THE BRITISH THREAD II

A very old English song. Or maybe it's British.

Before Dylan hit his own groove, he lifted a lot of material from the folk tradition, British, Irish and Woody Guthrie. There was a great documentary series recently on him, which I enjoyed.

I was in the "Judas" camp at the time.

Shame on you Mac.

I don't think so. I was listening to all the traditional folk song I could at the time. That seemed pure, and worthy. Dylan's electric band was out of place.

John Jacob Niles, has anyone heard him? Strange.

Anyway, here's Wikipedia on the song "Barbara Allen":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Allen_%28song%29

John Jacob Niles is featured in that No Direction Home movie I think you mentioned earlier. I watch that over every now and again. It goes much too fast to get it in one. That means that Dylan is paying his respect. JJN looks remarkably like Tom Petty.

Mac- You should read the Greil Marcus book on The Basement Tapes.

Just Like Tom Thumb Blues out of place. You must be joking Mac.



If that's out of place you are a very lucky fellah.

It doesn't get much realer than that.



I entirely concur. 100%. Flaccidity City. In the raw is more my style. Exactly as our Creator intended. An irreducible complexity.

"Over coffee and liqueurs we would sometimes listen to John Jacob Niles' recordings. Our favorite was 'I Wonder As I Wander,' sung in a clear, high-pitched voice with a quaver and a modality all his own. The metallic clang of his dulcimer never failed to produce ecstasy. He had a voice which summoned memories of Arthur, Merlin, Guinevere. There was something of the Druid in him. Like a psalmist, he intoned his verses in an ethereal chant which the angels carried aloft to the Glory seat. When he sang of Jesus, Mary and Joseph they became living presences. A sweep of the hand and the dulcimer gave forth magical sounds which caused the stars to gleam more brightly, which peopled the hills and meadows with silvery figures and made the brooks to babble like infants. We would sit there long after his voice had faded out, talking of Kentucky where he was born, talking of the Blue Ridge mountains and the folk from Arkansas..." --Henry Miller, Plexus pp. 366-367.
"

You surprise me Mac.

You don't come over as a Miller fan.

Miller mixes prurience with purple prose in a way I dislike.

No, I'm not, you were right first time. I just lifted that passage from a JJN site.
I agree with Clary's opinion about Miller.

In the 1950s and early 1960s the folk movement was very strong, and linked to international socialism and even, in Britain, communism too in a way I did not fully understand at the time. Anyway the music and the traditions it depicted were the things for me.

Dylan blew it all away.

"Something is happening here
And you don't know what it is
Do yoooooooooooo
Meeeester Joooooones?"

And it sure was. That folk movement was hopeless. Middle-class sweeties.

Peter,Paul and Mary having a hit with a song they didn't understand. Watch Dylan perform it with Sentana. It's on You Tube.

"As I walked out tonight in the mystic garden,
The wounded flowers hanging on the vine,
Passing yon cool crystal fountain
Something hit me from behind."

It sure did feel exactly like that.

Have you read Opus Pistorum? I only grew up when I read Tropic of Cancer. I was a babe before then.

And it's as fresh as a daisy yet.

I mean to say- get real- Bryan Ferry doing a full album of Dylan and none too good at it. What sort of recommendations do you want?

Go watch Summer Days on You Tube. Dig that instrumental.

You never were in a Scottish folk song club back then? Mild protest is in order.
Still, you enjoy the controversy, I know.

A lot of the songs are great Mac. I don't dispute that. They just didn't know how to sing them. They had had music lessons and that sweet upbringing so popular with doting well-off parents. Just listen to Dylan sing Little Moses sometime.

I don't know what those folkies were following but it wasn't Mr Tambourine Man. Baez sounds like a dental nurse.

You need to get the song ahead of the singer. The song's the thing.

And if you are going to protest you have to know what it is you are protesting about otherwise it get's patronising.

Hows this (from memory)

"Why should I want to take your life,
You only murdered my father, raped his wife
Tottooed my babies with a poison pin (pen)
Mocked my God, humiliated my friends.

That's protest.

Well I wasn't thinking of Joan Baez.

Check Hudie Ledbetter, Matt McGinn, Lou Killen, Cyril Tawney, Dick Gaughan, Jeannie Redpath, Jimmy McBeath, Pete Seeger, Ewan McColl.

Not too many middle-class sweeties there.

Hey prompted by this correspondence, when I was in town today I bought a copy of the Scorsese/Dylan documentary DVD mentioned, and I will play some tonight although there is some old British and American R & B on More4. Embarrassment of riches.

The folk discussion
Did anyone like the Bay City Rollers.

Not me! Just thought the discussion needed new impetus!

Now The Seekers - Puff the Magic Dragon! Yeah we've all been there! (At least I think I went there! Memory's not too good now!)

You can't get much new impetus with a crap memory.

Bay City Rollers- very poor indeed- coincidentally they were in the news this week as they have apparently just discovered that their management hasn't paid them yet.
Their accountancy and financial acumen must be on a par with their musicality, just about.

Bay City Rollers
That's true McT, but it isn't just the rubbish performers who can't manage their financial affairs.

If you remember Sting got Stung. I think the accountant got gaoled for that - and bankrupted.

Good morrow.

Bay City Rollers - great image, loving the tartan get-up. Like that song they did too, Bye Bye Baby. Although I'm a bit too young to have been a fan.

How's everybody today? I still ain't found a car but going to look at a Ford Fiesta on Monday.

First night out tonight since the last disastrous outing to Stockport. Cos it's my birthday tomorrow! Whooo hooooooo!.

Tomorrow is ages off so in case I forget mwanee 'appy wutuwns and don't read this till then.

Yes, have a nice one, Dorothy dear- don't get too sober.

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