Episode 5 - Two voices from Chronicles

[From Theme Time - "Cars"] - "A delivery boy makes a wrong turn."

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This is the Dreamtime podcast - occasional commentary on Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour weekly show.

Episode 5 - "Two voices from Chronicles."

I'm changing gears in this episode, talking about two singers who have yet to appear on Theme Time... but probably will at some point. To correct a mistake I made in episode 4, Fred Neil was not the owner of the Cafe Wha?, but a singer/songwriter who ran the daytime show at the Wha? as Dylan notes in Chronicles. Thanks to "jump right in" for pointing out the error to me.

Born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1936 and raised in St. Petersburg Florida, Neil came to New York in the late '50s, working at the Brill Building as a staff writer. At the Brill, a musician could find a publisher and printer, cut a demo, promote the record, and cut a deal with radio promoters, all within one building.

In 1960, Neil began to perform solo at the Cafe Wha?, as well as the Night Owl and Bitter End. By 1961, he was sometimes accompanied by Dylan and Karen Dalton, both pictured with Neil in this episode's show notes.

Neil was something of a musician's musician, influencing among others John Sebastian, who would go on to form the Lovin' Spoonful; Paul Kantner, who would lead Jefferson Airplane; Richie Havens, Felix Pappalardi, the producer of Cream (as well as the bassist for the group, Mountain), and both David Crosby and Stephen Stills. A story, possibly apocryphal, has it that Stills and Crosby originally wanted to call their supergroup with Graham Nash “The Sons of Neil.”

Neil compositions were recorded by both Buddy Holly and Roy Orbison; he also played as a session guitarist for Bobby Darin and Paul Anka. In 1968, Nilsson recorded a cover version of Neil's song "Everybody's Talkin'," which became a mega-hit when it was used as the theme song in the film Midnight Cowboy.

Neil semi-retired in the 1970s and passed away in 2001.

[Everybody's Talkin' excerpt]

Of Neil, Dylan writes,

"Freddy had the flow, dressed conservatively, sullen and brooding, with an enigmatical gaze, peachlike complexion, hair splashed with curls and an angry and powerful baritone voice that struck blue notes and blasted them to the rafters with or without a mike. He was the emperor of the place, even had his own harem, his devotees. You couldn't touch him. Everything revolved around him. Years later, Freddy would write the hit song 'Everybody's Talkin'.' I never played any of my own sets. I just accompanied Neil on all of his and that's where I began playing regular in New York."

In the same section, Dylan reveals his favorite singer at the Cafe Wha? was Karen Dalton.

"A tall white blues singer and guitar player, funky, lanky and sultry," Dylan writes. "Karen had a voice like Billie Holiday's and played the guitar like Jimmy Reed and went all the way with it."

Picture a room, empty except for an unmade bed. A woman lies on it, staring up at the ceiling, watching a fan turn, slowly pulling the smoke from her cigarette into its blades. A half-empty glass of wine is on the floor, by the woman's hands...

[Little Bit of Rain excerpt]

That's Karen Dalton, singing Fred Neil's Little Bit Of Rain on her first album, It's So Hard To Tell Who's Going To Love You The Best, originally released in 1969 and reissued on CD in 1997. As Dylan, and nearly everyone else who heard her noted, Karen's voice strongly resembles that of Billie Holiday's, in fact to the point where the Capitol press release for her first album described her as "the folksinger's answer to Billie Holiday."

Dalton's voice is also eerily similar to the modern day smoky voiced singer, Madeleine Peyroux, who herself is often compared to Holiday. Unlike Peyroux, Dalton never had that much popular success. In the little information available about her on the Web, that may have been because she was uncomfortable in the studio and had to be coaxed into recording the two albums she did produce, or perhaps because she rarely wrote her own songs, or perhaps because of drug and alcohol problems she reported struggled with until her death in 1993.

Fred Neil who had first brought her to the attention of Capitol Records wrote in his 1971 liner notes to her second album:

"She did 'Blues On The Ceiling' (which is my song) with so much feeling that if she told me she had written it herself I would have believed her. Her voice is so unique, to describe it would take a poet. All I can say is she sure can sing the shit out of the blues."

The country singer Lacy J. Dalton has said that she took her name from Karen, who had greatly influenced her singing style. Also known as "Sweet Mother K.D.", It is said that the song "Katie's Been Gone" by The Band was written about her.

A great, haunting talent that never got the audience she deserved, you can buy Karen Dalton's first album on Amazon or as separate tracks through iTunes.

There's apparently a European version of "It's So Hard…" just released in July of 2006, that includes a DVD described in a review at Amazon UK as, "a 25 minute home movie , directed by Dalton and shows her hanging out playing her guitar and performing four songs."

This has been Fred Bals with the Dreamtime podcast - occasional commentary on Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour – and occasionally commentary on other things that may or may not show up on Theme Time.

Until next time, sweet dreams.

