Episode 53 - Will There Be Any Yodeling In Heaven?

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[The Lonely Goatherd - Julie Andrews]

We're back again with another show from your other home for dreams, schemes, and themes. We've been gone for awhile, so we've got lots to talk about on today's show, including the end of Theme Time Radio Hour Season 2, when we can expect Season 3 to start, what Dreamtime will be up to during the Theme Time hiatus, and hey, bar the door, Katie! We're also going to tell you about the first Dreamtime Constant Listener contest, where one lucky listener - that might be you - will win a copy of Sid Griffin's book, Million Dollar Bash, as well as some assorted Dreamtime bling!

All that and more on Episode 53 of the Dreamtime podcast. And because we wouldn't be Dreamtime without some Theme Time-inspired music, we're also taking a stroll today through the sadly neglected world of yodels and yodeling, including Alpine yodels, blue yodels, Hawaiian yodels, blackface yodels, country-western yodels, and Drake's Creme-Filled Chocolate Cake Yodels. To get us started, a musical lesson on yodeling from Mr.Goebel Reeves, also known as the Texas Drifter.

[The Yodelin' Teacher - Goebel Reeves]

From 19 and 34, The Yodelin' Teacher. Goebel Reeves is probably best remembered for writing one of Woody Guthrie's signature tunes, Hobo's Lullaby, a song that became so associated with Woody that most people believe he composed it himself.

You might think you were listening to a dialogue in The Yodelin' Teacher, but Reeves is actually performing both voices. Most of Goebel Reeves career is a mystery, and there's no direct evidence that he ever performed in blackface. But he claimed to have barnstormed through the South with Jimmie Rodgers during the early `20s, and to have taught Rodgers to yodel. And The Yodelin' Teacher sure sounds like a blackface routine Reeves and Rodgers might have developed together as an act for the Medicine Show circuit.

When yodeling, blackface, and Jimmie Rodgers are mentioned, there's always another performer who needs to be acknowledged. You know who we're talking about, we did an entire Dreamtime show on him. Here's our ghost in blackface, Emmett Miller, performing the original Lovesick Blues.

[Lovesick Blues - Emmett Miller]

From 19 and 28, Lovesick Blues performed by Emmett Miller, using his trademark yodel. Twenty years later Hank Williams would record Lovesick Blues, and have his first #1 Country Single hit, ironically one of the few cover songs he ever recorded.

Let's take a break and discuss some Theme Time Radio Hour and Dreamtime news. As I would guess all of my listeners know by now, Theme Time Radio Hour closed its Season 2 with the "Cold" show broadcast on April 2nd. Mr. D. said in his announcement that they'd be back "real soon" with Season 3, the deejays on "Deep Tracks" and XMX - the two channels where Theme Time is being re-run - are saying the show will be back in "a couple of months," and the New York Daily News has made the unlikely claim that the show will be back September 19th (I say unlikely because September 19th is a Friday), but the bottom line is that XM Radio has yet to announce an official return date.

So, to keep our spirits up, the Dreamtime team has put together an awesome package of, ah, stuff, that we'll send to the winner of our first annual Dreamtime Constant Listener contest. Here's how it works...

1. Send us an email - dreamtimepodcast@gmail.com - and give us your pick on the date when Theme Time Radio Hour will return with Season 3. Please make sure to put "Dreamtime contest" in the Subject line.
   
   
2. The contest ends when the official announcement of Theme Time Radio Hour Season 3 is made by XM Radio. Our winner will receive a copy of Sid Griffin's great book on the Basement Tapes recording sessions: Million Dollar Bash, personally inscribed to you by the Dreamtime team; and a CD of our most popular show to date, Poetry Readings with Your Host, Bob Dylan from Season 1 of TTRH.
   
   
3. Standard disclaimer stuff: One entry per email address. Contest ends when the official announcement of Theme Time Radio Hour Season 3 is made by XM Radio. In case two or more entries has the right date, the winner will be randomly selected from the Dreamtime hat. If no one selects the exact date, our drawing will be randomly selected from all the entries. Employees of XM Radio, Big Red Tree, Gray Water Park Productions, or the Dreamtime team - especially the Top Cats - are not eligible, and their cat food will be taken away if they're caught.

So there you have it, friends, the first annual Dreamtime Constant Listener contest. All the info is on the blog, including links to our email. Enter early, 'cause there's no way of telling when XM will make the announcement that Theme Time Radio Hour is starting up again.

I think it's time for some more music, and here's one of my favorite yodeling teams, The Dezurik Sisters, better known on their radio show as as The Cackle Sisters. Yodeling wasn't just limited to yodeling when it picked up popularity among country-western artists in the `30s. The term came to stand for any vocal trick in a song, especially animal sounds which might include a barnyard full of dogs, cats, mules, and birds. Bird imitations were a Dezurik Sister speciality. We "listened to the birds and tried to sing with the birds," sister Carolyn once said. Here's the Dezurik Sisters with The Arizona Yodeler.

[The Arizona Yodeler - The Dezurik Sisters]

Here's one I first heard on the Lost Theme Time Radio iPod, although it's yet to be played on Theme Time Radio Hour. You know, there are some songs that just stop you dead in your tracks when you first hear them, and Cliff Carlisle's That Nasty Swing is definitely one of them. When you listen to this one, wait for the "place the needle in that hole," line, which had me going "What! What!" the first time I played it. Carlisle's referring to a phonograph needle, and Nasty Swing is probably one of the first songs to link up sex with that old devil phonograph, preceding Robert Johnson's Phonograph Blues by a good three years. From 19 and 33, Cliff Carlisle and That Nasty Swing...

[That Nasty Swing - Cliff Carlisle]

Cliff Carlisle with a song so nasty that he released it under the name "Bob Clifford." In fact, his label thought the song so nasty that they marketed it as a race record, directed to a black rather than white audience.

Next on the agenda is some technical Dreamtalk I'll try to make as quick and painless as possible. First: How to subscribe in iTunes. While the Dreamtime feed is still broken in the official iTunes store, you can still easily subscribe to the Dreamtime podcast by hustling over to the Dreamtime blog at dreamtimepodcast.com, click on the "Got iTunes" button you'll find in the upper right cornerand zippo! you're subscribed in iTunes and will never miss an episode of Dreamtime.

Second in line: In Dreamtime's constant race to be the coolest kid on the block, we've created a special Dreamtime account on Twitter. One of the most popular sections of Dreamtime is the daily Theme Time Radio Hour News & Views column that you'll find over to your right, too, when you come visit the blog. If you're a Twitter aficionado and want to follow the TTRH News & Views column over there as it (almost) breaks, here's your opportunity. Go to Twitter and search for DylanTweets, all one word, and TTRH news will be flowing into your computer, cell phone, or whatever you're using to Twitter. If you want to follow me, btw, my personal Twitter account is FredatDreamtime, again all one word, but I have to warn you up front, I'm pretty boring.

[Photo: Roy Rogers kneeling on the left. Spade Cooley kneeling on the right]

I promised a little Hawaiian yodeling and the honors go to one of the greatest of singing cowboys, Roy Rogers. I'm about 10 years younger than Mr. D., and what Gene Autry meant to him, Roy Rogers meant to me, the ultimate in Cowboy Code Coolness. My mother totally bummed me out when I was about 8, telling me that Roy Rogers had been in jail for murdering his wife, apparently pre-Dale Evans. She didn't have any explanation about why Roy was romping around on Saturday morning television instead of being behind bars somewhere, but the story cast a shadow on Young Fred, equivalent to when a classmate told me that Superman had shot himself.

