything like this before."

Albert Grossman and the record producer nodded in serious agreement. "It's called 'Like a Rolling Stone,'" Bob said with a little smirk. "All right, go ahead, play it back."

Bob was right – I'd never heard anything like this before. The studio lit up with the sound of toughness, humor and originality. It was hard to take it all in on one listen. * * *

Robertson, Helm, Manuel, Danko and Hudson end up backing up Dylan on his infamous 1965–66 world tour; at every show they are greeted by boos from audiences unhappy with Dylan's switch to electric. Helm abruptly quits the band in frustration at one stop. After they come off the road, Robertson, Manuel, Danko and Hudson are back in New York City, trying to figure out their next move."

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Bill M

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Every Mann

I have a 50s Wurlitzer jukebox filled with soul and R&B records. I've long wanted The Band represented in the Wurly, but none of their 45 releases has ever felt right. (I came close a few times to picking up a copy of the early "Stones That I Throw," but somehow it just doesn't quite have the jukebox vibe.) "The Band" is a tough search on the popular auction site, as the result yields thousands of non-related hits. I figured it would be a waste of time, but I began punching in the names of favorite Band tunes, even though I knew they were never released on 45. Imagine my surprise when I discovered via positive eBay hit that "We Can Talk" was issued in Argentina (?) as a promo only (?!?) single on Capitol with "The Weight" on the flip, and it could be mine for $14.99 plus shipping! I made like a sledgehammer on the buy-it-now button, and suffice it to say that it's the best $14.99 plus shipping that I have ever spent. From Argentina to my doorstep, where it shall occupy spaces L3/L4 for the rest of my days. Nothing like hearing that song "echoing across (along?) the hall" in the wee hours of the night when I'm on an all-night R&B bender!

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Peter V

Though I still wonder about whether the Santa Monica gig with Marlon Brando watching was Spring (as the chronology in Testimony indicates, but he show is undocumented) or the previous December when a Santa Monica show is known.

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John D

This was taken; from an article in Rolling Stone that was about Blonde On Blonde.

In the fall of 1965, Dylan wanted to continue pushing his new sound, and tour with an electric band. A decision was made to split a series of upcoming concerts between an acoustic set and a plugged-in performance. At the suggestion of his manager Albert Grossman's secretary, Dylan checked out Canadian band the Hawks, who had cut their teeth backing rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins. Dylan was especially impressed by Robbie Robertson, the band's 22-year-old guitarist, and asked the Hawks to play two shows, one in New York and one in L.A. At the New York show, held in front of a crowd of 14,000 at the Forest Hills tennis stadium in Queens, fans sat patiently through Dylan's acoustic songs and then commenced booing during his electric set (some people sang along to "Like a Rolling Stone" and then booed when it was over). After they completed their West Coast date, the Hawks (soon to be renamed the Band) were hired for a year of shows that began in Texas in September 1965.

Entered at Mon Dec 19 19:39:59 CET 2016 from (96.227.58.249)

PSB

Well, I can see now I'm going to have to read the Heylin book (which apparently I'm quoted in). I never really bought the "official" Mary Martin story and I say official because it's in the documentary, "No Direction Home." I always figured Dylan first heard about them from John Hammond, and now we know with the recent revelation of the photo from the "Like A Rolling Stone" session that Dylan met Robbie prior to Forest Hills rehearsals. It also wouldn't have been all that difficult for Dylan to drive from NYC to Somer's Point to check them out that summer, a two hour drive at most. I have no doubt that Mary Martin also recommended them, but when Dylan went to Toronto in September, it was also to rehearse, and considering the instrumentation on "Highway 61 Revisited," with two keyboards, they were the perfect lineup. Also Hammond was good friends with Dylan. He also attended the Bringing It All Back Home sessions, and he was the first of all the Greenwich Village musicians to record with an electric band.

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brown eyed girl

2014 Great Britain

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brown eyed girl

2010 USA

Biebs, Celine and director Paul Haggis honourary participants.

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brown eyed girl

1985 Canada - I have the recording. Here is the finished song.

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brown eyed girl

1985 Canada - Complete song

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Bill M

Peter V: I'm inclined to agree with your general assessment of heylin's thinking. For the record, "Uh Uh Uh" came out first on Ware (in the US) and then on Apex in Canada. It made charts in Canada, as did TSIT. So the spelunkers would have found traces had they thought to look outside the US. I like your note about TSIT's b-side being an acknowledge undeground hit in the UK.

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brown eyed girl

1985 Canada Parts 1-3

Richard Manuel credit at the end. Where was Rick Danko?

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brown eyed girl

1985

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brown eyed girl

1984

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Fred

I just finished listening to Bruce Springsteen on Desert Island Discs, Interesting conversation and choice of songs.

I wonder if Robbie Robertson were to ever be a guest on this particular show, what songs would he pick & why.

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Peter V

Ian W mentioned this once before. On the very next page, Heylin refers to "Dylan was again travelling in style, in his own 12 seat jet." He mentions that it is a Lockheed Lodestar. Google an image. It is a two engined propellor plane, dating back to the 1940s, not a "twelve seat jet."

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Peter V

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John D

Subject: Dylan meets the Hawks

Heylin says that Bob first saw the Hawks in New Jersey. Well, tell that to Mary Martin; who was originally from Toronto. She was working for Albert Grossman (Bob's manager) when she heard Bob was looking for a band. She brought him to Toronto to the Friars Tavern (now The Hard Rock Cafe) to see the boys. They ended up rehearsing there as well. I believe it was September 15 of '65 that this meeting occurred. There's actually a plaque in The Hard Rock commemorating that famous meeting. Also we can thank John Hammond Jr. for talking to Bob about the boys; as Robbie, Levon and Garth played on Hammond's "So Many Roads" album. Been hearing a lot of re-writing of history lately. Just thought I would put in my 2 cents worth.

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JT

Subject: A Dylanless future for LATH?

Not necessarily CCR but a band which played blues and R&B rather than what was Big Pink. They had a direction in 1965 that was going to take them to another place. Even 'Stones That You Throw" as Robbie says had a gospel feel. I don't think we would have gotten 'The Weight' or 'The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down' or 'Jemima Surrender' without Dylan. Maybe someone else can name a band if it wasn't going to be CCR-like. Maybe 'Rhinoceros' like?

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Peter V

I was going to join the "they would have become like CCR" debate, which the Heylin quote relates to. I'd say (Pat might agree) that The Rascals are a better model as a band that could switch style seamlessly from Mustang Sally to Good Lovin' to Groovin'. Becoming like CCR suggests Robbie going on to Americana, and Levon singing it. A possible route. But they saw Richard as their lead singer, and they always had four singers. Of course, no one else had Garth, or an equivalent.

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Peter V

Just reading Clinton Heylin “Judas”, a writer I find unbearably up himself, most of all in his belief in his own omnipotent accuracy. I’ve tried to reproduce his irritating use of internal quotation marks, On page 46.

QUOTE:

“In September 1965, The Hawks were a bar-band with no real frontman who, after jettisoning Ronnie Hawkins to embark on a “pop” career, had three singles to their name and were so far off the radar that tunnel digging equipment would have been needed to locate their sales figures. The other three had returned to Toronto’s Yonge Street, no further on than when they backed Ronnie Hawkins on the same strip more than a year earlier. Levon Helm later roclaimed in his myopic 1993 memoir, “The Hawks were THE band to know about back then. It was an ‘underground’ thing … we were like a state secret among hip musical people because nobody else was as tight as we were.”

But this was baloney spattered in bullshit. The Hawks were on the road to nowhere, and Dylan was about to take the biggest gamble of his career to date. And he knew it. The one time he caught their act ws at a largely instrumental set in a New Jersey nightclub.” UNQUOTE

In a footnote on the very same page Heylin disagrees with our very own Ian Woodward’s article in ‘Isis’ dating a Dylan interview. Well my bet is 100% on Ian. And aren’t footnotes irritating outside an academic tome?

OK. Let’s go into that. As Robbie’s book points out, they had just signed a deal with ATCO / Atlantic. Yes, Atlantic, and look at white artists on Atlantic then … Sonny & Cher, The (Young) Rascals. Soon, it would addVanilla Fudge and Led Zeppelin and Delaney & Bonnie. In fact, wasn’t one of Leveon’s grouses about the Dylan tour was that it was distracting them from capitalising on their own single?

The Stones I Throw was released in the USA in OCTOBER 1965, Mr Heylin. The British pressing was released on 24th NOVEMBER 1965. As that “Mod” compilation indicates, the B-side, He Don’t Love You, was a known “underground” soul hit in London discotheques before the 1966 tour ever got here.

So, no, The Hawks were about to be launched on a major label which was extremely choosy about its signings.

So what were Mr Heylin’s “three singles”? Well, “Uh-Uh-Uh / Leave Me Alone” had been released twice in Canada, first on Ware then on Apex. That counts as one single.

Go Go Liza Jane / He Don’t Love You was not released until 1968, also on ATCO, as a blatant attempt to cash in on the success of ‘Music From Big Pink.’

So, they had had ONE single in September 1965, but were good bets after signing with Atlantic. And that had nothing to do with Dylan.

As I say, it’s Heylin’s “know-it-all” air that pisses me off. Because, not for the first time, his statements are in his own words, baloney spattered with bullshit.

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Bill M

Subject: chooglin'

jh: Congratulations to both of you, father and son. I listened to it on YouTube and liked it. Funny in a way, as it's built on McPaul's "Simply Having A Wonderful Christmas Time", which I detest but which I can't avoid at this time of year.

jt: I really don't see our guys becoming like early CCR if they hadn't done time with Dylan. I'd say that the stately "The Stones I Throw" could have been on Big Pink, and that key elements of the other two songs from that session reappeared as key elements of the Band's sound (i.e., the R&B of "He Don't Love You" and the bluegrass and lead-vocal-swapping of "Go Go Liza Jane").

Still, a mash-up of "The Weight" and "Lodi" could be interesting. Maybe a project for Cashmere Cat - a Yuletide gift for the old man?

Speaking of typing, I learned mine in grade 9 - one of the most important courses I took in 20 years as an inmate in the educational system. And every Friday we typed to the teacher's copy of "Lodi" and other simple songs. The words that I type will free all men ...

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JQ

Jan - Is he super famous in that crowd? A real rock star? I don't even know to listen to that type of music. Did he listen to your music coming up? Pretty amazing achievement in any event - All congrats!

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JT

Subject: Testimony

I've spent the last 2 days reading Testimony. Its a good read and the story of the ascent of Robbie Robertson is told with a combination of pride and humility. Its a nice combination. Robbie's writing style is comfortable. It feels as if he's in the room recounting the stories. That's a nice approach. I too would like to read the entire manuscript. Since I know a bit about the 1963-64 period in Toronto with many extending weeks at the Concord (though he does tell the story of those years wherein they boys play many US gigs), I would have liked to have read something about that time. I know that as good as they were in 1963, they honed their craft and by the end of 1964, nothing was going to stop The Hawks from stardom. With or without Dylan, they were bound for glory. They would have been a very different band and I don't think Big Pink and everything that came after would ever have occurred. Think CCR on the first album or two. In my view, that's where Levon and the Hawks were heading. Dylan cut them off at the pass and we got another type of greatness and one that changed the direction of music. Not a bad exchange.

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JT

Subject: superb accomplishment Jan

The creativity is one thing and to me it is what really matters. But the response by the public is confirmation that what he created matters. Congratulations to CC and to you Jan.

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jh

On Sep 30, 2016, our son released his latest single. Today it reached 50 million plays on Spotify. This calls for a little holiday snifter. Cheers, my friends!

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Jed

Nice,brief interview-more of same.But,watching it and the little snippet with Levon reminded me once again how sad I am that the 3 guys are gone.Id love to see Garth and Robbie do something together.

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Jed

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Jd

Tuned in now to cbs to see Robbie.Thanks for heads up.

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Jeff A.

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Mike Nomad

Subject: Hell or High Water

Thanks, Kevin. I'll try to catch it.

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Wallsend

Another Robbie interview. A few interesting things towards the end.

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Rockin Chair

Subject: Jeff Bridges

Jesus Kevin! are you not a fan of "The Last Picture Show"? Jeff Bridges was porkin Cloris Leachman who was a lonely older lady. Cybill Sheperd was the first lady in a movie to ever strip "completely".

Of course this was in 1972 .... 44 years ago, (I guess you were only a young welp them huh)? :-)

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Kevin J

May I recommend a film that I know my pals Bob F and Mike Nomad will definitely like - if just for the music alone - and I would rank as the best film I have seen in 2016 - "Hell or High Water" starring Jeff Bridges. I would think many of you here will also enjoy it. First time I saw Jeff Bridges was as a young guy staying up too late watching a black n white and loving "Thunderbolt and Lightfoot"

JT: I liiked your post. A good time to have The Band with us. I listenned to the Brown album today. probably the first time all the way through in 20 plus years ( close your ears David P ! ) and well.......astonishing !

Entered at Sun Dec 18 05:09:28 CET 2016 from (65.94.49.149)

JT

Subject: Levon as mentor

As I read the first few chapters of 'Testimony', the esteem that Robbie has for Levon is beautiful to encounter. Levon's impact on all aspects of Robbie's success is evident. While Ronnie may have given him his break, Levon was a major mentor to a the kid.

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Rockin Chair

Subject: North Country - Sing Me Back Home

Bill!, just a few days back I put up a youtube vid of Levon singing "Not Fade Away" with the Band and the Crickets on the making of the Buddy Holly Tribute.

Now and again you hear something really special. There is a Bluegrass Band called "North Country", very young fellows who really kick ass. In this video two of them show their talent, respect and love for the traditional country music, long before their time.

In this link I have provided they do this song justice. The young boy's dobro fits well with this sad song. His tasty plaintive licks are impressive.

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Bill M

And overpage is a nice little history of the song "Not Fade Away". No mention of its place on the Hawks' setlist, but still ...

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Bill M

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brown eyed girl

BILL M...S.M. and I have the most street cred growing up by the Grand River.
Robbie was wrong....It's not in the blood....but in the water.

Scorsese struggled with asthma as well.

SEBASTIAN...So Robbie first lived at Bloor and Bathurst and then Scarborough where he briefly attended RH King Academy and then First Avenue in Riverdale? Why did he tell Levon that he lived in Cabbagetown?
In an interview Robbie said that he might consider tapping into his Jewish side when recording a new record the way he did his Indigenous side?

"Robertson's friends describe him as a very private person. Although Gabriel has known him for five years, he's been out to Robertson's house only once; all their other L.A. socializing has taken place at restaurants and clubs. Gabriel says that he was surprised at how "nervous" Robertson was when he came to Bath, England, to work on songs with him.

"He's a very kind person with a wild imagination," says Lanois. He's got a heart of gold. But he's got some mischief in him as well. He's a street kid from way back. He learned the ins and outs playing in scuzzy bars, and he's always got the point of view of that same young man."

"I've always had the sense," says Gabriel, "that there is some strong spirit of brooding within Robbie that needs its expression.""That chapter came to an end when Scorsese, an asthmatic, suffered health problems brought on by the fast living. "He got real sick and ended up in the hospital," says Robertson. "It was either change your lifestyle or die. I remember seeing him in the hospital and thinking, 'Boy, this is definitely the end of an era right here.'"

But not for Robertson. It wasn't until after another "crazy" period — with Gary Busey during the making of Carny — that he finally decided it was time to slow his pace and patch up his marriage. "These rock & roll ways were getting old," he says. "I smartened up a little bit, maybe. I just felt like I just wasn't satisfied living that way anymore. I just wanted to be with my family, so I did everything I could to work it out."

Though he reestablished his relationship with his family, Robertson had no desire to join his old bandmates in a reunion they were putting together. Asked what he thought of the group's touring as the Band without him, Robertson picks his words with care. "It's hard to say anything against anybody who's just trying to do what they do and make a living. You can't say, 'How dare you do this?' So I said, 'I have no problem with any of it.' My attitude was 'Do it with my blessing.' I didn't know what else to do."

He admits that the film work he did for Scorsese didn't bring in a lot of money. So how did he support himself through the "lost years"? "I don't know," he says. "I guess just the money I had made before and the money that I make from publishing or whatever. I just never got to the point where I was on the street, fortunately."

Money was a factor, though not the factor, in Robertson's decision to get to work again. "It was a good time to do something: produce a movie, act in a movie, make a record, something. I didn't want to one day just find that I was in a desperate situation. I mean, I didn't decide to make a record because I needed money. It was time to make a record, but it was time to make some money as well."

In 1983 — while cooling out in Rome with movie producer Art Linson (The Untouchables) — Robertson made his decision. "We were drunk," says Linson. "I'm sitting there having wine with one of the great rock composer-guitarists in the history of rock & roll. I said, 'Hey, you're not serious about retiring. Why start at the beginning as an actor? You're out of your mind. Go back and get to work! Make a record!' He looked at me like 'Oh, I guess I have to.'"

I absolutely dig Robbie's shirt here. I need one for imagezulu. :-D

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Bob F

Wallsend that is a wonderful version of Boots. Thanks for posting. I'm going to check that group out. Loved it.

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Bill M

Sebastian: I like Peter V's idea of a deluxe reissue of "Testimony" (the book). I'll pay big if the 'lost' 300 pages are edited back in - and there's an index!

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Peter V

The enhanced hardback has several examples. "The Da Vinci Code" was another bestseller that came out after its success in a larger format, fake leather binding, illustrations - which it lends itself to with its references back.

I would have thought the market for a longer "Testimony" was fans who have already got the original, which is why eBooks would be a way to go initially. The new Orson platform is like iBooks in adding stuff including audio reading and music. But will it take off?

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Ian W

I hope I haven't got the wrong end of the stick on this but the first volume of Mark Lewisohn's three-volume Beatles biography was available in both a standard version and an expanded version, the latter with a much longer text and extra illustrations.

I also seem to recall that Dava Sobel's LONGITUDE was available as both a small hardback and a much larger paperback. This was a bit different, though. I don't think there was any additional text but, as I recall, was more extensively illustrated. Possibly, the latter came out because the former was an unexpected success.

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Peter V

The 800 page version? I’d love to see it. I don’t think it has been done with books before, but I’m not joking about a “de-luxe bonus tracks” version. It would be very easy to do as an eBook without producing stacks of weighty tomes. In fact, using Vellum software and a manuscript in Word, you can import it and do it a few hours of checking turnovers / page breaks, and Vellum will do Kindle, iBook and Kobo in one go. You can see it all on three screens as you check. I’ve been looking at similar with eBooks. The “Full version” would be fascinating. As with Bill Graham’s autobiography, some of the stuff at a tangent that nobody knew at all was highly enjoyable. I loved the story of Robbie and Dylan learning French with Michael Thomas. He was so successful in Hollywood and must have had great charisma to make it work. Then it all came out as a self-study course and was just perplexing to language teachers.

I had noticed Robbie mentioning asthma and an inhaler. My dad had the same issue.

A full audio book is a mountain to record. It doesn’t say how long it is on amazon, just “unabridged.” I’d guess twelve hours? I still read to kids and after 20 minutes or so the throat dries and enthusiasm wanes. Can you imagine setting out to record for 12 hours?

There is an issue with authors reading actually. In my area, we need total accuracy because foreign learners of English may want to read along. I doubt that happens with most audio books, so no one will make a word-by-word comparison … though non-native speaker fans may find it easier reading along to an audio. Reading word-for-word is harder for authors than actors, because the author knows it so well they tend to find themselves paraphrasing.