Sources: FredNeil.com; Karen Dalton disography page; Nicholas Hill email on Karen Dalton; "Folk Revisited" by Steve Ritchey in The Student Underground, 2004 (Google cache link); Chronicles: Volume One by Bob Dylan

Episode 4 - Tiny, I never saw a Toronto Maple Leaf hockey game.

"I tell you, no one knew more about old music than Tiny Tim did." - Bob Dylan

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The Bob Dylan/Tiny Tim connection has a long, rich history, which Dylan alludes to in the "Flowers" episode of Theme Time as he introduces "Tip-toe through the Tulips." In Chronicles, Volume I, Dylan writes about their first meeting,

"One of the guys who played in the afternoons was the falsetto-speaking Tiny Tim. He played ukulele and sang like a girl -- old standard songs from the '20s…"

["On the Old Front Porch" excerpt]

Tiny Tim was born Herbert Buckingham Khaury, on April 12, probably in 1932, although in various interviews he gave his birth year as anytime between 1922 and 1932. His first performances -- under the name Larry Love -- took place in 1954, where he won several amateur contests. His professional career began in 1963 or '64 at a lesbian cabaret in Greenwich Village called the Page 3. In a short time, Tiny Tim was well-known in the Greenwich Village music scene, although more as a novelty act than for his deep knowledge of American music.

In Chronicles, Dylan goes on to tell about sharing lunch with Tim, "The best part of working with [Fred Neil , owner of the Café Wha?*], was strictly gastronomical -- all the French fries and hamburgers I could eat. At some point during the day, Tiny Tim and I would go in the kitchen and hang around. Norbert the cook would usually have a greasy burger waiting. Either that, or he'd let us empty a can of pork and beans or spaghetti into a frying pan."

In 1967, Dylan and Tiny Tim would meet again, when Tim recorded several songs with The Band – yes The Band – for Peter Yarrow’s seldom-seen rockumentary, "You Are What You Eat." The Band/Tiny Tim collaboration included Memphis, Tennessee, The Sonny and Cher classic, I Got You Babe, and this Al Jolson standard, Sonny Boy.

[Sonny Boy]

According to Tim, Dylan renewed their friendship after hearing he was recording with The Band, and invited him to his Woodstock home. Greeting Tim at at 12 o’clock in the morning. Dylan said, "Tiny, I never saw a Toronto Maple Leaf hockey game."

In the course of conversation, Tim serenaded Dylan with Rudy Vallee’s "Maine Stein Song" and "My Time is Your Time" and played Dylan's own "Like A Rolling Stone" - comparing Dylan's popularity to Valle's. According to Tiny Tim, "After he [heard] the comparison to [Rudy] Vallee and what he meant to me Dylan said, 'Look, do you want a banana before you go to bed?' I said, 'No, I have my own fruit with me.'"

[Maine Stein Song excerpt]

Before retiring for the night, Tim sang an Irving Kaufman song from 1923 called "What's Today Got To Do With Tomorrow (when tomorrow's so far away)", and Dylan in turn played "Cool Water” for him. Dylan also offered Tim a minor part in "Eat the Document," for which he was paid $22.00.

Tim's performance in You Are What You Eat led to his first TV appearance on the popular Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, where he was an instant sensation, although perhaps not in the way he would have wanted. Perhaps. Tiny Tim seemed to exist in his own space; oblivious to snickers, laughter, and ridicule. In any case, he became a hot TV property, appearing on Laugh-In several more times, as well as on The Ed Sullivan Show, The Jackie Gleason Show, and, of course the Tonight Show. In 1969 in front of an estimated 40 million viewers, he would marry Victoria May Budinger, better known as "Miss Vicki," on The Tonight Show. The couple later had a daughter, Tulip, as Dylan mentions on Theme Time, but lived apart, and divorced after eight years of marriage.

Although the public's taste for Tim's inherent weirdness had faded away by the mid-70s, he never stopped performing wherever and whenever he could, reportedly even joining a circus for a few months in the 1980s. In September of 1996, Tiny Tim suffered a heart attack while performing at the Ukulele Hall of Fame in Duxbury, Massachusetts. Upon his release from the hospital, Tim resumed his concert schedule, but, on November 30 1996, suffered another heart attack in Minneapolis while performing his signature song. He died an hour later. His remains are in the mausoleum of Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis, pictured to your left.

A true eccentric who happened to be in the right place at the right time to become a media star, and a lover of the American songbook who dedicated his life to bringing back old, obscure songs, Tiny Tim never let his personal oddities or public reaction interfere with his main mission… singing the songs he loved.

This has been Fred Bals with the Dreamtime podcast - occasional commentary on Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour weekly show. Dreamtime is not associated with XM Radio, Bob Dylan, or much of anything else. Until next time… think of Tiny Tim, and follow your dreams, wherever they lead.

[Tip-toe through the Tulips excerpt]

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Sources: Remembering Tiny Tim; Tiny Tim: A Look Back; Chronicles: Volume One by Bob Dylan

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