Podcasts about ronk

Tema: Desafios de escrever as devocionais do Presente Diário. Apresentação: Cláudio Ronk Entrevistado: Lucas Meloni - jornalista do Departamento de Comunicação e Relações Públicas da RTM Brasil e teólogo. O Presente Diário conta com uma equipe diversa de autores voluntários para a produção das mensagens devocionais. O perfil desses autores é bem variado: homens, mulheres, líderes religiosos, missionários, jornalistas, donas de casa, jovens, idosos. Quais são os desafios que o jornalista Lucas Meloni, autor do Presente Diário, enfrenta na produção das devocionais? Confira!!!  Para adquirir o PD 28 acesse:loja.rtmbrasil.org.br Instagram@presentediariortm Youtubepresentediario.org.br/youtube Produção: Kaká Rodrigues Trabalhos técnicos: Cláudio Ronk, Thiago Lisa e Luan Teixeira.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Remembering Bill Walton: Basketball Star and Grateful Dead SuperfanIn this episode of the Deadhead Cannabis Show, Larry Mishkin covers various topics, including a historic Grateful Dead show, personal concert experiences, and music news. Larry starts with a deep dive into the Grateful Dead's June 3, 1976, concert at the Paramount Theater in Portland, Oregon. This show marked the band's return after a year-long hiatus, featuring five new songs and a revived tune from a four-year break. He highlights the opening track, written by Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter, which nostalgically reflects on the band's Festival Express tour, a legendary 1970 train journey across Canada with prominent rock bands.Larry then discusses the song "Lazy Lightning," introduced at the same 1976 concert. Written by Bobby and John Perry Barlow, it became a fan favorite for its melody and message of living in the moment, though it was retired from the Grateful Dead's repertoire by 1984. He transitions into music news by honoring Doug Ingle of Iron Butterfly, who recently passed away. Larry reminisces about the band's iconic 1968 track "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" and its influence on the late 60s music scene.The podcast also pays tribute to Bill Walton, the legendary basketball player and devoted Deadhead who passed away at 71. Larry shares stories of Walton's deep connection with the Grateful Dead, including his record of attending 869 concerts, significantly more than his total basketball games played. Larry recounts Walton's influence on fellow athletes and his unique presence at Dead shows.Finally, Larry describes his recent experience at a Dead & Company concert at the Sphere in Las Vegas. He marvels at the venue's immersive visual technology, which enhanced the concert experience, likening it to a planetarium. Despite the advanced visuals sometimes overshadowing the music, Larry enjoyed the performance and the unique atmosphere. He also mentions a mini-exhibition featuring Dave Lemieux's tape collection and the significance of tape trading in Grateful Dead fandom.In summary, this episode covers a blend of Grateful Dead history, personal concert experiences, tributes to influential music figures, and the latest in concert technology, providing a rich narrative for Deadheads and music enthusiasts alike.  Grateful DeadJune 3, 1976  (48 Years Ago)Paramount TheaterPortland, ORGrateful Dead Live at Paramount Theatre on 1976-06-03 : Free Borrow & Streaming : Internet Archive First show back after 1975 year offPrior show:  Sept. 28, 1975 – last of the four shows in 1975, this show is 9 months later.  Long wait for Deadheads. Dead did not disappoint with five new songs and a breakout after a 4 year hiatus.  INTRO:                                 Might As Well                                                Track #1                                                1:15 – 2:50 “Take that ride again”                 Might as Well” is a song written by Jerry Garcia with lyrics penned by Robert Hunter. Released on Garcia's 3d solo album, Reflections, in February, 1976.  It's one of the tracks from Garcia's solo career, showcasing his musical versatility and unique ability to transform personal experiences into joyful music.  The song takes a nostalgic look back at the Grateful Dead's time on the Festival Express Tour, a memorable rail trip that brought together prominent artists of the '60s for a raucous, whisky-fueled journey across America.                 Festival Express is the 1970 train tour of the same name across Canada taken by some of North America's most popular rock bands, including Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, The Band, Buddy Guy, Flying Burrito Bros, Ian & Sylvia's Great Speckled Bird, Mountain and Delaney & Bonnie & Friends.  Later made into a movie             Festival Express was staged in three Canadian cities: Toronto, Winnipeg, and Calgary (Montreal and Vancouver were also originally scheduled but both dropped)  during the summer of 1970. Rather than flying into each city, the musicians traveled by chartered Canadian National Railwaystrain, in a total of 14 cars (two engines, one diner, five sleepers, two lounge cars, two flat cars, one baggage car, and one staff car).[5] The train journey between cities ultimately became a combination of non-stop jam sessions and partying fueled by alcohol. One highlight of the documentary is a drunken jam session featuring The Band's Rick Danko, the Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir, New Riders of the Purple Sage's John Dawson, as well as Janis Joplin.             Here, it is played as the show opener.  Ultimately, became more of a first set closer, a popular one along with Deal, another Garcia solo tune.                     Played 111 times                First:  June 3, 1976 at Paramount Theatre, Portland, OR, USA  THIS SHOW  19 times that year              Last:  March 23, 1994 at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Uniondale, NY, USA – only time played that year, 6 times in ‘91                 SHOW No. 1:                    Lazy Lightning                                                Track #6                                                0:00 – 1:46 Written by Bobby and John Perry Barlow, paired with Supplication in concert and released with Supplication as the opening tracks on the album, Kingfish, released in March, 1976. Lazy Lightning is often interpreted as a metaphorical representation of the pursuit of a carefree and leisurely lifestyle amidst the chaos and hardships of reality. The lyrics depict a whimsical scenario where the protagonist encounters a bolt of lightning that transforms into a woman, symbolizing the allure and transitory nature of fleeting pleasures. The song encourages listeners to embrace the present moment and let go of the rigid expectations and responsibilities that burden their lives. It is a celebration of spontaneity, freedom, and the pursuit of personal bliss. Lazy Lightning became a fan favorite due to its infectious melody, poetic lyrics, and the sense of liberation it evoked. Grateful Dead fans often resonated with the song's message of embracing the present moment and shedding societal expectations. It became a rallying cry for those seeking to live life on their own terms, igniting a sense of camaraderie and freedom among concert-goers. Usually, a late first set number.  Unfortunately, dropped from the repertoire in 1984.  I got to hear it three or four times.  A fun number. Played:  also played 111 timesFirst:  June 3, 1976 at Paramount Theatre, Portland, OR, USA  THIS SHOW!!Last:  October 31, 1984 at Berkeley Community Theatre, Berkeley, CA, USA  MUSIC NEWS – Intro music:  In A Gadda Da Vida:  IRON BUTTERFLY - IN A GADDA DA VIDA - 1968 (ORIGINAL FULL VERSION) CD SOUND & 3D VIDEO (youtube.com)Start - :45 is a song recorded by Iron Butterfly, written by band member Doug Ingle and released on their 1968 album of the same name.At slightly over 17 minutes, it occupies the entire second side of the album. The lyrics, a love song from the biblical Adam to his mate Eve, are simple and are heard only at the beginning and the end. The middle of the song features a two-and-a-half-minute Ron Bushy drum solo.  Famously featured on a Simpson's episode when Bart switches the organist's regular music for this tune and hands out the words to the congregation who sing along.  The older organ player plays the entire organ solo (although they only feature a part of it) and then at the end promptly slumps over at the keyboard. Featured today as a tribute to Doug Ingle, songwriter, keyboard player and vocalist for the song, who passed away on May 24th at the age of 78.  He was the last surviving member of the original band lineup.Bill Walton passed away on last Monday, May 27th at the all too young age of 71.  Couldn't miss him at the shows, 7 foot redhead dancing away or else up on stage.Dead & Co. at the Sphere, saw the June 1st show.                SHOW No. 2:                    Supplication                                                Track #7                                                2:00 – 3:30 Written by Bobby and John Perry Barlow, paired with Lazy Lightning in concert and released with Lazy Lightning as the opening tracks on the album, Kingfish, released in March, 1976. The song delves into the universal theme of the human experience, specifically emphasizing the concept of surrender and humility. It explores the idea of surrendering oneself to a higher power, relinquishing control, and embracing the unknown. The lyrics touch upon the vulnerability and humility required to let go and trust in something beyond our comprehension. Supplication encourages listeners to reflect upon their own lives, urging them to question their beliefs, values, and the significance of surrendering to a greater force. Played:  111 times (a good number for the lottery, keeps coming up), always paired with Lazy LightningFirst:  June 3, 1976 at Paramount Theatre, Portland, OR, USA  THIS SHOW!!Last:  October 31, 1984 at Berkeley Community Theatre, Berkeley, CA, USA SHOW No. 3:                    Dancin In the Streets                                                Track #11                                                0:00 – 1:42 "Dancing in the Street" is a song written by Marvin Gaye, William Stevenson, and Ivy Jo Hunter. It first became popular in 1964 when recorded by Martha and the Vandellas whose version was released on July 31, 1964 and reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for two weeks, behind "Do Wah Diddy Diddy" by Manfred Mann and it also peaked at No. 4 on the UK Singles Chart. It is one of Motown's signature songs and is the group's premier signature song.A 1966 cover by the Mamas & the Papas was a minor hit on the Hot 100 reaching No. 73. In 1982, the rock group Van Halen took their cover of "Dancing in the Street" to No. 38 on the Hot 100 chart and No. 15 in Canada on the RPM chart. A 1985 duet cover by David Bowie and Mick Jagger charted at No. 1 in the UK and reached No. 7 in the US. The song has been covered by many other artists, including The Kinks, Tages, Black Oak Arkansas, Grateful Dead, Little Richard, Myra and Karen Carpenter. I saw it as the first night show opener on June 14, 1985 at the Greek Theater as part of the band's 20 Anniversary celebration.  A really fun concert tune.  The 1970's versions always had strong Donna support backing up Bobby's lead vocals. This show was the first time the band had played the song since Dec. 31, 1971 (203 shows) Played: 131 timesFirst:  July 3, 1966 at Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, CA, USALast:  April 6, 1987 at Brendan Byrne Arena, East Rutherford, NJ, USA MJ NEWS Blake Schneider passed away May 27th at 69.  Legendary cultivator who created the best strain of marijuana I ever smoked.  We just called it Blake weed and put it up against any other strain, anywhere, any time.  Folks would say they had the best weed until I let them smoke some of the Blake weed.  They never failed to concede.  Eccentric, temperamental, hospitable, mentor and good friend.  And self titled “best joint roller in the worlds.”  Was one of my Bulls season ticket partners during the Jordan era.  Every home game began with a pregame at Blake's loop residences including great wines, gourmet appetizers and snacks, top shelf liquor (on the way out the door we always did our “Go Bulls” shots) and more marijuana than anyone should ever smoke.  With four of us in the room, he would have 3 joints circulating at all times.  With his ever present life partner, Jeanne, an evening at Blakes was as much fun as the actual game itself.  Ran into a problem with the Green County Sheriff, but gave them the finger when the feds took the case over and Blake only had to serve 11 months at a fed minimum risk prison instead of the 20 years that Green County said was a done deal given the number of plants he was growing at his farm house in Argyle, WI.  They were not happy campers when the feds moved in to take over the case due to the value of the property they could sieve and force Blake to buy back from them.  Blake was a true party legend and will be sorely missed by those of us that knew him, loved him and tolerated him. 2.        Marijuana Terpenes Are ‘As Effective As Morphine' For Pain Relief And Have Fewer Side Effects, New Study Finds 3.        CBD Is Effective In Treating Anxiety, Depression And Poor Sleep, Study Finds4.        Marijuana And Hemp Businesses At Odds Over Consumable Cannabinoid Ban In House Farm Bill  SHOW No. 4:                    Samson and Delilah                                                Track #12                                                0:00 – 1:45 "Samson and Delilah" is a traditional song based on the Biblical tale of Samson and his betrayal by Delilah. Its best known performer is perhaps the Grateful Dead, who first performed the song live in 1976, with Bobby singing lead vocals and in the ‘70's with Donna joining in. It was frequently played on Sundays due to the biblical reference. Released by the band in 1977 on their album Terrapin Station. Although Weir learned the song from Reverend Gary Davis, several earlier versions had been recorded under various titles, including "If I Had My Way I'd Tear the Building Down"/"Oh Lord If I Had My Way" by Blind Willie Johnson in 1927.[1] The song has since been performed by a wide variety of artists ranging from Dave van Ronk, Bob Dylan, Charlie Parr, The Staple Singers, Ike and Tina Turner, Clara Ward, Dorothy Love Coates & The Gospel Harmonettes, to Peter, Paul and Mary, The Washington Squares, The Blasters, Willie Watson, Elizabeth Cook, Robert Randolph and the Family Band, and Bruce Springsteen and the Seeger Sessions Band (in Verona, Italy 2006). Guest star Simon Oakland sings the song with the drovers around a campfire in the Rawhide episode "Incident of the Travellin' Man", aired in season six on October 17, 1963. A long time favorite tune with a distinctive drummers intro that tipped off the song and got the crowd fired up. Settled into a set opener, more frequently a second set opener and often played on Sundays due to its biblical reference with Bobby's “This being Sunday . .”  Played:  365 timesFirst:  June 3, 1976 at Paramount Theatre, Portland, OR, USA  THIS SHOWLast:  July 9, 1995 at Soldier Field OUTRO:                               The Wheel                                                Track #22                                                2:48 – 4:30                 One of their most beloved songs, “The Wheel,” holds a special place in the hearts of fans worldwide. Written by Jerry Garcia, Robert Hunter, and Bill Kreutzmann, this folk-rock anthem has captivated listeners with its enigmatic lyrics and catchy melody. The song's meaning has been widely debated among enthusiasts, and its cryptic nature has allowed for multiple interpretations.            “The Wheel” reflects the transient nature of life, offering a philosophical perspective on the cycles we all experience. The lyrics suggest that life is like a wheel, constantly turning and repeating itself. The song evokes a sense of impermanence and reminds us of the cyclical patterns we encounter throughout our existence. This theme resonates strongly with the band's philosophy and their connection to the spiritual and psychedelic culture of the late 1960s and early 1970s.                “The Wheel” was released on the Grateful Dead's album “Garcia” in 1972.             “The Wheel” is characterized by its infectious melody and intricate guitar work. The song showcases the Grateful Dead's ability to seamlessly blend folk, rock, and improvisational elements into a cohesive piece of music.            Normally, a second set tune, into or out of drums/space although it moved around a bit in the second set.  Here it is the encore which is more of a rarity.            Played 259 times           First: June 3, 1976 at Paramount Theatre, Portland, OR, USA  THIS SHOW            Last:  May 25, 1995 at Memorial Stadium, Seattle, WA                                         .Produced by PodConx Deadhead Cannabis Show - https://podconx.com/podcasts/deadhead-cannabis-showLarry Mishkin - https://podconx.com/guests/larry-mishkinRob Hunt - https://podconx.com/guests/rob-huntJay Blakesberg - https://podconx.com/guests/jay-blakesbergSound Designed by Jamie Humiston - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamie-humiston-91718b1b3/Recorded on Squadcast

I det här irrelevanta avsnittet av extrapodden Frågeklådan avhandlar Niclas & Jonatan sina åsikter inför dansbandsmusik, mäns bisarra beteende intill en grill, varför det är märkligt att vara sugen på asiatisk mat, tidningsutbudet på vårdcentraler, en ”blind-ranking" gällande sannolikhet, hur blåljuspersonal hanterar rännskita, en maffig lista med runk-synonymer – och mycket mer! Meningslösa frågor får hjärndöda svar – haka på och kickstarta veckan ihop med oss!