If Robbie does his own audio next time (and his voice is compelling) we always found it better recording the audio before final proof stage, because authors will always want to tweak words here and there once it’s read aloud. Actors won’t do it. Authors feel they have the right to, and I was always in the studio when my stuff was recorded (until a couple of years ago, when it was recorded from finished books, not proofs) and I always made tiny tweaks here and there.

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Sebastian

i have the 800+ page version! Might find a way to do something with it one day. I like the title Between Trains. I'll pass that long.

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Persona Non-grata

Hi folks - been wanting to know the answer to this question and maybe one of you know. Garth had 1 fire and Levon had 2. What was "lost"? Surely a treasure trove, no? Thanks - inquiring minds need to know this stuff.

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Kevin J

Not a question - just a thought that the title of Robbie's Memoires Part II should be called "Between Trains"..........also, two other wild wishes would be to have Robbie help John D one Saturday afternoon in the not too distant future pick out music on John's "free form" Toronto radio show and to have confirmed Garth Hudson's participation on some of the songs on Robbie's new album.....Great seeing you back here......and so satisfying to see the overwhelmingly positive book reviews.

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Wallsend

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Wallsend

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Sebastian

Jan H. -- It appears that the Weeknd may do a guest vocal on my dad's next album. My dad wrote a song about being a street urchin in Scarborough where they're both from.

Wheeze -- my dad struggles with asthma and has since he was a kid. big part of why he never toured again.

He was considering reading the book himself for the audio book but it was such an intense undertaking and on the cusp of his book tour and finishing his score for Scorsese's new film, Silence he just couldn't do it. It's a shame as I think it would have been pretty captivating.

I tried to touch on some of the inquisitive thoughts on the page but if you have more questions feel free to post them and I'll do my best to respond.

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Wallsend

Being a miserable old git, I don't have much time for young folk and their modern ways but I have to say that this version of Boots of Spanish Leather by Mandolin Orange is impressive. Surely the fiddle is the queen of all instruments.

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John

I read an article on Robbie and they asked him if he had any regrets in life. He said, "yes, I wish I had never started smoking." I believe it causes him problems now. Levon developed CPOD late in life.

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Bill M

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JQ

Wasn't he a big smoker, maybe into later in life?

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Peter V

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Wallsend

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Peter V

It's a bit high at 78 rpm. That must be where I was going wrong, Bill. So that's why they call i a 45! Perhaps what is needed on a Friday evening is Babooshka, original video from her website. Linked.

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Bill M

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Peter V

I hadn't realised there was one out already. There won't be another then. Quite often, Comedians / Actors will read their own autobiographical audio books, but Bruce is the only rock musician to try it to my knowledge. Rod Stewart didn't, which was a pity.

It is a professional skill. If you have someone who isn't used to it, it takes hours what with breathing, stomach noises, voice drying, frogs in the throat. We once did a Sherlock Holmes story (a spoof one) and booked the radio Doctor Watson from the 1950s, then in his 80s. We booked the spoken voice studio from 2 to 5. He'd read it all and marked his script in advance. A 45 minute recording. He did it in around 47 minutes. One raised hand, meaning stop at the end of the sentence for a sip of water, thirty minutes in. The publisher was left looking at two hours booked studio time with nothing to do. Actually, we used it to edit some earlier stuff.

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Peter V

I'm doing much better with "No Depression"'s Top Fifty. I've heard eleven. With most mags it's five or six!

A very late entrant in my top selection. A 3 CD set. I only got it yesterday. I've only heard CD1, but I've heard it three times. Kate Bush Live in 2014 "Before The Dawn." I was hoping for a DVD, but she says she wants people to focus on the music. Her voice is deeper which is good because in the Wuthering Heights era it was sometimes too high for my taste,

Link is to video from her site, "And Dream of Sheep." But I'd try "Running Up That Hill" live. Phenomenal.

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Jon Lyness

Subject: River of Song CD set

Hi bassmanlee, here is the River of Song album (link) with Levon's track. It's under 'Various Artists Albums' in Jan's discography.

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Solomon

Subject: No Depression readers pick the top 50 albums of 2016

Sturgill Simpson - A Sailor's Guide to Earth

Drive-By Truckers - American Band

Lucinda Williams - The Ghosts of Highway 20

Margo Price - Midwest Farmer's Daughter

John Prine - For Better, Or Worse

Alejandro Escovedo - Burn Something Beautiful

Hayes Carll - Lovers and Leavers

Wilco - Schmilco

Leonard Cohen - You Want It Darker

Amanda Shires - My Piece of Land

Parker Millsap - The Very Last Day

The Rolling Stones - Blue and Lonesome

The Jayhawks - Paging Mr. Proust

Lydia Loveless - Real

Tedeschi Trucks Band - Let Me Get By

Shovels & Rope - Little Seeds

Sarah Jarosz - Undercurrent

Robbie Fulks - Upland Stories

The Avett Brothers - True Sadness

case/lang/veirs - case/lang/veirs

Elizabeth Cook - Exodus of Venus

Bob Weir - Blue Mountain

Bonnie Raitt - Dig In Deep

Dwight Yoakam - Swimming Pools Movie Stars

Aaron Lee Tasjan - Silver Tears

Billy Bragg & Joe Henry - Shine a Light: Field Recordings from the Great American Railroad

Hard Working Americans - Rest in Chaos

Paul Simon - Stranger To Stranger

Mandolin Orange - Blindfaller

Hiss Golden Messenger - Heart Like a Levee

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Skeleton Tree

Aoife O'Donovan - In the Magic Hour

Allen Toussaint - American Tunes

Peter Wolf - A Cure For Loneliness

Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats - Little Something More Fun

Angel Olson - My Woman

Sara Watkins - Young in All the Wrong Ways

Bob Dylan - Fallen Angels

Neil Young - Peace Trail

Will Bennett & the Tells - Wichita

Griffin House - So On and So Forth

Jim Lauderdale - This Changes Everything

Shawn Colvin/Steve Earle - Colvin & Earle

Robert Ellis - Robert Ellis

BJ Barham - Rockingham

Van Morrison - Keep Me Singing

Band of Horses - Why Are You OK

Buddy Miller & Friends - Cayamo Sessions at Sea

David Bromberg - The Blues, the Whole Blues, and Nothing But the Blues

Lori McKenna - The Bird & the Rifle

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brown eyed girl

bassmanlee...Check out this very colourful and cool art work.

Levon Helm w/James Cotton
Frenchy
Size (h w d): 30 x 40 in
Created: 1998
Price: $5,000.00

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brown eyed girl

JED..."Howard told a story about running into The Band's Robbie Robertson on one of the days he spent hanging out with Carmen Electra in Malibu years ago. Robbie's date was talking with Howard, so Robbie came over and put his arm around her – but wouldn't say a word to Howard. Howard couldn't figure out why Robbie wouldn't talk to him, so Gary came in and explained that Howard once offended Robbie during an interview back in the day." (2007)

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brown eyed girl

PETER...Are most audio books told by others? Check link re Testimony. The only voice I want to hear is Robbie's telling his own story...no other. I suppose there would be a market for those who like or need to have a story read out loud but as a fan...Robbie shouldn't have allowed someone else to read aloud his story as he's a great storyteller and reader himself.

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bassmanlee

Subject: Levon and James Cotton?

Taking a respite from Christmas music, put on a Pandora channel centered on our boys, and the first track played was Levon and James Cotton doing Chuck Berry's 'Going Back to Memphis' on a record titled 'River of Song: A Musical Journey Down the Mississippi'. Does not seem to appear in Levon's discography here. Anyone familiar with this recording?

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Peter V

I would say that I've recorded a lot of short stories, and even a 40 page story is very hard work for the reader. But wouldn't it be great with Robbie's voice?

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Bill M

Maybe I've said it all before, but Jack Bruce's "Theme From An Imaginary Western" has been running through my head. Doesn't it sound like a prescient encapsulation of the Band's career, from the Brown album right to the end?

When the wagons leave the city
For the forest, and further on
Painted wagons of the morning
Dusty roads where they have gone
Sometimes traveling through the darkness
Met the summer coming home
Fallen faces by the wayside
Looked as if they might have known
Oh the sun was in their eyes
And the desert that dries
In the country towns
Where the laughter sounds

Oh the dancing and the singing
Oh the music when they played
Oh the fires that they started
Oh the girls with no regret
Sometimes they found it
Sometimes they kept it
Often lost it on the way
Fought each other to possess it
Sometimes died in sight of day

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Bill M

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Wallsend

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Bill M

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Jed

Now that would be a treat.Howard is easily one of the best,funniest,most entertaining and provocative interviewers around.

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brown eyed girl

TIM...So this is the interview with Robbie and Fallon. I also saw online that Robbie will be on Stern's show in January?

BILL M...Those reading levels were shared with us during our training many years ago. I just checked online and I see that the National Post...Grade 9 level. However, now I see that The Star...Grade 13 and The Sun...Grade 8.

http://www.macleans.ca/general/news-for-people-who-cant-read-good/

"For every hand that's clapping for you, there's always someone at the back, sitting in the dark booing."
Maria Callas

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JT

Subject: digits

I'm sorry to hear that, Norm, but glad to hear you are healing and hope to play again. It is a gift to play. Sounds like having 10 digits given the difficult work you have done in your career is fortunate.

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Rockin Chair

Subject: The Perils of the Job

Not playing much guitar just now Jerry. While doing my last job, on the deck of my barge I was cutting inch and a quarter steel cable with a zip cutter on my grinder. My right foot slipped and I kinda fell forward and put a really bad, deep cut in the first finger of my left hand. That finger probably has about 20 scars from axes and other tools over the years.

Hoping now that I can rest the shoulders more they will ease up and I can get myself healed up some so I can play some more. My younger brother has been wanting to play some of our old music with me for some time now, with that age old, "we're not getting any younger you know!" Hopefully we can enjoy a lot of that this year.

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Bill M

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bassmanlee

Subject: John Prine & Sturgill Simpson

Ran across this interesting interview/discussion a few days ago, likely due to some link from here (probably Peter, who keeps up, while this old dog does not). While John Prine has been a hero for many, many years, and I am so grateful that he has beaten his cancer and is still with us, this Sturgill Simpson person is quite interesting and gives hope for the future. He seems to have made a rapid transition from outlaw country (think Waylon) to some pretty sophisticated Southern flavored gumbo, reminding me a little of when the Band hooked up with Allen Toussaint on Rock of Ages and TLW. Worth looking into.

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Peter V

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Wallsend

Short interview with Robbie from the Toronto Sun.

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JT

Subject: Guitar

Yes, Norm. But you can play that there guitar!

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Kevin J

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Rockin Chair

Subject: Clear as MUD!

Kevin! what in hell did you just say in that second post...it's all upside down I can't read that.

Well Jerry, I took that typing in grade 9 in 1960. How come I can't still do that? It's two hands but only a couple of fingers from each hand.

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brown eyed girl

CAROL CAFFIN...HELP as not sure what to make of this?????

Getting The Story From Danielle: The Rick Danko Media Archive Webisode 1

Published on Jun 21, 2014
"The Rick Danko Media Archive Project was launched in March 2014 by Danielle, Rick Danko's niece, with Rich Brotman, Documentarian and Archivist. The website for the Rick Danko Archive will be launched this summer so, hang tight and stay tuned."

By the Grand River we learned to type in grade nine whether you were in the five year or four year program. All the keys on the typewriter were blank except for the top row of numbers and symbols. To this day I have to still look for them on my laptop.

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Kevin J

Bill M: Thank you for the head's up on TLW last night on PBS. Tuned in at Ophelia and enjoyed the added RR interviews. His pledge drive pitch really was sincere.

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JT

Subject: The keyboard and the 'autobrain'

Ian W: 'Dylan typed a version...'. reminded me to note that the single most important class that I took for 2 years in grade 7 and 8 was a typing class. This was about 1962 and the typewriter was a standard Underwood. I was taught about the home row and how to type with 2 hands and incorporated that skill into my brain effectively. As I type this post, I am using 2 hands and 10 digits, hands on the home row and all digits participating without thinking of which keys to hit as I enter the words. Thank you , Miss X for a skill that has transcended all these years and serves me well. I assume that is how musicians do it but so far I haven't achieved that skill. When I strum a few chords, I still have to think. There's still time and I intend to apply the skills of the keyboard to the frets. Here's hoping...

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brown eyed girl

Cashmere Cat has also worked with Ariana Grande. Here she displays her singing chops via of vocal impressions on SNL

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brown eyed girl

I first posted about The Weeknd when I saw him on an Award show with Ariana Grande singing back-up on Love Me Harder. I had no idea he was from Toronto. On another Award show he performed I Can't Feel My Face (lol had no idea he was singing about coke) and Kanye West in the audience got up and danced away. Here are the two songs I downloaded from his latest Star Boy recording with Daft Punk.

The Weeknd: I Feel It Coming (channeling Michael Jackson)/Starboy Medley on Jimmy Fallon's show.
I will be in charge of research and PR. :-D

I only bought two CDS this year and downloaded one.

Van Morrison...Keep Me Singing
I bought CD for 7.99 on Black Friday. Nothing adventurous here but the Van you can count on. I remember one movie where Uma Thurman's character said that she couldn't wait to get home just to hear Van's voice.....and then all's well.

Adele...25
Another artist I discovered on an Award show who briefly sang with others but she was a stand out....I posted immediately about her.

Lady Gaga (Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta)...Joanne
I don't have any of her recordings but when I saw her once again, on American Music Awards and she sang...Million Reasons; I knew I had to hear more. I downloaded this recording.

Jed....My brother refers to this GB aa a crack house and I'm in it deeply. I did get clean for eight months and then relapsed. ;-D

Concerts...Steve Earle and The Dukes with an All-Star Light of Day Line-Up Fundraiser for Parkinson's Disease

Dance...Wintersong
Dances For A Sacred Season...I always took my students to this performance by mostly high school students who are young professionals at Harbourfront's Fleck Theatre.

Undefined Fraction...Aki Studio

Beatles Exhibit...St. Lawrence Market

Chihuly Exhibit...Royal Ontario Museum

I started Testimony last night. Less than grade 10 education...wow.
Newspapers...Reading Level
The Globe...Grade 10
The Star...Grade 8
The Sun...Grade 6...Really a pictorial paper but good for sports fans because of all the photos but I still won't look at this paper that promotes sensationalism among other things....

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Peter V

We agree on Paul Simon, Roger! The company helped, of course.

I just found my 1963 Beatles Gaumont ticket … I never lost my Winter Gardens one. Evening on the Friday. Intriguingly it has a girl's name and phone number on the back. I have no memory of the girl whatsoever, so maybe she gave me the wrong number; or maybe she said she was washing her hair that night, or maybe I went out with her and have no recall. I'm pleased that I used a Beatles concert to try and make a date though. I've added it to my Band pictures "holding page" linked, but not the phone number and name, (Helen tel. 2616)

Entered at Wed Dec 14 14:21:04 CET 2016 from (86.31.229.95)

Roger

Subject: Madhouse on castle Street

Appreciate the info Ian. My email is Rogeratedentsdotuk - obviously using symbols for the words at and dot.

I'd love to contribute to the lists Peter began - but I didn't purchase 10 albums this year. Or go to ten gigs. So all the gigs I went to must be in my top ten - I've ranked them.

Gigs

1. Paul Simon - Bournemouth

2. Simone Felice - Glee Club Birmingham\3. Ashley Hutchings - Kitchen Garden Cafe, Kings Heath, Birmingham

4. Kris Kristofferson - Union Chapel, Islington

5.Joanna Eden - Kitchen Garden Cafe, Kings Heath, Birmingham

6. Tasmin Little - Birmingham Town Hall

7. City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra - Symphony Hall, Birmingham... a couple of times. That's it for me.

The concert I missed out on most was Natalie Merchant. I wanted to go but we were in Italy. Next year we've got The Bootleg Beatles booked with the Liverpool Philharmonic, The Unthanks, Chris Wood (a great Brit folksinger).

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Basil F

Subject: it's a sort of Japo-Scandinavian hybrid - not very good

Do I really want
To have this set in Denmark?
Financing's in place?

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Peter V

Will you need a roadie in that role, Jan? You know where I am.

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jh

So, JRR is a fan of The Weeknd, aka Abel Tesfaye? I had the pleasure of meeting Abel briefly in a studio on Manhattan this summer, while visiting our "kid" Magnus (aka Cashmere Cat) who works in the music biz as an artist, songwriter and producer. The Weeknd contributes vocals to CC's 2016 single "Wild Love", and four of the songs on Abel's new, chart-topping 'Starboy' album are co-written and -produced by Magnus. The next logical step here must be for Robbie to have CC produce his upcoming solo album, with backing vocals from TW and CC's dad as executive producer :-)

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Bill M

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Rockin Chair

Subject: Not Fade Away - Levon Helm - The Band - The Crickets

In memories, a Christmas Gift for everyone. The making of the Buddy Holly tribute album, "Not Fade Away".

Watch Levon sing, with the Band, the Crickets and share the memories we all hold dear. Merry Christmas and enjoy.

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John D

Subject: Patti Smith sings for Bob at Nobel Awards and gets a case of the nerves

This so moved me watching an artist of her magnitude become so vulnerable; and then get her amazing strength back. I've watched it so many times now. She's incredible.

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Ian W

The tune on the "Jack O'Diamonds" single by Ben Carruters is absolutely NOT the "Cuckoo Bird" tune.

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Ian W

First, my apologies. I missed the request to comment on the songs in the "Madhouse On Castle Street" television play, which i did not see at the time.

Second, I have already written at some length(twice, in fact!) about Dylan's visit to Britain in December 1962 and January 1963. The first piece covered Dylan's contributions to the "Madhouse on Castle Street" play. The second piece (second written but out of chronological sequence) was about the events that led up to his visit.

Third, if I can find the time, I hope to write two more pieces on that visit. One will be about the recording of the Dick Farina and Eric von Schmidt album and its release. The second (and the more difficult, I suspect) will be about who he met, where he went and what he did on the visit.

If Roger cares to let me know his e-mail address, I can pass some information on the songs in the "Madhouse On castle Street" play to him.

Three viewers recorded Dylan's contributions, their microphones placed in front of the TV speakers. At least, there may have been more recordings but three survived. The quality of the recordings (audio only, I'm afraid)varies and none covered the whole of Dylan's contribution but, between them, we get a pretty comprehensive idea. A few years back, there was a BBC TV documentary about the play which included most of these recordings. I make a thankfully brief appearance in that documentary.

Coincidentally, after the discussion about "Cuckoo Bird" and "Jack O'Diamonds", a version of the latter appeared in a BBC TV play in 1965. The play was called "A Man With No Papers", written by Troy Kennedy Martin and starring Ben Carruthers, an actor who also appeared in John Cassavetes film "Shadows".

In this case, Carruthers met Dylan in his hotel room and Dylan typed up a version of the poem "Jack O'Diamonds" that appears on the back of ANOTHER SIDE OF BOB DYLAN. Carruthers adapted the words, music was added and it not only appeared in the play but a single was produced, as performed by Ben Carruthers and The Deep.

And one of The Deep was Jimmy Page, in his session man days. Apparently, Ben and the group did one live show - at a club in Hounslow, West London..