It wasn't until years later that I realized my mother - never a fount of accuracy - had confused Roy Rogers with Spade Cooley, who claimed during his trial that Roy Rogers had had an affair with his wife, who Cooley subsequently murdered in front of their 14-year-old daughter. Here's someone who didn't murder his wife, I'm happy to say, Leonard Franklin Slye, better known to us all as the King of the Cowboys, Roy Rogers, riding on the 1940s Hawaiian craze with the song, Hawaiian Cowboy.

[Hawaiian Cowboy - Roy Rogers]

No one knows how Hawaiian music and yodeling got intertwined, although the best guess seems to be that the unique Hawaiian version of yodeling sprang from a blend of Hawaiian chants, Christian hymns promoted by missionaries, and yodeling from immigrant cowboys. As Mr. D. says, all these things have roots.

We're winding up today's Dreamtime with our title song, a question that all True Fans of yodeling will ask Saint Peter before stepping through those pearly gates. From Theme Time Radio Hour favorite, Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys, with vocals supplied by the McKinney Sisters, Will There Be Any Yodeling in Heaven?

[Will There Be Any Yodeling in Heaven? - Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys]

Will There Be Yodeling in Heaven? The answer, of course, is yes. Because if there's no yodeling in heaven, then what's a heaven for?

Before we close the show, we want to give a big "Thank you" to everyone who has started their Amazon shopping through the Dreamtime blog. There's not a lot of cost to doing Dreamtime, but it does run us a few shekels a month. And it's nice to know there's people out there who think enough of what we're doing to see that a little money comes our way via Amazon or Paypal. It's very much appreciated, and thanks again.

And finally, another big "Thank you" from the Dreamtime team to our audience for making our last episode - Poetry Readings from Season One of Theme Time Radio Hour - our most popular show ever.

If you liked that one and are new to Dreamtime, you might want to take a tour through our archives and download Episode 35 - Cooking and Drinking with Bob, which covers most of the recipes Our Host told us about during Season One - everything from barbecue sauce to Figi Pudding. Other shows that have been hits with our audience include The Lost Theme Time iPod; Working for the Yankee Dollar; and Back Where I Come From: The Roots of Theme Time Radio Hour.

But with 53 episodes the chances are that whatever you like about Bob Dylan and Theme Time Radio Hour, we've talked about it on Dreamtime, so go check out our back catalog. And if we haven't talked about something Theme Time Radio Hour-related that you'd like to hear on a future episode, let us know. Some of our best shows have come from listener suggestions.

With Theme Time Radio Hour on hiatus, Dreamtime is moving to a once-a-month schedule for the duration. We'll be back in May with a new show. Thanks as always for listening, and remember to enter our Dreamtime Constant Listener Contest. When will Season 3 of Theme Time Radio Hour start? only the Shadow - and Eddie G. - know, but maybe you can guess.

***

You've been listening to the Dreamtime podcast – occasional commentary on Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour. Dreamtime is researched and written by Fred Bals and is a Not Associated With production. As the name says, we're not associated with XM Radio, Bob Dylan, or much of anything else.

Some of the music on Dreamtime is provided via the Podsafe Music Network. Check it out at music.podshow.com.

Remember that the Dreamtime team loves to get email. You can write us at dreamtimepodcast@gmail.com

The Dreamtime top cats are Curly Lasagna and Shaggy Bear. Our announcers are the notorious honky-tonkin' sisters, Jailbait and Joyride.

Until next time, dream well.

Some Theme Time Stats

Excerpted from Duff McDonald's great Inside Dylan's Brain article cum list, which can be read via the preceding link or through clicking on the graphic. The dead tree version can be read in the May 2008 issue of Vanity Fair. If you bop over to the VF Daily site through the link, btw, and then click on the graphic there, you can view/ download a large, fairly high-rez version of the Milton Glaser-inspired spread.

Some stats from the article:

Artists He Plays

Nine times: George Jones

Eight times: Tom Waits, Dinah Washington

Seven times: Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys, Louis Armstrong, Van Morrison

Six times: Buddy Johnson, Elvis Costello, Frank Sinatra, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Louis Jordan, Muddy Waters, Porter Wagoner, The Rolling Stones

Five times: Anita O’Day, Buck Owens, Howlin’ Wolf, James Brown, The Stanley Brothers

Four times: Bessie Smith, Big Joe Turner, Billie Holiday, Charlie Poole, Chuck Berry, Ella Johnson, Fats Domino, Fats Waller, Irma Thomas, June Christy, Little Walter, Loretta Lynn, Los Lobos, Prince Buster, Randy Newman, Ray Charles, Slim Gaillard, Smiley Lewis, Sonny Boy Williamson II, The Beatles, The Carter Family, The Everly Brothers, The Louvin Brothers, Wynonie Harris

Three times: Bo Diddley, Bobbie Womack, Charlie Parker, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson, Elvis Presley, Ernest Tubb, Etta James, Hank Ballard, Hank Penny, Hank Snow, Harry Nilsson, Huey “Piano” Smith, Jerry Lee Lewis, Jimmy Rodgers, Johnny Tyler, Joni Mitchell, Lefty Frizzell, Lou Reed, Memphis Slim, Merle Haggard, Milton Brown & His Musical Brownies, Otis Redding, Ricky Nelson, Roy Brown, Roy Orbison, Ruth Brown, Ry Cooder, Sam Cooke, Sir Douglas Quintet, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, The Clash, The Drifters, The Ink Spots, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Lovin’ Spoonful, The Staples Singers, Wanda Jackson, Warren Smith, Webb Pierce, Willie Nelson.

The Years

—50% the songs he has played were recorded before 1960.

—Only 9% of the songs he has played were recorded in the 1980s or more recently.

Useful Tips

How to Hang Dry Wall

What to Pack When You’re Traveling

How to Walk Like A Runway Model

How to Give Yourself Dreadlocks

Much, much more over at the VF Daily site. Be sure to read the comments at the end of the article where dedicated - dare we say, "anal" - TTRH fans are already offering additions and corrections.

Theme Time Radio Hour Season 3 To Begin in September?

Hot from The New York Daily News...

Speaking of the radio show, Dylan wrapped up season two last week, rather abruptly. Perhaps he had to pack to go claim his Pulitzer Prize.

XM says he'll be back Sept. 19 with season three - which, if it's like season two, will have 25 new episodes. Season one had 50.

The report should probably be taken with a grain or two of salt, as the New York Daily News isn't known as a fount of accuracy, and hence the "?" in my title. September 19, 2008 falls on a Friday, while TTRH has classically aired on Wednesdays, as we all know. Maybe they're switching days, maybe the XM spokesperson got it wrong and meant the 17th, or maybe the Daily News reporter is making it up, and grabbed the September 19th date because it was the date for the start of Season 2.

Although it wasn't entirely unexpected, I listened to TTRH on both XMX and Deep Tracks this morning with no little disappointment, harboring the forlorn hope for the last week that Our Host's conclusion at the "Cold" show was a Eddie G./Bob Dylan surrealistic April's Fool Day joke... after all it was made on April 2nd, and what's a day or so between friends? And Mr. D. had said they'd be back with Season 3 "Real Soon," and what could be more "Real Soon" than the following week?