Från livesändningarna 20 april. I detta nystartade quiz som leds av David Lindström och Nils Olin är det DA.MP som möter Ronk och Jonk i denna åttondelsfinal! I studion: David Lindström, Nils Olin, Johannes Svärd, Kajsa Linnea Holmqvist, Ronja Norrbrink, Jacob Olin Radiosvallet stöds av studentkåren i Sundsvall (SKS) och Journalistförbundets Sundsvall (JFS).

Jonatan är tillbaka på blågul mark och tramsduon har firat återföreningen med ett par öl innan man kör fullt ös inne i studion! Niclas har stött på en vikingasekt som satt skräck i lilla Gullspång och hotat diverse makthavare med avrättning. Vad är det idioterna vill – och vilka är egentligen de helt vanvettiga ledarna? En komisk detalj är att den ena dårens namn inte direkt avspeglas i hans sinnestillstånd. Efter det senaste avsnittets spaning angående att arga norrmän är svåra att ta på allvar, eller bli rädda för, så har vi matats med en rad nya bidrag på ämnet – men dessa har också dopats med rejäla ljudeffekter. Går det att känna obehag inför en ilsken norrbagge nu då?! Det blir även ett besök hos en 14-årig grabb som har ett extremt ovanligt intresse för sin ålder. Här är det inga fotbollsplanscher, våldsamma TV-spel eller undangömda toarullar för onanisessioner som gäller, men vad får honom så uppspelt på en halvdan promenadloppis utanför Vara? En gränslös rubrik som dök upp i ena poddmakarens flöde skapade ett gigantiskt sug efter att rota fram fler sådana, så vi bjuds dessutom på en mastig genomgång av fullkomligt otroliga formuleringar från svenska medier! Hjärndött och irrelevant – haka på!

Join Michael Litten "The Last DJ" for an in-depth conversation. Playing songs from the bands Debut album, Atomic Kings Sponsored by Drinkmate Theme music provided by Peter Perkins Special Thank You to Lucy Piller/ARN Entertainment for providing the talent   ATOMIC KINGS are a new Phoenix based group that consists of GREG CHAISSON( Badlands) ( Red Dragon Cartel) on Bass, KEN RONK (Paul Gurvitz) on vocals, RYAN MCKAY ( Crash Street Kids) ( Louie Prima) on guitar and JIMI TAFT (Rag Doll) on Drums.  Atomic Kings have created quite a buzz in the music industry with a new album that is very diverse and deeply anchored in the style of the 70's supergroups in the vein of Bad Co., Led Zeppelin, free and Robin Trower but, with a modern twist similar to Rival Sons, Dirty Honey etc.  Atomic Kings first single "All I Want" from their debut self titled album spent several weeks at #1 in the world on 97 Underground!   https://www.facebook.com/atomickingsband/

This episode: You may wonder who can influence the culture of your Board of Directors. Some say that the Chief Staff Executive (CSE) cannot do that or should not do that. My guest this week says that's not so, and she has the track record to prove it. Cheryl Ronk, CAE, FASAE, Principal, So Right LLC, spent over 30 years as the Chief Staff Executive of the Michigan Society of Association Executives (MSAE) where she learned from experience that not only can the CSE influence Board culture, it's part of their responsibility. Cultural influences come from nurturing and training Boards to have a clear understanding of their role and responsibilities to the organization; the CSE doesn't tell them what to do but they can and should show them HOW to do it. Influencing Board Culture in a positive way is directly related to creating the collaborative partnership between the CSE and the Board that is the mark of any successful nonprofit organization. If your 2024 list of resolutions includes "have a better relationship with my Board of Directors" then don't miss this conversation -- it will get you excited about the possibilities! How do you influence Board culture? Share a comment! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/cecilia-sepp/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/cecilia-sepp/support

Galvan har vært på veien (og fylla) i Nordland, Finn.no slutter å hjelpe og Sandeep har vært DJ og gitt stygt blikk! Hør episoden i appen NRK Radio

Last time on The Call of the Expanse, the orcs finally meet the other poachers who have been working with Victor Dogby, and the fight breaks out! Nathan chases Victor through the streets of Jaha on a Tyrannosaurus Rex while Gotz, Ronk, and Douglas kick the crap out of everyone else. Nathan then finally retrieves Coo-Jakka the Fairy Dragon and heads back to his friends. The conclusion starts now!Website: https://rss.com/podcasts/thecursedcaravan/Gmail: thecursedcaravan@gmail.comInstagram: TheCursedCaravanPodcastTwitter: TheCursedCaravanPodcast@CursedCaravanMichael Ghelfi Studios, The World Reference for Tabletop RPG Audio:https://michaelghelfi.comMichael Ghelfi Studios Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/MichaelGhelfiMichael Ghelfi Studios YouTube Channel:https://www.youtube.com/user/MichaelGhelfiThe Film Masters channel (https://www.youtube.com/c/FilmMastersChannel)The Cursed Caravan uses trademarks and/or copyrights owned by Paizo Inc., used under Paizo's Community Use Policy (paizo.com/communityuse). We are expressly prohibited from charging you to use or access this content. The Cursed Caravan is not published, endorsed, or specifically approved by Paizo. For more information about Paizo Inc. and Paizo products, visitpaizo.com.

Last time on The Call of the Expanse, the heroes head back to Jaha with the suspicion of Victor Dogby being the Fairy Dragon thief. Gotz heads over to the Razor Crew and plans a breakout, learning that Bradge is away looking for them. Nathan and Ronk attempt to enter Clickland Safari Park, but are denied access. Running out of time and options, the orcs confront Victor. He then admits to stealing the dragon and flees! The fight we have all been waiting for starts now!Website: https://rss.com/podcasts/thecursedcaravan/Gmail: thecursedcaravan@gmail.comInstagram: TheCursedCaravanPodcastTwitter: TheCursedCaravanPodcast@CursedCaravanMichael Ghelfi Studios, The World Reference for Tabletop RPG Audio: https://michaelghelfi.comMichael Ghelfi Studios Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/MichaelGhelfiMichael Ghelfi Studios YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/MichaelGhelfiThe Film Masters channel (https://www.youtube.com/c/FilmMastersChannel)The Cursed Caravan uses trademarks and/or copyrights owned by Paizo Inc., used under Paizo's Community Use Policy (paizo.com/communityuse). We are expressly prohibited from charging you to use or access this content. The Cursed Caravan is not published, endorsed, or specifically approved by Paizo. For more information about Paizo Inc. and Paizo products, visit paizo.com.

Last time on The Call of the Expanse, the orcs were challenged by the Oto-Kembe trials. Gotz walked barefoot through hot rocks, Ronk balanced on a river log, and Nathan got his drink back. After speaking with the Chief and coming to their own conclusions, the orcs realize the culprit could be the very man that hired them for the job, Victor Dogby! Our story continues now!Website: https://rss.com/podcasts/thecursedcaravan/Gmail: thecursedcaravan@gmail.comInstagram: TheCursedCaravanPodcastTwitter: TheCursedCaravanPodcast@CursedCaravanMichael Ghelfi Studios, The World Reference for Tabletop RPG Audio: https://michaelghelfi.comMichael Ghelfi Studios Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/MichaelGhelfiMichael Ghelfi Studios YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/MichaelGhelfiThe Cursed Caravan uses trademarks and/or copyrights owned by Paizo Inc., used under Paizo's Community Use Policy (paizo.com/communityuse). We are expressly prohibited from charging you to use or access this content. The Cursed Caravan is not published, endorsed, or specifically approved by Paizo. For more information about Paizo Inc. and Paizo products, visit paizo.com.

Last time on The Call of the Expanse, the orcs revel in their victory against the giant called Tiny. Nathan speaks to Bradge, the Razor Crew leader, and vaguely learns the whereabouts of the last two poachers. Bradge also expects Gotz and Ronk to be regulars in the fighting rings. After a night's rest and a filling meal, the group heads back into the jungle, only to be attacked by an unknown adversary. What terror will our heroes wake up to? Let's find out!Website: https://rss.com/podcasts/thecursedcaravan/Gmail: thecursedcaravan@gmail.comInstagram: TheCursedCaravanPodcastTwitter: TheCursedCaravanPodcast@CursedCaravanMichael Ghelfi Studios, The World Reference for Tabletop RPG Audio:https://michaelghelfi.com Michael Ghelfi Studios Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/MichaelGhelfiMichael Ghelfi Studios YouTube Channel:https://www.youtube.com/user/MichaelGhelfiThe Cursed Caravan uses trademarks and/or copyrights owned by Paizo Inc., used under Paizo's Community Use Policy (paizo.com/communityuse). We are expressly prohibited from charging you to use or access this content. The Cursed Caravan is not published, endorsed, or specifically approved by Paizo. For more information about Paizo Inc. and Paizo products, visit paizo.com.

Last time on The Call of the Expanse, the mighty Gotz faced the incredible Finger Snapper. After a few eye pokes, cheap shots, and nipple twisters, Gotz broke Finger Snapper's fingers and defeated him in combat. Later, the final round began. Gotz and Ronk versus the giant called Tiny. Things were looking pretty bad for the orcs, but luckily Nathan was able to discreetly cast a few spells to aid the fighters. After a few big hits from Gotz and a final blow from Ronk, the giant finally met her end. Our story continues now!Website: https://rss.com/podcasts/thecursedcaravan/ Gmail: thecursedcaravan@gmail.com Instagram: TheCursedCaravanPodcast Twitter: TheCursedCaravanPodcast@CursedCaravan Michael Ghelfi Studios, The World Reference for Tabletop RPG Audio:https://michaelghelfi.com Michael Ghelfi Studios Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/MichaelGhelfi Michael Ghelfi Studios YouTube Channel:https://www.youtube.com/user/MichaelGhelfi The Cursed Caravan uses trademarks and/or copyrights owned by Paizo Inc., used under Paizo's Community Use Policy (paizo.com/communityuse). We are expressly prohibited from charging you to use or access this content. The Cursed Caravan is not published, endorsed, or specifically approved by Paizo. For more information about Paizo Inc. and Paizo products, visit paizo.com.

Last time on the Call of the Expanse, the group decides to spend the day at the fighting pits. When they arrive, Nathan asks around and finds a lead on the two poachers! A member of the Razor Crew says that one of the poachers used to be a member until they were exiled. Their leader, Bradge, has more information. While the orcs wait for Bradge to arrive, Gotz and Ronk partake in a few harrowing fights. Will they survive? Let's find out! Website: https://rss.com/podcasts/thecursedcaravan/Gmail: thecursedcaravan@gmail.comInstagram: TheCursedCaravanPodcastTwitter: TheCursedCaravanPodcast@CursedCaravanMichael Ghelfi Studios, The World Reference for Tabletop RPG Audio:https://michaelghelfi.com Michael Ghelfi Studios Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/MichaelGhelfiMichael Ghelfi Studios YouTube Channel:https://www.youtube.com/user/MichaelGhelfiThe Cursed Caravan uses trademarks and/or copyrights owned by Paizo Inc., used under Paizo's Community Use Policy (paizo.com/communityuse). We are expressly prohibited from charging you to use or access this content. The Cursed Caravan is not published, endorsed, or specifically approved by Paizo. For more information about Paizo Inc. and Paizo products, visit paizo.com.

Last time on The Call of the Expanse, the orcs defeated Horton Click and Ronk decapitated the big game hunter, Darvy McCann. The heroes find out that Horton was contracting Darvy to find the fairy dragon for him, so he could add it to Clickland Safari Park as an attraction. After coercing Horton to write a new and better contract for them, the heroes gave him tips to improve the park. Gotz said goodbye to a new friend, and the orcs regroup to decide what to do next. Our story continues now! Website: https://rss.com/podcasts/thecursedcaravan/ Gmail: thecursedcaravan@gmail.comInstagram: TheCursedCaravanPodcast Twitter: TheCursedCaravanPodcast@CursedCaravan Michael Ghelfi Studios, The World Reference for Tabletop RPG Audio:https://michaelghelfi.com Michael Ghelfi Studios Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/MichaelGhelfi Michael Ghelfi Studios YouTube Channel:https://www.youtube.com/user/MichaelGhelfi The Cursed Caravan uses trademarks and/or copyrights owned by Paizo Inc., used under Paizo's Community Use Policy (paizo.com/communityuse). We are expressly prohibited from charging you to use or access this content. The Cursed Caravan is not published, endorsed, or specifically approved by Paizo. For more information about Paizo Inc. and Paizo products, visit paizo.com.