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Jed

An elegant,moving,wise,beautiful Nobel speech by Dylan.Just stunning.

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Jed

Over the past 40 years I have truly enjoyed treating my junkies-most are sweethearts trying to manage all that pain & trauma,and as everyone in my business secretly knows junk might be one of the more effective PTSD treatments out there.Cocaine addicts-well,I tend not to want to treat them-there are some ok options,but to be honest,they tend to be insidiously sneaky,slick,underhanded and the drug encourages that type of self absorbed character totally taken by his coke use.

Entered at Tue Dec 13 22:17:09 CET 2016 from (86.25.242.77)

Ian W

I keep an eye on another forum (really on behalf of my wife). The question of Dylan's Nobel award came up and I spoke up.

This is what I wrote about 8 weeks ago and I'm pleased to say that I, like Dylan himself, ventured forth on the subject of Dylan, Shakespeare and the Nobel award - not at such length and not as eloquently but I'm kind of pleased anyway.

____________________________________________________________

Re: Nobel Prize in Literature 2016 for Bob Dylan

« Reply #21 on: 19 October 2016, 18:17:21 »

QuoteModifyRemove

Yes, it is a terrific honour for Dylan but, yes, there have been naysayers and gainsayers vocal in expressing their views. This carping seems to revolve around the notion that Dylan's works are not worthy of being considered literature. I would have thought literature had a pretty wide definition and Alfred Nobel seems to have held much the same point of view.

Over the years, the Nobel committee has given the literature award to some writers with whom I was not familiar and with whose works I am still unfamiliar. For once, this is someone whose works I not only know but know well. I suspect the same is true for many other people across the world. For this reason alone, this award should be welcomed.

Clearly, Dylan writes for the stage not the page (well, mainly, anyway) but should this count against him? I think not! Previous Nobel prizewinners in Literature have included Harold Pinter and the recently deceased Dario Fo, both of whom wrote principally for the stage.

Dylan's works have probably been heard and/or read more widely than almost any other Nobel prizewinner in recent times. Is this not be lauded?

As for Dylan's place being in popular culture, we should remember that Shakespeare, in his time, wrote his plays not just to be performed but also to be popular. Were he writing plays today, would this invalidate his being considered for this prize? Let alone winning it one year?

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Rockin Chair

Subject: To be clear

s...matter with you guys? Is a guy supposed to drop every thing he's doin' to go get the award? It's like you figure he's disin' the Swedes. I don't think so. You can't just stop and let a lot of other people down can yuh?

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Mike Nomad

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Kevin J

I have never been a fan of someone mailing in a speech.......as to brilliant, I thought Robbie Robertson's thoughts on Rick Danko on the anniversary of Rick's death were brilliant and worth repeating:

"Smile, Soul, Fretless, Pool shark, Radiant, Restless, Infinite. Rick Danko."

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Rockin Chair

Subject: Apples & Oranges

That was slick Jerry! You just bailed yourself out.

Literature.....try reading some of the works of my great grand father, Frank Thomas Bullen. Just the other night my daughter and I discussed "Cruise of the Cachalot", probably his most famous of 45 books. As I did, Amanda said, Dad, I have to keep the dictionary beside me when I'm reading this. Many of his words are never even heard any more.

Born in London, England he ran away to sea at age twelve, working on whaling ships. He was one of the journalists covering the sailing of the Titanic.

One of his books we much enjoy is entitled, "Deep Sea Plunderings" short stories like the readers digest about true acts of piracy.

Mr. Dylan's speech appears very carefully constructed, and of course is very well written. Humility is ever present.

I think you could choose any number of his songs that could be easily something to read as well as listened to as music.

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Peter V

Yesterday, I spent 20 minutes pressing "refresh" on my computer trying to get a Dylan ticket. I was in the waiting room area while Mrs V's car was being serviced.

"Having trouble?" said the elderly lady next to me.

"Mmm. The tickets were supposed to be on sale at ten. It's twenty past and they're still not open for bookings."

She glanced at my iPad, "I see your problem."

'What is it?" I said, somewhat testily.

"Today's Monday. It says on sale 10 a.m. on TUESDAY."

Anyway, today I thought I had no chance. My grandson's first nativity play was at 9.30. It finished at 9.58. I pressed my iPhone on and vaguely pressed the website. Ding! I went straight through. No queue. As it was the phone, I put "best available" and even at £81 (best ticket), it's a poor seat. Never mind. I got it.

Yes, I know I said "never again" after the last Dylan, but a little voice said Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance.

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JT

Subject: 'Hear' rhymes with 'ear'

'hear' (not here) rhymes with 'ear'. Correction? Who knows.

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brown eyed girl

Who am I kidding. There's always just one more!

Garland Jeffreys news..........

"Who Is Garland Jeffreys? Film
"Join me as a documentary about my life & music gets made - as well as a new studio album!"

LONG LIVE GARLAND JEFFREYS.....THE REAL DEAL FOR brown eyed girl!!!!!!!!!

KISSES AND HUGS
X0

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JT

Subject: Dylan's speech

I admire Dylan's speech. It showed pride and humility simply stated in the tangled web that is uniquely Dylan. He's well read but I'm sure he never considered his words 'literature' in the way that he perceived the works that he had read. He has been all about the way the studio worked and the stage operated and who played and where and how it all was finally put together. That's been what it has been all about for him for these many years. It is the viewing/listening world that has superimposed titles and crowns on Dylan's being. It has always been the work and how that work was assembled that has driven him from what I have observed. To be recognized by Ball and Motion all those years ago and to be put forth for 'the award' to recognize that the words had all the attributes of great literature was an idea that was inspired and certainly would fit the mold of reasoning that would allow Shakespeare to receive this award if it had existed in his time. As noted in the speech, the bard wrote beautifully but his mind was likely on the presentation rather than the words. I assume we might here more about this in Stockholm in April. But who knows?

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brown eyed girl

CBC News Network's Sarah Galashan talks to Robbie Robertson
Dec 12, 2016

We learn here that Robbie digs The Weeknd (Abel Makkonen Tesfaye) from Scarborough, suburb of Toronto. His parents emigrated to Canada from Ethiopia. His former girlfriend Bella Hadid is the stepdaughter of David Foster. He said in another interview that he's the real deal. Looks like we all have good taste in music. ;-D

"On social media outlets such as Twitter, he suffixed his name with "xo".[92] According to Hoby, it is meant as an emoticon for "a kiss and a hug",[92] while VH1's Zara Golden, The Torch, and GQ have said that it is instead a reference to his recreational use of ecstasy and oxycodone.[12][115][116]"

Yikes......Well, I guess I did some things as well at his age so let's just hope he doesn't get addicted. We had Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds (Rollie and I had talks about this one.) and the only time I took the other one was because of dental surgery. The pain went away instantly but I never felt mellow or anything like I do with nitrous oxide so I guess I'm very lucky that it doesn't interest me at all. Just channelling Joni Mitchell style confessional writing again. lol Okay, okay.....I have to get to his testimony and not mine. I knew once I returned to this GB that it would be my crack house again. Jed and haso......please help me! ;-D

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JOHN D

Although Bob was not there in person. This is his speech read to everyone in attendance. It's what you would expect; from Mr. D.

Good evening, everyone. I extend my warmest greetings to the members of the Swedish Academy and to all of the other distinguished guests in attendance tonight.

I'm sorry I can't be with you in person, but please know that I am most definitely with you in spirit and honored to be receiving such a prestigious prize. Being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature is something I never could have imagined or seen coming. From an early age, I've been familiar with and reading and absorbing the works of those who were deemed worthy of such a distinction: Kipling, Shaw, Thomas Mann, Pearl Buck, Albert Camus, Hemingway. These giants of literature whose works are taught in the schoolroom, housed in libraries around the world and spoken of in reverent tones have always made a deep impression. That I now join the names on such a list is truly beyond words.

I don't know if these men and women ever thought of the Nobel honor for themselves, but I suppose that anyone writing a book, or a poem, or a play anywhere in the world might harbor that secret dream deep down inside. It's probably buried so deep that they don't even know it's there.

If someone had ever told me that I had the slightest chance of winning the Nobel Prize, I would have to think that I'd have about the same odds as standing on the moon. In fact, during the year I was born and for a few years after, there wasn't anyone in the world who was considered good enough to win this Nobel Prize. So, I recognize that I am in very rare company, to say the least.

I was out on the road when I received this surprising news, and it took me more than a few minutes to properly process it. I began to think about William Shakespeare, the great literary figure. I would reckon he thought of himself as a dramatist. The thought that he was writing literature couldn't have entered his head. His words were written for the stage. Meant to be spoken not read. When he was writing Hamlet, I'm sure he was thinking about a lot of different things: "Who're the right actors for these roles?" "How should this be staged?" "Do I really want to set this in Denmark?" His creative vision and ambitions were no doubt at the forefront of his mind, but there were also more mundane matters to consider and deal with. "Is the financing in place?" "Are there enough good seats for my patrons?" "Where am I going to get a human skull?" I would bet that the farthest thing from Shakespeare's mind was the question "Is this literature?"

When I started writing songs as a teenager, and even as I started to achieve some renown for my abilities, my aspirations for these songs only went so far. I thought they could be heard in coffee houses or bars, maybe later in places like Carnegie Hall, the London Palladium. If I was really dreaming big, maybe I could imagine getting to make a record and then hearing my songs on the radio. That was really the big prize in my mind. Making records and hearing your songs on the radio meant that you were reaching a big audience and that you might get to keep doing what you had set out to do.

Well, I've been doing what I set out to do for a long time, now. I've made dozens of records and played thousands of concerts all around the world. But it's my songs that are at the vital center of almost everything I do. They seemed to have found a place in the lives of many people throughout many different cultures and I'm grateful for that.

But there's one thing I must say. As a performer I've played for 50,000 people and I've played for 50 people and I can tell you that it is harder to play for 50 people. 50,000 people have a singular persona, not so with 50. Each person has an individual, separate identity, a world unto themselves. They can perceive things more clearly. Your honesty and how it relates to the depth of your talent is tried. The fact that the Nobel committee is so small is not lost on me.

But, like Shakespeare, I too am often occupied with the pursuit of my creative endeavors and dealing with all aspects of life's mundane matters. "Who are the best musicians for these songs?" "Am I recording in the right studio?" "Is this song in the right key?" Some things never change, even in 400 years.

Not once have I ever had the time to ask myself, "Are my songs literature?"

So, I do thank the Swedish Academy, both for taking the time to consider that very question, and, ultimately, for providing such a wonderful answer.

My best wishes to you all,

Bob Dylan

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brown eyed girl

Robbie Robertson on film's influence on his songwriting

"The Band guitarist Robbie Robertson says he became "addicted" to reading film scripts to help his songwriting. The release of Robertson's new memoir "Testimony" coincides with the 40th anniversary of the Band's final concert."

Entered at Tue Dec 13 07:30:05 CET 2016 from (67.71.41.191)

brown eyed girl

Very busy four days celebrating my special day with family and friends so no time for reading Testimony....yet. I will try again. Anyway, I came home late Sunday night and caught on CBC The National......

Published on Dec 12, 2016
Dakota Tavern, Toronto
December 11, 2016
Robbie Robertson's Memoir On Famous Friends
In "Testimony," Robbie Robertson talks about his relationships with Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and Levon Helm. Joni Mitchell as well.

Entered at Mon Dec 12 19:28:20 CET 2016 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

The Bap Kennedy is recent and posthumous and superb.

Entered at Mon Dec 12 18:46:51 CET 2016 from (79.75.179.226)

Solomon

Dion - New York Is My Home

Bobby Rush - Porcupine Meat

Sturgill Simpson - A Sailor's Guide to Earth

Leonard Cohen - If You Want It Darker

Paul Simon - Stranger to Stranger

Afro Celt Sound System - The Source

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Skeleton Tree

Seasick Steve - Keepin' the Horse Between Me and the Ground

Steve Earle & Shawn Colvin - Colvin & Earle

Darell Scott - Couchville Session

Peter - I've got a few more to hear before the end of 2016 - I like how raw the Stones sound on Blue & Lonesome. I had no idea the late great Bap Kennedy had an album out.

Entered at Mon Dec 12 18:38:17 CET 2016 from (24.114.74.7)

Kevin J

"Smile, Soul, Fretless, Pool shark, Radiant, Restless, Infinite. Rick Danko."

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Peter V

Subject: Best of Music 2016

My Best of 2016 Music lists are now up (see link). I shall miss David Powell's lists this year.

So come on the rest of you … where's your ten.

Entered at Mon Dec 12 16:52:01 CET 2016 from (79.75.179.226)

Solomon

Subject: Remembering Rick Danko: Performing With The Band & Others Aboard Festival Express

On December 10, 1999 multi-talented musician Rick Danko passed away at the age of just 55. The Blayney, Ontario native best-known for his contributions as a vocalist and primary bassist in The Band, Danko was an essential component to the groundbreaking rock group’s success. In celebration Rick’s life, here’s a look back at the famed Festival Express Tour through his native Canada that took place in 1970 and featured The Band, Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin and others.

Entered at Mon Dec 12 16:20:48 CET 2016 from (79.75.179.226)

Solomon

We regret to announce that our Conversation with Robbie Robertson, a Salon@615 event that was scheduled for Tuesday, Dec., 13, has been cancelled due to illness.

Entered at Mon Dec 12 15:58:47 CET 2016 from (184.66.251.127)

JT

Subject: Dylan in Sweden April 2017

Bob Dylan will be playing Stockholm Sweden April 1 and 2 and other sites including Lund, Sweden and Oslo in the first 2 weeks of April 2017. Sounds like Nobel speech-time.

Entered at Mon Dec 12 13:50:16 CET 2016 from (96.245.114.250)

bassmanlee

Subject: Norm

Norm, you lucky bastard. You certainly deserve it. May you and Susan enjoy many, many long days of leisure and pleasure, good health happiness. (Don't leave us, though. Stay in touch!)

Entered at Mon Dec 12 01:25:26 CET 2016 from (208.181.205.134)

Rockin Chair

Subject: Bob Dylan - Nobel Prize - Greil Marcus

I have just been spending some time reading Greil Marcus writings in regard to Bob's winning of the Nobel Prize. This is very interesting to say the least. I'm sure many of you have already seen it. I've been so busy of late I'm playing catch-up.\ The comment, (I guess shouldn't surprise me, Marcus says Highway 61 Revisited is the most important song Dylan ever wrote. To me it is much more empowering with the voice of Johnnie Cash.

Has any one ever seen the movie, "The Hunted" with Tommy Lee Jones & Benicio del Torres? Listening to John Cash sing that song in the back ground makes that movie even more powerful.

Entered at Mon Dec 12 01:04:11 CET 2016 from (208.181.205.134)

Rockin Chair

Subject: Sea Cruise

Thanks Mike.........lookin' forward to it.

Entered at Sun Dec 11 21:21:15 CET 2016 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

Subject: Best of 2016 - theatre

Of less interest here, but my "Best of 2016 - Theatre" is up. Music will follow soon. The breadth and extent of theatre in 2016 is shown in the photos, even if you're not going to see any.

Entered at Sun Dec 11 21:08:47 CET 2016 from (99.229.224.79)

John D

Thanks for backing me up Adam. The coffee table book and the pictures is worth the price of admission; BUT I'll say it again, this Blue-Ray version is exceptional. We sit about 12 feet away; from our 60 inch HD.

Entered at Sun Dec 11 19:56:35 CET 2016 from (208.181.205.134)

Rockin Chair

Subject: Turn me loose set me free!

After 56 years of working, a lot of the words in this song apply.........

Entered at Sun Dec 11 19:55:41 CET 2016 from (174.88.217.37)

Mike Nomad

Entered at Sun Dec 11 19:22:25 CET 2016 from (99.16.133.205)

Adam

Just wanted to post some info for those wondering. TLW 40th deluxe box set (4CD / 1 Blu Ray) is, for me, the way to go for this latest reissue.

The box is a little bigger than the ACADEMY 1971 set, but otherwise is like that. The book is full of wonderful photos, and the same notes from the 2002 version. So just as an "update" of that set, it's a much better book and presentation. Sad there's no new material audio/video at all...

Entered at Sun Dec 11 18:42:18 CET 2016 from (208.181.205.134)

Rockin Chair

Subject: Not Quite!

Not quite Mike, but I think Susan and I will get by. We live quite a modest life. If I ever got the chance to shake your hand, I'd buy the steak dinner.

Same up here Jerry. Port Hardy got quite a dump, but in our little hamlet we never get much right in town. More up on the hills.

Thank you all for your kind words. The feeling of not having to get up and live in work gear and head out into the shit weather is undescribable. I believe there will be emotional adjustments over the next while. Just to see the relief in Susan's eyes as she snuggles up beside me is worth more than any thing.

We have much to look forward to and be excited about now with our Rockin Chair, so in the words of the sailor...

I must go down to the sea again, to the lonely sea and the sky,

All I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by.......

Entered at Sun Dec 11 18:30:43 CET 2016 from (67.71.41.191)

brown eyed girl

Thank you Paul McCartney! :-D

"See" all of you later in the month as I will be starting to read Robbie's book so I don't want any distractions. Ya know how easily I get distracted and go all over the place with my thoughts and posts. ;-D

Even after all of this time
The sun never says to the earth
'You owe me'
Look what happens with a love like that...
It lights up the whole sky.
Hafiz

Entered at Sun Dec 11 17:59:04 CET 2016 from (67.71.41.191)

brown eyed girl

I have always had a love/hate relationship with Madonna. Thank you for this acceptance speech.

Watch Madonna Talk Sexism, Misogyny in Powerful Women in Music Speech
"If you're a girl, you have to play the game. You're allowed to be pretty and cute and sexy. But don’t act too smart," singer says of double standards

Much of Madonna's speech focused on the misogyny in the music industry as well as society, Billboard reports.

"I was of course inspired by Debbie Harry and Chrissie Hynde and Aretha Franklin, but my real muse was David Bowie. He embodied male and female spirit and that suited me just fine. He made me think there were no rules. But I was wrong. There are no rules – if you're a boy. There are rules if you're a girl," Madonna said.

"If you're a girl, you have to play the game. You're allowed to be pretty and cute and sexy. But don’t act too smart. Don’t have an opinion that's out of line with the status quo. You are allowed to be objectified by men and dress like a slut, but don’t own your sluttiness. And do not, I repeat do not, share your own sexual fantasies with the world. Be what men want you to be, but more importantly, be what women feel comfortable with you being around other men. And finally, do not age. Because to age is a sin. You will be criticized and vilified and you will definitely not be played on the radio."

Entered at Sun Dec 11 17:41:08 CET 2016 from (67.71.41.191)

brown eyed girl

JANUARY 15, 2014
BY SOMETHING ELSE!
‘He would just tear it up’: Robbie Robertson wanted Otis Redding to cover a key Bob Dylan song

“We were in Los Angeles, and we found out that Otis Redding was playing somewhere,” Robertson says. “So, the manager at the time — Albert Grossman — hooks it up for Bob and I to meet Otis, and [Redding manager, later Capricorn Records impresario] Phil Walden. So, we get together and I’m kind of pitching this song, and Otis says: ‘That sounds great to me.'”

Turns out, Redding “went in and recorded it, and he couldn’t sing the bridge. He said: ‘I don’t know how to sing the bridge,'” Robertson remembers Walden saying. “‘In the bridge, the words are about amphetamines and pearls, and he couldn’t get those words to come out of his mouth in a truthful way. So, we had to put it aside.'”