But nope, XMX has announced an alphabetic "A" to "Y" countdown of TTRH shows from Seasons 1 and 2 for the next few months, and "Deep Tracks" is apparently re-running the shows from Season 2 in order (note that if they rerun all 25 original shows, the first show of Season 3 would not begin until Wednesday, October 1st).

As the Daily News reporter noted, there's a feeling in the TTRH fan community that Season 2 ended "rather abruptly," and there's been some speculation that it may be related to either one or both of the announcements concerning Lee Abrams departure from XM Radio and the DOJ approval of the Sirius buyout of XM.

As to the first, while Abrams was certainly instrumental in bringing Dylan to XM, there's no evidence that his leaving would cause Dylan or the TTRH team to suddenly put the show on hiatus. By Abrams own admission in several interviews, he had little involvement or contact with the TTRH team after the original deal was signed and the promotional materials approved. However, it may explain why no credits were aired at the close of the "Cold" episode. Someone may have felt the "For XM Radio, Lee Abrams" credit was inappropriate since he had left the company two days before the show aired, and removed the entire credits sequence rather than edit that specific part out. As illogical as that theory sounds, I've dealt with business manager thinking for over 30 years and can tell you that logic seldom has anything to do with how business decisions are made, especially when it comes to creative work.

It's also possible that the proposed Sirius/XM merger might have caused a truncated Season 2. While the FCC public announcement of its decision concerning the merger is overdue, it's possible that the parties involved have received some private indication that the FCC will be looking at the merger favorably. While the merger shouldn't have any impact on XM (or Sirius) current programming, the Sirius CEO has noted in an interview that the merged company plans to offer content currently only available on one station to listeners of both stations. In other words, The Howard Stern Show would appear on XM Radio as well as Sirius, Theme Time Radio Hour would also appear on Sirius, and so on. To do so requires that Sirius/XM renegotiate their contracts with independent content providers such as Gray Water Park Productions/Big Red Tree. That may be a fait accompli, or it may be in process, and may - the theory goes - have caused a shortened TTRH season until the revised contract details are fully worked out. Personally, I think it's unlikely but again,I know from experience that logic can fly out the window when lawyers get involved, all due apologies to Joyride's blood-suckin' partner.

Evidence pointing to the claim that the close of Season 2 was unplanned includes the four so-called "missing" shows of Season 2: "Fruit," "Something," "Nothing," and "Streets," announced in an XM Radio press release but never aired, although the other shows listed in the announcement were. It'll be interesting to see whether those shows appear during Season 3. While "Fruit" and "Streets" both sound like probable TTRH themes, I have my suspicions about the other two. I wouldn't be surprised if Eddie Gorodetsky, pressed by XM Radio for p.r. content, threw in "Something" and "Nothing" as a joking nod to Seinfeld.

Evidence against the "abrupt end" theory include the facts that Season 2 of TTRH had exactly half - 25 - of the original shows broadcast in Season 1, and that the season ended almost six months to the day after beginning, leading to the conclusion that with the success of Season 1 the Theme Time Radio Hour team negotiated a contract requiring less work, less original material, and fewer broadcasts than Season 1 - perhaps a schedule of six months on and six months off.

We'll have to wait for Season 3 to find out.

Lord Buckley Lives! - The Church of the Living Swing

Lords and Ladies of the Royal Court…
The Great Lord Buckley Renaissance Continues!
Celebrate the Art & Life of
America’s Legendary Gospel Comedian,
Jazz Storyteller & Visionary Philosopher
With An Evening of His Hip Classics.
Steve Ben Israel, Baba, David Amram, Tom, Calagna,
Prof. Irwin & Richard Corey, Ron Clanton, and Oliver Trager
Invite You to a 21st Century Shamanistic Mardi Gras.
Monday April 7
7 PM
$15
Bowery Poetry Club
308 Bowery
212.614.0505
foot of First Street, between Houston & Bleecker
across the street from the ghost CBGBs
F train to Second Ave, or 6 train to Bleecker

For More Info:

http://www.bowerypoetry.com/

Lord Buckley on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=lord+buckley

Tom Calagna From Last Year’s Bash:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbakkM3_Oik&feature=related

David Amram From Last Year’s Bash:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4447079188627983469&q=david+amram&total=74&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=4

Theme Time Radio Hour Season 2 Highlights

With Our Host announcing the close of Season 2 this Wednesday, April 2 with the "Cold" show, I thought I'd do a wrap-up of some of the notable moments of Theme Time Radio Hour Season 2:

September 5, 2007 - XM Radio announces the return of TTRH, beginning September 19. The press release says in part...

"Future shows will center on such motifs as "Young & Old," "California," "Dreams," "Fruit," "Something," "Nothing," "Streets," "Parties" and "Mail..."

The highlighted shows were not aired during Season 2.

September 19, 2007 - The first episode of Season 2 airs. The theme is "Hello."

October, 2007 - ISIS Magazine announces "The Best of Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour," an unauthorized 2-CD compilation based on the TTRH Season 1 playlist.

October 2007 - Dylan delivers a rant about "commercial affiliations" during the "Days of the Week" episode. In response to supposed email criticizing Sheryl Crowe, Dylan lists a variety of artists, including himself, "proud to have commercial affiliation." Later that month, Cadillac would release two television commercials featuring Dylan.

October 2007 - The Washington Post publishes a detailed article on TTRH.

October 2007 - Cadillac and XM Radio release a cross-promotional advertising campaign featuring Bob Dylan and Theme Time Radio Hour. Elements of the campaign include :30 and :60 second television commercials for the 2008 Cadillac Escalade hybrid, and a web page featuring the first half of the TTRH "Cadillac" episode. As could be expected, Dylan's participation is greeted with criticism from both the mainstream press and Web writers.

October 2007 - TTRH producer Eddie Gorodetsky releases a promotional TTRH poster he commissioned from artist/illustrator Jaime Hernandez. Each of the scenes illustrated in the poster refer to Ellen Barkin's "It's Night in the Big City," introductions from Season 1. The poster is featured on the pop-culture site, BoingBoing. Apparently intended as a gift for online fans, the poster is only available through free download at bobdylan.com.

October 2007 - TTRH airs its long-promised "Classic Rock" show. The theme? Rocks of the mineral sort.

October 2007 - Fan Simon Nielsen (aka "ukulele.elvis") creates a multimedia walkthrough of the TTRH poster, using Ellen Barkin's introductions as the voiceover. The walkthrough is also featured on BoingBoing, and Nielsen receives a congratulatory email from XM CCO, Lee Abrams.

October 2007 - To the disappointment of many fans, the "Halloween" episode for Season 2 is a re-run from Season 1.

November 2007 - AOL Radio removes XM Radio's "Deep Tracks" station from its free online playlist.

November, 2007 - The Season 2 "Thanksgiving" episode is a re-run from Season 1, "Leftovers."

December, 2007 - TTRH does a second "Countdown" show, with all-new material.

December, 2007 - The Season 2 "Christmas/New Year" show is a re-run from Season 1.

January 2008 - AOL Radio returns the XM Radio "Deep Tracks" station to its free playlist.

January 2008 - Ace Records announces an authorized TTRH compilation, "Theme Time Radio Hour with Your Host, Bob Dylan," to be released in March, 2008.

January 2008 - During the "Lock & Key" show, Dylan rants at a supposed telephone caller, Tim Ziegler, that Theme Time Radio Hour "isn't a classroom," after "Ziegler" complains that Dylan has gotten a record label wrong.

January 2008 - January marks the first full month during Season 2 where a new episode has aired each week.