Last time on The Call of the Expanse, the heroes go to Clickland Safari Park to confront the owner, Horton Click about raven feathers being found at the Preezle Tribe. Nathan and Ronk find Horton giving Darvy McCann a mysterious note while Gotz gets his picture taken with a sloth. Nathan tries to be diplomatic, but sees right through Horton's lies. Ronk grows tired of the talking and attacks! Gotz stands toe to toe with a mechanical rhinoceros and goes into a RAGE!Website: https://rss.com/podcasts/thecursedcaravan/Gmail: thecursedcaravan@gmail.comInstagram: TheCursedCaravanPodcastTwitter: TheCursedCaravanPodcast@CursedCaravanMichael Ghelfi Studios, The World Reference for Tabletop RPG Audio:https://michaelghelfi.com Michael Ghelfi Studios Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/MichaelGhelfiMichael Ghelfi Studios YouTube Channel:https://www.youtube.com/user/MichaelGhelfiThe Cursed Caravan uses trademarks and/or copyrights owned by Paizo Inc., used under Paizo's Community Use Policy (paizo.com/communityuse). We are expressly prohibited from charging you to use or access this content. The Cursed Caravan is not published, endorsed, or specifically approved by Paizo. For more information about Paizo Inc. and Paizo products, visit paizo.com.

Last time on The Call of the Expanse, Nathan leads the orcs back to Jaha to find the connection with the two black feathers he found. On their way, they were stopped and attacked by a rival group who was also hired to find the dragon. Our heroes made short work of them and made it back to Jaha safely. Ronk attempts to upgrade her baseball bat, Gotz eats a bunch of corn dogs, and Nathan orders some POTTAGE. Our story continues now! Website: https://rss.com/podcasts/thecursedcaravan/Gmail: thecursedcaravan@gmail.comInstagram: TheCursedCaravanPodcastTwitter: TheCursedCaravanPodcast@CursedCaravanMichael Ghelfi Studios, The World Reference for Tabletop RPG Audio:https://michaelghelfi.com Michael Ghelfi Studios Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/MichaelGhelfiMichael Ghelfi Studios YouTube Channel:https://www.youtube.com/user/MichaelGhelfi The Cursed Caravan uses trademarks and/or copyrights owned by Paizo Inc., used under Paizo's Community Use Policy (paizo.com/communityuse). We are expressly prohibited from charging you to use or access this content. The Cursed Caravan is not published, endorsed, or specifically approved by Paizo. For more information about Paizo Inc. and Paizo products, visit paizo.com.

Last time on The Call of the Expanse, Gotz got the princess drunk, Ronk covered herself in fairy dragon poop, and Nathan found a mysterious black feather in the fairy dragon's shrine. Later that night during the magical fun bonfire party where everyone eats dragon poopoo, Douglas takes the orcs back to the mysterious cave. Ronk slaps some bats, Gotz kills a lion, and Nathan finds another black feather. What could it mean? Let's find out!Website: https://rss.com/podcasts/thecursedcaravan/Gmail: thecursedcaravan@gmail.comInstagram: TheCursedCaravanPodcastTwitter: TheCursedCaravanPodcast@CursedCaravanMichael Ghelfi Studios, The World Reference for Tabletop RPG Audio: https://michaelghelfi.com Michael Ghelfi Studios Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/MichaelGhelfiMichael Ghelfi Studios YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/MichaelGhelfiThe Cursed Caravan uses trademarks and/or copyrights owned by Paizo Inc., used under Paizo's Community Use Policy (paizo.com/communityuse). We are expressly prohibited from charging you to use or access this content. The Cursed Caravan is not published, endorsed, or specifically approved by Paizo. For more information about Paizo Inc. and Paizo products, visit paizo.com.

Last time on The Call of the Expanse, the orc party arrived at the Preezle tribe and had a fantastic time. Nathan learned a lot about their culture with the Preezle Chief and his daughter, Princess Nykini Zapplebung, Ronk goofed around with the gnomes, and Gotz rolled a natural 20 on a candy cane totem pole. The story continues now!Website: https://rss.com/podcasts/thecursedcaravan/Gmail: thecursedcaravan@gmail.comInstagram: TheCursedCaravanPodcastTwitter: TheCursedCaravanPodcast@CursedCaravanMichael Ghelfi Studios, The World Reference for Tabletop RPG Audio:https://michaelghelfi.comMichael Ghelfi Studios Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/MichaelGhelfiMichael Ghelfi Studios YouTube Channel:https://www.youtube.com/user/MichaelGhelfiThe Cursed Caravan uses trademarks and/or copyrights owned by Paizo Inc., used under Paizo's Community Use Policy (paizo.com/communityuse). We are expressly prohibited from charging you to use or access this content. The Cursed Caravan is not published, endorsed, or specifically approved by Paizo. For more information about Paizo Inc. and Paizo products, visit paizo.com.

Last time on The Call of the Expanse, the heroes met their new employer, Consul General Victor Dogby. He informed the orcs about a sacred fairy dragon that has gone missing. The dragon is a peacekeeper for the tribes in the area, and without it, the aggressive Oto-Kembe tribe threaten to wage war against the peaceful Preezle tribe. With a list of suspects in hand, the heroes travel with Douglas Beanball into the jungle to question the Preezle tribe about the disappearance of the dragon, and are ambushed by leshies. We now join Nathan, Gotz, Ronk, and Douglas after the fight. Website: https://rss.com/podcasts/thecursedcaravan/Gmail: thecursedcaravan@gmail.comInstagram: TheCursedCaravanPodcastTwitter: TheCursedCaravanPodcast@CursedCaravanMichael Ghelfi Studios, The World Reference for Tabletop RPG Audio: https://michaelghelfi.com Michael Ghelfi Studios Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/MichaelGhelfiMichael Ghelfi Studios YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/MichaelGhelfiThe Cursed Caravan uses trademarks and/or copyrights owned by Paizo Inc., used under Paizo's Community Use Policy (paizo.com/communityuse). We are expressly prohibited from charging you to use or access this content. The Cursed Caravan is not published, endorsed, or specifically approved by Paizo. For more information about Paizo Inc. and Paizo products, visit paizo.com.

På självaste midsommarafton är det dags igen då vi släpper avsnitt 70 som ändå får kallas för något av ett minijubileum (järnbröllop)! Vi bjuder på ett späckat avsnitt med bl.a musik, snack och förpepp inför Åmåls Bluesfestival 2023! Vi bjuder även på reflektioner och musik kring bluesens egen Eurovision – European Blues Challenge. Blomgren är tillbaka och spekulerar igen, och som vanligt bjuder vi på "Bluespodden Tipsar" & en "Från Norr Till Söder". Tack för att ni lyssnar, delar & Swishar! 0766 117 144 ❤️

Cheryl Ronk talks about the work Rogue Tulips Consulting does through its education program The 501c League. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/cecilia-sepp/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/cecilia-sepp/support

When Joel and Ethan Coen needed help with the soundtrack for their fabulous 2000 film, O Brother, Where Art Thou? they turned to respected artist/producer T-Bone Burnett, a famous champion of long-forgotten folk music. Thinking about how the film was to be set in Depression-era Mississippi and to open with a scene of an escape from a prison chain-gang, Burnett studied some legendary field recordings by American ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax. There he found a gem.From the Library of Congress archives, Burnett unearthed Lomax's September 1959 recordings at Mississippi's Parchman Farm State Penitentiary. Among them was a work song called “Po' Lazarus” led by convict James Carter. It perfectly fit the opening moments of the movie.Later, after the great box office success of O Brother and then rocketing sales of the resulting soundtrack album, The New York Times told the story of how Lomax's daughter Anna Lomax Chairetakis helped Burnett locate James Carter. Their search led them to an apartment in Chicago, where they presented Carter with a $20,000 royalty check. He was astonished. He said he couldn't even remember making the recording for Lomax 43 years earlier.About the SongOn that autumn day in 1959, Carter and his fellow inmates performed a typical work song for Lomax, meaning it was sung at a tempo that matched the task, such as breaking rocks in the hot sun. Its plodding rhythm perfectly suited Carter's bluesy treatment of the tune.In the following decades, his melancholy rendering was echoed in dozens of new versions, from those recorded by Dave van Ronk and Bob Dylan, by Ian & Sylvia and Buffy Sainte Marie, by Sparky Rucker and the Carolina Chocolate Drops.Understandably, most of those versions presented the story of Lazarus as a tragic tale of a man who escapes a prison farm, only to be hunted, caught and gunned down by a sheriff with a .45.Our Take on the TuneBut the song can be done in a diametrically different way. It can be turned from a sad tale of loss into a defiant — ultimately almost triumphant — story of rebellion and resistance. This is the Lazarus we like. The inspiration for The Flood's take on this tune comes from a seminal 1961 Folkways album by Rolf Cahn and Eric von Schmidt.On that record — made just three years after Lomax's visit to Parchman Farm — von Schmidt sings “Lazarus” to his own melody (he didn't remember the original tune). Also he starts the story, not at the usual point — with the high sheriff searching for the escapee — but rather with the angry protest that led to Lazarus' flight in the first place. (“Lazarus, my old partner, walked on the commissary counter, then he walked away.”) But what's going on here?“When prison food and other conditions became too much for a man,” Rolf Cahn wrote in the liner notes for their album, “he would literally walk on the counter, kicking the food onto the floor. Since this resulted in violent objections from other convicts, as well as thorough preventative measures from the guards, only a very tough and very angry man would ‘walk on the commissary counter.'”The Flood's “Lazarus” uses von Schmidt's melody as well as his faster, more insistent rhythm and most of his lyrics. Then we also stir in a little something of our own. We opt to end the song by returning to Lazarus' overriding spirit of defiance. We offer a flashback to his counter-walking protest, then we depart with a prediction of an uprising by his old partners “next sunny day.”More Folk Music, PleaseBy the way, if folk music is your thing, you might like to tune in the Folk Channel in The Flood free music streaming service, Radio Floodango.Something like six or seven dozen song are waiting for you on the playlist there; if you'd like it can be a day-long soundtrack. Click here to turn us on! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 1937flood.substack.com

This week's Geek Girl Riot is classified…our Rioters spill some state secrets on romance-tinged spy flicks, including Ghosted and Citadel. They also chat with with Ritu Arya and Priya Kansara about Polite Society, before catching up with Ronkẹ Adékoluẹjo about Chevalier. The post Mrs & Mr Spy – Our Faves + Ghosted, Citadel, Polite Society feat. Ritu Arya and Priya Kansara, Chevalier feat. Ronkẹ Adékoluẹjo appeared first on idobi.

This week's Geek Girl Riot is classified…our Rioters spill some state secrets on romance-tinged spy flicks, including Ghosted and Citadel. They also chat with with Ritu Arya and Priya Kansara about Polite Society, before catching up with Ronkẹ Adékoluẹjo about Chevalier. The post Mrs & Mr Spy – Our Faves + Ghosted, Citadel, Polite Society feat. Ritu Arya and Priya Kansara, Chevalier feat. Ronkẹ Adékoluẹjo appeared first on idobi Network.

This episode: The practice of Preferred Futures is an opportunity to create the vision of what things will ideally look like in the future. It's an opportunity for the group to dream big and identify ambitious things! More importantly, this exercise empowers the group and shows how these ambitious ideas can become realistic. Groups to identify more than one path forward which creates alternatives, options, and encourages flexibility in a changing environment. I talked with guest, friend and collaborator Cheryl Ronk, CAE, CMP, FASAE about what this exercise does for organizations, how it creates energy and excitement, and who should be in the room when these discussions happen. How do you create the future? Share a comment! Season 4 Episode 45 | Series Episode 177 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/cecilia-sepp/support

Sorry återigen för ett släpande avsnitt. De strulade till sig. Väldigt frispråkig podd denna veckan när vi diskuterar allt mellan himmel och jord och snackar om ''ikonen'' Pontus. Är det verkligen en så bra idé av Garvet att ta en bira med honom? Ha en go torsdag och en go helg kära vänner. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On todays pod we sit down with Ross Emery Craig "actual" cousin, drummer and founding member of Raging Arb and the Red Heads and the creator of the Road Show festival in Ventura Ca. We talk about life, family stories, the origins of the red heads and much more. Email us at: getheavypodcast@gmail.com Listen to audio on all major Podcast formats. Please subscribe, rate, review, comment, TELL YOUR FUCKING FRIENDS Watch us @ https://www.youtube.com/getheavypodcast Follow All things Heavy @http://getheavypodcast.ctcin.bio/ Enjoy, Craig and J --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/getheavypodcast/support

Jonatan höll på att trilla av stolen när han nyligen stötte på en otrolig kvällstidningsrubrik – och den kan faktiskt vara startskottet på en helt ny era inom kändisvärlden! Vad tycker Thorsten Flincks granne om det hela, tro? Niclas har gjort en rejäl djupdykning i IKEA:s korvhaveri förra veckan. Vad ansåg gemene Facebook-svensk om prishöjningen på två kronor? Det blir dessutom en diskussion kring det senaste fuskryktet inom schackvärlden. Är nördarna verkligen så segersugna att de tar sin anal till hjälp – och vilket är idrottsvärldens mest bisarra mygelförsök genom tiderna? Vi kikar också på de konstigaste smaksättningarna på exempelvis chips, vatten, choklad och glass som nått butikshyllorna. Vilken given succé lyser dock fortfarande med sin frånvaro? Hjärndött och irrelevant – precis som alltid! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Mason sits down with Ian Ronk to talk about his journey from Welder to Scrum Master and the mindset that was holding him back. They also, discuss the remedy to self-limiting beliefs and how you can turn it around in your journey.  Support the show

Våren är här och det är Ronk & Knoll i luften! Ina har tittat på den glödheta frågan om medhavt godis/mat/fårfiol på biografen. Emma undersöker en ung mans slitning mellan familjehedern och rimligheten. Och Mia har tittat på den stora flashbacktråden ”Ditt senaste ligg” och där hittat forumets störta knullkonnässör. I stolt samarbete med våra mäktiga patroner på https://www.patreon.com/FlashbackForeverKlippt och mixat av https://aino.agencyInas trådar: https://www.flashback.org/t3408171https://www.flashback.org/t732904https://www.flashback.org/t1370740https://www.flashback.org/t3408410Emmas tråd: https://www.flashback.org/t233349Mias trådar: https://www.flashback.org/t1994254https://www.flashback.org/t3112287 Get bonus content on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The epic rerun of Sonic's origin concludes, Chris sees a new episode of Turtles, and we get the inside scoop from a Speedlines fib we all fell for. It's STC's smelly issue! Issued to you, our smelly listeners. I MEAN OUR LISTENERS!! Oh, what a giveaway

The epic rerun of Sonic's origin concludes, Chris sees a new episode of Turtles, and we get the inside scoop from a Speedlines fib we all fell for. It's STC's smelly issue! Issued to you, our smelly listeners. I MEAN OUR LISTENERS!! Oh, what a giveaway

The epic rerun of Sonic's origin concludes, Chris sees a new episode of Turtles, and we get the inside scoop from a Speedlines fib we all fell for. It's STC's smelly issue! Issued to you, our smelly listeners. I MEAN OUR LISTENERS!! Oh, what a giveaway

Meet Linda Ronk. Linda has a most intriguing background including becoming an Air Force nurse at a more mature age than most enlistees. Linda, now retired, serves Sew Powerful as a Chapter Leader in Belton, Texas. She has set an ambitious goal for herself and has far exceeded it already. Listen as we learn why and how Linda, and her husband, support Sew Powerful so enthusiastically.