Robertson still thinks Redding — who he says “was, to me, one of the greatest singers that ever walked the earth” — would have done something magical with the tune: “Absolutely. He would just tear it up.” Yet, Robertson understands Redding’s predicament, too. “If you can’t sing something with a complete honesty, then you shouldn’t be singing that thing. And he was just being honest about it.”

Robbie Robertson on Dylan, Nashville and Otis Redding Video

Entered at Sun Dec 11 05:27:37 CET 2016 from (74.12.32.149)

Bill M

Subject: Gene and Catherine MacLellan

I don't recall seeing Gene MacLellan's name in "Testimony", and couldn't find it when I checked a few minutes ago. (I wish Kevin J hadn't talked Robbie out of adding an index.) Gene was an interesting part of the early days, having been in the Consuls with Robbie (and Peter Deremigis), and having left the Consuls with Robbie and Peter to form the Suedes with Scott Cushnie. Gene had been the lead guitarist in the Consuls until Robbie joined, and was eventually pushed out of the Suedes in favour of Robbie's bass-playing buddy, Peter Traynor. I believe that MacLellan moved on to a couple other bands in Toronto before moving east - eventually finding a steady gig as part of the "Singalong Jubilee" TV show in the mid to late '60s, along with people like Anne Murray and Brian Ahearn.

Good connections to have, as Ahearn (producer) and Murray (singer) selected MacLellan's "Snowbird" as her first major-label 45, and it took off. Amos Garrett on guitar, Buddy Cage on steel. The same year, 1970, saw another MacLellan song, "Put Your Hand In The Hand" by Ocean top the charts internationally. (Levon and the Hawks fans might care that Ocean's subsequent LP included a cover of "The Stones I Throw".) MacLellan did a really good album of his own with Ahearn, and another in Toronto, and then an unreleased one in Bearsville with Amos Garrett, Chris Parker and others, but it was never released - and he pretty much faded from the scene.

I picked up a couple of CDs by his talented daughter Catherine this morning. Good stuff. Joe J might care that a singer he's introduced us to, Amelia Curran, sings on a couple songs, and Jim Cuddy from Blue Rodeo sings on a couple of others. One has a lovely version of her father's "Snowbird", and the other has a lovely song written in his memory. The link's to the one I've heard most on the radio.

Entered at Sat Dec 10 22:00:39 CET 2016 from (96.239.25.33)

Joan

Subject: Norm

Congratulations .Enjoy your retirement

Entered at Sat Dec 10 21:20:43 CET 2016 from (174.88.217.37)

Mike Nomad

I know it's still two weeks off but a Happy Hanukah to my pal Jeff, and to Joan as well, I believe, and to Butch over in New Paltz, N.Y. (AP style)

Entered at Sat Dec 10 20:55:02 CET 2016 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

So that's FOUR versions of the story, Pat!

Entered at Sat Dec 10 19:47:18 CET 2016 from (24.114.74.7)

Kevin J

Thinking of Rick Danko today. So many beautiful memories. Hard to believe it's been 17 years.

Entered at Sat Dec 10 19:41:48 CET 2016 from (108.88.109.12)

Pat B

Entered at Sat Dec 10 18:22:48 CET 2016 from (174.1.36.190)

Lisa

Entered at Sat Dec 10 15:19:11 CET 2016 from (67.71.41.191)

brown eyed girl

....and here's some Scottish, English, Irish, Australian and German rock and roll!!!!!

Enjoy the white fluff and TFC GOES FOR MLS FINAL TONIGHT...Maybe just maybe Toronto will be a winner....fianlly!

Entered at Sat Dec 10 14:57:46 CET 2016 from (67.71.41.191)

brown eyed girl

Robbie Robertson on his new memoir
Dec 09, 2016

Short radio interview I heard last night which Robbie said while speaking in Calgary....maybe most special time during his Testimony talk......
At the end of Robbie's interview we're told an elder gave him his Indigenous name.....EAGLE SINGS!
Robbie said, "It felt like thunder".......

Gord Downie recently wept after given spirit name Man Who Walks Among The Stars. Beautiful.

Entered at Sat Dec 10 14:43:36 CET 2016 from (67.71.41.191)

brown eyed girl

Q&A: The Band's Robbie Robertson talks The Last Waltz 40 years later
'We were trying to do something so honourable in the name of the music that had brought us to that point'
CBC News
Dec 07, 2016

Entered at Sat Dec 10 14:40:04 CET 2016 from (67.71.41.191)

brown eyed girl

Good morning haso. We're back to the shoes.....lol.....You're right the shoes Robbie was wearing during that interview are for charity. Thanks for letting me know. When I first bought my first pair with the white bottom I had to really think about it as I didn't like it at first. Now I wear these shoes all the time....even bought a second pair as they're no longer available. Super comfy but when taking long walks.....no as more support is needed. Here are my Ecco shoes. Otherwise I usually wear Amercian made New Balance in many colours for comfort and support while walking everywhere. Of course all these shoes are bought on sale as they're quite pricey.

Entered at Sat Dec 10 14:23:43 CET 2016 from (67.71.41.191)

brown eyed girl

Norm....Congrats and good health along the way and enjoy new adventures. You always seemed like a very hard worker so now it's overdue time for travelling and anything else on your bucket list.

For anyone else in retirement or thinking about it. If interested check out How To Stay Relevant In Retirement.

Entered at Sat Dec 10 13:24:39 CET 2016 from (24.44.153.18)

Bob F

Entered at Sat Dec 10 10:13:28 CET 2016 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

Thanks George for that link. I had never noticed that speed correction in "Caravan" before. It is unusual, as mostly drummers speed up, not switch the pace down.

Entered at Sat Dec 10 10:09:56 CET 2016 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

Entered at Sat Dec 10 08:06:19 CET 2016 from (184.66.251.127)

JT

Subject: Rock on Norm

You earned it, Norm. Enjoy. How's the snow where you are? Down here in Vic its almost gone.

Entered at Sat Dec 10 05:51:32 CET 2016 from (71.234.142.242)

haso

Subject: RR shoes

Congrats to Chair. Enjoy your rocking, Norm. And keep on w/ the playing for change entries, seems like a good idea here.

BEG: I think those shoes are from a fundraising deal that Bob Kraft, owner of the N.E. Patriots has going. He started wearing those at football games a bunch and I think there's some kind of charitable thing related to them, no do;bt it's on the web somewhere.

Entered at Sat Dec 10 05:00:02 CET 2016 from (23.241.116.216)

George

Subject: Levon

I read some stuff recently on a new book by Jack Hamilton called Just Around Midnight: Rock and Roll and the Racial Imagination. I Googled Jack Hamilton and came across a great piece he wrote in the Atlantic when Levon passed away.

Entered at Sat Dec 10 04:30:34 CET 2016 from (173.3.51.22)

Jeff A.

Entered at Sat Dec 10 02:49:06 CET 2016 from (174.88.217.37)

Mike Nomad

Entered at Sat Dec 10 02:01:30 CET 2016 from (208.181.205.134)

Rockin Chair

Subject: NOW HEAR THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!

Norm Jones has left the tug boat! This is particularly for Todd and Mike Nomad, you guys got on my case and abused me for about 7 years now.

Well last week Susie and I sold our tug boat, barge, and both machines, (a package) I am retired, so fuck you guys :-)

I will be spending my golden years on the Rockin Chair! Motoring around our coast catching a few crabs, prawns, halibut and salmon in season and just generally having a relaxing good time.

We have to go to Mexico just after the new year, then a month in Australia and I got to go to Tasmania and visit a buddy there........so I gots the last laugh here......Y'all have a good time.

Entered at Sat Dec 10 01:35:01 CET 2016 from (24.114.67.238)

Bill M

Entered at Sat Dec 10 00:15:27 CET 2016 from (67.71.41.191)

brown eyed girl

WALLSEND...Thank you very much for posting Robbie's talk in LA. I think this was his very first talk? I don't know if it's because I took a break from watching and listening to his talks as I was exhausted.....In praise of older men! Listening to the same stories....but this interview in particular really moved me as there were times I teared up and other times I was smiling so much. I don't know....probably his choice of shoes got me in the groove as well. I love comfy cool shoes. ;-D When you think about it he had a choice.....He could have retaliated in relation to Levon's book.....He choice to only see the beauty in his friend. It's hard to be anyone's friend when you're using and I think it's not unusual at all that you can be very close to someone and then you outgrow.....or that there is a defining moment when you know that things can never be the same again. Robbie went high here. He's basically a good egg as my friend's young daughter would say.

KEVIN J...When I previously got snarky about Robbie's interviews....It was about his constant use of the word friend this friend that....I don't mind name dropping but most of the people were acquaintances.....I guess I don't use the word lightly. Or I guess you could say that there are friends.....and then there are friends. Also, when I said that Robbie was a coward when he apparently left Carly waiting for him and he didn't have the decency to tell her......I've been a coward too.....That's why I could easily call him one too. It takes one to know one I guess..... :-((((

Entered at Fri Dec 9 23:30:56 CET 2016 from (114.75.205.146)

Wallsend

Entered at Fri Dec 9 22:28:01 CET 2016 from (184.146.91.95)

Kevin J

I am knocked out by RR's stamina and work ethic.....Book tours are things from hell for younger men but at 73 to be keeping this up and continuing with a full schedule of studio and film work is very impressive.

Entered at Fri Dec 9 21:00:08 CET 2016 from (66.46.53.106)

brown eyed girl

Entered at Fri Dec 9 20:53:53 CET 2016 from (114.75.205.146)

Wallsend

Another Robbie interview. He says he had no problems with the guys reforming in 1983 but by that stage he had 'drifted away' and when asked what Stage Fright was about he relates the story about being hypnotised before their first show at Winterland. I was reading something about the English actor Martin Clunes and he said when actors do one interview after another to promote something it is referred to as being 'gang banged'. It is interesting to see how Robbie does these interviews and rarely wanders too far off topic.

Entered at Fri Dec 9 20:21:22 CET 2016 from (114.75.205.146)

Wallsend

Robbie talking about his book in LA.

Entered at Fri Dec 9 19:42:15 CET 2016 from (99.229.224.79)

John D

17 CD set just released on Lou!!

Entered at Fri Dec 9 19:25:13 CET 2016 from (24.44.153.18)

Bob F

Radio Ethiopia is the name of The Patti Smith Group's 2nd record which was released fall 1976.

Entered at Fri Dec 9 15:37:48 CET 2016 from (67.71.41.191)

brown eyed girl

".uck radio Ethiopia, I'm radio Brooklyn, I ain't no snob!!!"

Humour for your Friday morning.....I hope. Louuu was always for adults only. Here he is at the Bottom Line singing and being a bad donkey comedian...so funny. It was after this time that Louuu became more politically correct when he did tours for example Amnesty International, Protest Against Sun City, etc.

Really miss Louuuu. He was a role model for those who were different then your average man or woman. And yet from the books I've read on Louuu....He just wanted to be a middle class Jew married......but......He never wanted children. Apparently reason for split with Sylvia Morales.

Long live Louuu Reed's music and his NYC wit!

Still not in the zone to read Robbie's Testimony. I did however read Sebastian's book on Robbie to my partner the other night. I was always a good reader out loud. Otherwise I'm a slow reader as I'm constantly reflecting.

Entered at Fri Dec 9 15:37:03 CET 2016 from (67.71.41.191)

brown eyed girl

".uck radio Ethiopia, I'm radio Brooklyn, I ain't no snob!!!"

Louuu was always for adults only. Here he is at the Bottom Line singing and being a bad donkey comedian...so funny. It was after this time that Louuu became more politically correct when he did tours for example Amnesty International, Protest Against Sun City, etc.

Really miss Louuuu. He was a role model for those who were different then your average man or woman. And yet from the books I've read on Louuu....He just wanted to be a middle class Jew married......but......He never wanted children. Apparently reason for split with Sylvia Morales.

Long live Louuu Reed's music and his NYC wit!

Still not in the zone to read Robbie's Testimony. I did however read Sebastian's book on Robbie to my partner the other night. I was always a good reader out loud. Otherwise I'm a slow reader as I'm constantly reflecting.

Entered at Fri Dec 9 14:59:29 CET 2016 from (67.71.41.191)

brown eyed girl

Come together : a night for John Lennon's words and music
Recorded on October 2nd 2001

Entered at Fri Dec 9 13:22:30 CET 2016 from (173.3.49.13)

Jeff A.

Entered at Fri Dec 9 11:35:32 CET 2016 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

Jeff, the answer to your Mick Jagger question. Check out this YouTube (1 minute) extract from the "Mrs Merton Show" where the late Caroline Ahearne became "chat show host Mrs Merton." In one of the shows, she is interviewing a woman who was married to a man many decades older than her, the wealthy stage magician Paul Daniels. She also gets away with sailing very close to the C-word on mainstream TV. The last line has become hugely re-used since the show.

Entered at Fri Dec 9 08:28:01 CET 2016 from (210.86.65.92)

Rod

The funny thing is that in just about every rock book I have ever read the pre-fame years have (mostly) been the most interesting part of story.

Entered at Fri Dec 9 03:35:51 CET 2016 from (67.84.76.30)

Jeff A.

These people are nuts. The mother is 29. No, she's not blind.

Entered at Fri Dec 9 01:41:36 CET 2016 from (67.246.38.157)

Joe Frey

Subject: Last Waltz

Thanks John D and Peter. I appreciate it. Opening up the wallet again. Joe

Entered at Thu Dec 8 23:45:57 CET 2016 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

Entered at Thu Dec 8 23:40:14 CET 2016 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

To save anyone else the time … it did occur to me that the release date of "The Appaloosa" which was the movie Brando was filming would settle that December v April Santa Monica question. It doesn't … it was released in September 1966 in the USA, so could have been being filmed at either date.

Entered at Thu Dec 8 23:37:13 CET 2016 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

I'm still dubious - it will be the first Band release I haven't bought. As I say, if you sit 20 feet away with DVD 5.1, Blu-Ray isn't such a fantastic difference - it comes into its own sitting closer. If it had been Blu-Ray HD (4K) then I would have gone for it. I have the box set last time, the DVD and the 5.1 DVD-Audio. Will Blu-ray add that much? I could easily persuade myself, but am trying not to. It is after all, not a cinemascope extravaganza full of tiny detail visually.

Entered at Thu Dec 8 22:56:50 CET 2016 from (99.229.224.79)

John D

Joe, it has a stereo track, a 5.1 and. DTS. Three choices. Pick your favorite. It really is very good.

Entered at Thu Dec 8 22:08:55 CET 2016 from (72.69.195.161)

Jed

Well put.People on other music sites I visit are savaging Robbie.Robbie ain't no saint-none of us are-but,there's no way he deserves this disgusting anger and vitriol.I guess the only reason to give it little attention is that hate,anger,vitriol-that's how society takes on most things these days and when you can hide in anonymity of the internet,you can say anything.It used to be that we didn't know every persons deepest darkest part of their soul-today that side has a weapon-the internet.

Entered at Thu Dec 8 22:08:30 CET 2016 from (67.246.38.157)

Joe Frey

Subject: the new Last Waltz Release - John D's comments

John D, does the new blue ray have a dedicated stereo track or just a 5.1 track. I am not a big fan of mix down to two tracks which I am forced to do with the 2006 release. joe

Entered at Thu Dec 8 21:54:33 CET 2016 from (114.75.82.128)

Wallsend

Entered at Thu Dec 8 21:46:06 CET 2016 from (174.1.36.190)

Lisa

Entered at Thu Dec 8 21:41:17 CET 2016 from (79.75.184.11)

Jake

Lisa: I have read well over 90% of good reviews on this site regarding Testimony. Who are these people? Where are these comments.

Entered at Thu Dec 8 20:46:15 CET 2016 from (174.1.36.190)

Lisa

I'm just starting Robbie's book, but I've read all the reviews people have posted here, and am amazed at the extent of the viciousness that still exists as seen in the various comments sections. I find it hard to fathom why people seem so invested in these stances so long after the fact. It's like they are still ragingly angry and affronted in a highly personal way over something they had no part in, and are not willing to let it go as long as there's a breath left in them, so to speak. It's pretty weird. Haters gotta hate, they say, but why? This particular Moving Finger has truly writ and moved on, and I sure wish they would, too.

beg, honestly, there are no untapped depths here - I wish there were! I've said before I just don't have the knowledge to comment much. Outside of The Band I'm pretty ignorant, and in fact rock isn't my musical background at all. I'm already a little self-conscious that I don't post much about music per se. I tend more to comment on other areas people here bring up, but I figure every little bit helps. And I have written in the past at some length about my personal connections, i.e. the Dylan/Hawks concert Ian just wrote about, the Music West talk with Robbie, etc. Wish there was more, but that's all she wrote.

Entered at Thu Dec 8 19:50:47 CET 2016 from (24.44.153.18)

Bob F

Entered at Thu Dec 8 19:06:39 CET 2016 from (71.43.124.98)

Dan

Just wish to say that I enjoyed Testimony and swapped with my neighbor for the Springsteen autobiography. Testimony is very well written and a great read for providing background that I did not know and for description of time and place. All of this in a natural first person voice. I would have liked a little more about the Works project or Endless Highway, i.e., what was he doing and feeling when The Band was not producing original material for albums between 1972 and 1975. I also thought that the book should have ended with the soundstage stuff for The Last Waltz, but that's just a quibble. The Springsteen bio is different because it is his entire life and his writing, in my opinion, rambles at times and is not as good as Robbie's. Still an often eloquent discussion of his family, mental health and music. The similarity between the two is that both like to control their situations - Springsteen really emphasizes his control over the E-Street Band. The difference is that Robbie performed within the Band, and despite some great songs since he lacks access to the same voices (and obviously much more) that brought people into their albums without needing the "concept album." That's a compliment Springsteen pays to the Band, Van Morrison and Dylan in his book. My guess is that some of the later acrimony is due to none of the Band members being able to go into a solo career or another successful group (the window was closing in the late 70s and a lot of greats were out in the cold relatively speaking until the 90s). In short, it was not an era where somebody like a Danko could go from Buffalo Springfield to solo to CSNY. Robbie moved on successfully in the 80s. My regret not that Levon's feelings are not real and authentic, but that his third party writer (Stephen Davis) apparently did not add any leavening or nuance, making re-approachment exceedingly difficult given the public sourness.

Entered at Thu Dec 8 18:40:54 CET 2016 from (24.44.153.18)

Bob F

I loved the first 3 ELP records ending with Pictures at an Exhibition. When you talk about Lake you have to mention the first King Crimson. His vocals were so great on that record. I saw ELP at The Academy of Music early on and they were wonderful. I saw them a year or so later at a festival in the Poconos and they seemed kind of silly. Problem was they came on right before The Faces.

BEG, Cavs and Warriors are on another level. It didn't help that the Knicks played in Miami the night before while the Cavs were off. Rose had been playing really well. Just hoping the problem with his back won't amount to anything serious. Long season.

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John D

Really surprised that this 40th Anniversary release hasn't had much chatter here. I just want to say that the quality of this Blu-Ray release is just visually and sonically astounding. My son came over and couldn't believe the quality of the picture, compared to past releases. The sound is also just magnificent. I could go on; but you get my drift. If you don't own it then this is the version to buy.

