Prom Night at Brookland-Cayce High School with The Swinging Medallions

"I've been listening to my legally obtained copy of the Friends & Neighbors Show and in the "Garage Rock" email the guy mentions The Swinging Medallions played his prom instead of Billy Stewart. I tried to do a little research of my own, cause this sounds like a real email to me, but came up cold.

"What do you think?" ~ from a comment posted by "Dreamtime Fan"

Y'know, "Dreamtime Fan," what I think is that you should definitely keep writing to me with your suggestions, as you sent me on a hunt that proved - to me at least - that at least some of the emails Our Host read on Theme Time Radio Hour were real, including this one....

"So, we got more emails than we know what to do with. So, this week we're gonna double-dip. This one comes from Guy Hornsby. He writes..."

"'Bob, I'm afraid your crack research team has let you down. On your show devoted to the songs of summer, you told listeners that Billy Stewart died June 17, 19 and 70. I know he died in January of that year, because my high school senior class in Brookland-Cayce, South Carolina had booked him to perform at our prom. Remember when high school proms had live music instead of deejays? -'"

"Matter of fact, I do. That was better! Guy continues to write..."

"'We had to scramble to come up with a local band. We were fortunate enough to get The Swinging Medallions. Their big hit was Double-Shot of My Baby's Love. To make a long story short...'"

"Too late, Guy..."

'I would like a Theme Time Radio Hour devoted to garage bands..."

"Garage bands? Well, first off, Guy, thank you for your note. I'd like to point out that there is already a program that focuses on garage music. I think that guy from The Sopranos does it. Not the Big Soprano, but one of the little Sopranos. But you know what, I enjoyed your letter so much, I think I got something for ya.

"By the way, Guy, what is a garage band? I've recorded songs in my garage. Am I a garage band?" ~ Bob Dylan, reading a second "listener email" on the "Friends and Neighbors" episode

I had first thought this email was the usual Theme Time Radio Hour mix of fact, fiction and in-jokes, but the more I dug into it, the more surprised I became.

Guy Hornsby

Was "Guy" a friend or acquaintance of the TTRH team who they were giving the wink and nod to in a fake email? A Google Search turned up as the first result a link to this "Guy Hornsby." Was the email a shout-out to a contemporary London-based deejay and producer of house music?

A little unlikely.

With some more digging I found this "Guy Hornsby," whose bio notes that he was a one-time BBC radio producer of "The Tony Blackburn Show," "[a] combination of soul and dance music, together [with a] risqué style of presentation..."

That Guy seemed to have more of a probable TTRH connection. Maybe Eddie G. or even Mr. D. was a fan of "The Tony Blackburn Show"? In any case, I was satisfied I had found the right guy, or Guy.

Turns out I was completely wrong. To paraphrase Occam's Razor, the simplest explanation is usually the correct one. But it would take me some more fact-checking to realize that.

"...my high school senior class in Brookland-Cayce, South Carolina..."

There ain't nothing like a good ol' challenge for the crack Dreamtime research team, although this one almost brought us to our knees as we tried variations of "Brooklyn," "Brooklin," and "Case" without success.

After too many repeat listenings and way too much research in the South Carolina groves of acadame, I finally produced a list of every goddamned high school in South Carolina, and discovered Mr. D. was saying "Brookland-Cayce." There is no town of that name, but there sure is a Brookland-Cayce High School, home of the Bearcats, in Cayce, South Carolina.

"Hmm," crack researcher Fred thought to himself. "Self, it'd be mighty interesting to see the 1970 yearbook for Brookland-Cayce."

Now, what I was thinking was that edition of the Brookland-Cayce yearbook might have the picture and name of one of the TTRH research team. Still wrong, as it turned out, but I was getting warmer. I decided to see what I could find out about the graduating class of Brookland-Cayce High School for 19 and 70. And guess who I found. That's right: one "Guy Hornsby, Class of 1970."

The email was real.

"...you told listeners that Billy Stewart died June 17, 19 and 70."

And indeed, Our Host did say that in the "Summer" episode, which first aired the day after the 4th of July in 2006, after playing Stewart's unique interpretation of "Summertime." It was more likely that Mr. D. let the crack research team down through a slip of the tongue, as he got everything else right except the month.