This episode: How often do you think about the future? Planning is key to being prepared, but how do you prepare to plan? The Preferred Futures Approach takes environmental scanning to the next level. If you are not familiar with this approach to planning, you will learn a lot in this conversation with Cheryl Ronk, an executive search consultant who uses preferred futures in helping organizations find their future leaders. Whether or not you are a fan of T.H. White's "The Once and Future King," you will enjoy this wide-ranging discussion about helping Boards lead their organizations forward. What is your approach to planning? Share a comment! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/cecilia-sepp/support

One mission ends while another is just getting started! We're talking to members of two great shows that have premiered this week. First, we're joined by the cast of Netflix's Lost In Space. Hear from Max Jenkins (Will Robinson), Mina Sundwall (Penny Robinson), Molly Perkins (Maureen Robinson), Toby Stephens (John Robinson) and Ignacio Serricchio (Don West) about this final season of the sci-fi epic. Find out how the kids and adults are both dealing with being separated, having to grow up too fast and always having to deal with a crisis. They'll also talk about why three seasons is perfect to tell the show's story. WATCH LOST IN SPACE NOW STREAMING ON NETFLIX! The premiere of the second season of Alex Rider has also arrived on IMDb TV, so naturally we're talking to Anthony Horowitz, Brenock O'Connor and Ronkẹ Adékoluẹjo about what we can expect. Brenock and Ronke talk about how Tom and Jack are trying to help Alex live a more healthy life and how they might become more involved in the spy life. Anthony takes us inside the mind of new villain Damian Cray and the return of a Season 1 villain as well. He also talks about a possible love triangle for Alex, changes made from the book and much more. SEASON 2 OF ALEX RIDER IS NOW STREAMING FOR FREE ON IMDB TV! We also have a review of the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid animated movie from Disney+. This week's nerd news looks at the new Reacher series trailer, fans freaking out about Hawkeye easter eggs, a possible sale of Dark Horse Comics and much more. You can also find us at https://www.downandnerdypodcast.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ronk and the cityNu jävlar är vi tillbaka på riktigt! I veckans avsnitt har Emma tittat på ett aktuellt exempel av ett gäng glad gamänger som vill krossa Big pharma med Oljeglidningsceremonier, shaman-spanking och ugly fucking monster tantra. Ina försöker få reda på varför inte Johnny får ronka när Gulla får pulla vilket leder till insikter om handsfree-lösfittor, stockholmsavsugningar och Hannover. Mia tar sig an det där arvet som för många flashbackare hägrar i fjärran och målar upp ett mardrömsscenario som i värsta fall kan leda till Lars Ohly. Emmas tråd: https://www.flashback.org/t3347544Inas trådar: https://www.flashback.org/t235361https://www.flashback.org/t830112Mias trådar: https://www.flashback.org/t3310298https://www.flashback.org/t501840https://www.flashback.org/t1891669https://www.flashback.org/t2751489https://www.flashback.org/t1154852https://www.flashback.org/t1252686Störts tacket till våra patroner på https://www.patreon.com/FlashbackForever och vår klippare Marcus Blomgren. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