Entered at Thu Dec 8 18:14:44 CET 2016 from (99.229.224.79)

John D

Yesterday I mentioned my anticipation of receiving "Totally Stripped" the new CD/DVD package. Been waiting for years for this to come out on DVD. Believe me I could have written much more in my review, however....

I read Michael Darrell Marchuk's review before buying this package. He bought Blu-Ray and didn't like the picture in HD. So I took his lead and just bought the normal DVD version. The sound is incredible. Offers PCM, 5.1 and DTS. Watched in DTS. Then there's the reason I had been waiting for over 15 years. To see this finally on DVD.

I was really disappointed. Michael was right. In HD this is one fuzzy movie. I kept wishing I had a magic button to "tune it in." Being a completist I am happy to own it. Just wish the picture was a lot sharper.

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Calvin

His mom still lives in Akron and I've heard a few fun stories of him on the scene as a teenager.

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Peter V

Robbie lives in the area now, which lends it more credence. I pass places in Bournemouth regularly and think "X played there," so it reinforces in the memory more than a one off place in a strange town.

But it could be a bunch of late 65 memories got transposed to March / April 1966. On the set lists they played Santa Monica twice in December 1965. December 8th was a Wednesday, but indeed December 19th was a Sunday.

Entered at Thu Dec 8 17:45:52 CET 2016 from (86.25.242.77)

Ian W

Frankly, I still have to be convinced that such a show actually happened. Dylan was in LA in September 65 (for the Hollywood Bowl show), in December 65 (for several shows) and again March/April 66 (between the Vancouver and Honolulu shows). I would not be at all surprised if these have got inter-tangled in the minds of those involved. I would tend to look for contemporary reports to sort out these recollections and, so far at least, nothing has surfaced to support a Santa Monica show in late March or early April 1966. Where are the adverts? Where are the ticket stubs? Where are the newspaper previews? Where are the concert reviews? Show me those and I'll begin to accept that assertion as fact.

Entered at Thu Dec 8 17:37:25 CET 2016 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

The Otis Redding / Just Like A Woman story shifts. Now in "Judas" it was Mickey Jones idea. In Testimony it was Robbie's. But I think Bob thinks it was his. Otis is not available for comment.

Also interesting that Robbie had the idea of loosening the tuning on Levon's drum., and that John Simon showed Levon a finger part on snare. There might just be an agenda …

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Bill M

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brown eyed girl

Just one more for the road from JOSEPH ARTHUR!!

I Miss the Zoo and Other Poetry Selections from Joseph Arthur......came the song and video....I Miss The Zoo. I have a copy of this poetry book and signed too. I just checked on Amazon.ca and it's now 191.22?????!!!!!
Btw CALVIN...In case you didn't know Joseph Arthur is also a visual artist who has had showings and sometimes when he performs......He paints while he's singing his songs!!!!!! He's the real deal.......He also became friends with Louu.....unfortunately or fortunately......They both had substance abuse issues. Thanks to Peter Gabriel who introduced them!

Entered at Thu Dec 8 16:26:07 CET 2016 from (67.71.41.191)

brown eyed girl

....Ohhhhh I forgot.....Jim Keltner on drums and percussion but what makes Joseph Arthurs' brilliant and insightful lyrics pop and dig into your psyche.....besides Garth on piano and keyboards......John "Scrappy" Sneider - trumpets, flugelhorn and horn arrangements!!!!! LISA.....My enthusiasm and blood type sometimes gets the best of me. According to Eat Right For Your Blood Type (found the book for free) A+ types have nervous energy and should be doing yoga and Tai Chi and eating vegetarian. Band connection.....I'd say energy wise I'm the most similar to Rick Danko. ;-D

I know I would apologize if I could see your eyes
'Cause when you showed me myself I became someone else
But I was caught in between all you wish for and all you need

Entered at Thu Dec 8 16:02:16 CET 2016 from (67.71.41.191)

brown eyed girl

CALVIN! Very fascinating and cool work you're doing!!!!! Don't forget Joseph Arthur is from Akron, Ohio and now living in Brooklyn, NY. Band connection....Garth Hudson plays keyboards on I Used To Walk On Water. His playing as the boyzzz would say or mostly Pat B.....sublime. Ben Harper at the very end. Perfect! A song like this needs to be heard again and again.

BOB F and JED...I caught a bit of the game last night with The Nicks and The Cavs.....Your're right. We won't discuss. Derek Rose.....Hope he can come back soon as I can't keep my eyes off him as he's a gifted player even with all of his injuries. Rose, Wall, Westbrook......Wow....They are like roadrunners. So many celebs at game, eh? Spike Lee of course, Katie Holmes, Bill O'Reilly.....So now Lebron won't be staying at any Trump hotels. I love how he's now saying that it's just a personal preference. Apparently players usually stay at a Trump hotel in the Soho district while in NYC. Alright Lebron!

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Peter V

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JT

Subject: Greg Lake and the genre

I too appreciated ELP and recognized the major contribution of Greg Lake. I was a fan of the evolving progression of rock as it happened despite my love of the striped down version of what there was before. I think that most of the albums still stand tall.

Entered at Thu Dec 8 15:06:04 CET 2016 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

Ah, Clinton Heylin's "Judas!" just arrived. According to that, the first Mickey Jones rehearsal in LA was 30th March, the last 8th April (from Mickey Jones). So the period Robbie is talking about is largely "after the three North West gigs." That would place the Sunday Santa Monica as April 3rd? What do you reckon?

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Calvin

That voice, it just spoke to me. He is somebody I really regret never getting to see live. Im only in my 50s, having found the band as a teenager when The Last Waltz Came Out, but i am keenly aware there are a lot of artist who I need to see if I want to see them.

Al Stewart and Gary Wright a few weeks ago was one such show, and it was excellent. Both were still in great voice. And both couldn't have been nicer afterwards about autographs and photos.

Plus Im the VP, Archivist and contributing author for the "Akron Sound" Museum. It documents the classic punk era of Akron, which was substantial. But we are also spreading out in Akron's overall history. As such I've starting doing oral histories of musicians, including some R&B and Jazz folks who peaked in the 1950s and early 1960s. It's an exciting time. Plus a publisher has agreed to put out my book on the "Akron Sound".

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Peter V

RIP indeed. He was a Bournemouth / Poole lad and I saw him in early bands long before ELP. I remember him at the annual "Beat Contest." Met him once too.

Very sad … my school year. "I Believe in Father Christmas" is our very favourite Christmas record. This year it'll be sad to hear it.

Entered at Thu Dec 8 14:59:11 CET 2016 from (24.114.65.30)

Bill M

Greg Lake. Wow. First real concert I saw was ELP at the NAC in Ottawa, where I am now.

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Roger

Subject: Bob Dylan's 115th tour

Back in UK to find Bob Dylan tickets for an early May tour go on sale next week. I won't go. But have booked for The Unthanks around the same time - late April. Greg Lake - too soon gone.

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Jeff A.

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Dunc

Subject: Thanks

Thanks BEG, Ian, Peter, Lisa. Always enjoy reading about Band related material.

Hope it goes well, Nux. Still play my one Sid Kitchen track. Found out that he had played a Glasgow pub before his death. But I never knew.

Entered at Thu Dec 8 10:19:20 CET 2016 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

On the other hand … the basement chronology is not having a clarifying tablet dropped in the water. Robbie has Levon back with them for several pages before “around that time” they get the Capitol contract. He had Rick phone Levon.

Levon’s book has, if I remember well, Rick calling Levon to announce the Capitol contract and ask him to come back. They agree on Rick making the call at least.

But they always tried to maintain the story in the early years of the hardest working band in the business, constantly together for a decade. Looks like that one is still being kept muddy. Unless Garth writes a book, I guess we now know as much as we’re going to get from primary sources. John Simon would be the other one.

Entered at Thu Dec 8 09:27:46 CET 2016 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

Thanks, Ian and PSB. I had foolishly looked at Wiki.

From Robbie’s book, in March 1966, they were in LA “for a run of shows”. They were there long enough to stay in a house not a hotel, and meet Jim McGuinn, drop acid (“We had a couple of days off”), rehearse at Columbia Studios with Mickey Jones, meet up with Levon, be invited to Taos (Bob & Robbie stayed in LA), watch Marlon Brando on set, meet up with Marlon’s girlfriend, meet Marlon again “a few days later.”

BUT Robbie also dates the well-known Otis Redding Whisky AGoGo meeting in LA to the “night before we left for Hawaii.” So it looks as if they would also have been in LA between that Vancouver show (26th) and Honolulu (9th April) . So they might have been at this LA house from around the 13th right through for three weeks … with that three day trip to Portland, Seattle, Vancouver in between. Robbie mentioned “a run of shows” but he could mean the three North West concerts, if they were based in LA before and after the three.

Anyway Marlon came to their Santa Monica concert “Sunday night” and sat in the front row. Sundays in March 1966 were 13th & 20th & 27th (time and date com does this for any year) or 3rd April.

All we can do is guess … but as they left Denver on the 13th, and had an eventful time in LA, with a three day trip north in the middle, it points to Santa Monica on the 20h, 27th or 3rd April. , and as Ian says, maybe it was a small show to work Mickey Jones in. (Santa Monica is what I'd call LA, as you can walk from Venice Beach to Santa Monica pier easily).

Entered at Thu Dec 8 08:02:31 CET 2016 from (24.114.65.7)

Kevin J

Bob F : Thank you for that LINK to a great interview with John Lennon. I really loved him and I guess in some ways I had forgotten how much I missed him......A truly transcendent musician and personality.

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Wallsend

Part 2 of an old interview with Robbie from 2001. I couldn't find Part 1.

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brown eyed girl

Why Robbie Robertson’s Music Endures
The Band’s leader wrote American classics that might just be what we need now.
Dec.1st, 2016

"On the wistful dark end of November, as we ease into December and the end of year that feels more like a loss than a victory, the half somber, half lively second album by The Band works it’s way back into my head. The book hints at, but doesn’t explain, how a 24 year old kid could dredge up the kind of songs heard on this record. “King Harvest Has Surely Come,” “Lookout Cleveland,” “Jemima Surrender?” The titles alone boggle the mind. His masterpiece will always be “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.” It’s Rock’s “Grapes Of Wrath.” Had he kept this level of production up a for a decade or two it wouldn’t be hard to imagine him getting the nod from the Nobel committee.

He also wrote a timeless song that could stand as a post-2016 election blues: “Across The Great Divide.” Yes, the country is divided, but this song is more placebo than bitter pill. A romp across the Rockies and who knows what else? Let’s look at the lyrics for a clue.

When the smoke cleared they were in upstate New York in a house dubbed Big Pink, jamming during the day and crashing cars at night. The mythic elements in Robertson’s music make perfect sense when you trace his path. Half Mohawk and half Jewish, he had family on the res and the streets of Toronto. He saw it all in Arkansas, where the very savvy pair of Hawkins and his muse, Levon Helm showed him the tricks of the trade.

In these sour times, some sweetness is called for. The incoming emperor will have massive powers. But he will never be able to suck the enjoyment out of this or any of our country’s great music. I should probably mention our lovely neighbor to the north, because four of these guys were Canadian. Being Canucks might have given them just enough perspective on the rolling tide of American history to get it right. We need that same perspective so someday we might be able to look back at this disturbing eruption of hate and laugh. If we’re not crying."

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Bill M

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brown eyed girl

LISA...So glad you made it to Robbie's talk. Like Jon L I was so thrilled to hear that Garth will be collaborating with Robbie on his upcoming recording. Do it Robbie do it!!!!!!!!!! What took Robbie so long?????? Since there wasn't a meet and greet I chose not to attend talk. You're right Lisa; he can tell the same story over and over and over again and it just sounds like the very first time, except for those of us who have heard them before. We forget that we're hard core The Band fans so we're already in the know.....for the most part. Thanks Lisa. I sure wish you'd post more as you're very articulate and I bet you have waaaay more to share here then you're letting on. I also find lacking diversity here......

As for coloured.....Nux can chime in.....During apartheid, my white SA friend told me that when she needed to catch a fire; she'd have to first see some coloured people (mixed race or brown skin) and then they'd go to the Blacks.

IAN...Thank you too. I always try and do research for you. If you're writing a book or article don't forget to acknowledge this site.
So Dylan with The Hawks in 1966 premiered Just Like A Woman in Vancouver?

Disturbing but this time almost happened in Toronto Decembere 6, 2016.
"A 17-year-old boy is facing charges after he allegedly wrote on a blog that he was preparing to attack Oakwood Collegiate Institute on the 27th anniversary of the massacre at École Polytechnique de Montréal."

BILL M...Yes of course posts get ignored by male posters as well. In your case, sometimes I have no idea who you're talking about from our Canadiana music world. Also, remember Robbie now is saying or maybe always did.....The Band's music was North Americana, not Americana.

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Jeff A.

License To Steal, or License To Kill. Both are appropriate expressions or songs under trump.License to steal would be the parody.

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Ian W

The Dylan/Hawks shows in the latter part of March 1966 have caused tour chroniclers a number of problems over the years. The general patterns was that they were booked to play concerts on or around weekends but not usually on weekdays.

Dylan/Hawks were booked to play a concert in Albuquerque on Saturday 19 March 1966. A local newspaper report (in its 19 March edition) that Dylan had arrived in the city the evening before (18 March) but had contracted virus and that a doctor had declared him unfit to perform. The concert was cancelled. The next show (in El Paso on Sunday, 20 March 66) was also cancelled. This was also reported in their local newspaper on 19 March 1966, suggesting that the decision to cancel both concerts was taken on 18 March. On the other hand, some biographers have reported that, after the show in Denver on Sunday, 13 March, The Hawks were told to take 10 days off and Dylan then flew to L.A. I do not know the source of their information but, since they do not mention the cancelled shows in New Mexico and Texas, I suspect that they have simply written something (anything?) to plug the gap in Dylan’s chronology.

The next known shows are as follows: Portland (Thursday, 24 March), Seattle (Friday, 25 March) and Vancouver (Saturday, 26 March). The planned show in Spokane on Sunday, 27 March 66 (scheduled for 4 pm, the posters say!) was cancelled, because the truck carrying the sound equipment broke down. There were rumours that Dylan was due to play Tacoma on 27 March but someone at the local newspaper advised me that there was no mention whatsoever of a concert being planned there at the time.

So, the last known show they performed in March 1966 was in Vancouver (on 26 March 1966) and the next known show after that was in Honolulu on 9 April 1966. Between those two dates, Dylan was certainly around Los Angeles. He spent time in Columbia’s studios there (he mixed the BLONDE ON BLONDE tapes at this time and he was presumably rehearsing with Mickey Jones newly recruited on drums) and he was photographed at the Whisky-a-Go-Go with Tom Law amongst others. Dylan is believed to have stayed at The Castle, which was “run” by Tom and Lisa Law.

I believe that, if Dylan/Hawks had played major concert in LA anytime in March 1966, there would have been newspaper reports about it. As yet, none has been found. There has, however, been one report of a small-scale show, not advertised and maybe not even ticketed, in the area. I suppose this is possible but, if so, it would presumably have been to settle Mickey Jones in - it seems to have left almost no “footprint”, however.

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Lisa

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John

One of the words you missed Lisa and I think it came between the use of the N word and Black; was coloured. I worked with James Brown on two occasions and he was quite proud of "I'm Black and I'm Proud."

Entered at Thu Dec 8 00:07:14 CET 2016 from (174.1.36.190)

Lisa

I believe the progression (at least in the States) was: Negro, Black, African-American. In the 50s people mostly said Negro as I recall.

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Jon Lyness

Robbie and Garth collaborating on new music? Oh please, please let that happen!

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Peter V

The history of the n-word in Britain is a topic on its own. In 1939, Agatha Christie could entitle a novel "Ten little N…" (I'm not sure why I'm so shy of typing it … it's silly).

I recall dogs called that in children's books, as well as the playground rhyme which is now "Eeny Meeny Minny Mo.catch a pixie by its toe". It wasn't "pixie" in my childhood.

The term "N- brown" appeared in British fabric and clothes catalogues until the 1970s, and it was noted by Wiki as the colour description on a Made in China sofa as late as 2007.

Entered at Wed Dec 7 22:28:10 CET 2016 from (174.1.36.190)

Lisa

We went to Robbie's talk last night, so here is my account:

Christ Church Cathedral, though very beautiful, was not an ideal venue for this as only the people in the front rows could see anything. The rest of us were out of luck. All I could see was Robbie's head from the nose up and his left hand (he talks with his hands a lot). The moderator was Hal Wake, long-time Vancouver radio personality and artistic director of the Writers' Festival.

My guess is that Robbie probably focusses on different areas of his life as he gives these talks, and last night he talked quite a bit about his childhood - how his parents met, what they were like, etc. He spoke very lovingly about his mom, and told how she got called Mama Kosh: apparently Ronnie Hawkins, on discovering his heritage, said, "Hell, son, not only are you an Indian, you're a Jew, too!" Only he thought Robbie's mom was the Jewish half of the equation, and nicknamed her Mama Kosh, short for kosher. He also told how totally shocked he was to learn, at age thirteen, that the man he had always considered to be his dad was not in fact his biological father, and it was then he discovered the other half of his extended family, including his colorful uncle Nate.

He went on to talk about how they found Big Pink and set up their little studio in the basement, and about bringing Bob there for the first time. Bob had only worked in professional recording studios up to that point, and was quite amazed that they had this neat little set-up all to themselves (not common for bands to have their own equipment at that time). The freedom just to mess around all they wanted heightened everybody's creative juices, and we all know what happened next!

He talked about the Last Waltz of course, but I imagine most of that is covered in the book.

Here's something I noted particularly for all you guitarists out there: he spent an evening playing with Jimi Hendrix, watching him do incredible things with his guitar, and noticed that when Jimi used his tremelo bar his Strat didn't go out of tune (apparently a notorious problem especially for Stratocasters) and asked him how he managed it. Jimi took a new set of strings, and stretched each one inch by inch down the whole length of the string, pulled the whole thing till it was completely stretched out, and THEN wound them onto the guitar. So there you go - straight from Jimi!

He was asked about one of his own memorable concert experiences, and he told about seeing a Ray Charles performance, where he sang Drown In My Own Tears at an incredibly slow tempo, and it ended up being so profoundly moving that he was just taken to another realm. He also said that he's trying to get together with Garth to have Garth contribute to his next CD, and sounded quite positive about the likelihood of that happening.

There was lots more of course, but I just got the book last night and haven't read it yet, so don't want to duplicate everything. It was a good night, and I enjoyed it very much. Robbie is an excellent speaker, and his enthusiasm for retelling what must to him be the same old stories never seems faked at all - he really gets into it every time.

beg, I've always really enjoyed what you bring to the GB, things liven up in a hurry when you come back. So I hope you don't take negative things too much to heart - sometimes it's all too easy to misinterpret, or be misinterpreted, as I know all too well from my own first experiences here. You have your own style, and your enthusiasm and zest for just about everything is contagious, and probably what makes you a teacher. So carry on.

Peter, when I was working my way through Monica Dickens years ago I was quite shocked to learn that the n-word was a common name given to black horses, dogs, pit ponies, etc. in Britain. This would mostly be pre-WW2, I guess, but still ... ouch.

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Peter V

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PSB

Subject: Not the Hollywood Bowl

Peter, the Hollywood Bowl show was the previous September, they were in the LA area for other gigs on March 19th 1966.