Billy Stewart did in fact die January 17th of that year when the car he was driving went off the road and plunged into the Neuse River in North Carolina, killing him and three members of his band. Stewart was two months shy of his 33rd birthday. Here's Billy Stewart with "Summertime," which should be worth the price of admission to Dreamtime alone.

"We had to scramble to come up with a local band. We were fortunate enough to get The Swinging Medallions."

As Guy and Our Host note, it wasn't all that unusual for high school prom committees to book semi-famous regional bands. All it took was money. Even though I had first greeted this email with a healthy dose of skepticism,  Guy was real. Occam's Razor would say it was then also highly probable that Guy's senior class had originally booked Billy Stewart and after his death recruited The Swinging Medallions to play at the senior prom at Brookland-Cayce in 19 and 70. The Medallions home base was Greenwood, SC, about an hour-and-a-half drive from Cayce, certainly putting them into the "local band" category.

The Swinging Medallions second single, "Double Shot (Of My Baby's Love)", originally recorded by Dick Holler & the Holidays, reached #17 in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in 19 and 66. The Swingers would have a couple of other Top 40 hits in the late `60s, but "Double Shot" was the apex of their career, and they were working mostly frat houses, colleges, beach joints, armories - and maybe the occasional high school prom - by the `70s. In fact, "The Party Band of the South" still does shows today, still chuggin' away with the quintessential garage band song, "Double Shot (Of My Baby's Love)."

Thanks, Dreamtime Fan!

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You Need Theme Time Radio Hour In Your Life

Dreamtime pal Doug R. writes an impassioned sermon himself on the benefits of TTRH in your life, which we wholly subscribe to. I'm not quite certain of the mechanics of Facebook - dunno if you need to be a member in order to read Doug's full post - but I'm replicating it here with Doug's permission:

Season Three of Theme Time Radio Hour begins today. Featuring your host, Bob Dylan.

You need Theme Time Radio Hour in your life.

I'm serious. I am an evangelist in the church of Theme Time Radio Hour. In the last couple of years, Bob has thoroughly revitalized my love of music.

Every week, Bob Dylan culls his personal record collection, chooses a theme and spins an hour's worth of records devoted to that theme. Songs about shoes. Songs about trains. Songs about guys named Joe. The genres are all over the map. Blues, country, soul, showtunes, reggae... I come away from every show with a new favorite song.

And Bob is a brilliant DJ. He shares recipes and cleaning tips, tells jokes, and occasionally delivers impassioned sermons on how to live right.

Have I mentioned that you need Theme Time Radio Hour as a regular part of your life?

Bob and his people seem very loose about the show's being bootlegged. Which is good, because I can't afford satellite radio.

This guy, Patrick Crosley - http://croz.fm/pages/ttrh.html - hosts a blog where he posts a lot of music, and usually posts a copy of the newest Theme Time within a day or two of air date.

I'm also going to put in a plug for the Dreamtime podcast.

http://www.dreamtimepodcast.com/

Fred Bals does a show wherein he will take an artist or phenomenon offhandedly mentioned by Bob, and weave a whole show around it. Fred's an engaging writer and storyteller, in addition to having an encyclopedic pop culture knowledge that I envy deeply. I've picked up almost as many favorite songs from Fred as I have from Bob. The difference being, Fred's my Facebook friend. Hi, Fred.

The meaningful part of the baseball season may be over. The days may be getting shorter. But I don't care. There's less space on my iPod, and more songs in my heart. It's a new season of Theme Time Radio Hour. And I'm trying to convert you. Give it a listen.

And "Hi, Doug," and thanks for the plug!

I just want to add that I fully sympathize with not being able to afford things like satellite radio. Dreamtime has a lot of student listeners who are on a tight budget too, and without torrents and sites like Croz's they'd be out of luck.

As I noted in my F.A.Q., the liklihood of ever seeing a commercial release of The Compleat Theme Time Radio Hour recedes with each new show, and it certainly deserves some permanency, albeit gray market permanency. Having said that, I do want to add that if you're in a position to support Sirius XM Radio by subscribing, whether to the satellite or internet feed, you should, even if you get the show from other sources or not. According to reports, shares in the merged company have dropped over 65 percent since July, and the current market environment is very probably going to devastate financially weak companies. While TTRH isn't likely to disappear, its home base very well could. And that would be bad news for us all.

Getting ready for Season 3 - Money Part 1

Caroline and Kait, co-directors of The Annotated Theme Time Radio Hour , note in an email...