NOTE: This episode went up before the allegations about Dylan, in a lawsuit filed on Friday, were made public on Monday night. Had I been aware of them, I would at least have commented at the beginning of the episode. Episode one hundred and thirty of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “Like a Rolling Stone" by Bob Dylan, and the controversy over Dylan going electric, Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus episode available, on "Hold What You've Got" by Joe Tex. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ Erratum A couple of times I refer to “CBS”. Dylan's label in the US was Columbia Records, a subsidiary of CBS Inc, but in the rest of the world the label traded as “CBS Records”. I should probably have used “Columbia” throughout... Resources No Mixcloud this week, as there are too many songs by Dylan. Much of the information in this episode comes from Dylan Goes Electric!: Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night That Split the Sixties by Elijah Wald, which is recommended, as all Wald's books are. I've used these books for all the episodes involving Dylan: Bob Dylan: All The Songs by Phillipe Margotin and Jean-Michel Guesdon is a song-by-song look at every song Dylan ever wrote, as is Revolution in the Air, by Clinton Heylin. Heylin also wrote the most comprehensive and accurate biography of Dylan, Behind the Shades. I've also used Robert Shelton's No Direction Home, which is less accurate, but which is written by someone who knew Dylan. The New Yorker article by Nat Hentoff I talk about is here. And for the information about the writing of "Like a Rolling Stone", I relied on yet another book by Heylin, All the Madmen. Dylan's albums up to 1967 can all be found in their original mono mixes on this box set. And Dylan's performances at Newport from 1963 through 1965 are on this DVD. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript There's a story that everyone tells about Bob Dylan in 1965, the story that has entered into legend. It's the story that you'll see in most of the biographies of him, and in all those coffee-table histories of rock music put out by glossy music magazines. Bob Dylan, in this story, was part of the square, boring, folk scene until he plugged in an electric guitar and just blew the minds of all those squares, who immediately ostracised him forever for being a Judas and betraying their traditionalist acoustic music, but he was just too cool and too much of a rebel to be bound by their rules, man. Pete Seeger even got an axe and tried to cut his way through the cables of the amplifiers, he was so offended by the desecration of the Newport Folk Festival. And like all these stories, it's an oversimplification but there's an element of truth to it too. So today, we're going to look at what actually happened when Dylan went electric. We're going to look at what led to him going electric, and at the truth behind the legend of Seeger's axe. And we're going to look at the masterpiece at the centre of it all, a record that changed rock songwriting forever. We're going to look at Bob Dylan and "Like a Rolling Stone": [Excerpt: Bob Dylan, "Like a Rolling Stone"] While we've seen Dylan turn up in all sorts of episodes -- most recently the episode on "Mr. Tambourine Man", the last time we looked at him in detail was in the episode on "Blowin' in the Wind", and when we left him there he had just recorded his second album, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, but it had not yet been released. As we'll see, Dylan was always an artist who moved on very quickly from what he'd been doing before, and that had started as early as that album. While his first album, produced by John Hammond, had been made up almost entirely of traditional songs and songs he'd learned from Dave van Ronk or Eric von Schmidt, with only two originals, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan had started out being produced by Hammond, but as Hammond and Dylan's manager Albert Grossman had come to find it difficult to work together, the last few tracks had been produced by Tom Wilson. We've mentioned Wilson briefly a couple of times already, but to reiterate, Wilson was a Black Harvard graduate and political conservative whose background was in jazz and who had no knowledge of or love for folk music. But Wilson saw two things in Dylan -- the undeniable power of his lyrics, and his vocals, which Wilson compared to Ray Charles. Wilson wanted to move Dylan towards working with a backing band, and this was something that Dylan was interested in doing, but his first experiment with that, with John Hammond, hadn't been a particular success. Dylan had recorded a single backed with a band -- "Mixed-Up Confusion", backed with "Corrina, Corrina", a version of an old song that had been recorded by both Bob Wills and Big Joe Turner, but had recently been brought back to the public mind by a version Phil Spector had produced for Ray Peterson. Dylan's version of that song had a country lope and occasional breaks into Jimmie Rodgers style keening that foreshadow his work of the late sixties: [Excerpt: Bob Dylan, "Corrina, Corrina (single version)"] A different take of that track was included on The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, an album that was made up almost entirely of originals. Those originals fell into roughly two types -- there were songs like "Masters of War", "Blowin' in the Wind", and "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall" which dealt in some way with the political events of the time -- the fear of nuclear war, the ongoing conflict in Vietnam, the Civil Rights movement and more -- but did so in an elliptical, poetic way; and there were songs about distance in a relationship -- songs like "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright", which do a wonderful job at portraying a young man's conflicted feelings -- the girl has left him, and he wants her back, but he wants to pretend that he doesn't.  While it's always a bad idea to look for a direct autobiographical interpretation of Dylan's lyrics, it seems fairly safe to say that these songs were inspired by Dylan's feelings for his girlfriend, Suze Rotolo, who had gone travelling in Europe and not seen him for eight months, and who he was worried he would never see again, and he does seem to have actually had several conflicting feelings about this, ranging from desperation for her to come back through to anger and resentment. The surprising thing about The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan is that it's a relatively coherent piece of work, despite being recorded with two different producers over a period of more than a year, and that recording being interrupted by Dylan's own travels to the UK, his separation from and reconciliation with Rotolo, and a change of producers. If you listened to it, you would get an impression of exactly who Dylan was -- you'd come away from it thinking that he was an angry, talented, young man who was trying to merge elements of both traditional English folk music and Robert Johnson style Delta blues with poetic lyrics related to what was going on in the young man's life. By the next album, that opinion of Dylan would have to be reworked, and it would have to be reworked with every single album that came out.  But The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan came out at the perfect time for Dylan to step into the role of "spokesman for a generation" -- a role which he didn't want, and to which he wasn't particularly suited. Because it came out in May 1963, right at the point at which folk music was both becoming hugely more mainstream, and becoming more politicised. And nothing showed both those things as well as the Hootenanny boycott: [Excerpt: The Brothers Four, “Hootenanny Saturday Night”] We've talked before about Hootenanny, the folk TV show, but what we haven't mentioned is that there was a quite substantial boycott of that show by some of the top musicians in folk music at the time. The reason for this is that Pete Seeger, the elder statesman of the folk movement, and his old band the Weavers, were both blacklisted from the show because of Seeger's Communist leanings. The Weavers were --- according to some sources -- told that they could go on if they would sign a loyalty oath, but they refused. It's hard for those of us who weren't around at the time to really comprehend both just how subversive folk music was considered, and how seriously subversion was taken in the USA of the early 1960s. To give a relevant example -- Suze Rotolo was pictured on the cover of The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. Because of this, her cousin's husband, who was in the military, lost his security clearance and didn't get a promotion he was in line for. Again,  someone lost his security clearance because his wife's cousin was pictured on the cover of a Bob Dylan album. So the blacklisting of Seeger and the Weavers was considered a serious matter by the folk music community, and people reacted very strongly. Joan Baez announced that she wouldn't be going on Hootenanny until they asked Seeger on, and Dylan, the Kingston Trio, Dave van Ronk, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, and Peter, Paul, and Mary, among many others, all refused to go on the show as a result. But the odd thing was, whenever anyone *actually asked* Pete Seeger what he thought they should do, he told them they should go on the TV show and use it as an opportunity to promote the music. So while the Kingston Trio and Peter, Paul, and Mary, two of the biggest examples of the commercialisation of folk music that the serious purists sneered at, were refusing to go on the TV in solidarity with a Communist, that Communist's brother, Mike Seeger, happily went on Hootenanny with his band the New Lost City Ramblers, and when the Tarriers were invited on to the show but it clashed with one of their regular bookings, Pete Seeger covered their booking for them so they could appear. Dylan was on the side of the boycotters, though he was not too clear on exactly why. When he spoke about  the boycott on stage, this is what he had to say: [Excerpt: Dylan talks about the boycott. Transcript: "Now a friend of mine, a friend of all yours I'm sure, Pete Seeger's been blacklisted [applause]. He and another group called the Weavers who are around New York [applause] I turned down that television show, but I got no right [applause] but . . . I feel bad turning it down, because the Weavers and Pete Seeger can't be on it. They oughta turn it down. They aren't even asked to be on it because they are blacklisted. Uh—which is, which is a bad thing. I don't know why it's bad, but it's just bad, it's bad all around."] Hootenanny started broadcasting in April 1963, just over a month before The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan came out, and so it would have been a good opportunity for publicity for him -- but turning the show down was also good publicity. Hootenanny wouldn't be the only opportunity to appear on TV that he was offered. It would also not be the only one he turned down. In May, Dylan was given the opportunity to appear on the Ed Sullivan Show, but he agreed on one condition -- that he be allowed to sing "Talking John Birch Paranoid Blues". For those who don't know, the John Birch Society is a far-right conspiratorial organisation which had a huge influence on the development of the American right-wing in the middle of the twentieth century, and is responsible for perpetuating almost every conspiracy theory that has exerted a malign influence on the country and the world since that time. They were a popular punching bag for the left and centre, and for good reason -- we heard the Chad Mitchell Trio mocking them, for example, in the episode on "Mr. Tambourine Man" a couple of weeks ago.  So Dylan insisted that if he was going to go on the Ed Sullivan Show, it would only be to perform his song about them: [Excerpt: Bob Dylan, "Talking John Birch Paranoid Blues"] Now, the Ed Sullivan Show was not interested in having Dylan sing a song that would upset a substantial proportion of its audience, on what was after all meant to be an entertainment show, and so Dylan didn't appear on the show -- and he got a big publicity boost from his principled refusal to make a TV appearance that would have given him a big publicity boost. It's interesting to note in this context that Dylan himself clearly didn't actually think very much of the song -- he never included it on any of his albums, and it remained unreleased for decades. By this point, Dylan had started dating Joan Baez, with whom he would have an on-again off-again relationship for the next couple of years, even though at this point he was also still seeing Suze Rotolo. Baez was one of the big stars of the folk movement, and like Rotolo she was extremely politically motivated. She was also a fan of Dylan's writing, and had started recording versions of his songs on her albums: [Excerpt: Joan Baez, "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right"] The relationship between the two of them became much more public when they appeared together at the Newport Folk Festival in 1963. The Newport Folk Festival had started in 1959, as a spinoff from the successful Newport Jazz Festival, which had been going for a number of years previously. As there was a large overlap between the jazz and folk music fanbases -- both musics appealed at this point to educated, middle-class, liberals who liked to think of themselves as a little bit Bohemian -- the Jazz Festival had first started putting on an afternoon of folk music during its normal jazz programme, and then spun that off into a whole separate festival, initially with the help of Albert Grossman, who advised on which acts should be booked (and of course included several of the acts he managed on the bill). Both Newport festivals had been shut down after rioting at the 1960 Jazz Festival, as three thousand more people had turned up for the show than there was capacity for, and the Marines had had to be called in to clear the streets of angry jazz fans, but the jazz  festival had returned in 1962, and in 1963 the folk festival came back as well. By this time, Albert Grossman was too busy to work for the festival, and so its organisation was taken over by a committee headed by Pete Seeger.  At that 1963 festival, even though Dylan was at this point still a relative unknown compared to some of the acts on the bill, he was made the headliner of the first night, which finished with his set, and then with him bringing Joan Baez, Peter, Paul and Mary, Pete Seeger and the Freedom Singers out to sing with him on "Blowin' in the Wind" and "We Shall Overcome".  To many people, Dylan's appearance in 1963 was what launched him from being "one of the rising stars of the folk movement" to being the most important musician in the movement -- still just one of many, but the first among equals. He was now being talked of in the same terms as Joan Baez or Pete Seeger, and was also starting to behave like someone as important as them -- like he was a star. And that was partly because Baez was promoting Dylan, having him duet with her on stage on his songs -- though few would now argue that the combination of their voices did either artist any favours, Baez's pure, trained, voice, rubbing up against Dylan's more idiosyncratic phrasing in ways that made both sound less impressive: [Excerpt: Joan Baez and Bob Dylan, "With God On Our Side (live at Newport 1963)"] At the end of 1963, Dylan recorded his third album, which came out in early 1964. The Times They Are A-Changin' seems to be Dylan's least personal album to this point, and seems to have been written as a conscious attempt to write the kind of songs that people wanted and expected from him -- there were songs about particular recent news events, like "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll",  the true story of the murder of a Black woman by a white man, and  "Only a Pawn in Their Game", about the murder of the Civil Rights activist Medgar Evers. There were fictional dramatisations of the kind of effects that real-world social problems were having on people, like "North Country Blues", in which the callous way mining towns were treated by capital leads to a woman losing her parents, brother, husband, and children, or "The Ballad of Hollis Brown", about a farmer driven to despair by poverty who ends up killing his whole family and himself. As you can imagine, it's not a very cheery album, but it's one that impressed a lot of people, especially its title track, which was very deliberately written as an anthem for the new social movements that were coming up: [Excerpt: Bob Dylan, "The Times They Are A-Changin'"] But it was a bleak album, with none of the humour that had characterised Dylan's first two albums. Soon after recording the album, Dylan had a final split with Rotolo, went travelling for a while, and took LSD for the first time. He also started to distance himself from Baez at this point, though the two would remain together until mid 1965. He seems to have regarded the political material he was doing as a mistake, as something he was doing for other people, rather than because that was what he wanted to do.  He toured the UK in early 1964, and then returned to the US in time to record his fourth album, Another Side of Bob Dylan. It can be argued that this is the point where Dylan really becomes himself, and starts making music that's the music he wants to make, rather than music that he thinks other people want him to make.  The entire album was recorded in one session, along with a few tracks that didn't make the cut -- like the early version of "Mr. Tambourine Man" with Ramblin' Jack Elliott that we heard in the episode on that song. Elliott was in attendance, as were a number of Dylan's other friends, though the album features only Dylan performing. Also there was the journalist Nat Hentoff, who wrote a full account of the recording session for the New Yorker, which I'll link in the show notes.  Dylan told Hentoff "“There aren't any finger-pointing songs in here, either. Those records I've already made, I'll stand behind them, but some of that was jumping into the scene to be heard and a lot of it was because I didn't see anybody else doing that kind of thing. Now a lot of people are doing finger-pointing songs. You know—pointing to all the things that are wrong. Me, I don't want to write for people anymore. You know—be a spokesman. Like I once wrote about Emmett Till in the first person, pretending I was him. From now on, I want to write from inside me, and to do that I'm going to have to get back to writing like I used to when I was ten—having everything come out naturally." Dylan was right to say that there were no finger-pointing songs. The songs on Another Side of Bob Dylan were entirely personal -- "Ballad in Plain D", in particular, is Dylan's take on the night he split up with Suze Rotolo, laying the blame -- unfairly, as he would later admit -- on her older sister. The songs mostly dealt with love and relationships, and as a result were ripe for cover versions. The opening track, in particular, "All I Really Want to Do", which in Dylan's version was a Jimmie Rodgers style hillbilly tune, became the subject of duelling cover versions. The Byrds' version came out as the follow-up to their version of "Mr. Tambourine Man": [Excerpt: The Byrds, "All I Really Want to Do"] But Cher also released a version -- which the Byrds claimed came about when Cher's husband Sonny Bono secretly taped a Byrds live show where they performed the song before they'd released it, and he then stole their arrangement: [Excerpt: Cher, "All I Really Want to Do"] In America, the Byrds' version only made number forty on the charts, while Cher made number fifteen. In the UK, where both artists were touring at the time to promote the single, Cher made number nine but the Byrds charted higher at number four.  Both those releases came out after the album came out in late 1964, but even before it was released, Dylan was looking for other artists to cover his new songs. He found one at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival, where he met Johnny Cash for the first time. Cash had been a fan of Dylan for some time -- and indeed, he's often credited as being the main reason why CBS persisted with Dylan after his first album was unsuccessful, as Cash had lobbied for him within the company -- and he'd recently started to let that influence show. His most recent hit, "Understand Your Man", owed more than a little to Dylan's "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right", and Cash had also started recording protest songs. At Newport, Cash performed his own version of "Don't Think Twice": [Excerpt: Johnny Cash, "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right"] Cash and Dylan met up, with June Carter and Joan Baez, in Baez's hotel room, and according to later descriptions they were both so excited to meet each other they were bouncing with excitement, jumping up and down on the beds. They played music together all night, and Dylan played some of his new songs for Cash. One of them was "It Ain't Me Babe", a song that seems at least slightly inspired by "She Loves You" -- you can sing the "yeah, yeah, yeah" and "no, no, no" together -- and which was the closing track of Another Side of Bob Dylan. Cash soon released his own version of the song, which became a top five country hit: [Excerpt: Johnny Cash, "It Ain't Me Babe"] But it wasn't long after meeting Cash that Dylan met the group who may have inspired that song -- and his meeting with the Beatles seems to have confirmed in him his decision that he needed to move away from the folk scene and towards making pop records. This was something that Tom Wilson had been pushing for for a while -- Wilson had told Dylan's manager Albert Grossman that if they could get Dylan backed by a good band, they'd have a white Ray Charles on their hands. As an experiment, Wilson took some session musicians into the studio and had them overdub an electric backing on Dylan's acoustic version of "House of the Rising Sun", basing the new backing on the Animals' hit version. The result wasn't good enough to release, but it did show that there was a potential for combining Dylan's music with the sound of electric guitars and drums: [Excerpt: Bob Dylan, “House of the Rising Sun (electric version)”] Dylan was also being influenced by his friend John Hammond Jr, the blues musician son of Dylan's first producer, and a veteran of the Greenwich Village folk scene. Hammond had decided that he wanted to show the British R&B bands what proper American blues sounded like, and so he'd recruited a group of mostly-Canadian musicians to back him on an electric album. His "So Many Roads" album featured three members of a group called Levon and the Hawks -- Levon Helm, Garth Hudson, and Robbie Robertson -- who had recently quit working for the Canadian rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins -- plus harmonica player Charlie Musselwhite and Mike Bloomfield, who was normally a guitarist but who is credited on piano for the album: [Excerpt: John Hammond, Jr. "Who Do You Love?"] Dylan was inspired by Hammond's sound, and wanted to get the same sound on his next record, though he didn't consider hiring the same musicians. Instead, for his next album he brought in Bruce Langhorne, the tambourine man himself, on guitar, Bobby Gregg -- a drummer who had been the house drummer for Cameo-Parkway and played on hits by Chubby Checker, Bobby Rydell and others; the session guitarists Al Gorgoni and Kenny Rankin, piano players Frank Owens and Paul Griffin, and two bass players, Joseph Macho and William Lee, the father of the film director Spike Lee. Not all of these played on all the finished tracks -- and there were other tracks recorded during the sessions, where Dylan was accompanied by Hammond and another guitarist, John Sebastian, that weren't used at all -- but that's the lineup that played on Dylan's first electric album, Bringing it All Back Home. The first single, "Subterranean Homesick Blues" actually takes more inspiration than one might imagine from the old-school folk singers Dylan was still associating with. Its opening lines seem to be a riff on "Taking it Easy", a song that had originally been written in the forties by Woody Guthrie for the Almanac Singers, where it had been a song about air-raid sirens: [Excerpt: The Almanac Singers, "Taking it Easy"] But had then been rewritten by Pete Seeger for the Weavers, whose version had included this verse that wasn't in the original: [Excerpt: The Weavers, "Taking it Easy"] Dylan took that verse, and the basic Guthrie-esque talking blues rhythm, and connected it to Chuck Berry's "Too Much Monkey Business" with its rapid-fire joking blues lyrics: [Excerpt: Chuck Berry, "Too Much Monkey Business"] But Dylan's lyrics were a radical departure, a freeform, stream-of-consciousness proto-psychedelic lyric inspired as much by the Beat poets as by any musician -- it's no coincidence that in the promotional film Dylan made for the song, one of the earliest examples of what would become known as the rock video, the Beat poet Allen Ginsberg makes an appearance: [Excerpt: Bob Dylan, "Subterranean Homesick Blues"] "Subterranean Homesick Blues" made the top forty in the US -- it only made number thirty-nine, but it was Dylan's first single to chart at all in the US. And it made the top ten in the UK -- but it's notable that even over here, there was still some trepidation about Dylan's new direction. To promote his UK tour, CBS put out a single of "The Times They Are A-Changin'", and that too made the top ten, and spent longer on the charts than "Subterranean Homesick Blues". Indeed, it seems like everyone was hedging their bets. The opening side of Bringing it All Back Home is all electric, but the B-side is made up entirely of acoustic performances, though sometimes with a little added electric guitar countermelody -- it's very much in the same style as Dylan's earlier albums, and seems to be a way of pulling back after testing the waters, of reassuring people who might have been upset by the change in style on the first side that this was still the same Dylan they knew.  And the old Dylan certainly still had plenty of commercial life in him. Indeed, when Dylan went to the UK for a tour in spring of 1965, he found that British musicians were trying to copy his style -- a young man called Donovan seemed to be doing his best to *be* Dylan, with even the title of his debut hit single seeming to owe something to "Blowing in the Wind": [Excerpt: Donovan, "Catch the Wind (original single version)"] On that UK tour, Dylan performed solo as he always had -- though by this point he had taken to bringing along an entourage. Watching the classic documentary of that tour, Dont Look Back, it's quite painful to see Dylan's cruelty to Joan Baez, who had come along on the expectation that she would be duetting with him occasionally, as he had dueted with her, but who is sidelined, tormented, and ignored. It's even worse to see Bob Neuwirth,  a hanger-on who is very obviously desperate to impress Dylan by copying all his mannerisms and affectations, doing the same. It's unsurprising that this was the end of Dylan and Baez's relationship. Dylan's solo performances on that tour went down well, but some of his fans questioned him about his choice to make an electric record. But he wasn't going to stop recording with electric musicians. Indeed, Tom Wilson also came along on the tour, and while he was in England he made an attempt to record a track with the members of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers -- Mayall, Hughie Flint, Eric Clapton, and John McVie, though it was unsuccessful and only a low-fidelity fragment of it circulates: [Excerpt: Bob Dylan and the Bluesbreakers, "If You Gotta Go, Go Now"] Also attending that session was a young wannabe singer from Germany who Dylan had taken up with, though their dalliance was very brief. During the session Dylan cut a demo of a song he planned to give her, but Nico didn't end up recording "I'll Keep it With Mine" until a couple of years later. But one other thing happened in England. After the UK tour, Dylan travelled over to Europe for a short tour, then returned to the UK to do a show for the BBC -- his first full televised concert. Unfortunately, that show never went ahead -- there was a party the night before, and Dylan was hospitalised after it with what was said to be food poisoning. It might even actually have been food poisoning, but take a listen to the episode I did on Vince Taylor, who was also at that party, and draw your own conclusions. Anyway, Dylan was laid up in bed for a while, and took the opportunity to write what he's variously described as being ten or twenty pages of stream of consciousness vomit, out of which he eventually took four pages of lyrics, a vicious attack on a woman who was originally the protagonist's social superior, but has since fallen. He's never spoken in any detail about what or who the subject of the song was, but given that it was written just days after his breakup with Baez, it's not hard to guess. The first attempt at recording the song was a false start. On June the fifteenth, Dylan and most of the same musicians who'd played on his previous album went into the studio to record it, along with Mike Bloomfield, who had played on that John Hammond album that had inspired Dylan and was now playing in the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Bloomfield had been surprised when Dylan had told him that he didn't want the kind of string-bending electric blues that Bloomfield usually played, but he managed to come up with something Dylan approved of -- but the song was at this point in waltz time: [Excerpt: Bob Dylan, "Like a Rolling Stone (early version)"] The session ended, but Joe Macho, Al Gorgoni and Bobby Gregg stayed around after the session, when Tom Wilson called in another session guitarist to join them in doing the same trick he'd done on "House of the Rising Sun", overdubbing new instruments on a flop acoustic record he'd produced for a Greenwich Village folk duo who'd already split up. But we'll hear more about "The Sound of Silence" in a few weeks' time. The next day, the same musicians came back, along with one new one. Al Kooper had been invited by Wilson to come along and watch the session, but he was determined that he was going to play on whatever was recorded. He got to the session early, brought his guitar and amp in and got tuned up before Wilson arrived. But then Kooper heard Bloomfield play, realised that he simply couldn't play at anything remotely like the same standard, and decided he'd be best off staying in the control room after all.  But then, before they started recording "Like a Rolling Stone", which by now was in 4/4 time, Frank Owens, who had been playing organ, switched to piano and left his organ on. Kooper saw his chance -- he played a bit of keyboards, too, and the song was in C, which is the easiest key to play in. Kooper asked Wilson if he could go and play, and Wilson didn't exactly say no, so Kooper went into the studio and sat at the organ.  Kooper improvised the organ line that became the song's most notable instrumental part, but you will notice that it's mixed quite low in the track. This is because Wilson was unimpressed with Kooper's playing, which is technically pretty poor -- indeed, for much of the song, Kooper is a beat behind the rest of the band, waiting for them to change chords and then following the change on the next measure. Luckily, Kooper is also a good enough natural musician that he made this work, and it gave the song a distinctive sound: [Excerpt: Bob Dylan, "Like a Rolling Stone"] The finished record came in at around six minutes -- and here I should just mention that most books on the subject say that the single was six minutes and thirteen seconds long. That's the length of the stereo mix of the song on the stereo version of the album. The mono mix on the mono album, which we just heard, is five minutes fifty-eight, as it has a shorter fade. I haven't been able to track down a copy of the single as released in 1965, but usually the single mix would be the same as the mono album mix. Whatever the exact length, it was much, much, longer than the norm for a single -- the Animals' "House of the Rising Sun" had been regarded as ridiculously long at four and a half minutes -- and Columbia originally wanted to split the song over two sides of a single. But eventually it was released as one side, in full: [Excerpt: Bob Dylan, "Like a Rolling Stone"] That's Bruce Langhorne there playing that rather sloppy tambourine part, high in the mix. The record made the top five in the UK, and reached number two in the US, only being held off from the top spot by "Help!" by the Beatles.  It would, however, be the last track that Tom Wilson produced for Dylan. Nobody knows what caused their split after three and a half albums working together -- and everything suggests that on the UK tour in the Spring, the two were very friendly. But they had some sort of disagreement, about which neither of them would ever speak, other than a comment by Wilson in an interview shortly before his death in which he said that Dylan had told him he was going to get Phil Spector to produce his records. In the event, the rest of the album Dylan was working on would be produced by Bob Johnston, who would be Dylan's regular producer until the mid-seventies. So "Like a Rolling Stone" was a major break in Dylan's career, and there was another one shortly after its release, when Dylan played the Newport Folk Festival for the third time, in what has become possibly the single most discussed and analysed performance in folk or rock music. The most important thing to note here is that there was not a backlash among the folk crowd against electric instruments. The Newport Folk Festival had *always* had electric performers -- John Lee Hooker and Johnny Cash and The Staple Singers had all performed with electric guitars and nobody had cared. What there was, was a backlash against pop music. You see, up until the Beatles hit America, the commercial side of folk music had been huge. Acts like the Kingston Trio, Peter, Paul, and Mary, The Chad Mitchell Trio, and so on had been massive. Most of the fans at the Newport Folk Festival actually despised many of these acts as sell-outs, doing watered-down versions of the traditional music they loved. But at the same time, those acts *were* doing watered-down versions of the traditional music they loved, and by doing so they were exposing more people to that traditional music. They were making programmes like Hootenanny possible -- and the folkies didn't like Hootenanny, but Hootenanny existing meant that the New Lost City Ramblers got an audience they would otherwise not have got. There was a recognition, then, that the commercialised folk music that many of them despised was nonetheless important in the development of a thriving scene. And it was those acts, the Kingston Trios and Peter, Paul, and Marys, who were fast losing their commercial relevance because of the renewed popularity of rock music. If Hootenanny gets cancelled and Shindig put on in its place, that's great for fans of the Righteous Brothers and Sam Cooke, but it's not so great if you want to hear "Tom Dooley" or "If I Had a Hammer". And so many of the old guard in the folk movement weren't wary of electric guitars *as instruments*, but they were wary of anything that looked like someone taking sides with the new pop music rather than the old folk music. For Dylan's first performance at the festival in 1965, he played exactly the set that people would expect of him, and there was no problem. The faultlines opened up, not with Dylan's first performance, but with the performance by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, as part of a history of the blues, presented by Alan Lomax. Lomax had no objection to rock and roll -- indeed, earlier in the festival the Chambers Brothers, a Black electric group from Mississippi, had performed a set of rock and R&B songs, and Lomax had come on stage afterwards and said “I'm very proud tonight that we finally got onto the Newport Folk Festival our modern American folk music: rock 'n' roll!” But Lomax didn't think that the Butterfield band met his criteria of "authenticity". And he had a point. The Paul Butterfield Blues Band were an integrated group -- their rhythm section were Black musicians who had played with Howlin' Wolf -- and they'd gained experience through playing Chicago blues on the South Side of Chicago, but their leader, Butterfield, was a white man, as was Mike Bloomfield, their guitarist, and so they'd quickly moved to playing clubs on the North side, where Black musicians had generally not been able to play. Butterfield and Bloomfield were both excellent musicians, but they were closer to the British blues lovers who were making up groups like the Rolling Stones, Animals, and Manfred Mann. There was a difference -- they were from Chicago, not from the Home Counties -- but they were still scholars coming at the music from the outside, rather than people who'd grown up with the music and had it as part of their culture. The Butterfield Band were being promoted as a sort of American answer to the Stones, and they had been put on Lomax's bill rather against his will -- he wanted to have some Chicago blues to illustrate that part of the music, but why not Muddy Waters or Howlin' Wolf, rather than this new group who had never really done anything? One he'd never even heard -- but who he knew that Albert Grossman was thinking about managing. So his introduction to the Butterfield Blues Band's performance was polite but hardly rapturous. He said "Us white cats always moved in, a little bit late, but tried to catch up...I understand that this present combination has not only caught up but passed the rest. That's what I hear—I'm anxious to find out whether it's true or not." He then introduced the musicians, and they started to play an old Little Walter song: [Excerpt: The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, "Juke"] But after the set, Grossman was furious at Lomax, asking him what kind of introduction that was meant to be. Lomax responded by asking if Grossman wanted a punch in the mouth, Grossman hurled a homophobic slur at Lomax, and the two men started hitting each other and rolling round in the dirt, to the amusement of pretty much everyone around. But Lomax and Grossman were both far from amused. Lomax tried to get the Festival board to kick Grossman out, and almost succeeded, until someone explained that if they did, then that would mean that all Grossman's acts, including huge names like Dylan and Peter, Paul, and Mary, would also be out.  Nobody's entirely sure whose idea it was, but it seems to have been Grossman who thought that since Bloomfield had played on Dylan's recent single, it might be an idea to get the Butterfield Blues Band to back Dylan on stage, as a snub to Lomax. But the idea seems to have cohered properly when Grossman bumped into Al Kooper, who was attending the festival just as an audience member. Grossman gave Kooper a pair of backstage passes, and told him to meet up with Dylan. And so, for Dylan's performance on the Sunday -- scheduled in the middle of the day, rather than as the headliner as most people expected, he appeared with an electric guitar, backed by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and Al Kooper. He opened with his recent single "Maggie's Farm", and followed it with the new one, "Like a Rolling Stone": [Excerpt: Bob Dylan, "Like a Rolling Stone (live at Newport)"] After those two songs, the group did one more, a song called "Phantom Engineer", which they hadn't rehearsed properly and which was an utter train wreck. And then they left the stage. And there was booing. How much booing, and what the cause was, is hard to say, but everyone agrees there was some. Some people claim that the booing was just because the set had been so short, others say that the audience was mostly happy but there were just a few people booing. And others say that the booing mostly came from the front -- that there were sound problems that meant that while the performance sounded great to people further back, there was a tremendous level of distortion near the front. That's certainly what Pete Seeger said. Seeger was visibly distraught and angry at the sounds coming from the stage. He later said, and I believe him, that it wasn't annoyance at Dylan playing with an electric band, but at the distorted sound. He said he couldn't hear the words, that the guitar was too loud compared to the vocals, and in particular that his father, who was an old man using a hearing aid, was in actual physical pain at the sound. According to Joe Boyd, later a famous record producer but at this time just helping out at the festival, Seeger, the actor Theodore Bikel, and Alan Lomax, all of whom were on the festival board, told Boyd to take a message to Paul Rothchild, who was working the sound, telling him that the festival board ordered him to lower the volume. When Boyd got there, he found Rothchild there with Albert Grossman and Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul, and Mary, who was also on the board. When Boyd gave his message, Yarrow responded that the board was "adequately represented at the sound controls", that the sound was where the musicians wanted it, and gave Boyd a message to take back to the other board members, consisting of a single raised middle finger. Whatever the cause of the anger, which was far from universal, Dylan was genuinely baffled and upset at the reaction -- while it's been portrayed since, including by Dylan himself at times, as a deliberate act of provocation on Dylan's part, it seems that at the time he was just going on stage with his new friends, to play his new songs in front of some of his old friends and a crowd that had always been supportive of him. Eventually Peter Yarrow, who was MCing, managed to persuade Dylan to go back on stage and do a couple more numbers, alone this time as the band hadn't rehearsed any more songs. He scrounged up an acoustic guitar, went back on, spent a couple of minutes fiddling around with the guitar, got a different guitar because something was wrong with that one, played "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue", spent another couple of minutes tuning up, and then finally played "Mr. Tambourine Man": [Excerpt: Bob Dylan, "Mr. Tambourine Man (live at Newport)"] But that pause while Dylan was off stage scrounging an acoustic guitar from somewhere led to a rumour that has still got currency fifty-six years later. Because Peter Yarrow, trying to keep the crowd calm, said "He's gone to get his axe" -- using musicians' slang for a guitar. But many of the crowd didn't know that slang. But they had seen Pete Seeger furious, and they'd also seen, earlier in the festival, a demonstration of work-songs, sung by people who kept time by chopping wood, and according to some people Seeger had joined in with that demonstration, swinging an axe as he sang. So the audience put two and two together, and soon the rumour was going round the festival -- Pete Seeger had been so annoyed by Dylan going electric he'd tried to chop the cables with an axe, and had had to be held back from doing so. Paul Rothchild even later claimed to have seen Seeger brandishing it. The rumour became so pervasive that in later years, even as he denied doing it, Seeger tried to explain it away by saying that he might have said something like "I wish I had an axe so I could cut those cables". In fact, Seeger wasn't angry at Dylan, as much as he was concerned -- shortly afterwards he wrote a private note to himself trying to sort out his own feelings, which said in part "I like some rock and roll a great deal. Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters. I confess that, like blues and like flamenco music, I can't listen to it for a long time at a stretch. I just don't feel that aggressive, personally. But I have a question. Was the sound at Newport from Bob's aggregation good rock and roll?  I once had a vision of a beast with hollow fangs. I first saw it when my mother-in-law, who I loved very much, died of cancer... Who knows, but I am one of the fangs that has sucked Bob dry. It is in the hope that I can learn that I write these words, asking questions I need help to answer, using language I never intended. Hoping that perhaps I'm wrong—but if I am right, hoping that it won't happen again." Seeger would later make his own electric albums, and he would always continue to be complimentary towards Dylan in public. He even repeatedly said that while he still wished he'd been able to hear the words and that the guitar had been mixed quieter, he knew he'd been on the wrong side, and that if he had the time over he'd have gone on stage and asked the audience to stop booing Dylan. But the end result was the same -- Dylan was now no longer part of the Newport Folk Festival crowd. He'd moved on and was now a pop star, and nothing was going to change that. He'd split with Suze, he'd split with Joan Baez, he'd split with Tom Wilson, and now he'd split with his peer group. From now on Dylan wasn't a spokesman for his generation, or the leader of a movement. He was a young man with a leather jacket and a Stratocaster, and he was going to make rock music. And we'll see the results of that in future episodes.