Entered at Wed Dec 7 18:48:39 CET 2016 from (173.3.51.148)

Jeff A.

There are people who would have voted for Palin, but not for Hillary. Obviously, that's a no brainer to understand. but all these people whose arguments about why they hate Hillary fall apart when you look at the things Trump did, and the things trump has done since Nov 8th. Yet when you try to discuss how trump has already violated everything he said he;d do, and also done everything he claimed Hillary woudl do, btu done it in spades, they just dismiss you as a cry baby sore loser and refuse to acknowledge the facts.

Entered at Wed Dec 7 17:16:00 CET 2016 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

I think women’s rights, and equality of opportunity and pay are under major attack in the Western World, and while 1918 to around 2010 shows steady progress (though slow) especially in education where now more girls than boys go on to tertiary education, there is a clash with what we might call “recognition of cultural diversity.” Successive governments seem to accept that forced marriage, arranged marriage, no education for girls are in some weird way “acceptable” in the name of multi-culturalism. They should have put a line in the sand years ago. Much too late, they’re putting a line over FGM (the paper said there are 167,000 victims in the UK) and so-called “honour killings.” Yes, we welcome diversity, but some things are unalienable rights, and if you wish to live in the West, recognition of these values is non-negotiable.

And I still believe many people did not vote for Hilary purely because of her gender.

My mum’s greatest heroine was Emily Pankhurst, and on a rare visit to London we had to go and see her statue, which is right outside the Houses of Parliament.

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brown eyed girl

Sincere apologies to S.M. who pops in once in a blue moon. It was because of you we first learned that Robbie's Mom had passed.....

The Band web site

Credits and Sources

"Much of the material on this web site have been copied or extracted from other sites on the Internet. Important sources of information are the wonderful All Music Guide (in particular professor Robert Bowman's insightful notes and articles on the Band), the Internet Movie Database, the Pollstar concert database, the Usenet newsgroups alt.music.the-band and rec.music.dylan, CD and video shops on the net that offer pictures and sound clips and rock oriented sites as Rolling Stone and the many Bob Dylan web pages. The books about the Band, especially Levon Helm's excellent 1993 autobiography This Wheel's on Fire, give detailed historical data that have been very important for the work with this web site. Information from album covers, articles, and documentary videos have also been used on many pages.

The many Band fans around the net that visit this site regularly, have been the most important sources of information. Because of their contributions, ranging from ultra-rare pictures and sound clips to the latest updates on concert dates and recording projects, the Band web pages have grown to become one of the most extensive musical sites on the Internet. The contact with these devoted fans, many of which have become good friends of mine, is a major motivation and inspiration for keeping the Band web site alive. The list below shows (I hope) all the folks that have been involved in the work with the web pages, and also what kind of contributions they have made. Thanks to all of you for helping out with presenting the best rock and roll ensemble in history on the Internet.
-- Jan Høiberg

Man gets tired
Spirit don't
WoMan surrenders
Spirit won't
Man crawls
Spirit flies
Spirit lives when Woman dies
Man seems
Spirit is
WoMan dreams
The spirit lives
Man is tethered
Spirit is free
What spirit is man/woman can be

Short version by The Waterboys. I've linked the long version where he channels Van the Man once again! I am more convinced now....I saw The Waterboys in 1984 because Karl Wallinger was still with the band.

Entered at Wed Dec 7 16:36:27 CET 2016 from (67.71.41.191)

brown eyed girl

Hi Ian. You're right about different countries obtaining the vote for women had occurred at different times. I said 1913 for Canada which I was wrong. I thought of 1918 but didn't check the facts. Sometimes I'm terrible with dates. My point to Kevin J was that women as a social group were not seen as persons.....until women fought for the right to be seen as persons......same as the civil rights movement and the LGBT communities.

Feminism again.....I also forgot to bring to attention the politics of housework and child rearing.....In my household it's not an issue as partner's children are in their thirties and because of his contractual and precarious work I don't have to deal with the household.....but many women still have two jobs inside unpaid labour and outside in the paid workplace.........They are exhausted!!!!!!!!! Yet some of the women in this GB who used to post and had young children at the time and did both.........You are the real heroes!

"1917–1919 for most of Canada; Prince Edward Island in 1922; Newfoundland in 1925; Quebec in 1940

"Aboriginal men and women were not offered the right to vote until 1960. Previous to that they could only vote if they gave up their treaty status. It wasn't until 1948 when Canada signed the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights that Canada was forced to examine the issue of their discrimination against Aboriginal people.[46]"

It's very telling that the people who really bashed Robbie especially after Levon's book came out.....not saying one word about Robbie's book. You don't have to buy the book. Check your local library, borrow the book, read the articles and listen to the many interviews.

Many thanks to all who have responded.....None of you promoted mean-spiritedness in the GB. Anyway, I've had an aha moment.....finally.....and also have to take responsibly for my own posts and misunderstandings. Hoping the new year brings more concise posts and less testimonies by brown eyed girl. ;-D

Hi Calvin. One of my posts did include a welcome back but sometimes now when I check my posts before submitting nothing shows up.....except at the top left hand corner the word link appears. Very strange as we're all strange. Anyway, as I've said before I miss The Band community's energy even though it was quite volatile at times.

Jan H...Are you going to promote Hoskyns and Robbie's book along with Levon's book on your site? Just asking......

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Bill M

Ian W: If your earworm is open to suggestion, you might try replacing 'License' with 'Time'. What a thrill - June AND July.

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John D

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John D

At long last this is on DVD. I've ordered it and it comes tomorrow. Hope the quality is good. It's a legit release from Universal Music.

Entered at Wed Dec 7 14:55:47 CET 2016 from (24.114.65.30)

Bill M

In other news, does anyone here know what being dressed "like a night out in Philadelphia" means? That how Sandy Konikoff told me he looked when he showed up t join the Hawks on the Dylan tour. I'd pictured a '60 equivalent of 'the full Winnipeg' (polyester leisure suit with white tie, belt and shoes) but Robbie has Sandy dressed as a jazz hipster starting with a beret.

Entered at Wed Dec 7 14:54:15 CET 2016 from (86.25.242.77)

Ian W

The other day, I happened to play a cover version of Dylan's "License To Kill" (a reggae-cum-folkie cover by Jez Lowe, as it happens) and, while the song is not completely or directly applicable, I kept thinking of Donald Trump. I'm not making this up and I don't know why the idea popped into my head. It just did and, once there, it wouldn't go way.

Entered at Wed Dec 7 14:45:57 CET 2016 from (86.25.242.77)

Ian W

Somers Point summer 1965 – thanks to the people who commented and/or provided links on this subject. I’m slowly working my way through all these. I was pleased to see Carmen, Tony Mart’s son, confirm that the photo in THE NEW YORK TIMES (24 August 1965) did indeed have Levon and The Hawks in the background, as believed. I’m sure that there will be other photos from that day in a photo file somewhere or other. I wonder how to extricate these. I also got slightly better scans of the contemporary adverts for Tony Mart’s that summer and one of them had a publicity shot of Levon and the guys. The checkerboard-pattern flooring in that publicity photo looked very like an interior photo of Tony Mart’s seen on-line (but now can’t locate, though I’m sure I’ll find it again). Wouldn’t it be great to find more photos of The Hawks at Tony Mart’s that summer?

Brown Eyed Girl –in the UK, women only got the vote in 1918 and, even then, it was limited to women over 30 who met a property-owning criterion. It was another 10 years (1928) before the franchise was extended to all women over the age of 18 years – the same as for men at that time - I believe. I agree with much of what you wrote but would say two things by way of context. My mother had more opportunities in her life than her mother (my grandmother) and our daughter has had more than her mother (my wife). Progress may be too slow but there has been progress. The other is that, broadly speaking, women have fared better, based on the terms you have discussed, within western society than in many other societies. This does not excuse any unacceptable behaviours or attitudes women experience (suffer?) but it does provide some kind of context. Finally - I, for one, have much appreciated your contributions to this forum and, if have I ever repeated something you had already posted, it will only be because I pop in less frequently than I might otherwise wish and had failed to spot that it had been posted before - my failing, not yours. Keep on keeping on.

Entered at Wed Dec 7 10:43:39 CET 2016 from (41.162.7.114)

NUX

Subject: Testimony

Have ordered Testimony.Can't wait! My trigger finger procedure has kinda fixed my hand and playing guitar/gigs again.Also been involved in documentary on South African band "The Radio Rats" that has screened all over the world,it is called "Jiving and Dying" and was done on no budget.It really is a good look into the SA music scene in the 70's and 80's.Really amazing.Still listen to THE BAND everyday...they were the best,as good as it gets.Cheers!

Entered at Wed Dec 7 10:30:02 CET 2016 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

On falling traffic … there wasn’t much to say for a long time. But now “Testimony” is laden with stuff that’s new. I’d love to know more, ask questions.

For example, they met up with Levon on March 19th 1966 when they played the Hollywood Bowl. It all leads to questions … Levon was established living in LA. The oil rig episode must have been very short. Did Levon come to see the show? We know they stayed in contact and knew where to phone him etc, which with someone moving around requires a constantly updated line of communication. No cell phones.

Then there’s rehearsing in NYC where they had a tape recorder … and recorded Tiny Tim. Did they record anything else?

Then there’s the old woman called Fanny who checked out all those (heavy) books for him. A tantalising one slipped in there, I thought.

People complain about name-dropping, but isn’t partying with Salvadore Dali of interest? Incidentally, I know people from two different bands who met him after their shows in Paris. Dali went to see bands.

Then there’s the link Solomon posted yesterday. Throughout, you can feel Robbie working hard to reproduce the sounds and words of the era On quoting Levon’s dad, asking if there were many (n-word) in Canada. To be fair, I don’t think the euphemism “N-word” existed in 1959. What would people have said? African-Americans? Years too early. I remember teaching a mixed English class of French-speaking West Africans and Germans and Swiss-Germans circa 1974. Totally unselfconsciously the German speakers referred to their African class mates as … well, the n-word (same in German) and in front of them. But it can’t have been the same weighted word for them. I was shocked and quick to advise them not to use it in English … and especially not to French speakers, where it also bears cultural weight.

I re-read the extract and thought Robbie was illustrating the language of the times, not portraying Diamond Helm (who he was clearly fond of) as a racist. It’s the old discussion … what do you do with “****** Jim” in Huckleberry Finn? Change it? Asterisk it? Leave it?

The issue came up with Enid Blyton's children's books in Britain, where she has golliwogs. New editions eradicate them, but if they do, they lose the original artwork. But though an important children's writer, Blyton is not Mark Twain by any stretch of the imagination. So what do you do to one of the greatest novels in the English language? The same question comes up with Shylock and Othello in Shakespeare, of course.

The counter argument is that writing now, you know the cultural weight, and might choose to avoid it. But take a film like “Selma” … say you were scripting it. Could you PC it and stay in the time frame?

Entered at Wed Dec 7 05:15:09 CET 2016 from (71.234.142.242)

haso

Subject: Dylan & BEG

I'm glad you keep on keepin' on. I'm only into this GB for the last 4 or 5 years at most, but have certainly seen enough reference to unequal types of reactions to understand it can be tough sledding. Actually had to read through Jan's entire library before I even got to this tab. And I'll never be worth the commentary we get from Peter V, PSB and the like, or frankly willing to invest quite that much in this.

I think the tendency to not visit current musicalities is probably something many of the posters here struggle w/. Too easy, as we age to stay w/ what we know. As for my partner, she actually usu willingly goes to whatever, even buying tix for a local New England re-mount of TLW a couple of years back before telling me. She generally enjoys whatever it is, except maybe Asleep at the Wheel and (we agreed) an over-rated outfit called Vaud and the Villains; she simply admits to not being interested in music generally. As I've said on occasion, other than say Dire Straits, she sort of thought it all "went south" in '69 after "Let it Be". I did forswear anymore big-time (read: $$) rock 'n' roll shows after the Allman Bros 3 or 4 years ago in Boston doing all of "Eat a Peach". We both enjoyed it and the number of parents/kids combinations in the audience, but Gregg definitely needed to dial it back; however Tedeschi-Trucks still intrigues me for something live.

Between you tube and concert vault, there's plenty to occupy my time on this infernal machine.

The quotes on Dylan's song seem to capture it perfectly, a contradiction. One thing I find interesting is that I see it as copyrighted in 1965. Seems like BD was some prescient; not sure when the US took over from the French there in Indochina but '64-65 is pretty early in that colossal misadventure, I believe.

Keep going high.

Entered at Wed Dec 7 03:50:52 CET 2016 from (173.3.51.226)

Jeff A.

Subject: Something I read put me in mind of The Kinks. BTW, there's reunion talk.

Entered at Wed Dec 7 03:26:27 CET 2016 from (114.75.119.133)

Wallsend

Entered at Wed Dec 7 02:39:29 CET 2016 from (67.71.41.191)

brown eyed girl

Robbie Robertson on His Memoir & Why He's 'Not Interested in Oldchella'
11/18/2016
Robert Levine

"Besides your new album, what else are you working on now?

I'm finishing sending music to Martin Scorsese for Silence [his historical drama about Portuguese missionaries in seventeenth century Japan]. It's more of a soundscape: I have Portuguese hymns, written in the 1600s, played backward, with Japanese Taiko drums ripping them apart.

Are you ever planning to perform live again? In a business known for fake retirements, you said you wouldn't go back on the road after The Last Waltz and you've basically stuck to that.

That was a statement I was making, so I didn't want to say 'just kidding.' We [in the Band] had played the lowest places you could possibly play and we had played some of the biggest events in music history and it got to the point where I didn't know what else I could do besides do it as a business. I felt like I was in the same play every night, and I wanted to experiment. There are two TV series I'm working on right now – I'm a producer and a writer – and I'm involved in an artwork project. I'm not interested in 'Oldchella' – it's great that those guys can get paid wonderful amounts of money and celebrate the great music they made but my interests lie in different places."

KEVIN J...It's all good....I still dig you. I'm still a Robbiesonian but some of my opinions have changed. I'm entering a new decade on Sunday so I've earned the right to change my mind on things and not care whether anyone agrees with me or thinks I have anything meaningful to say. I finally feel comfortable in my own skin. What really bugs me is that mostly all the women have left this site except for Joan and Lisa. It was great to see Laura pop in but no one else has even popped by and I know that some check this site daily but only communicate by FB now.

I could post about something and no one responds or takes me seriously and then a poster with more clout....posts the very same thing and now all of a sudden it's news in the GB. Or someone doesn't like what I post or doesn't like me for whatever reason and then instead of ignoring my posts......They come in here and try and bully me by using demeaning language or they tell the GB oh don't welcome her back. I take breaks because i have to.......period. Anyway, I guess it's ironic that I go on about sexism when I'm still standing here and can take anyone on if I have to.

Remember Kevin it wasn't until 1913? that women received the vote, right so we weren't even considered as citizens or even people as men had all the rights. Women couldn't even get their own credit cards. Women who were privileged and attended University were seen as going to acquire their MRS....marriage......not degrees to have more choices in life. Women still in a lot of jobs and careers earn less than men for the same work because the assumption is that they will get married or live common-law and a man will take care of them. Surprise.....Most of the women in my last school were all the main breadwinners including myself. Some of the younger generation of women don't realize that we struggled for women's rights as did the women before us....Sure sex was now more easily available with less guilt but violence against women whether we experienced groping, abuse of many kinds......still exist and we're not a third or second world country! I'm actually more surprised when a woman shares that she's never experienced any kind of abuse.

Bob F...Lowry and DeRozan are all-stars but not superstars. They didn't even make the best 20 list. I think when DeRozan saw he was 46? He really upped his game. My beef with him and Lowry'game was too much isolation basketball. Lately they're passing the ball a bit more.....better results. Vince Carter was our only true superstar. Now in time.....maybe......Anyway, apparently Lebron worked in the gym extra time yesterday to get ready for playing against Toronto......as Toronto is a good team but we have to beat the Cavs......Last year we did beat them twice in Toronto in the playoffs. Most of the plays are set up for both of them to make the most shots; that's also one reason they usually lead in points. As Casey has said it's not even in their DNA to share the ball as much as better teams. I do see every game unless I have to be out for something really important like Steve Earle's concert so I guess basketball and music.....really bring joy to my life too. Music connection....Kyrie Irving used to date Kehlani. Oh and I guess you knew that it was actually a Canadian who invented the game of basketball...... :-D

Entered at Tue Dec 6 23:57:02 CET 2016 from (24.44.153.18)

Bob F

Subject: John Donabie's Mixed Bag

John D's Mixed Bag on John Lennon is now up and linked. It's starts out with interview John did with Lennon when Walls & Bridges was coming out. Lennon is so relaxed and John D's questions are great. It's really a wonderful radio show. Everyone should check it out. So many beautiful remembrances. Best radio show on the planet.

Entered at Tue Dec 6 22:59:14 CET 2016 from (184.146.91.95)

Kevin J

Thank you, Rod…Understood…. And BEG, always love your energy. Music always helps and I find myself since the election – quite simply not being able to consume any political news/reporting at all. NONE. Too upsetting. It is almost like nothing matters anymore. Feminism – what did it mean. First black President and hoped for progress. Absolutely nothing at all. Fake news and the most powerful people in the world not only being ok with it but actively promoting it.

I really wish Robbie memoire part 2 was already ready…….I could take the next 4 years reading just about his legendary “ Rock-and-roll fornicatorium” while serving as guest at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Bill M: Agree……and not just mid-career but also late career as “How To Become Clairvoyant” songs “She’s Not Mine” and especially “’Won’t be Back” almost scream out as being made for Richard.

Great to see Calvin back.

Entered at Tue Dec 6 21:50:39 CET 2016 from (114.75.106.208)

Wallsend

A recent interview with John Simon. John doesn't seem to be all that aware of what was involved in the filming even now.

Barbara Jacobs comments are hilarious: “At least he could have brought a box of assorted Danish and cookies, for the nurses’ station.”

Entered at Tue Dec 6 20:31:16 CET 2016 from (174.1.36.190)

Lisa

The Michael Chapman clip was fascinating. I always knew Scorsese was meticulous in his planning, but with the lack of time it's amazing how everything was crunched to the finest detail, right down to "page turners" for the camera men. And how when MGM saw the footage they provided the $$ for the songs filmed on the set, which are so atmospheric and lovely.

Entered at Tue Dec 6 20:07:36 CET 2016 from (79.75.183.147)

Solomon

Subject: Fans upset Robbie Robertson bashes former bandmate in book

I was looking for Robbie stuff and came across this - His widow Sandy and daughter, Amy, have kept mum, but family friend Barbara Jacobs told me that there is no reason Robertson had to quote Helm’s father using the N-word at his dinner table in Arkansas or to quote Levon sounding anti-Semitic.

Entered at Tue Dec 6 19:32:24 CET 2016 from (79.75.183.147)

Solomon

Subject: SirusXM

Robbie was recently a guest on the The Writer's Block with David Fricke.

Entered at Tue Dec 6 19:18:17 CET 2016 from (70.194.230.173)

Calvin

Entered at Tue Dec 6 18:46:54 CET 2016 from (24.44.153.18)

Bob F

Jed, I couldn't agree with you more. Basketball is everything. I got a few hours of work yet but I'm already thinking about tonights game. Tomorrow we get another shot at King James and his Court. Knicks forever!