February 2008 - The "President's Day" episode broadcast on February 13 is a two-hour show. While the first hour deals exclusively with that theme, the second hour more resembles the "Leftovers" or "Spring Cleaning" shows, with a compilation of songs touching various themes.

February 2008 - The Starbucks coffee house chain releases a Dylan "Artist's Choice" CD, featuring music chosen by Dylan. The credits note that the compilation was produced by "Tim Ziegler," the infamous caller from the "Lock & Key" show.

March 2008 - XM Radio announces that it is ending its relationship with AOL Radio and that no XM Radio channels will be available through AOL Radio after April 30, 2008.

March 2008 - The Simon and Schuster publishing house announces a hardcover book, The Theme Time Radio Hour Compendium, to be released October, 2008.

March 2008 - Lee Abrams, XM Radio Chief Creative Officer and the person who brought Dylan to the station, announces that he will be leaving XM and moving to a new job at the Tribune Company beginning April 1, 2008.

March 2008 - The U.S. Department of Justice announces that it has approved the buyout of XM Radio by Sirius.

April 2, 2008 - Bob Dylan closes the "Cold" show with the announcement that it is the last show of Season 2, noting that TTRH will be back "real soon" with Season 3. Curiously, no closing credits are read.

***

Some editorializing: All-in-all, it was a weird season, half the length of Season 1 and with three re-runs.

When TTRH began in 2006, no one really had a clue about what Dylan was going to do. Was he going to speak? Would he play his own music? Would it be a folkie history show? Contemporary music? Interviews with other artists?

No one knew. So each new show of Season 1 was a surprise. Plus you had unexpected continuing stuff like the "Night Time in the Big City" intro, def poetry readings, even the "Top Cat" closing theme.

I think once they ("they" being the TTRH team) got the formula down, they let things get a bit too predictable and started letting the show run on cruise control during Season 2. The production values of Season 2 seemed off, compared to Season 1. Some of the spoken segments sounded as if they were recorded in an empty steel drum or over a very bad VoiP connection. The research wasn't as crisp, or as interesting, even though the research team had expanded. Some things Dylan/Gorodetsky deliberately got wrong: the recounting of the Nixon/Khrushchev Kitchen debates, or the claim that every U.S. President with the the exception of Carter had been a Freemason. Jokes, obviously, but jokes that felt like in-jokes that fell flat. Partway through Season 2, the TTRH team seemed to give up on accurate research altogether... and more or less announced through "Tim Ziegler" that they didn't all that much care.

While the format for Season 2 wasn't that different from Season 1, the TTRH team took the emphasis off email and "def poetry" in favor of pseudo-telephone calls, which I personally think was a mistake. While several of those segments were quite funny, I think those calls were the most blatant examples of what seemed to me to be a different attitude in TTRH from the first season; that instead of being a retro radio show, which it was in Season 1, TTRH moved towards becoming more of a deliberate parody of a retro radio show.

While the emails were/are almost always a joke, they're usually a relatively subtle joke, and often allow Dylan to get a poke at some hobbyhorse, such as his "commercial affiliation" rant. And better, they fit into the illusion of "Well, Bob could really get emails, and he could read them on the show." But every time one of those phone calls played, it broke the willing suspension of disbelief and reminded us all that TRRH isn't real, and Dylan isn't sitting up in Studio B in the Abernathy broadcasting live, but instead is reading a script drafted by a comedy writer.

Having said all that, I still find much, much more to like in TTRH than dislike, and eagerly look forward to Season 3. Ultimately, Dylan has done what he set out to do, to introduce music and artists to listeners. I'll be along for the ride as long as he wants to continue.

With Our Host on hiatus, Dreamtime will be on semi-hiatus too, at least as far as the podcast goes. As with last year, we'll still release the intermittent audio show as the Spirit moves us, and more regularly be posting on the blog. So keep that Feed in your iTunes, and check here regularly for news.

Thanks to all of our listeners for a great Season 2, and Jailbait, Curly Lasagna, Shaggy Bear and I hope you'll also be along for the ride as long as TTRH and Dreamtime continue!

.

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!

.

Jimmie Rodgers - Blue Yodel No 1 (T For Texas)

As we work on Episode 53 - Will There Be Yodeling in Heaven?

This clip is from the 19 and 29 (or 19 and 30, see below) short, The Singing Brakeman, which can be found - reportedly in its entirety - on the DVD compilation "Times Ain't Like They Used to Be: Early Rural & Popular American Music"

According to its IMDB entry, The Singing Brakeman was Rodgers only appearance on film and, interestingly, someone notes on the IMDB that were two different versions of the film released. Apparently the 1929 release credits a Jasper Ewing Brady as director, while the 1930 version credits a Basil Smith.

"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.

.

More on the unedited version of Chronicles: Volume One

The saga of the unedited version of Chronicles: Volume One continues with Mike Hobo posting a video interview with Zainab McCoy, the lady offering what is apparently an early uncorrected galleys/authors proof copy of the book.

As our friends over at RightWingBob correctly point out, referring to it as a "manuscript" isn't entirely accurate, but if the one page that Ms. McCoy has released is any indication, it could be a fascinating document. In an email to RightWingBob, Ms. McCoy (who also sent a note to Dreamtime on our posting about that excerpt) noted,

"...If you think that page had a spectacular error you’d die laughing at the rest. I’ve come to believe that the rest of the deleted text could be source material for writing a psychoanalytical novel about the man himself..."

The video doesn't add any extra information, although it's always nice to have a face to go with the name. As I said before, I hope Ms. McCoy's copy ends up with someone - or at someplace - where the material can be made available to researchers.

Based on my experience, that also won't be the only copy of the uncorrected galleys - I suspect there are several more out there.

Email, Haikus, Magoo & Food

A couple of recent emails from Dreamtime listeners...

"Who is the 'Bishop' referred to on this week's [Heat] show [when the caller reads his 'favorite poem']?"

I had to listen to that segment several times and eventually Googled the haiku's (as Our Host correctly points out) opening lines as I couldn't make out the poet's name myself. It does sound a lot like Bishop. We need better enunciation, please, Theme Time callers!

The haiku is:

heat waves shimmering/ one or two inches/ above the dead grass

and the poet is Matsuo Bashō (松尾 芭蕉) the most famous poet of the Edo period in Japan, according to his Wikipedia entry. During his lifetime, Bashō was renowned for his works in the collaborative haikai no renga form; today, he is recognized as a master of brief and clear haiku. His most famous poem is generally considered to be...

old pond / a frog jumps / the sound of water

Another longtime listener goes all the way back to November 15, 2006 and the Food episode of TTRH to ask if I have any clue as to what is playing during the opening sequence, which features a couple laughing and reciting these lines as a small group plays in the background...

Ooh we're gonna have fun
Yes
It's a cozy table, isn't it?
And champagne my dear, heh-heh
Mmmmmm delicious, ha-ha

It's an an excerpt from a novelty number released by Jim Backus (he of Mr. Magoo, Gilligan's Isle, and Rebel Without a Cause among other things) "& Friend" in 19 and 58 on the Jubilee label titled "Delicious!" The song, believe it or not, actually broke into the U.S. Top 40 that year (1958 must have been a very slow year for music). The backing is provided by "Appleknocker & His Group," probably a pickup name for a studio group, as "Delicious!" and the B-side "I Need a Vacation," seem to be the only two pieces they ever recorded under that name.