How can we help people integrate their faith and build community in their workplaces? What is the role of work in our lives? Why is workplace ministry a strategic way to reach people? What are workplace groups, how do they function, and how do we start them?    Guest: Ron Kelleher   Ron Kelleher worked for Procter & Gamble for 36 years in a variety of roles and then transitioned into ministry. He earned a Master of Arts in biblical studies and theology from Talbot seminary and was ordained as a minister in 2012. He's been serving in various ministries at Saddleback which has been his home church since 1991. Ron founded and led Inspired Leadership Inc which equips and encourages Christian leaders to live out their faith in the marketplace as well as Cross Work Consulting. In 2020, he became the volunteer director of Saddleback's workplace ministry.    www.saddleback.com/works   Ronk@saddlebackvolunteer.com    Register for our fall Virtual Lobby today! 

Bob Dylan's 1962 debut gets "The Treatment" from Craig Calcaterra, Steven Goldman and Mike Ferrin as the 3 discuss its place in the Dylan lexicon and Dylan's eventual impact on the Greenwich Folk Movement. They also talk about the film "Inside Llewyn Davis" and the shadow Dylan casts over the period piece that would've been a mere months before this album was cut.

Craig Ronk, “High Banks Hustle” at Southern Illinois Raceway winner; Noah Samuel, 34 Raceway winner; and Billy Hribar, Jennerstown Speedway promoter are this week's guests. Lenny Batycki hosts.

Tune in and hear Christina Winters-Ronk, Real Estate Broker/Owner of Harcourts Integrity Team Real Estate Services, share her journey and keys to success in real estate. Christina is a self-driver and believes that hard work pays off. Her objectives for her business are to continue to grow and give back to her local community and schools.