BEG, Lowry and DeRozan are superstars. I'm always reading about the great work DeRozan does for kids in Toronto. That is a special player and person. If you don't want him please start a campaign to have him traded to New York.

Entered at Tue Dec 6 18:43:01 CET 2016 from (67.71.41.191)

brown eyed girl

December 6 is St. Nick's Day. It was the day relatives would visit as my Grandpa and brother's name is Nicolas. Only time smoke was in the house too.

December 6 is also a day for all of us to remember......
Polytechnique Montréal held a simple ceremony today to mark the 27th anniversary of Canada's worst mass shooting.

"On this day in 1989, 14 women were shot and killed at the engineering school by a gunman professing to hate feminists."

Words can be used like weapons too.

"Men and boys are a vital part of the solution to change attitudes and behaviours that allow for this violence to exist. There must be zero tolerance for violence against women, and only with everyone's support can we build a Canada that is safe for all," he said.

Trudeau said all Canadians should use this day, which is also the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, to "reflect on what Canadians — women, men, and youth — can do to rid the country and the planet of the scourges of misogyny and gender-based violence."

Entered at Tue Dec 6 18:06:40 CET 2016 from (67.71.41.191)

brown eyed girl

VHS transfer from the TV broadcast of Rock Am Ring Festival 1986 by The Waterboys

1. Maggies Farm 2. Whole Of The Moon 3. Meet Me At The Station 4. Interview Mike Scott

Line-up:
Mike Scott - Vocal,Guitars,Piano
Anto Thistlethwaite - Sax,Elec Mandolin,Mouth Organ,Piano
Steve Wickham - Fiddle,Mandolin
Trevor Hutchinson - Bass
Dave Ruffy - Drums

Cars and Music:
The Cars
Red Corvette...Prince
Brand New Cadillac...The Clash
Fun, Fun, Fun...The Beach Boys
Red Car...Art Pepper

haso...I had Dylan's book of lyrics and it was at that time I actually looked up his songs about moi. I think I first heard Joan Baez sing it. I was intrigued at the time as it was the first time I saw my name in a song or book and at that time I always felt different as my name wasn't Mary, Jane, Sue, etc. I didn't even know until a few years ago that I was named after one of my Dad's sisters who passed while a teenager....Evangelia. My mother had told me that the name just came to her. :-D After I found out Dylan was the writer; I honoured my name. My family name is different again. I think I heard that the song was really about war....Vietnam.....as The Guess Who's American Woman was not about an American woman but about America and the war machine. Anyway, I found this perspective about the song online.

"Indeed, Farewell Angelina is a contradiction. A gentle love song that seems turn into a critique on terrorism – considered as part of Bringing it all Back Home when the recording sessions began. As such it would have been the perfect half-way house between Love Minus Zero and Gates of Eden, for its theme is once more, nothing is what it seems. From “My love she speaks like silence” to Eden being anything but heaven."

As for any sexism in Robbie's book; of course as a woman I would probably react differently then some of the posters here. I'd say it wasn't until mid-seventies that I was exposed to feminism which really means recognizing that women as a social group are oppressed. Sure things have changed compared to my Mom's generation but still......even in this GB I have had to deal with it but I never ran away from it. Sometimes my attitude was when they go low....I go or get high.....lol....Other times I called them out....or I just keep posting as I like to share the music that I love and I like to express my thoughts and feelings and ideas. Every once in awhile I "meet" cool people like you haso.....and many others. As I've said before when I met Pretty Little Girl from Europe and in Toronto......She couldn't believe that I still posted in a sexist GB. I guess I'm still crazy after all these years.

Good for you that you were able to get your partner on board with at least the blues. My partner is just as stubborn as I am so we give a listen to each other's music but if we don't like it we don't even.....Well I do.....When imagezulu wanted us to check out Roy Hargrove.....I knew nothing about him. I loved his trumpet playing and kept thinking how cool is this.....A young jazz player who's turning on a younger generation of music fans.......Oh I forgot....my partner did go to Simcoe with me for Rick Danko's tribute. Ugh!!!!! He said he had a headache during the whole show and was not a happy camper. After that fiasco I decided to see artists without him. We did however see Buddy Guy, Third World and BARK and Garth and Maud for TLW Tribute and The Weber Brothers but that's about it! So I really envy those of you here who have partners that will either tag along or get turned on by the music you cherish. On the plus side for myself....I am slowly learning about jazz.....like now I'll say can we listen to Ben Webster. Other times I have to yell at him and say, "Get over it. Muddy and Miles are no longer here for us to see at a Club; you have to give the younger musicians a chance!"

Entered at Tue Dec 6 17:51:03 CET 2016 from (72.69.195.161)

Jed

I saw the Cavs beat the Raptors-Lebron had a monster game.The highlight last night was watching Golden State & their tremendous & historic offense.And,Klay scored 60,40 in the 1rst half & the team had 80 at the half! WOW! Tonight my Knicks play the heat.A band & a team-all the same & each capable of beautiful music or self destruction.

Entered at Tue Dec 6 17:46:51 CET 2016 from (72.69.195.161)

Jed

Basketball is life & life is basketball.And,music & basketball are eternally one.

Entered at Tue Dec 6 17:29:02 CET 2016 from (174.104.129.230)

Calvin, who is still alive though rarely posts anymore

The one reason I have little problem with Robbie not "sharing" Songwriting credits is nobody else did either. You cant criticize Robbie without explaining why it was OK for Richard to do the same.

I try to stay away from it really as it detracts a bit from the music for me.

As for Robbie's middle period having a sense of "He wrote that with Richard in mind", it makes sense that after a decade or so of intensive writing for this or that person, his initial steps without out them would still have that mindset within your writing.

And on a personal note, even though I don't post on here like I did from 2001-2008 it's still nice to know many of you are still here and this place still thrives.

Entered at Tue Dec 6 17:26:21 CET 2016 from (99.229.224.79)

John D

Yes Beg, I sent it a few weeks back. When I send something to Jan it ends up in his junk folder. He may have found it there. Thanks for asking. Had a nice brief chat on Facebook yesterday with Sebastian. His production of A of M sides 3-4 was brilliant.

Entered at Tue Dec 6 16:31:12 CET 2016 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

I drive an automatic, and also my son’s manual … he’s in China, but I try and keep his car alive, even though it’s 16 years old. I use it whenever I go to secondhand record stores for instance, hoping they’ll relax the pricing if they see my ancient transport. Yes, on a steep hill or snow, I’d paddle shift on the automatic, but you can judge whether you’re going to catch a red light or not and just cruise up to it. A stop sign you’re going to have to stop. I get good tyre wear too … my dad, selling tyres, always loved to see harsh and sudden braking.

I was rear-ended in the 1970s by a Renault 16 that had been taildragging at two feet and was surprised when I stopped at a roundabout. I had a 1953 Humber Super Snipe, full chassis, 4.1 litre engine. I didn’t have a discernible scratch, while the Renault had a burst radiator emitting steam like a geyser.

The link is to a personal car history page that I started. The Humber is the only car on it, but it is beautiful. As were Mrs V and I, also pictured.

Entered at Tue Dec 6 16:14:40 CET 2016 from (67.71.41.191)

brown eyed girl

Warning...Serious post today.

ROBBIE ROBERTSON: 5 ICONIC FASHION STATEMENTS
Laura Grande
November 15th, 2016

Jed...Since you're living in NY, I was surprised that you wanted to catch the Cavs and The Raps but then so far best two teams in the eastern conference. Again......so close but no win. We don't have any superstars whereas they have The King and Kyrie Irving.....and Love. I had no idea until recently that Kevin Love is the nephew of Beach Boys Mike Love. I watch all the post game interviews after each game. I'm just as passionate about basketball and baseball as I am about music....well....maybe music more so......and in the past up until Doug Gilmour days with hockey. Btw, with basketball I did not watch for years but I do remember Kareem Abdul Jabar as a young fan and Nate (Tiny) Archibald and It's "Miller Time"......Reggie Miller. Music connection Grant Hill married Canadian singer Tamia.

I found online that besides Toronto's Drake......although most players listen to rap and hip hop.....For example Patrick Patterson who I think is probably the most articulate player on Toronto and probably any team when talking about the game of basketball......His choice of music is the most eclectic.....so he'd be my kindred spirit for sure.

"Patrick Paterson who you could call the Raptors' pop culture connoisseur, also has a very diverse taste in music. From Motown, 90's R&B, today's popular rap/hip hop and even classic rock like Nirvana, 2Pat listens to it all. And by far the best choice, when going against the NBA's elite, Pat goes to the sweet, sensual pipes of the one and only Barry White."

Lisa...Hope Robbie shares a few different stories then the ones he's been telling so far. Also, really hope you encounter good weather!!

John D...Did you send the photo? Everyone has to see that one!!! Did you make a poster of that photo with Levon, your partner and yourself!!

Up next haso who always shares thoughtful posts. Thank you!

Entered at Tue Dec 6 15:39:11 CET 2016 from (24.114.50.213)

Bill M

Entered at Tue Dec 6 14:20:23 CET 2016 from (96.245.114.250)

bassmanlee

Subject: Driving habits

Peter, I agree 100%. Unfortunately after 25 years of driving 'stick' (as we call manual over here) I finally succumbed to automatic and AWD (Subaru). Although there are paddle shifters, they are seldom used. Manuals are all but non-existent in the American market. BUT anyone can just take their foot off the pedal when the signal ahead is red or idle through backups, keeping an actual stopping distance from the vehicle ahead. This is not the style, sad to say, even for Mrs. Lee, who is of the "one pedal or the other" school, despite cutting her driving teeth in VW Bugs. This means a sudden stop, rattling the passenger (me) and maybe the reason she has been rear-ended three times in the last year and a half, although she claims she was completely stopped at the time, and all drivers were phone-engaged. Luckily she also has a Subaru and damage was minimal. (The guy with the Mitsubishi sports car who rammed his nose under her bumper was not so lucky!)

The other thing I was taught in driving class was that when making a turn onto a multi-lane street, you go to the closest lane, THEN merge over to the other lane(s). This is also no longer the norm. Just dive directly over to the lane you want. I have seen police cars doing just that.

Entered at Tue Dec 6 10:22:33 CET 2016 from (114.75.204.211)

Wallsend

Michael Chapman talking about filming TLW.

Entered at Tue Dec 6 08:46:51 CET 2016 from (210.86.76.174)

Rod

Entered at Tue Dec 6 07:58:44 CET 2016 from (24.114.65.7)

Kevin J

" Robbie was the one who wrote the lyrics and wrote the music. Wrote the lyrics on legal paper, or whatever he wrote it on, and figured out the chords to the song and dictated the melody and chords to the other players."

......and then there was just dictating exactly how Music From Big Pink would roll out and sound........the writing of the masterpieces on the Brown Album......the undisputed writing of "The Shape I'm In" for Richard, "It Makes No Difference" for Rick, "Out of The Blue" for himself, Acadian Driftwood" for The Band and Canada and the idea and production of The Last Waltz which is the single biggest reason that there is any The Band legacy at all..........ahhh, but more than all that and more than splitting his publishing equally ( during the life of The Band ) he really had a "moral" obligation to take care of his brothers for life. I don't accept that. At 33 and starting a new life, Robbie's obligation was to his 2 daughters and son.....and by all evidence he did a wonderful job of that....That's what counts.......and by the way, based on everything I have seen and heard from Amy Helm, Levon and Libby and family did a great job as well in helping to shape a wonderful person in Amy. Beautiful spirit.

Entered at Tue Dec 6 06:16:10 CET 2016 from (210.86.76.174)

Rod

Entered at Tue Dec 6 03:43:08 CET 2016 from (24.114.57.9)

Bill M

Kevin J: Before Big Pink, I believe that Springalo Tunes was set up to provide equal shares to all, including the non-writing members of Buffalo Springfield.

Entered at Mon Dec 5 22:51:52 CET 2016 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

Entered at Mon Dec 5 22:42:29 CET 2016 from (174.1.36.190)

Lisa

Entered at Mon Dec 5 22:27:30 CET 2016 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

"I'm a police driving instructor,' said the police guy, "Are you telling me that you know how to slow down on snow better than me?"

"Apparently so," I said.

Entered at Mon Dec 5 22:24:17 CET 2016 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

My kids all drive up to a junction or traffic light and bang their foot hard on the brake. I was on a Driver Awareness course (for driving at 44 mph in a 40 mph limit on a deserted dry well lit road at 1 a.m. - caught by a fuc*ing camera). Apparently last second braking is now considered the correct way to drive by driving instructors. Brake hard when you get to the junction. I had pointed out that I had been taught to change down through the gears and never brake harshly. "Wrong!" said the police instructor.

"Wait until it snows," I muttered, "All these kids will be sliding around crashing into each other."

"It rarely snows here," said the police guy.

"Ah," I replied, "Rarely is not the same as 'Never'. Just wait until it does."

Entered at Mon Dec 5 22:18:04 CET 2016 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

John Simon would have to side with Robbie on that one (as I do myself). Watching The Manfreds performing their version of My Name Is Jack by John Simon on Friday, I note that he will enjoy undivided royalties on the new version of the track on their recent "Live Four Three Two One" double CD.

Link to original video which was being projected above them as they performed it last Friday. Yes, Mike D'Abo was singing directly below his 50 year younger self. That takes courage.

Entered at Mon Dec 5 20:50:42 CET 2016 from (174.1.36.190)

Lisa

Hi beg, it's tomorrow night in Vancouver at lovely old Christ Church Cathedral, and I'll be sure to report in.

But it's snowing in Vancouver - only those who have experienced the incredible mess this makes of already terrible traffic conditions in this city can truly appreciate what I'm saying here. I know, I know, we're a bunch of wussies when it comes to snow, laughingstock of the rest of snowy Canada, but there you are ...

Entered at Mon Dec 5 19:17:49 CET 2016 from (67.71.41.191)

brown eyed girl

Kevin J...I never said thet Robbie didn't write most of the songs. I never said that they should have equal royalties.....I was suggesting more. If you check out these two articles it looks like John Simon has changed his mind too. If I can find the article where Simon implied that Robbie may have been morally wrong....I'll post it.

The Truth, the Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth
An Interview with John Simon
by Lee Gabites
Copyright © 1999, 2000 Lee Gabites. All rights reserved.

Lee Gabites: "What's your take on the way the songwriting credits came down?

John Simon: "Oh, I have a finely honed opinion on that. Robbie Robertson says that he tried to get Richard involved and he was also fair when it came to giving credit to whoever was in the room at the time of writing. Robbie was fair, yes indeed. Robbie was fair based on an old system. I don't know if you have the new math in England. Mathematics. It's like two different systems, the old math and the new one. The old system of contributing songwriting credits was very distinct - there were people who wrote songs and people who performed songs. And they were different people. You know, Frank Sinatra on very few occasions wrote a song, he was the singer. Sammy Cahn and Johnny Mercer were the writers and not the performers. So, that kind of thing. Like the Gershwins and the Rogers & Hart. All of those people were just songwriters. And that's the system under which Robbie determined that he would be songwriter of those songs. And its true, Robbie was the one who wrote the lyrics and wrote the music. Wrote the lyrics on legal paper, or whatever he wrote it on, and figured out the chords to the song and dictated the melody and chords to the other players. Okay. But in the new system you'll see that when a song is written its a much more co-operative thing in a band. You'll see five or six writers on a song that'll say, on a band song on an album, it'll list everybody who's in the band on the song, you know. And you know that, or you may suspect that the bass player and the drummer or somebody - the keyboard player, one of them just had nothing to do with the song. But they're on it because its a sort of democracy and they just happend to be around. Or the band decided ahead of time that that's the way its going to be. Sort of like the Lennon and McCartney deal when they never really divided... Well, 27% of this song is yours and 73% of it is mine. They all just say Lennon & McCartney and you can only figure out by the style of the song who wrote it. So, Robbie was working in the old system. And he's absolutley right in working with the old system. Levon is pissed about that and wishes that Robbie had been working in the new system. But if they hadn't agreed on that ahead of time, you know.

Lee Gabites: There's an argument against though.

John Simon: Yeah, but on the other hand a good deal of the inspiration on the songs that Robbie wrote came from Levon's personal experience.

Lee Gabites: A lot of them were his stories.

John Simon: Yes. Exactly. So if Robbie had been... It was Robbie's option."

JANUARY 29, 2014
BY NICK DERISO
Something Else! Interview: John Simon on the Band, fixing The Last Waltz and taking credit

"Simon, so intimately involved in the genesis of the Band, has a unique perspective. He says he was “not surprised” that the debate erupted, since “Robbie was working on the old Rodgers and Hart, ASCAP model.” By that, Simon means: “The writer is the writer. Levon was seeing other bands with less talented writers taking group credit for a cobbled-together song.”

In the end, however, Simon says: “I side with Robbie on that one.”

Up next time haso and Jed whether Kevin J or anyone else posts to me or not. ;-D Sorry but I can't post anymore today. I actually do have a life.....small but I do have one.

Entered at Mon Dec 5 18:36:02 CET 2016 from (24.114.65.7)

Kevin J

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Kevin from NE PA

Subject: Tony Mart's

And another section from their site. A page of 'Stories'. Page down to see a comment about Levon and The Hawks.

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Kevin from NE PA

Subject: Tony Marts

Not sure there are any pics of the Hawks performing but Tony Marts does have this page on their website.

Entered at Mon Dec 5 17:39:58 CET 2016 from (72.69.195.161)

Jed

The Cavs play the Raptors in Toronto tonight-I plan to be tuning in on my NBA League pass!

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Jed

The scheduling problem exists not only for the Knicks.The league plans to start the season earlier next year,I believe,which might help alleviate some but not all of these scheduling problems.Knicks have played very well lately-I thought I'd read somewhere that Levon and Dylan were basketball people?

Entered at Mon Dec 5 17:36:16 CET 2016 from (67.71.41.191)

brown eyed girl

Toronto Raptors already played Cleveland and Golden State back to back and we were real close......but couldn't close out the last quarter. What's up with EPSN and only showing American teams' points? I know....American.

Tue, Nov 15 @ Cleveland L121-117
7-3 L. James 28 K. Love 13 L. James 15

Wed, Nov 16 vs Golden State L127-121
7-4 S. Curry 35 K. Durant 9 S. Curry 7

Looking forward to Lisa's report from talk with Robbie in Victoria.

Peace out.

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Peter V

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brown eyed girl

Bob F...Yes there was another solo recording from 1997 Still Burning. The more I listen now to Mike Scott and The Waterboys......He truly is a gifted songwriter. I don't have any books on his life but I did read online that he did attend University for a year and studied English Literature (like Louuu) and philosophy. We're about the same age so his music always resonates as in some sense we grew up together. The one CD I wouldn't recommend as it's the weakest of all of them in my opinion is.......Dream Harder 1993. A few good songs but generally I felt like he was obligated to put out another record.

Many thanks to Nomadic Mike who sent this photo to me via of one of his daughters. I also ended up finding this photo with info re Robbie's twitter which I visited for the first time. Scroll down for photo.