The identity of the "& Friend" is unknown, although various claims have been made for Phyllis Diller (which it probably isn't, since the laugh is totally different from Diller's trademark bray) and Hermione Gingold(!). Here's the text from the original press release that accompanied the 45...

Jim Backus, the voice of Magoo is aided by a fem friend on this zany novelty. It involves a couple getting inebriated over champagne and working into a laughing jag. It's a very amusing item that should pull plenty of jockey play. There's already action on the side in several areas. Flip, "I need a vacation", is also a novelty type.

The cut is the lead track for the Dr. Demento 20th Anniversary Collection: The Greatest Novelty Records of All Time CD compliation, if for some reason, you feel moved to own it. And for reasons known only to Dreamtime, I'll even provide you, O Gentle Correspondent, with a video featuring the cut...

Sirius Buyout of Rival XM Approved

via Jailbait Jones, who walked into the house last night and said, "Who woulda thunk that Bob Dylan would ever share the same airwaves as Howard Stern?":

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has approved the $5 billion buyout of XM Satellite Radio by a rival, Sirius Satellite Radio, saying the deal was unlikely to hurt competition or consumers.

The merger was approved without conditions despite opposition from consumer groups and an intense lobbying campaign by the land-based radio industry.

The combination still requires approval from the Federal Communications Commission, which prohibited a merger when it granted satellite radio operating licenses in 1997.

The Justice Department, in a lengthy statement explaining its decision, said the two companies compete not just with each other but also with other forms of radio and entertainment. Customers must buy equipment that is exclusive to either XM or Sirius, and subscribers rarely switch providers.

“People just don’t do that,” an assistant attorney general, Thomas O. Barnett, said in a conference call with reporters.

The government also appeared to endorse the argument of the companies that they compete with other forms of audio entertainment, including “high-definition” radio, Internet-based radio stations and even devices like Apple’s iPod.

The buyout received shareholder approval in November. The companies said the merger would save hundreds of millions of dollars in operating costs — savings that will ultimately benefit their customers.

“The likely evolution of technology in the future, including the expected introduction in the next several years of mobile broadband Internet devices, made it even more unlikely that the transaction would harm consumers in the longer term,” the Justice Department said. “Accordingly, the division has closed its investigation of the proposed merger.”

The F.C.C. had no comment on the decision Monday. In the past, the agency’s chairman Kevin Martin said any approval faced a “high hurdle.”

Mr. Martin said last week that agency staff was “drafting various options” in preparation for a final recommendation. The five-member commission could vote against the deal, approve it or approve it with conditions. The agency could require the companies to freeze prices or make part of their satellite spectrum available for public-interest obligations.

Both XM and Sirius declined to comment n on Monday.

Senator Herb Kohl, Democrat of Wisconsin and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on antitrust, said in a statement that the merger would create a satellite radio monopoly and asked the F.C.C. to block it.

“We are particularly disturbed by this decision, given the Justice Department’s record in recent years of failing to oppose numerous mergers which reduced competition in key industries, resulting in the Justice Department not bringing a single contested merger case in nearly four years,” Mr. Kohl said.

The companies have pledged that the combined firm will offer listeners more pricing options and greater choice and flexibility in the channel lineups they receive. If the deal is approved, the companies have said they would offer pricing plans ranging from $6.99 a month, for 50 channels offered by one service, up to $16.99 a month, where subscribers would keep their existing service plus choose channels offered by the other service.

Despite the consumer-friendly promises, most consumer groups have opposed the proposed merger.

“If this is what our competition cops do, we might as well close shop and save taxpayers a few hundred million dollars because they’re not doing their jobs,” said Gene Kimmelman, the Washington lobbyist for Consumers Union, nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports magazine.

XM Satellite shares rose 15 percent while Sirius was up 8.6 percent.

For those interested, the DOJ statement on its decision can be read here.

Yes Sir, Mr. Bones

Regular readers of Dreamtime know my love of Emmett Miller, and my interest in the old time minstrel shows and the very strange - and very racially insensitive, it should be noted - art of blackface. From the emails I've received, I know several readers/listeners share my interest and may also be interested in Yes Sir, Mr. Bones, a 54-minute movie from 19 and 51, which contains the only known footage of Miller in action.

The movie is available as 1/2 of Showtime USA, a DVD that also contains Square Dance Jubilee, featuring Spade Cooley, and thus giving us even more of a TTRH connection. As a commenter noted on the Amazon page, Yes Sir, Mr. Bones is probably as close as we're likely to get to a reconstruction of an actual minstrel show, from the opening "end man" comedy routines, featuring Miller, to the "olio" including sentimental ballads performed by an "Irish Thrush" to an amazing softshoe on sand routine to the closing burlesque numbers. The movie supposedly takes place in a show biz retirement home; a young boy wanders in and the residents - thanks to the magic of imagination - recreate a minstrel show.

If you're offended by blackface material - some of it very crude, by the way - you don't want to watch this movie, as one of the audio commentaries puts it right at the beginning. If you're interested in it as a historical document - especially of Emmett Miller - you do. At its current price of $12.99, it's a steal.

Frustratingly, Miller does not sing, although we get a hint of his trademark yodel in his first routine. Even better, we get to see him out of blackface during the framing opening and closing segments.

The movie also features a young Scatman Crothers - misnamed in the movie credits as Scatman Corothers - in his first movie appearance, as well as several other African-American performers, who, happily, do not perform in blackface. It's interesting to note that Crothers and partner perform a vintage minstrel routine that would later be recreated - almost word-for-word - in Spike Lee's great movie, Bamboozled.

The DVD reproduction of Yes Sir, Mr. Bones is extremely clean, looking as if it came from an original 35mm print. There's some noticeable edits, probably because the original had been spliced. The sound is excellent, contrary to what one reviewer has to say.

If you're buying the DVD for the Miller material, the second feature, the 80-minute Square Dance Jubilee, will be just an added bonus. It's a weird, little cross between a cowboy song movie and a kiddie Saturday matinée. Since I know his history - I still need to do a show on him - watching Spade Cooley is a somewhat surreal experience. He looks weird, probably just nervousness, but he has this enormous false grin plastered on his face throughout his entire performance. He waves his tempo hand at band and singers as if he's going to beat them at any moment, and he generally looks like a guy teetering on the edge...

... which, come to think of it, he was.

.

Theme Time Radio Hour Book Coming in October

From the Simon and Schuster site:

Theme Time Radio Hour Compendium
Themes, Dreams, Schemes
By Bob Dylan

Simon & Schuster, October 2008
Hardcover, 176 pages
ISBN-10: 1-4165-9270-9
ISBN-13: 978-1-4165-9270-9

Also available for pre-order at Amazon.

Episode 52 - Poetry Readings with Your Host, Bob Dylan

"Oh, this is a long poem." - Bob Dylan, midway through his reading of "Annabel Lee."

Direct link to mp3.

Subscribe to the Dreamtime podcast


Listen now with the Dreamtime Player



I had originally decided to do a Dylanesque potpourri of Season 1 poetry readings when I came down with the flu last week, and since I wasn't up to heavy mental - or vocal - lifting, figured it would be an easy thing to do. I soon found that going through 52-odd hours of TTRH episodes, some segmented, some not, some with easily found readings, some not, was a more daunting task than I had planned, and took much longer than I had wanted.

But I did my best, and here we have some 30+ - not 20+ as I say in the podcast - minutes of selected Theme Time Radio Hour poetry readings from Your Host, Bob Dylan, stretching from Weather to Spring Cleaning.