Episode one hundred and fifteen of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at "House of the Rising Sun" by the Animals, at the way the US and UK music scenes were influencing each other in 1964, and at the fraught question of attribution when reworking older songs. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode.   Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus episode available, on "Memphis" by Johnny Rivers. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ ----more---- Erratum A couple of times I mispronounce Hoagy Lands' surname as Land. Resources As always, I've created a Mixcloud streaming playlist with full versions of all the songs in the episode. Information on the Animals comes largely from Animal Tracks  by Sean Egan. The two-CD set The Complete Animals isn't actually their complete recordings -- for that you'd also need to buy the Decca recordings -- but it is everything they recorded with Mickie Most, including all the big hits discussed in this episode. For the information on Dylan's first album, I used The Mayor of MacDougal Street by Dave Van Ronk and Elijah Wald, the fascinating and funny autobiography of Dylan's mentor in his Greenwich Village period. I also referred to Chronicles Volume 1 by Bob Dylan, a partial, highly inaccurate, but thoroughly readable autobiography; Bob Dylan: All The Songs by Phillipe Margotin and Jean-Michel Guesdon; and Revolution in the Air, by Clinton Heylin. Transcript Today we're going to look at a song that, more than any other song we've looked at so far, shows how the influence between British and American music was working in the early 1960s. A song about New Orleans that may have its roots in English folk music, that became an Appalachian country song, performed by a blues band from the North of England, who learned it from a Minnesotan folk singer based in New York. We're going to look at "House of the Rising Sun", and the career of the Animals: [Excerpt: The Animals, "House of the Rising Sun"] The story of the Animals, like so many of the British bands of this time period, starts at art school, when two teenagers named Eric Burdon and John Steel met each other. The school they met each other at was in Newcastle, and this is important for how the band came together. If you're not familiar with the geography of Great Britain, Newcastle is one of the largest cities, but it's a very isolated city. Britain has a number of large cities. The biggest, of course, is London, which is about as big as the next five added together. Now, there's a saying that one of the big differences between Britain and America is that in America a hundred years is a long time, and in Britain a hundred miles is a long way, so take that into account when I talk about everything else here. Most of the area around London is empty of other big cities, and the nearest other big city to it is Birmingham, a hundred miles north-west of it. About seventy miles north of that, give or take, you hit Manchester, and Manchester is in the middle of a chain of large cities -- Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, and Sheffield, and the slightly smaller Bradford, are more or less in a row, and the furthest distance between two adjacent cities is about thirty-five miles. But then Newcastle is another hundred miles north of Leeds, the closest of those cities to it. And then it's another hundred miles or so further north before you hit the major Scottish cities, which cluster together like the ones near Manchester do. This means Newcastle is, for a major city, incredibly isolated. Britain's culture is extraordinarily London-centric, but if you're in Liverpool or Manchester there are a number of other nearby cities. A band from Manchester can play a gig in Liverpool and make the last train home, and vice versa. This allows for the creation of regional scenes, centred on one city but with cross-fertilisation from others. Now, again, I am talking about a major city here, not some remote village, but it means that Newcastle in the sixties was in something of the same position as Seattle was, as we talked about in the episode on "Louie, Louie" -- a place where bands would play in their own immediate area and not travel outside it. A journey to Leeds, particularly in the time we're talking about when the motorway system was only just starting, would be a major trip, let alone travelling further afield. Local bands would play in Newcastle, and in large nearby towns like Gateshead, Sunderland, and Middlesborough, but not visit other cities. This meant that there was also a limited pool of good musicians to perform with, and so if you wanted to be in a band, you couldn't be that picky about who you got on with, so long as they could play. Steel and Burdon, when they met at art school, were both jazz fanatics, and they quickly formed a trad jazz band. The band initially featured them on trumpet and trombone, but when rock and roll and skiffle hit the band changed its lineup to one based around guitars. Steel shifted to drums, while Burdon stopped playing an instrument and became the lead singer. Burdon's tastes at the time were oriented towards the jazzier side of R&B, people like Ray Charles, and he also particularly loved blues shouters like Jimmy Witherspoon and Big Joe Turner. He tried hard to emulate Turner, and one of the songs that's often mentioned as being in the repertoire of these early groups is "Roll 'Em Pete", the Big Joe Turner song we talked about back in episode two: [Excerpt: Big Joe Turner, "Roll 'em Pete"] The jazz group that Burdon and Steel formed was called the Pagan Jazz Men, and when they switched instruments they became instead The Pagans R&B Band. The group was rounded out by Blackie Sanderson and Jimmy Crawford, but soon got a fifth member when a member from another band on an early bill asked if he could sit in with them for a couple of numbers. Alan Price was the rhythm guitarist in that band, but joined in on piano, and instantly gelled with the group, playing Jerry Lee Lewis style piano. The other members would always later say that they didn't like Price either as a person or for his taste in music -- both Burdon and Steel regarded Price's tastes as rather pedestrian when compared to their own, hipper, tastes, saying he always regarded himself as something of a lounge player, while Burdon was an R&B and blues person and Steel liked blues and jazz. But they all played well together, and in Newcastle there wasn't that much choice about which musicians you could play with, and so they stayed together for a while, as the Pagans evolved into the Kansas City Five or the Kansas City Seven, depending on the occasional presence of two brass players. The Kansas City group played mostly jump blues, which was the area of music where Burdon and Steel's tastes intersected -- musicians they've cited as ones they covered were Ray Charles, Louis Jordan, and Big Joe Turner. But then the group collapsed, as Price didn't turn up to a gig -- he'd been poached by a pop covers band, the Kon-Tors, whose bass player, Chas Chandler, had been impressed with him when Chandler had sat in at a couple of Kansas City Five rehearsals. Steel got a gig playing lounge music, just to keep paying the bills, and Burdon would occasionally sit in with various other musicians. But a few members of the Kon-Tors got a side gig, performing as the Alan Price Rhythm & Blues Combo as the resident band at a local venue called the Club A Go-Go, which was the venue where visiting London jazzmen and touring American blues players would perform when they came to Newcastle. Burdon started sitting in with them, and then they invited Steel to replace their drummer, and in September 1963 the Alan Price Rhythm And Blues Combo settled on a lineup of Burdon on vocals, Price on piano, Steel on drums, Chandler on bass, and new member Hilton Valentine, who joined at the same time as Steel, on guitar. Valentine was notably more experienced than the other members, and had previously performed in a rock and roll group called the Wildcats -- not the same band who backed Marty Wilde -- and had even recorded an album with them, though I've been unable to track down any copies of the album. At this point all the group members now had different sensibilities -- Valentine was a rocker and skiffle fan, while Chandler was into more mainstream pop music, though the other members emphasised in interviews that he liked *good* pop music like the Beatles, not the lesser pop music. The new lineup was so good that a mere eight days after they first performed together, they went into a recording studio to record an EP, which they put out themselves and sold at their gigs. Apparently five hundred copies of the EP were sold. As well as playing piano on the tracks, Price also played melodica, which he used in the same way that blues musicians would normally use the harmonica: [Excerpt: The Alan Price Rhythm & Blues Combo, "Pretty Thing"] This kind of instrumental experimentation would soon further emphasise the split between Price and Burdon, as Price would get a Vox organ rather than cart a piano between gigs, while Burdon disliked the sound of the organ, even though it became one of the defining sounds of the group. That sound can be heard on a live recording of them a couple of months later, backing the great American blues musician Sonny Boy Williamson II at the Club A Go Go: [Excerpt: Sonny Boy Williamson II and the Animals, “Fattening Frogs For Snakes”] One person who definitely *didn't* dislike the sound of the electric organ was Graham Bond, the Hammond organ player with Alexis Korner's band who we mentioned briefly back in the episode on the Rolling Stones. Bond and a few other members of the Korner group had quit, and formed their own group, the Graham Bond Organisation, which had originally featured a guitarist named John McLaughlin, but by this point consisted of Bond, saxophone player Dick Heckstall-Smith, and the rhythm section Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker. They wouldn't make an album until 1965, but live recordings of them from around this time exist, though in relatively poor quality: [Excerpt: The Graham Bond Organisation, "Wade in the Water"] The Graham Bond Organisation played at the Club A Go Go, and soon Bond was raving back in London about this group from Newcastle he'd heard. Arrangements were quickly made for them to play in London. By this time, the Rolling Stones had outgrown the small club venues they'd been playing, and a new band called the Yardbirds were playing all the Stones' old venues. A trade was agreed -- the Yardbirds would play all the Alan Price Rhythm & Blues Combo's normal gigs for a couple of weeks, and the Alan Price Rhythm & Blues Combo would play the Yardbirds'. Or rather, the Animals would. None of the members of the group could ever agree on how they got their new name, and not all of them liked it, but when they played those gigs in London in December 1963, just three months after getting together, that was how they were billed. And it was as the Animals that they were signed by Mickie Most. Mickie Most was one of the new breed of independent producers that were cropping up in London, following in Joe Meek's footsteps, like Andrew Oldham. Most had started out as a singer in a duo called The Most Brothers, which is where he got his stage name. The Most Brothers had only released one single: [Excerpt: The Most Brothers, "Whole Lotta Woman"] But then Most had moved to South Africa, where he'd had eleven number one hits with cover versions of American rock singles, backed by a band called the Playboys: [Excerpt: Mickie Most and the Playboys, "Johnny B Goode"] He'd returned to the UK in 1963, and been less successful here as a performer, and so he decided to move into production, and the Animals were his first signing. He signed them up and started licensing their records to EMI, and in January 1964 the Animals moved down to London. There has been a lot of suggestion over the years that the Animals resented Mickie Most pushing them in a more pop direction, but their first single was an inspired compromise between the group's blues purism and Most's pop instincts. The song they recorded dates back at least to 1935, when the State Street Boys, a group that featured Big Bill Broonzy, recorded "Don't Tear My Clothes": [Excerpt: The State Street Boys, "Don't Tear My Clothes"] That song got picked up and adapted by a lot of other blues singers, like Blind Boy Fuller, who recorded it as "Mama Let Me Lay It On You" in 1938: [Excerpt: Blind Boy Fuller, "Mama Let Me Lay it On You"] That had in turn been picked up by the Reverend Gary Davis, who came up with his own arrangement of the song: [Excerpt: Rev. Gary Davis, "Baby, Let Me Lay It On You"] Eric von Schmidt, a folk singer in Massachusetts, had learned that song from Davis, and Bob Dylan had in turn learned it from von Schmidt, and included it on his first album as "Baby Let Me Follow You Down": [Excerpt: Bob Dylan, "Baby Let Me Follow You Down"] The Animals knew the song from that version, which they loved, but Most had come across it in a different way. He'd heard a version which had been inspired by Dylan, but had been radically reworked. Bert Berns had produced a single on Atlantic for a soul singer called Hoagy Lands, and on the B-side had been a new arrangement of the song, retitled "Baby Let Me Hold Your Hand" and adapted by Berns and Wes Farrell, a songwriter who had written for the Shirelles. Land's version had started with an intro in which Lands is clearly imitating Sam Cooke: [Excerpt: Hoagy Lands, "Baby Let Me Hold Your Hand"] But after that intro, which seems to be totally original to Berns and Farrell, Lands' track goes into a very upbeat Twist-flavoured song, with a unique guitar riff and Latin feel, both of them very much in the style of Berns' other songs, but clearly an adaptation of Dylan's version of the old song: [Excerpt: Hoagy Lands, "Baby Let Me Hold Your Hand"] Most had picked up that record on a trip to America, and decided that the Animals should record a version of the song based on that record. Hilton Valentine would later claim that this record, whose title and artist he could never remember (and it's quite possible that Most never even told the band who the record was by) was not very similar at all to the Animals' version, and that they'd just kicked around the song and come up with their own version, but listening to it, it is *very* obviously modelled on Lands' version. They cut out Lands' intro, and restored a lot of Dylan's lyric, but musically it's Lands all the way. The track starts like this: [Excerpt: The Animals, "Baby Let Me Take You Home"] Both have a breakdown section with spoken lyrics over a staccato backing, though the two sets of lyrics are different -- compare the Animals: [Excerpt: The Animals, "Baby Let Me Take You Home"] and Lands: [Excerpt: Hoagy Lands, "Baby Let Me Hold Your Hand"] And both have the typical Bert Berns call and response ending -- Lands: [Excerpt: Hoagy Lands, "Baby Let me Hold Your Hand"] And the Animals: [Excerpt: The Animals, "Baby Let Me Take You Home"] So whatever Valentine's later claims, the track very much was modelled on the earlier record, but it's still one of the strongest remodellings of an American R&B record by a British group in this time period, and an astonishingly accomplished record, which made number twenty-one. The Animals' second single was another song that had been recorded on Dylan's first album. "House of the Rising Sun" has been argued by some, though I think it's a tenuous argument, to originally date to the seventeenth century English folk song "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard": [Excerpt: Martin Carthy, "Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard"] What we do know is that the song was circulating in Appalachia in the early years of the twentieth century, and it's that version that was first recorded in 1933, under the name "Rising Sun Blues", by Clarence Ashley and Gwen Foster: [Excerpt: Clarence Ashley and Gwen Foster, "Rising Sun Blues"] The song has been described as about several things -- about alcoholism, about sex work, about gambling -- depending on the precise version. It's often thought, for example, that the song was always sung by women and was about a brothel, but there are lots of variants of it, sung by both men and women, before it reached its most famous form. Dave van Ronk, who put the song into the form by which it became best known, believed at first that it was a song about a brothel, but he later decided that it was probably about the New Orleans Women's Prison, which in his accounting used to have a carving of a rising sun over the doorway. Van Ronk's version traces back originally to a field recording Alan Lomax had made in 1938 of a woman named Georgia Turner, from Kentucky: [Excerpt: Georgia Turner, "Rising Sun Blues"] Van Ronk had learned the song from a record by Hally Wood, a friend of the Lomaxes, who had recorded a version based on Turner's in 1953: [Excerpt: Hally Wood, "House of the Rising Sun"] Van Ronk took Wood's version of Turner's version of the song, and rearranged it, changing the chords around, adding something that changed the whole song. He introduced a descending bassline, mostly in semitones, which as van Ronk put it is "a common enough progression in jazz, but unusual among folksingers". It's actually something you'd get a fair bit in baroque music as well, and van Ronk introducing this into the song is probably what eventually led to things like Procul Harum's "A Whiter Shade of Pale" ripping off Bach doing essentially the same thing. What van Ronk did was a simple trick. You play a descending scale, mostly in semitones, while holding the same chord shape which creates a lot of interesting chords. The bass line he played is basically this: [demonstrates] And he held an A minor shape over that bassline, giving a chord sequence Am, Am over G, Am over F#, F. [demonstrates] This is a trick that's used in hundreds and hundreds of songs later in the sixties and onward -- everything from "Sunny Afternoon" by the Kinks to "Go Now" by the Moody Blues to "Forever" by the Beach Boys -- but it was something that at this point belonged in the realms of art music and jazz more than in folk, blues, or rock and roll. Of course, it sounds rather better when he did it: [Excerpt, Dave van Ronk, "House of the Rising Sun"] "House of the Rising Sun" soon became the highlight of van Ronk's live act, and his most requested song. Dylan took van Ronk's arrangement, but he wasn't as sophisticated a musician as van Ronk, so he simplified the chords. Rather than the dissonant chords van Ronk had, he played standard rock chords that fit van Ronk's bassline, so instead of Am over G he played C with a G in the bass, and instead of Am over F# he played D with an F# in the bass. So van Ronk had: [demonstrates] While Dylan had: [demonstrates] The movement of the chords now follows the movement of the bassline. It's simpler, but it's all from van Ronk's arrangement idea. Dylan recorded his version of van Ronk's version for his first album: [Excerpt: Bob Dylan, "House of the Rising Sun"] As van Ronk later told the story (though I'm going to edit out one expletive here for the sake of getting past the adult content rating on Apple): "One evening in 1962, I was sitting at my usual table in the back of the Kettle of Fish, and Dylan came slouching in. He had been up at the Columbia studios with John Hammond, doing his first album. He was being very mysterioso about the whole thing, and nobody I knew had been to any of the sessions except Suze, his lady. I pumped him for information, but he was vague. Everything was going fine and, “Hey, would it be okay for me to record your arrangement of ‘House of the Rising Sun?’” [expletive]. “Jeez, Bobby, I’m going into the studio to do that myself in a few weeks. Can’t it wait until your next album?” A long pause. “Uh-oh.” I did not like the sound of that. “What exactly do you mean, ‘Uh-oh’?” “Well,” he said sheepishly, “I’ve already recorded it.” “You did what?!” I flew into a Donald Duck rage, and I fear I may have said something unkind that could be heard over in Chelsea." van Ronk and Dylan fell out for a couple of weeks, though they later reconciled, and van Ronk said of Dylan's performance "it was essentially my arrangement, but Bobby’s reading had all the nuance and subtlety of a Neanderthal with a stone hand ax, and I took comfort thereby." van Ronk did record his version, as we heard, but he soon stopped playing the song live because he got sick of people telling him to "play that Dylan song". The Animals learned the song from the Dylan record, and decided to introduce it to their set on their first national tour, supporting Chuck Berry. All the other acts were only doing rock and roll and R&B, and they thought a folk song might be a way to make them stand out -- and it instantly became the highlight of their act.  The way all the members except Alan Price tell the story, the main instigators of the arrangement were Eric Burdon, the only member of the group who had been familiar with the song before hearing the Dylan album, and Hilton Valentine, who came up with the arpeggiated guitar part. Their arrangement followed Dylan's rearrangement of van Ronk's rearrangement, except they dropped the scalar bassline altogether, so for example instead of a D with an F# in the bass they just play a plain open D chord -- the F# that van Ronk introduced is still in there, as the third, but the descending line is now just implied by the chords, not explicitly stated in the bass, where Chas Chandler just played root notes. In the middle of the tour, the group were called back into the studio to record their follow-up single, and they had what seemed like it might be a great opportunity. The TV show Ready Steady Go! wanted the Animals to record a version of the old Ray Charles song "Talking 'Bout You", to use as their theme. The group travelled down from Liverpool after playing a show there, and went into the studio in London at three o'clock in the morning, before heading to Southampton for the next night's show. But they needed to record a B-side first, of course, and so before getting round to the main business of the session they knocked off a quick one-take performance of their new live showstopper: [Excerpt: The Animals, "House of the Rising Sun"] On hearing the playback, everyone was suddenly convinced that that, not "Talking 'Bout You", should be the A-side. But there was a problem. The record was four minutes and twenty seconds long, and you just didn't ever release a record that long. The rule was generally that songs didn't last longer than three minutes, because radio stations wouldn't play them, but Most was eventually persuaded by Chas Chandler that the track needed to go out as it was, with no edits. It did, but when it went out, it had only one name on as the arranger -- which when you're recording a public domain song makes you effectively the songwriter. According to all the members other than Price, the group's manager, Mike Jeffrey, who was close to Price, had "explained" to them that you needed to just put one name down on the credits, but not to worry, as they would all get a share of the songwriting money. According to Price, meanwhile, he was the sole arranger. Whatever the truth, Price was the only one who ever got any songwriting royalties for their version of the song, which went to number one in the UK and the US. although the version released as a single in the US was cut down to three minutes with some brutal edits, particularly to the organ solo: [Excerpt: The Animals, "House of the Rising Sun (US edit)"] None of the group liked what was done to the US single edit, and the proper version was soon released as an album track everywhere The Animals' version was a big enough hit that it inspired Dylan's new producer Tom Wilson to do an experiment. In late 1964 he hired session musicians to overdub a new electric backing onto an outtake version of "House of the Rising Sun" from the sessions from Dylan's first album, to see what it would sound like: [Excerpt: Bob Dylan, "House of the Rising Sun (1964 electric version)"] That wasn't released at the time, it was just an experiment Wilson tried, but it would have ramifications we'll be seeing throughout the rest of the podcast. Incidentally, Dave van Ronk had the last laugh at Dylan, who had to drop the song from his own sets because people kept asking him if he'd stolen it from the Animals. The Animals' next single, "I'm Crying", was their first and only self-written A-side, written by Price and Burdon. It was a decent record and made the top ten in the UK and the top twenty in the US, but Price and Burdon were never going to become another Lennon and McCartney or Jagger and Richards -- they just didn't like each other by this point. The record after that, "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood", was written by the jazz songwriters Benny Benjamin and Horace Ott, and had originally been recorded by Nina Simone in an orchestral version that owed quite a bit to Burt Bacharach: [Excerpt: Nina Simone, "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood"] The Animals' version really suffers in comparison to that. I was going to say something about how their reinterpretation is as valid in its own way as Simone's original and stands up against it, but actually listening to them back to back as I was writing this, rather than separately as I always previously had, I changed my mind because I really don't think it does. It's a great record, and it's deservedly considered a classic single, but compared to Simone's version, it's lightweight, rushed, and callow: [Excerpt: The Animals, "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood"] Simone was apparently furious at the Animals' recording, which they didn't understand given that she hadn't written the original, and according to John Steel she and Burdon later had a huge screaming row about the record. In Steel's version, Simone eventually grudgingly admitted that they weren't "so bad for a bunch of white boys", but that doesn't sound to me like the attitude Simone would take. But Steel was there and I wasn't... "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" was followed by a more minor single, a cover of Sam Cooke's "Bring it on Home to Me", which would be the last single by the group to feature Alan Price. On the twenty-eighth of April 1965, the group were about to leave on a European tour. Chas Chandler, who shared a flat with Price, woke Price up and then got in the shower. When he got out of the shower, Price wasn't in the flat, and Chandler wouldn't see Price again for eighteen months. Chandler believed until his death that while he was in the shower, Price's first royalty cheque for arranging "House of the Rising Sun" had arrived, and Price had decided then and there that he wasn't going to share the money as agreed. The group quickly rushed to find a fill-in keyboard player for the tour, and nineteen-year-old Mick Gallagher was with them for a couple of weeks before being permanently replaced by Dave Rowberry. Gallagher would later go on to be the keyboard player with Ian Dury and the Blockheads, as well as playing on several tracks by the Clash. Price, meanwhile, went on to have a number of solo hits over the next few years, starting with a version of "I Put A Spell On You", in an arrangement which the other Animals later claimed had originally been worked up as an Animals track: [Excerpt: The Alan Price Set, "I Put A Spell On You"] Price would go on to make many great solo records, introducing the songs of Randy Newman to a wider audience, and performing in a jazz-influenced R&B style very similar to Mose Allison. The Animals' first record with their new keyboard player was their greatest single. "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place" had been written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weill, and had originally been intended for the Righteous Brothers, but they'd decided to have Mann record it himself: [Excerpt: Barry Mann, "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place"] But before that version was released, the Animals had heard Mann's piano demo of the song and cut their own version, and Mann's was left on the shelf. What the Animals did to the song horrified Cynthia Weill, who considered it the worst record of one of her songs ever -- though one suspects that's partly because it sabotaged the chances for her husband's single -- but to my mind they vastly improved on the song. They tightened the melody up a lot, getting rid of a lot of interjections. They reworked big chunks of the lyric, for example changing "Oh girl, now you're young and oh so pretty, staying here would be a crime, because you'll just grow old before your time" to "Now my girl, you're so young and pretty, and one thing I know is true, you'll be dead before your time is due", and making subtler changes like changing "if it's the last thing that we do" to "if it's the last thing we ever do", improving the scansion. They kept the general sense of the lyrics, but changed more of the actual words than they kept -- and to my ears, at least, every change they made was an improvement. And most importantly, they excised the overlong bridge altogether. I can see what Mann and Weill were trying to do with the bridge -- Righteous Brothers songs would often have a call and response section, building to a climax, where Bill Medley's low voice and Bobby Hatfield's high one would alternate and then come together. But that would normally come in the middle, building towards the last chorus. Here it comes between every verse and chorus, and completely destroys the song's momentum -- it just sounds like noodling: [Excerpt: Barry Mann, "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place"] The Animals' version, by contrast, is a masterpiece of dynamics, of slow builds and climaxes and dropping back down again. It's one of the few times I've wished I could just drop the entire record in, rather than excerpting a section, because it depends so much for its effect on the way the whole structure of the track works together: [Excerpt: The Animals, "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place"] From a creators' rights perspective, I entirely agree with Cynthia Weill that the group shouldn't have messed with her song. But from a listener's point of view, I have to say that they turned a decent song into a great one, and one of the greatest singles of all time "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place" was followed by another lesser but listenable single, "It's My Life", which seemed to reinforce a pattern of a great Animals single being followed by a merely OK one. But that was the point at which the Animals and Most would part company -- the group were getting sick of Most's attempts to make them more poppy. They signed to a new label, Decca, and got a new producer, Tom Wilson, the man who we heard earlier experimenting with Dylan's sound, but the group started to fall apart. After their next single, "Inside -- Looking Out", a prison work song collected by the Lomaxes, and the album Animalisms, John Steel left the group, tired of not getting any money, and went to work in a shop. The album after Animalisms, confusingly titled Animalism, was also mostly produced by Wilson, and didn't even feature the musicians in the band on two of the tracks, which Wilson farmed out to a protege of his, Frank Zappa, to produce. Those two tracks featured Zappa on guitar and members of the Wrecking Crew, with only Burdon from the actual group: [Excerpt: The Animals, "All Night Long"] Soon the group would split up, and would discover that their management had thoroughly ripped them off -- there had been a scheme to bank their money in the Bahamas for tax reasons, in a bank which mysteriously disappeared off the face of the Earth. Burdon would form a new group, known first as the New Animals and later as Eric Burdon and the Animals, who would have some success but not on the same level. There were a handful of reunions of the original lineup of the group between 1968 and the early eighties, but they last played together in 1983. Burdon continues to tour the US as Eric Burdon and the Animals. Alan Price continues to perform successfully as a solo artist. We'll be picking up with Chas Chandler later, when he moves from bass playing into management, so you'll hear more about him in future episodes. John Steel, Dave Rowberry, and Hilton Valentine reformed a version of the Animals in the 1990s, originally with Jim Rodford, formerly of the Kinks and Argent, on bass. Valentine left that group in 2001, and Rowberry died in 2003. Steel now tours the UK as "The Animals and Friends", with Mick Gallagher, who had replaced Price briefly in 1965, on keyboards. I've seen them live twice and they put on an excellent show -- though the second time, one woman behind me did indignantly say, as the singer started, "That's not Eric Clapton!", before starting to sing along happily... And Hilton Valentine moved to the US and played briefly with Burdon's Animals after quitting Steel's, before returning to his first love, skiffle. He died exactly four weeks ago today, and will be missed.