Robbie Robertson Retweeted
Butch McLarty ‏@ButchyMcLarty Dec 1 London, Ontario
@r0bbier0berts0n You and Levon with Margo Ireland on Grand Bend beach in July 1961. Reta likely took the photo. PHOTO: Courtesy Cindy Shales

Wallsend...Maybe I used the wrong word re inconsistencies with Robbie but what I was referring to was his constant blah, blah, blah about all the Band members being brothers and how amazing all of them are in their own right and yet in the end who benefitted the most financially and had the luxury to not tour?......Robbie because of the old system of royalties and songwriters. Should it have been equal? Maybe, maybe not. Surely however the rest of The Band members should have benefitted more as three of them sang all the songs except two? Garth was their secret ingredient in their musical gumbo. Now if the remaining Band members had financial issues in how they managed their money in general then the same issues would have come up.....but they still would have been able to choose not to tour if so desired. I don't totally buy that they toured because they looooved to perform but simply.....had to. Old issues but my opinion has changed and it's a woman's prerogative to change her mind, right. ;-D
Busy time now but next up is Kevin J and haso.

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Bob F

The Knicks have to play Cleveland Wednesday at The Garden after playing in Miami the night before. No team should have to play Cleveland or Golden State on the back end of back-back games. It's just not fair.

Band connection for the non NBA GB folks. The game is at Madison Square Garden. Back in 1975 Robbie joined Dylan and The Rolling Thunder Review for The Night Of The Hurricane on December 8 at MSG. That works.

Entered at Mon Dec 5 16:39:45 CET 2016 from (24.44.153.18)

Bob F

Subject: Long Way To The Light

Mike Scott's two solo records have many great songs. Long Way To The Light being my favorite. He played at The Bearsville Cafe one year during a blizzard. Only a handful of people were crazy enough to make the journey. When he did this song it was all worth it.

Entered at Mon Dec 5 07:30:02 CET 2016 from (67.71.41.191)

brown eyed girl

The Band’s Robbie Robertson, Levon Helm’s daughter come to Marin

PAUL LIBERATORE
MARIN INDEPENDENT JOURNAL
December 2, 2016

GROUP EFFORT

In his book, “This Wheel’s on Fire,” Helm contended that the songs were a group effort, honed and recorded in collaboration with the other members of the band — Rick Danko, Richard Manuel and Garth Hudson. Only Robertson and Hudson are still living.

That issue didn’t come up during Robertson’s Dominican talk, and neither did the heroin addictions, alcoholism and drug abuse that forced the Band off the road. Robertson writes about it extensively in “Testimony.”

I asked Amy Helm about that, whether her dad and his onetime buddy made up before her father’s death.

“I think that they would have patched it up,” she says. “They were very close, but every relationship has its own circumstances.”

Wallsend, Kevin J and haso...I will try and respond next time. Many thanks for your feedback. :-D

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Rod

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Kevin J

"This is a glorious outcome for Native Peoples of North America. May justice reign, may respect and decency rise. Please let this be a major breakthrough for the First Nations of this continent and the long overdue fairness and appreciation deserved. Blessings to the brave water protectors who stood up for the people of Standing Rock and fought off the greed and mistreatment of big business. Niawen 'ko:wa -RR"

Entered at Mon Dec 5 05:28:51 CET 2016 from (71.234.142.242)

haso

Subject: testimony

BEG: Wallsend's comments resonate, but yours too. I went to see RR in Cambridge, MA last month, then plowed right through the book. Good, yet I'm afraid I need to take it slower ala Peter V, the 2nd time. Not at all a bad idea to read Bruce 1st; he's a good deal more revealing about his own thoughts as he goes along. You are dead-on about RR as a name-dropper, and I think from the same rationale you speak to. Yet, all this said, RR makes it clear to anyone listening, or reading, that his main effort is to put the reader into the scene AT THE TIME he was there. Is that what they call cinema verite? He definitely captures the sense of the time. And, no offense to Bruce, but w/ RR about 10 years earlier to the game, he's got an amazing number of names worth dropping. Plus, he's just a different kettle of fish than Bruce and, I dare say the Band a lot different than E-St. Robbie's clearly always been a glass 1/2-full sort of gentleman, irregardless to the RR-Levon contretemps. There's no doubt he saw LH as his big brother, pretty much still.

And after Hoskyn's Woodstock small town deal, RR can't hold a candle in pretty gratuitous name-dropping.

On women, most everybody had a long way to go in 1967 seems to me from anything written about the time, or that I recall. Or '69 or '73... it started to improve a bit. But as the woman I met just about then, soph year in college and am still w/, would say: I'm the wrong gender to probably judge this conversation. That is, if she had much more than a passing interest in our boys. Not likely; she was all about the British: the Beatles, Yes and so-on. Fortunately I did convert her into enjoying the blues, 3 trips or more to see B.B., an example.

On an older note, Angie: I re-listened to the Rani Arbo version of "Farewell [you]" that I suggested to you and you might be right about Dylan writing about Vietnam. I didn't hear that at all until you gleaned that; that being the case, in someways Rani's treatment of the song is pretty counter-intuitive to it's message.

Entered at Mon Dec 5 02:05:04 CET 2016 from (173.3.49.150)

Jeff A.

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Kevin J

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brown eyed girl

Mike Scott Solo
She Is So Beautiful
Bring 'Em All In
1995

When his first solo CD came out I bought it without hesitation. I was really disappointed and really only enjoyed song linked. Since I'm much older now I will relisten if I still have it.

"Scott currently lives in Dublin.[13][14] Scott is the former partner of the singer Camille O'Sullivan,[15][16][17] with whom he has a daughter, Lila-Elodie.[18][19][20] In October 2016, Scott married controversial Japanese artist Megumi Igarashi, who calls herself Rokudenashiko. They are expecting their first child together in February 2017.[21]"

Wallsend...The only thing I knew about Robbie and for instance Carly Simon....was that he left her waiting for him on a supposed date and then she got the message. If true, not cool at all.....coward. If Robbie spills the beans about the women he had sex with and only refers to them as toys......when actually some of them were musicians or artists in the their own right.....I've always noticed that he's a big name dropper but not surprising since he didn't come from well connected circumstances....Anyway, I will not be a happy camper. In one article he said that some things were nobody's business so......why now brag about his dalliances? I'm not sure if I'll begin his Testimony this month......maybe I'll read Born To Run first. I'm very hard on people I really drawn to or who inspire me as heroes do.....idols do not. I'm hard on others btw because I'm very hard on myself unfortunately...... ;-D

Entered at Sun Dec 4 22:28:16 CET 2016 from (99.229.224.79)

John D

Would this be the same Mike Scott who was once the lead singer of The Waterboys; before going solo; in the 90's?

Entered at Sun Dec 4 22:24:52 CET 2016 from (114.75.101.232)

Wallsend

Entered at Sun Dec 4 21:27:24 CET 2016 from (24.114.65.7)

Kevin J

Subject: New Tork Times - Testimony

A second major review of Testmony in The New York Times in two weeks. The world's greatest newspaper demonstrates why. Worth reading, BEG.......and love that photo of The Hawks ( with credit, no less )

Entered at Sun Dec 4 20:12:20 CET 2016 from (114.75.101.232)

Wallsend

Entered at Sun Dec 4 17:45:40 CET 2016 from (67.71.41.191)

brown eyed girl

Some wake up to coffee; I wake up to music.
One more for The Waterboys.....Confused now as maybe I actually saw The Waterboys in the early eighties at The Diamond Club.....I do know that Karl Wallinger was still with the band and that since Mike Scott is a huge fan of Van Morrison incorporated Sweet Thing with one of his songs....which one?.....I can't remember.....lol

Probably most known song The Pan Within. It was at my brother's place however that I heard the live Because The Night/The Pan Within and immediately said, "I'm taking that CD home to burn that song!!!!!" I'm always listening on my Nano to this song as it just energizes me......I've linked only The Pan Within just so I can enjoy them fully......as I can't find a video of the double track but there is audio to be found for those interested.

Long Live Mike Scott!!!!!!

Long Live Steve Wickham!!!!!!

Everyday is like Sunday. Enjoy!

Entered at Sun Dec 4 17:21:53 CET 2016 from (67.71.41.191)

brown eyed girl

Red Army Blues...The Waterboys with Karl Wallinger and Anthony Thistlethwaite.

I can't remember whether my brother discovered them first or not but it was during their album....A Pagan Place and then The Waterboys and so on......I just discovered that it was in 2000 that I saw The Waterboys at the same Club I recently saw Steve Earle but name of Club changed from The Diamond to The Phoenix.....One of the few ways we bonded was via of music....Mink DeVille was another group as well as Roxy Music and Bowie and Louuu.

I saw these bands as part of my growing up as it was our time musically......I saw these artists as loved by a smaller group of music fans who loved their musicians with a passion....almost cult like as they weren't commercial......I was never into the scene.....but I was always into music since the time The Beatles had arrived and as very young children we'd see their films in the local Theatre.......My brother's time was more Woodstock because he was older but through him I could live vicariously through the 8-tracks he bought such as Woodstock, Free, Roxy Music, Bowie, Louuu......

As for Robbe's book I still haven't read it. I'm not sure why really. I continue to post positive and negative reviews or comments as I've always shared what others have said about The Band......Selections don't necessarily reflect what I think. At first I was only critical of Robbie in relation to his acting and even sometimes I would cringe when his voice wasn't strong.....but generally.....love his voice....singing and/or talking.....Now I do see some inconsistencies so I'm more critical......However, as a musician.....He's still the one......as far as guitar playing and songwriting and having a business acumen......

I did learn in University that we all have biases and need to make them clear when we discuss what we actually think......If you think you don't have a bias you're either dishonest or unaware of them. Yup.....I learned all this in University and I'm sticking to it.

Entered at Sun Dec 4 16:33:39 CET 2016 from (67.71.41.191)

brown eyed girl

Edie Sedgwick & Nico in Mary Jane by Janis Joplin...Oh yeah, and Dylan too.

Entered at Sun Dec 4 14:27:19 CET 2016 from (31.53.16.193)

Dunc

Subject: The Herald's Review of Testimony

Here is the Herald's(Scotland's Glasgow based national paper) review of Testimony.

Normally like this guy's writing, but didn't like the review. (I've not read book yet.)

I think the Band are seen from a Dylan perspective. You know - aren't these the guys who played with Dylan. Which I really don't like.

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Wallsend

A bit of the Paris press conference Bob gave in 1966 that Robbie writes about.

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Peter V

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JT

Subject: Mike Scott

Under the radar for me until 2 years ago...what a talent

Entered at Sun Dec 4 05:24:39 CET 2016 from (24.114.65.7)

Kevin J

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JT

Subject: Dirty basic

Great blues album by Rolling Stones. An infusion of dirty basic.

Entered at Sun Dec 4 01:24:47 CET 2016 from (24.114.66.166)

Bill M

Entered at Sun Dec 4 00:35:54 CET 2016 from (82.69.47.175)

Peter V

Subject: The Manfreds, with P.P. Arnold & Zoot Money

Review linked. Three of my favourite artistes all on the same show: The Manfreds (with both Paul Jones AND Mike d'Abo) plus social guts P.P. Arnold and Zoot Money. Really the best of the British rock scene 1964-69 in one place!

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Jeff A.

Subject: " I Wish You Were Here Tonight" !986 with Richard

Entered at Sat Dec 3 17:43:57 CET 2016 from (184.66.251.127)

JT

I agree with Ian that the word 'testimony' connotes a personal account. The word 'autobiography' has 'auto' in it and also comes from the individual as he/she saw it.

As for the Waterboys, we were blown away when we saw them in Victoria. We wondered how we had missed this huge talented group of musicians in the 80s and now have purchased all their previous work and they get a lot of play. We look forward to the next work. If it is anything like the last one, it will again be a work of precision and art.

Finally, I have been going back and listening to some of the post 'BandwithoutRobbie' concerts and they are great. What that reminds me of eloquently is the huge talents that existed in each and every one of these musicians. There is a lot out there to pick from and as I have said before, the concert at Convocation Hall at UofT when Colin Linden and Richard Bell played with them is one of my all time favourite concerts.

Entered at Sat Dec 3 15:06:32 CET 2016 from (86.25.242.77)

Ian W

Robert Ham, in that PORTLAND MERCURY review of JRR’s book, may be a journalist but he lacks a basic grasp of the meaning of words. He concludes by describing the book as a “one-sided testimony”, failing to recognise that, by definition, a “testimony” is the view of the person who is attesting. The book is not a history of The Band, nor a true autobiography, but a statement of how JRR saw, or sees, certain events in his life. That’s all. The title of the book is the giveaway!

JRR has presented his witness statement (written not oral, and with no chance to “cross-examine” the witness in person) and, in the light of this and other evidence (established factual information, the statements of others directly involved, our understanding of how the music business was run in those days and our knowledge of the milieu within which the individuals involved found themselves), the reader may arrive at his or her own conclusion.

That’s the way I see it anyway.

Entered at Sat Dec 3 15:05:45 CET 2016 from (67.71.41.191)

brown eyed girl

"A while ago this book would have been called SUNSHINE FOR NAPOLEON, and earlier still it would have been called WALLS FOR GENGHIS KHAN"

Entered at Sat Dec 3 14:56:43 CET 2016 from (67.71.41.191)

brown eyed girl

"Nico was not a great singer but this is one of her best songs. Written by singer-songwriter Jackson Browne who was once romantically involved with her. Quite beautiful in its vocal imperfection. If she could sing like Streisand, Adele or Taylor Swift -- it wouldn't have any impact, no strength or viable meaning. Nico had her moments...ah, but what moments they were."

Jackson Browne: "The man who epitomized the 1970s Southern Californian singer-songwriter genre is one of the least likely guys you'd associate with the Velvet Underground in their prime. Yet in early 1967, the still-teenaged and unsigned Browne was for a brief period not only Nico's guitarist and supporting act for weeks during her long-running stint at the Dom club in New York, but also her boyfriend. Still technically in the Velvet Underground at that point, Nico began to record her debut solo album, Chelsea Girl, early that spring, which included three songs that Browne wrote or co-wrote, Jackson also helping out on guitar. After the session on which he played, he went with Lou Reed to see the Murray the K Show rock revue in New York, which featured Cream, the Blues Project, Jim and Jean, and Wilson Pickett."

Leonard Cohen: "Infatuated with Nico in the late 1960s, he saw many of her early solo appearances. Nico is reported to have been at least part of the inspiration for his songs "Memories," "Take This Longing," and "Joan of Arc." Cohen also met Lou Reed around this time, and was pleasantly surprised to find that Lou already had a collection of his poems, Flowers to Hitler, that had yet to be published in the United States. Reed asked Leonard to sign his copy, and also played some of his own songs to Cohen, who liked them very much."

Robbie Robertson: The future Band guitarist, then recently enlisted to be (with other future Band members) part of Bob Dylan's backup group, checked out the then-unknown Velvet Underground in late 1965 at the behest of the group's manager of sorts at the time, Al Aronowitz. Robertson, never one for far-out sounds, left after just one song, exclaiming to Aronowitz, "I can't take no more a [sic] this!"

Ha, ha, ha Robbie! Louuuu got you to see his band. It was never about the guitar playing. Ha, ha, ha! ;-D

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Bill M

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Fred

Has anyone picked up the new Stones CD? I heard some of it, and I must say I never new Mr. Jagger could play the harmonica that well.

Entered at Sat Dec 3 04:17:53 CET 2016 from (67.70.150.132)

Bill M

The link is to a newspaper article about a new documentary called "Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World", one of whom is Robbie Robertson. Others mentioned include Jimi Hendrix, Charlie Patton and Link Wray, whose big hit was a guitar-led instrumental called "Rumble". As I've said here before, "Rumble" led to "Tremble" by Jerry Warren and the Tremblers, the main Hawks farm team of the early '60s. The following passed through the lineup before or after being Hawks or having been close associates of Hawkins and the Hawks: Stan Szelest, Rebel Paine, Sandy Konikoff, Scott Cushnie, Peter Traynor, Zeke Sheppard, Bob MacEachern ...

Entered at Sat Dec 3 04:14:16 CET 2016 from (24.114.65.7)

Kevin J

LINKED: Book review Testimony - The Seatle Times.

Fred: Well, Hamilton at least made the race more interesting than it otherwise would have been ! Nico Rosberg made a surprise announcement today that he is retiring - immediately. Wouldn't have been easy being teamed with someone as quick and ruthless as Lewis.

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Wallsend

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brown eyed girl

Just one more from The Waterboys!

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brown eyed girl

Bob F...Long Live The Waterboys! :-D

Long Live Singer-Songwriters!

Let's Go Toronto Raptors!

Entered at Sat Dec 3 01:17:52 CET 2016 from (104.129.192.71)

Ignatius

Subject: Testimony - anything on John Simon?

I am looking forward to picking up Testimony. I have read some excerpts, especially about the Last Waltz, and I saw no references to John Simon. I understand he was integral to the effort, sitting in on piano and signalling the guys about chord changes through a rigorous night of accompanying all those guests. Makes me wonder if his contribution to the Brown Album is discussed.

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Wallsend

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Jeff A.

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Bob F

Subject: The Waterboys BBC Scotland

This is really amazing. Recorded in 2013 at Glasgow Barrowland when The Waterboys were celebrating 25 years of Fisherman's Blues. The great Anton Thistlethwaite had returned for the tour.

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Peter V

Having websites myself, enough time is spent on junk clearing without one of our own adding to it.

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bassmalee

Subject: The Waltz, Uncut

This has probably been posted before, but I had never encountered it. It seems that there was a fairly static "house" camera recording at The Waltz, albeit in low-res black and white. The sound on this is pretty good, perhaps dubbed from a board tape as it seems out of synch in places. Other than Van Morrison's intro, which either I missed or is absent, it appears to be a complete record of the show, including the poets and the jams. Interesting. (Well, except the poets and the jams!)

Entered at Fri Dec 2 15:47:04 CET 2016 from (67.71.41.191)

brown eyed girl

NOV 30, 2016
Robbie Robertson Delivers a Flawed Testimony
In a New Memoir, the Band’s Guitarist Lets His Ego Get the Better of Him\ by Robert Ham

Entered at Fri Dec 2 15:22:48 CET 2016 from (67.71.41.191)

brown eyed girl

Levon and the Hawks - Circa Summer 1965?????

When I clicked on the photo to enlarge it......Levon and the Hawks Live at The Onyx Club at Oklahoma instead?????

The Main Stage at Tony Marts - College Pennants on the Ceiling

"As the spot lights were turned off and the sound of the music shifted immediately to the stage on the other side of the room, the Hawks, hot and sweaty, took their time putting their instruments down. Rick Danko loosened his tie, smiled and went up to one of the Go Go girls and started dancing and making time with her. Levon jumped off stage and with his drum sticks still in hand, he walked to the back bar where Anthony Marotta was sitting and as Levon approached, Tony Mart put his cigar down on the bar ashtray, lifted his right foot up like a Miss America showing her shoes, and pulled up on his trousers revealing his white ankles, getting a laugh out of Levon and Doobie the bartender, who remarked – “You knocked his socks off!”

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Bill M

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S. M.

Bill M : Forgotten what ?

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Peter V

I wondered why Cathy Smith became Katy. BUT many of us have different shortened names to different people.

Far and away the best of the three big ones on The Band.

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Rod

Entered at Thu Dec 1 04:58:36 CET 2016 from (67.70.150.132)

Bill M

Wallsend: Yes, but imagine the surprise and joy on SM's face when he (or she) opens the prettily wrapped present under the tree. (SM is Band fan, so it's reasonable to assume that SM is old enough to have already forgotten it.)

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Wallsend

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