Some credits, notes, caveats, and disclaimers. I couldn't have produced this one without the invaluable "Annotated Theme Time" pages at the (unofficial) Bob Dylan Fan Club site. However, any errors and omissions are more likely to be mine than theirs. And speaking of which, I'm certain I've missed one or two poems from Season 1. As I said, I was skimming through 52 hours + 17 minutes of material. Think of it as an exercise for you, the True TTRH Fan to point out to me what I've missed, and I'll eventually do an addendum.

For those interested in trivia, the Flowers episode from Season 1 appears to lead in poetry readings with four separate poems from authors ranging from Christopher Marlowe to Anon. For "most quoted" in Season 1, Willy the Shake wins hands down, with Dylan reading selections from Shakespeare at least four times. "The kid is good," as Mr. D. says.

Emily Dickinson comes in at second, with Our Host reading three of her poems. Stephen Crane, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Dylan Thomas tie for third, with two readings respectively each.

For aesthetic purposes I've rearranged the order of a few of the readings, and added some music, TTRH jingles and so on between segments.

Weather

"Many a man curses the rain that falls upon his head, and knows not that it brings abundance to drive away the hunger." - Saint Basil

**

Coffee

“A cup of coffee - real coffee - home-browned, home ground, home made, that comes to you dark as a hazel-eye, but changes to a golden bronze as you temper it with cream that never cheated, but was real cream from its birth, thick, tenderly yellow, perfectly sweet, neither lumpy nor frothing on the Java: such a cup of coffee is a match for twenty blue devils and will exorcise them all.” - Henry Ward Beecher

**

Jail

"Nor stony tower, nor walls of beaten brass,
Nor airless dungeon, nor strong links of iron,
Can be retentive to the strength of spirit;
But life, being weary of these worldly bars,
Never lacks power to dismiss itself." - "The Life and Death of Julius Caesar," ACT I, Scene 3. Wm. Shakespeare

**

Flowers

Come live with me and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove,
That valleys, groves, hills, and fields,
Woods, or steepy mountain yields.

And we will sit upon the rocks,
Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers, to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.

And I will make thee beds of roses,
And a thousand fragrant posies,
A cap of flowers and a kirtle
Embroider'd all with leaves of myrtle: - "The Passionate Shepard to His Love" (excerpt), Christopher Marlowe

**

The rose is a rose,
And was always a rose.
But now the theory goes
That the apple's a rose,
And the pear is, and so's
The plum, I suppose.
The dear only knows
What will next prove a rose.
You, of course, are a rose
But were always a rose. - "The Rose Family," Robert Frost

**

Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose. “Sacred Emily,” (Geography and Plays), Gertrude Stein


**


Roses are red,
Violets are blue.
Some poems rhyme,
This one doesn't. -Anonymous


**


Summer


To see the Summer Sky
Is Poetry, though never in a Book it lie—
True Poems flee— "To see the Summer Sky," Emily Dickinson


**


In winter I get up at night
And dress by yellow candle-light.
In summer quite the other way,
I have to go to bed by day. - "Bed in Summer" (excerpt) (A Child's Garden of Verses), Robert Louis Stevenson


**

"If her Daddy's rich take her out for a meal, If her Daddy's poor just do what you feel." - "In the Summertime" (excerpt), Ray Dorset (Mungo Jerry)

**

Devil

Incarnate devil in a talking snake,
The central plains of Asia in his garden,
In shaping-time the circle stung awake,
In shapes of sin forked out the bearded apple,
And God walked there who was a fiddling warden
And played down pardon from the heavens' hill. - "Incarnate Devil" (excerpt), Dylan Thomas

**

Radio

You little box, held to me escaping
So that your valves should not break
Carried from house to house to ship from sail to train,
So that my enemies might go on talking to me,
Near my bed, to my pain
The last thing at night, the first thing in the morning,
Of their victories and of my cares,
Promise me not to go silent all of a sudden. - "Radio Poem," Bertolt Brecht


**

it was on the 2nd floor on Coronado Street
I used to get drunk
and throw the radio through the window
while it was playing, and, of course,
it would break the glass in the window
and the radio would sit there on the roof
still playing
and I'd tell my woman,
"Ah, what a marvelous radio!" - "A Radio With Guts" (excerpt), Charles Bukowski

**

School

THE POOL PLAYERS.
SEVEN AT THE GOLDEN SHOVEL.

We real cool. We
Left school. We

Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We

Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We

Jazz June. We
Die soon. - "We Real Cool," Gwendolyn Brooks

**

Water

Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.

[And the Albatross begins to be avenged.]

Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink ;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink. - "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," (excerpt) Samuel Taylor Coleridge

**

Fools

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow; a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing. - "Macbeth," (Act V Scene 5), Wm. Shakespeare

**

Why do you strive for greatness, fool?
Go pluck a bough and wear it.
It is as sufficing.

My Lord, there are certain barbarians
Who tilt their noses
As if the stars were flowers,
And Thy servant is lost among their shoe-buckles.
Fain would I have mine eyes even with their eyes.

Fool, go pluck a bough and wear it. - "Why do you strive for greatness, fool?," Stephen Crane

**

Guns

1. The Cowboy must never shoot first, hit a smaller man, or take unfair advantage.

2. He must never go back on his word, or a trust confided in him.

3. He must always tell the truth.

4. He must be gentle with children, the elderly, and animals.

5. He must not advocate or possess racially or religiously intolerant ideas.

6. He must help people in distress.

7. He must be a good worker.

8. He must keep himself clean in thought, speech, action, and personal habits.

9. He must respect women, parents, and his nation's laws.

10. The Cowboy is a patriot. - "The Cowboy Code," Gene Autry

**

Halloween

Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg, and howlet's wing,--
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

Double, double, toil and trouble;
Fire, burn; and caldron, bubble. "Macbeth," Act IV, Scene 1, Wm. Shakespeare

**

Dance

There was a girl
who danced in the city that night,
that April 22nd,
all along the Charles River.
It was as if one hundred men were watching
or do I mean the one hundred eyes of God?
The yellow patches in the sycamores
glowed like miniature flashlights.
The shadows, the skin of them
were ice cubes that flashed
from the red dress to the roof.
Mile by mile along the Charles she danced
past the benches of lovers,
past the dogs pissing on the benches.
She had on a red, red dress
and there was a small rain
and she lifted her face to it
and thought it part of the river.
And cars and trucks went by
on Memorial Drive.
And the Harvard students in the brick
hallowed houses studied Sappho in cement rooms.
And this Sappho danced on the grass.
and danced and danced and danced.
It was a death dance.
The Larz Anderson bridge wore its lights
and many cars went by,
and a few students strolling under
their Coop umbrellas.
And a black man who asked this Sappho the time,
the time, as if her watch spoke.
Words were turning into grease,
and she said, "Why do you lie to me?"
And the waters of the Charles were beautiful,
sticking out in many colored tongues
and this strange Sappho knew she would enter the lights
and be lit by them and sink into them.
And how the end would come -
it had been foretold to her -
she would aspirate swallowing a fish,
going down with God's first creature
dancing all the way. - "The Red Dance," Anne Sexton

**

Sleep

SLEEP now, O sleep now,
O you unquiet heart!
A voice crying “Sleep now”
Is heard in my heart.

The voice of the winter
Is heard at the door.
O sleep, for the winter
Is crying “Sleep no more.”

