Folk Songs and More Folk Songs

D022.a 'TWAS IN ANOTHER LIFETIME ...

In March 1963, in New York, the Westinghouse Broadcasting Company (now CBS) taped two hour-long specials, written and introduced by John Henry Faulk, on the theme of The History Of America Through Folk Music. Both programmes went out the following May with, among the roster of performers on the second of them a young and relatively unknown Bob Dylan. Hindsight might prompt us to ask why the mighty D would choose to rub shoulders with the likes of Hester, Dane and The Brothers Four. Truth is, though, back in March 1963 he'd surely have been grateful for the opportunity for, still as yet but on the cusp of greatness, the CV here least likely to impress was his. Though it might be hard to credit after seeing their anodyne, glee-club, style-over-substance treatment of two Guthrie songs plus others (and you can't help but wonder what Bob, looking on, must have thought of them), The Brothers Four (not real brothers but merely members of the same college frat-house) had scored between '61 and '63 two top twenty albums and a top five single and had performed at the 1961 Academy Awards. 35 year old Barbara Dane ("Bessie Smith in stereo"), meanwhile, had established a solid reputation for herself on the jazz and blues circuit, Carolyn Hester had released three albums, on the last of which (produced by John Hammond) a then unrecorded Bob had blown guest harmonica and The Staples Singers were already ten years down the road of a long and increasingly successful gospel/folk career (indeed, all - though Hester less actively than the rest - would continue to perform regularly through to the last years of the century and, in Bob's case, of course, beyond).


With Langhorne, Hester, Lee, Sept 1961

D022.a is tremendous, both in its own right and as a document of great historical importance, placing pupescent (never mind the spell-checker) D as it does foursquare in his pre-fame milieu. Though this was not his first TV appearance (he'd filmed Madhouse On Castle Street in London a few weeks before and, according to Shelton and others, also appeared on local Midwestern TV with The Satin Tones as early as 1959) it is his first filmed performance to survive. And though it might seem odd that a programme themed on history in song should start with one less than twelve months old, so it is and so it does - possibly in recognition of Wind's debt (readily acknowledged by its author) to the Negro spiritual No More Auction Block, or maybe just because the song managed to sound (not the last time he'd pull this trick) so much older than it really then was. Either way, Wind, like its singer, would soon attract a degree of celebrity way in excess of what anyone watching this original performance is likely to have thought possible. But savvy Svengali Albert Grossman was a master manipulator who contrived to place D's song (courtesy of Peter, Paul and Mary) at the top of the charts very soon after this programme's first airing, which also just happened to coincide with the release in its final form (opening track Blowin' In The Wind) of Freewheelin'. Triple serendipity, doors open, the future beckons. Of course Bob's talent more than anything else bowled him headlong down the road he's travelled since, but the story of his first faltering steps is less straightforward than might at first glance appear.*


John Henry Faulk (1913-1990)

Faulk’s faux cornball narration (the Civil War - a hartbraykin' fraykus) runs through the programme and serves together with the grainy monochrome and whimsically basic production values to better engender the spirit of the age - and it does feel, with its strange mix of innocence and veneer, like an altogether bygone age. If I (clearly no talent scout) had to put my money on just one of these acts to make it big, it would be the Staples, who best come across as the real thing. Hester is pretty and talented, though lacks gravel, that edge of Baez steel, is a bit too school-ma'amish (though her Famine Song is fine). Dane fails to impress and the Bros are very grim (that's to say bland); are all that Bob is not. Their clothes - matching short-sleeved button-down shirts and cravats (fifth screenshot) - are smart, Bob's are plain; his hair is tidy, theirs is barbered. The unclipped ends of his strings fly harum-scarum from the head of his guitar - you can bet all theirs were snipped off neat and trim. All perfectly nice guys, I’m prepared to believe, but you can sense their boat a-sailin' even as you watch. And just as you wonder what Bob thought of their Guthrie renditions, it's interesting to speculate what they too must have thought in seeing and hearing (indeed, backing) his arrestingly powerful Hollis Brown. Really he was too young, had lived too short a life to have written such a desperate song. How far back must you go to find someone as good so young? Mozart probably, though you might be able to think of others. He sings both Wind and Constant Sorrow with his head thrown way back, partly due to the harp-rack (don't you miss that nowadays?) and partly, I presume, because there was a boom mike overhead for him to sing to - and that's Bob, even then - the performance is all. Provided that scores, the rest can go hang. Mind, he's photogenic as ever (screenshots two and four), candy-cute enough, I suspect, even for that picky pair CatBlack and Camilo.