We'll be up and running with new TTRH annotations starting next week, and are working to get the ["Heat" episode from Season 2 annotated]. Thanks for checking in!!

And a report over at the Expecting Rain TTRH forums brings us the news that the kick-off show for Season 3 will be "Money: Part 1." Given the times, that theme will be highly appropriate. Thanks to Lotusia for the tip and CS Neilsen for the confirmation!

Eddie & Coco and News on Season 3

A very interesting email from Dreamtime listener, Richard...

"So I was at Amoeba Records in Hollywood last Sunday and was thumbing through the Porter Wagoner section to see if they had the new Bear Family 3 CD set of his concept albums. Guy next to me sees what I'm doing and asks if I'm looking for the Bear Family set too.

I turn to tell him I am and its Eddie G (I recognized him from the DVD with the Ricky Jay Plays Poker set). I ask him if he's Eddie G, tell him how I know him and we start talking. Very nice guy.

He introduces me to his wife, Coco [Shinomiya]. He asks me what I'm buying today (Carlene Carter and Jim Lauderdale) and shows me his stash for the day (Carlene Carter, some blues comps, some Tex-Mex, etc) .

Also tells me that he just spoke to Elvis Costello yesterday. Carlene opened for E.C. at a show in Nashville and put on, according to Elvis, a dynamite set. I tell him how much I like the Dylan show. He tells me that he's very proud of that show and that they're working now on shows for the fall. We didn't get into specifics but he says he thinks the third season will be the best yet..."

A little research indicated that Coco, who gets name-checked on the closing credits of TTRH, is indeed married to Eddie G. A "Coco Grimes Gorodetsky" wife to an "Eddie Gorodetsky" was a character in an episode of Six Feet Under, written by Scott Buck, who's a good friend of Eddie G.

So, it also does look we're waiting till the Fall for the next round of Theme Time. Scribble, scribble, scribble, please, Mr. G.


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Kerplunk!

Dreamtime reader/listener Corey sent us an interesting email, noting...

"After reading the Matsuo Bashō poem in your post I realized that [Allen] Ginsberg referenced it in his folk music/poetry performance called "Old Pond". Instead of the line, "the sound of water", Ginsberg replaces it with "Kerplunk". This performance can be found over at Ubu web. Being that Dylan and Ginsberg were occasional collaborators, I thought that you might be interested. I love this piece!"

Which sent me on on a hunt for more information. I found that not only as Corey noted, that Ginsberg did do a version of the Bashō haiku, but also that hundreds of poets have tried their hand at variations of the "Frog Poem" too. In fact, there's a book - One Hundred Frogs - which I just ordered from Amazon, which looks at versions from serious haiku to limericks...

"There once was a curious frog / who sat by a pond on a log / And to see what resulted, / In the pond catapulted / With a water-noise heard around the bog."

Corey also pointed me to a great resource that I hadn't known existed, Ubuweb, which I commend to your attention if you're interested in poetry, music, or just general aural weirdness. Ginsberg's performance of Old Pond that Corey mentioned, recorded at the Nova Convention of 19 and 78, can be found here, as the first selection, and can be played online or downloaded. Thanks, Corey!

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"Say shant do's a" "Saint-Saëns soo say," or "Sensation in San Jose"?

Dreamtime pal Jennifer stopped by at what's becoming the one-stop shop of Theme Time Radio Hour interpretation to ask...

"...how does Bob Dylan introduce the Rolling Stones song Play with Fire [ in the "Heat" episode] -- is he saying something in French?"

In his intro to the song, Mr. D. says, "At least once during the show, I like to play a musical version of a [unintelligible], and here's this week's opportunity. It's by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards..."

The unintelligible phrase sounded as if were two or three words, and I agreed with Jennifer, it sounded as if it might be French. But, even after repeated listening, I couldn't make it out. I suspected the first word was "chanson," but my French doesn't extend much past the pen of my aunt.

I finally turned the question over to the international community at the Expecting Rain Theme Time Radio Hour forums, and quickly got the answer from two regular participants: clarx and Picasso. Our Host is saying...

"At least once during the show, I like to play a musical version of a [chanson osée], and here's this week's opportunity..."

Translated literally the phrase means "daring song," and colloquially refers to a song with risqué or suggestive lyrics. Dinah Washington's hommage to the trombone - Big Long Slidin' Thing - played in the Musical Instruments show would be a perfect example.