My kiss will give peace now
And quiet to your heart—
Sleep on in peace now,
O you unquiet heart! "Chamber Music, XXXIV," James Joyce

**

To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, "Hamlet" Act III, Scene 1, Wm. Shakespeare

***

I would like to sing someone to sleep,
have someone to sit by and be with.
I would like to cradle you and softly sing,
be your companion while you sleep or wake.
I would like to be the only person
in the house who knew: the night outside was cold.
And would like to listen to you
and outside to the world and to the woods.

The clocks are striking, calling to each other,
and one can see right to the edge of time.
Outside the house a strange man is afoot
and a strange dog barks, wakened from his sleep.
Beyond that there is silence.

My eyes rest upon your face wide-open;
and they hold you gently, letting you go
when something in the dark begins to move. "To Say Before Going To Sleep," Rainer Maria Rilke

**

Food

I saw you, Walt Whitman, childless, lonely old grubber,
poking among the meats in the refrigerator and eyeing the grocery
boys.
I heard you asking questions of each: Who killed the
pork chops? What price bananas? Are you my Angel?
I wandered in and out of the brilliant stacks of cans
following you, and followed in my imagination by the store
detective.
We strode down the open corridors together in our
solitary fancy tasting artichokes, possessing every frozen
delicacy, and never passing the cashier.

Where are we going, Walt Whitman? The doors close in
an hour. Which way does your beard point tonight? - "A Supermarket in California," (excerpt) Allen Ginsberg

**

Tennessee

Oh Tennessee, My Tennessee
What Love and Pride I Feel for Thee.
You Proud Ole State, the Volunteer,
Your Proud Traditions I Hold Dear.

I Revere Your Heroes
Who Bravely Fought our Country's Foes.
Renowned Statesmen, so Wise and Strong,
Who Served our Country Well and Long.

I Thrill at Thought of Mountains Grand;
Rolling Green Hills and Fertile Farm Land;
Earth Rich with Stone, Mineral and Ore;
Forests Dense and Wild Flowers Galore;

Powerful Rivers that Bring us Light;
Deep Lakes with Fish and Fowl in Flight;
Thriving Cities and Industries;
Fine Schools and Universities;
Strong Folks of Pioneer Descent,
Simple, Honest, and Reverent.

Beauty and Hospitality
Are the Hallmarks of Tennessee.

And O'er the World as I May Roam,
No Place Exceeds my Boyhood Home.
And Oh How Much I Long to See
My Native Land, My Tennessee. "Oh Tennessee, My Tennessee," Naval Adm. William Porter Lawrence

**

Countdown

Being apart and lonely is like rain.

It climbs toward evening from the ocean plains;
from flat places, rolling and remote, it climbs
to heaven, which is its old abode.
And only when leaving heaven drops upon the city.

It rains down on us in those twittering
hours when the streets turn their faces to the dawn,
and when two bodies who have found nothing,
disappointed and depressed, roll over;
and when two people who despise each other
have to sleep together in one bed-

that is when loneliness receives the rivers... - "Loneliness," Rainer Maria Rilke

**

And the seventh sorrow
Is the slow goodbye
Of the face with its wrinkles that looks through the window
As the year packs up
Like a tatty fairground
That came for the children. "The Seven Sorrows," (excerpt), Ted Hughes

**

Wine comes in at the mouth
And love comes in at the eye;
That's all we shall know for truth
Before we grow old and die.
I lift the glass to my mouth,
I look at you, and I sigh. - "A Drinking Song," William Butler Yeats

Christmas and New Year's

’Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that Saint Nicholas soon would be there.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;
And mamma in her ’kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled down for a long winter’s nap;

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below,
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer,
With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be Saint Nick.

More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name:
“Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! on Cupid! on, Donder and Blitzen!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!”

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of toys, and Saint Nicholas too.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney Saint Nicholas came with a bound.

He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot.
A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.

His eyes — how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow.

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath.
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook, when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly.

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself.
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose.

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,
“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!” - "A Visit from Saint Nicholas," Clement Clarke Moore

**

Women's Names

IT was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea,
But we loved with a love that was more than love,
I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the wingèd seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsmen came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me;
Yes! that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we,
Of many far wiser than we;
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee:

For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling—my darling—my life and my bride,
In her sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea. - "Annabel Lee," Edgar Allan Poe

**

Luck

Luck is not chance --
It's Toil --
Fortune's expensive smile
Is earned --
The Father of the Mine
Is that old-fashioned Coin
We spurned -- - "Luck is not chance," Emily Dickinson

**

THOUGH fickle Fortune has deceived me,
She pormis’d fair and perform’d but ill;
Of mistress, friends, and wealth bereav’d me,
Yet I bear a heart shall support me still.

I’ll act with prudence as far ’s I’m able,
But if success I must never find,
Then come misfortune, I bid thee welcome,
I’ll meet thee with an undaunted mind. - "Fickle Fortune: A Fragment," Robert Burns

**

Colors

A slash of Blue—
A sweep of Gray—
Some scarlet patches on the way,
Compose an Evening Sky—
A little purple—slipped between—
Some Ruby Trousers hurried on—
A Wave of Gold—
A Bank of Day—
This just makes out the Morning Sky. -"A slash of Blue," Emily Dickinson

**
New York

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" - "The New Colossus," Emma Lazarus

**

Spring Cleaning

My thoughts are crabbed and sallow,
My tears like vinegar,
Or the bitter blinking yellow
Of an acetic star.

Tonight the caustic wind, love,
Gossips late and soon,
And I wear the wry-faced pucker of
The sour lemon moon.

While like an early summer plum,
Puny, green, and tart,
Droops upon its wizened stem
My lean, unripened heart. - "Jilted," Sylvia Plath

**

Many red devils ran from my heart
And out upon the page,
They were so tiny
The pen could mash them.
And many struggled in the ink.
It was strange
To write in this red muck
Of things from my heart. "Many red devils ran from my heart," Stephen Crane

**

Death and Taxes



Razors pain you;
Rivers are damp;
Acids stain you;
And drugs cause cramp.
Guns aren't lawful;
Nooses give;
Gas smells awful;
You might as well live. "Résumé," Dorothy Parker

**


dying is fine)but Death

?o
baby
i

wouldn't like

Death if Death
were
good:for

when(instead of stopping to think)you

begin to feel of it,dying
's miraculous
why?be

cause dying is

perfectly natural;perfectly
putting
it mildly lively(but

Death

is strictly
scientific
& artificial &

evil & legal)

we thank thee
god
almighty for dying
(forgive us,o life!the sin of Death - "dying is fine)but Death," e.e. cummings


**

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light. "Do not go gentle into that good night," Dylan Thomas


***

You've been listening to the Dreamtime podcast – occasional commentary on Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour. Dreamtime is researched and written by Fred Bals and is a Not Associated With production. As the name says, we're not associated with XM Radio, Bob Dylan, or much of anything else.

Some of the music on Dreamtime is provided via the Podsafe Music Network. Check it out at music.podshow.com.

Remember that the Dreamtime team loves to get email. You can write us at dreamtimepodcast@gmail.com

The Dreamtime top cats are Curly Lasagna and Shaggy Bear. Our announcers are the notorious honky-tonkin' sisters, Jailbait and Joyride.

Until next time, dream well.

Visit the Dreamtime Store

The First Chronicles Manuscript

Interesting story here, via Positively Bob Dylan. Hans Marius Stormoen was commissioned to translate Dylan’s Chronicles: Volume One into Norwegian, and was given what appears (from the page reproduced to your left) to be an author's proof copy of the manuscript for the job.