Barbara Dane, Newport 1965

The meanders of fortune are strange, arbitrary and often seem cruel (though the propensity of things to work out for the best is remarkable). For instance, the then-blonde Barbara Dane was allegedly Grossman's first choice for the "Mary" role in PP&M (it is also said he considered Hester too) - but would Wind (and its author) have swept around the world with quite the same unstoppable force if not for the striking Nordic beauty and earnest teen appeal of Mary Travers? As for The Brothers Four, after a '64/5 career dip, the group attempted a comeback by recording a highly commercial version of Mr Tambourine Man but were prevented from releasing it by licensing issues. Before these could be resolved, The Byrds stepped in and jingle-jangled off into history, dragging Bob's name behind them and leaving the Bros to rue, in miffed and querulous chagrin, no doubt, the unfathomable foibles of fate.

HVALA LH
STARS Essential. Five.

* http://idynamo.wordpress.com/2007/11 … nd-albert/

This newly authored version (thanks George for the work you put in) surfaced and was shared in February 2005. And in terms of amateur authoring, its one of the finest out there. The menus are well put together and easily navigable.

This show is really very strange to watch. Watching it nowadays is a strange experience and even funny if you're slightly mentally altered. Its the bizarre mixture of traditional folk music (say the brothers four) with the more modern (and ultimately more enduring) music of Mr Dylan.

His version of Hollis Brown is a joy to watch. My own calculations have this as only the 4th or 5th public performance of the song. Blowin in the Wind is a relatively identical cut to that we saw on Freewheelin, and considering its reknowned as one of the classic Dylan songs means this version is very nice. The third song performed by Mr Dylan is Man of Constant Sorrow, again this being only its 4th or 5th outing. Its a traditional song and Bob does it justice here, outshining his so called peers.

The whole show seems to have rather strange production and a most unique style. Its a strange foamy set that could only have been used in the 60s when people felt that foam rocks and a painted back drop were a great way to create a mountain and countryside like ambience and feel for a TV show. Its very easy to see how Bob quickly outgrew a scene like this, and granted this probably isn't the best document of folk, but this is probably as close to a snapshot of the mainstream folk scene as we're likely to get.

The other artists featured here are very hit and miss. Some seem to just simply be going through the motions, and with the exception of the Staple Singers, I don't believe any had much of a career outside of specialist folk music.

So taking this as an image of the scene that a very young Bob Dylan found himself in (this may be the first pro-shot footage of Dylan on tape currently circulating, feel free to correct me), it is a treat. The DVD features a good quality probably second generation, maybe first, copy of the video and good broadcast quality sound aswell.

All in all, get this to see exactly what Bob was before he became the man we know him better as.

Important document. I've never seen Dylan youngest (on the screen). It can help you to understand why was Dylan so unique in the beginning of the 60's. Brothers Four and Carolyn Hester (and Barbara Dane in her first solo) try to search how to play folk songs (and they are a little funny from todays poit of view), but Dylan knows it (he is miles ahead of them with Man Of Constant Sorrow) and he writes his own "folk songs" and he's heading to future. Only Barbra Dane with jazz group in her third appearance approaches him a little in singing and playing a guitar (Staples Singers are great, but there's an another kind of music). Worth to have for those who want to know ways music went through.