The Dreamtime blog and podcast, your home for translations, exculpations, and determinations.

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Email: Dead Man's Hand

An email from Dreamtime listener Jennifer had me thinking about aces backed with eights. Jennifer wrote...

While I was on my way to work this morning, I heard a song I hadn't listened to in a long time: "Rambin' Gamblin' Willie" from [Dylan's] first Bootleg Series set. I had forgotten that at the end of that song, Willie is shot, and he's holding the 'dead man's hand'--aces and eights. Just like {Dylan] mentioned in last year's Death & Taxes show.

If you're a poker player or were a fan of the late, lamented Deadwood series, you might know that most famous of dead man's hands. On the 2nd of August, 18 and 76, Wild Bill Hickok was playing cards in Deadwood, in what is now South Dakota, and then was simply known as the Dakotas, when Jack McCall shot him in the back of the head, killing him instantly. Legend has it Wild Bill held a pair of black eights and a pair of black Aces when he died, which became known both among poker players and popularly as a "dead man's hand."

McCall said he believed that Hickok had killed his brother in Kansas. Although from all reports McCall was a bad-natured drunk who didn't need much of an excuse to pull his gun, this may have even been correct. His brother Lew had supposedly died in Abilene, Kansas in a gunfight with a "lawman." In 1871 Hickok had been employed as a marshal in Abilene. He was paid $150 a month plus a bounty of 50 cents for every unlicensed dog he shot. While Hickok had spent most of his Abilene employment playing poker, he had shot and killed at least two men during his time there. One of the victims may have been Lew McCall. Other stories have it that Jack McCall had lost $110 to Hickok the night before and was still smarting - as well as still drunk.

Biographers have never found a contemporary citation confirming that Hickok was holding Aces and eights, and the term, dead man's hand,was in use 10 years after Hickok's murder in relation to a different set of cards. An 1886 article from the Grand Forks Daily Herald notes...

I was present at a game in a Senator's house one night and saw him win $6,000 on one hand. It was the dead man's hand.

What is the dead man's hand? Why, it is three jacks and a pair of tens. It is called the dead man's hand because about forty seven years ago, in a town in Illinois, a celebrated judge bet his house and lot on three jacks and a pair of tens.

When his opponent showed up he had three queens and a pair of tens. Upon seeing the queens the judge fell back dead, clutching the jacks and tens in his hand, and that's why a jack-full on tens is called the dead man's hand.

If you're a poker player, your immediate question would be what was the fifth card in Hickok's hand? Did he fill the full house? It's possible - since Wild Bill was playing draw poker - that he had already discarded a card and was shot down before he could draw the missing card. For reasons unknown the Stardust Casino in Las Vegas had a 5 of diamonds on display as the fifth card. With the Stardust now, ah, dust, the card has moved over to a display in Deadwood. Another display in Deadwood uses the 9 of diamonds, supposedly reported in first-hand accounts as the card. The 9 of diamonds was also used in the Deadwood series as the missing card.

James Butler Hickok was buried in the Mt. Moriah Cemetery outside Deadwood. Calamity Jane insisted that the man she loved have a proper memorial, and had a stone enclosure with an iron filigree built around Hickok's burial plot.

In 1900, Calamity Jane was photographed next to the burial site. She posed with a flower in her hand, and she said in an interview published with the photo that when she died she wanted to be buried next to the man she loved.

Three years later, she was.

In 2001, the older section of the cemetery was restored and many of the graves now have new homes, including those of Hickok and Calamity Jane. But the two still repose side by side on the hill.

As I replied to Jennifer, I suspect that, like me, Our Host is a regular poker player. Between being pals with Ricky Jay (Ramblin' Gamblin' Willie also shows up on Jay's great compilation CD, Ricky Jay Plays Poker), and the very funny Love and Theft promo video, I think I've read that Dylan and the boys in the band while away the hours on the bus with some vicious poker games. And certainly Huck's Tune is filled with poker references and slang that you wouldn't know unless you were a Texas Hold `Em player.

I've thought of doing a poker-themed Dreamtime, and may still, although I wouldn't be surprised if TTRH does one first.

Email

An email and gift from Dreamtime regular, Carol...

"I do love checking in on your site! It's gggrrreeaaattt!!" - Carol

Thanks, Carol, and thanks for the image!

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