Prior to the book's publication, Dylan delivered a new - edited - version of the manuscript, which is the version that was eventually published. Stormoen's widow, Zainab McCoy, who is now offering the original manuscript for sale, notes:

"...in the first manuscript you can hear Dylan’s voice, his casual unedited way of speaking and writing. It even includes Bob’s personal note to the editor 'type written on the PC'".

The sample page, marked as "167" in the author's proof, parallels pages 165-166 in the published U.S. hardcover edition of Chronicles with some significant changes. In the published version, Dylan simply refers to a "heated presidential race underway and you couldn't avoid hearing about it" while writing about the genesis of his song Political World. In the original manuscript, Dylan writes:

"...I'd seen that the Governor of Massachusetts was running for President and his advisors had selected a woman running mate for him to ensure his defeat. Some advisors! I reasoned that this was a man who didn't like power to begin with and had agreed to run only if he could lose and something about this struck me funny..."

Outside of making you wonder what Dylan thinks of the current presidential race, I'd speculate that a fact checker - maybe from Simon and Schuster, maybe from Dylan's team - went through the proof copy and recommended some edits, including deleting Dylan's erroneous claim that a "Governor of Massachusetts'" had a female running mate selected to "ensure his defeat." Dylan seems to have conflated the 1984 elections - when Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro were running mates - with the elections of 1988, which featured Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis and Texan Lloyd Bentsen as the Democratic candidates.

I'd love to get my hands on a copy of that original manuscript, but being a poor but honest writer, that's unlikely. Maybe some Dylan collector will purchase it and make it available to researchers.

XM Radio on AOL Ending April 30, 2008

... which means no more Deep Tracks/TTRH available through AOL Radio. XM is making a "special offer" for XM Radio Online to transition people over. Details below.

Excerpted from the XM Radio FAQ/Press Release:

"... on April 30, 2008 the 10 AOL Radio channels on XM Radio Online will no longer be available...

XM has created a limited time offer on XM Radio Online for AOL radio listeners. XM Radio Online will be available at $2.99 plus a free 14-day trial for six months. After six months than the current monthly subscription rate for XM Radio Online will apply.The offer will only be available during the promotional period of 3.7.08 - 5.30.08. To be eligible for the promotional pricing you must sign up for the 14-day trial by 5.30.08 and activate your account at $2.99 by 6.13.08.

Signup link: www.xmradio.com/aolradio"

Fwiw, I've been a subscriber to XM Radio Online at the standard monthly rate of $7.99 since TTRH went on the air in 2006. It's not a bad deal if you spend most of your day on the computer, as I do, and there are several channel/shows I listen to regularly besides Deep Tracks/TTRH. If you're in the U.S., I'd recommend the 14-day free trial. Listeners outside the U.S. are unfortunately going to need to explore other alternatives.

Flambée Montalbanaise - Wang Yi

Described as a "jeune chinoise" in the YouTube notes, Yi does a nice turn on Gus Viseur's signature song. Mr. D. includes Viseur's original on the Starbucks Artist's Choice selection, noting in part...

"Whenever I hear a song like this, it doesn't matter where I am or what the weather is like. Suddenly I'm on a rain-soaked street in France underneath an awning drinking an espresso noir with a beautiful raven-haired Parisian."

Gus Viseur was born in Belgium and became one of the emblematic players of musette accordion alongside Jo Privat, who Dylan also mentions in his notes. His Flambée Montalbanaise was inspired by the bombing and destruction of Montauban during World War II.

Stuff Smith - "Lullaby of Broadway"

Stuff Smith in a straighter mode than Mr. D. portrays him in the Artist's Choice CD liner notes,

"...Stuff was a wild character. He was a fiddle player who used to wear a stovepipe hat. He looked like a cross between Fagin and the Pied Piper of Hamlin..." - Bob Dylan

Artist's Choice uses Smith's (and His Onyx Club Boys) I'se a Muggin' (Part 1), apparently a long-time favorite of Our Host for all of his talk of "songs of the minute," as both Parts 1 and Parts 2 of I'se a Muggin' also are on the playlist of the infamous Lost Theme Time iPod.

Billie Holiday - I Hear Music (Remix version)

I'm not much of a fan of remixed music - especially of classics, but this version of Billie Holiday doing I Hear Music, remixed by Swingsett and Takuya, is an exception to the rule. A lot of my liking is due to Karina Correa's aka "SpecialK" (coincidentally one of Top Cat Curly Lasagna's nicknames) excellent and touching video work which somehow evokes both the `40s and these modern times simultaneously.

The remix album or individual songs can be picked up at Amazon as mp3s, and while you're at it, pick up the original - straight from the 78 - too as an mp3. Of the original, Mr. D. says on his Artist's Choice CD:

"You could throw a dart at a Billie Holiday record and put that song in this collection and it would sound sublime. I chose this one because it's a snapshot of that feeling you get early in the morning, when all things are possible and there's music everywhere..."

Wanda Jackson - Cool Love

Mr. D. includes Wanda Jackson's I Gotta Know on his Artist's Choice CD. I had originally posted a better-quality version of that clip back in 2007, but it's been removed, and the only version of I Gotta Know currently on YouTube has distracting flanging on the audio. So I've substituted Cool Love, also from Tex Ritter's 19 and 58 Ranch Party TV show. As with I Gotta Know, Cool Love shows Wanda with feet firmly in both country and rockabilly, as Our Host notes in the Artist's Choice liner notes. Joe Maphis also provides backing guitar on his double-neck Mosrite in this clip.

"...She was an atomic bomb in lipstick. She was the queen of rockabilly. I like to think of rockabilly as country music with the beat of the big bands. Here Wanda has a foot in both worlds, switching back and forth between straight country and rockabilly, helped out more than a little by Joe Maphis, whose guitar solo sends this song into the stratosphere." - Bob Dylan

Ray Price - I'll Be There (If You Ever Want Me)

Haven't done a video in a bit, and given that we've been talking about the Artist's Choice CD, I thought I'd feature some of its music as I find it. First up is Ray Price and his I'll Be There (If You Ever Want Me). Originally released in 19 and 54, the clip is from 1957.

"Ray Price and the Cherokee Cowboys were the first band I ever saw in Nashville... A lot of great musicians came in and out of the Cherokee Cowboys-Roger Miller, Willie Nelson, Johnny Bush, Buddy Emmons and Johnny Paycheck. Just like Ray got a lot from Hank Williams, the next generation would get an awful lot from Ray Price." - Bob Dylan

Dylan Artist's Choice CD Available Through Amazon

... through resellers at prices ranging from $14.97 to $27.99(!), plus $2.98 shipping. The price at a U.S. Starbucks shop for the CD is $15.99, and it can also be ordered online (by U.S. residents) at that price plus shipping at starbucks.com.

As I noted in the Expecting Rain TTRH forums, the music on the CD is a bit of a mixed bag, kind of like TTRH itself, and I can't wholeheartedly recommend it at a pricey $15.99, which works out to .99 cents a track.

The liner notes add some value - for instance, Dylan knows a guy named Harold who usually shows up when he plays Fort Worth, and always gives him a bag of unlabeled CDs - but it's really a caveat emptor sort of thing. If you're a True Fan and not entirely rational - which pretty well describes me - you'll probably pick up the CD no matter what. If you're on the fence about it, I'd go check iTunes /Amazon for some of the cuts first.