Episode one hundred and fifteen of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “House of the Rising Sun” by the Animals, at the way the US and UK music scenes were influencing each other in 1964, and at the fraught question of attribution when reworking older songs. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode.   Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus episode available, on “Memphis” by Johnny Rivers. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt’s irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ —-more—- Erratum A couple of times I mispronounce Hoagy Lands’ surname as Land. Resources As always, I’ve created a Mixcloud streaming playlist with full versions of all the songs in the episode. Information on the Animals comes largely from Animal Tracks  by Sean Egan. The two-CD set The Complete Animals isn’t actually their complete recordings — for that you’d also need to buy the Decca recordings — but it is everything they recorded with Mickie Most, including all the big hits discussed in this episode. For the information on Dylan’s first album, I used The Mayor of MacDougal Street by Dave Van Ronk and Elijah Wald, the fascinating and funny autobiography of Dylan’s mentor in his Greenwich Village period. I also referred to Chronicles Volume 1 by Bob Dylan, a partial, highly inaccurate, but thoroughly readable autobiography; Bob Dylan: All The Songs by Phillipe Margotin and Jean-Michel Guesdon; and Revolution in the Air, by Clinton Heylin. Transcript Today we’re going to look at a song that, more than any other song we’ve looked at so far, shows how the influence between British and American music was working in the early 1960s. A song about New Orleans that may have its roots in English folk music, that became an Appalachian country song, performed by a blues band from the North of England, who learned it from a Minnesotan folk singer based in New York. We’re going to look at “House of the Rising Sun”, and the career of the Animals: [Excerpt: The Animals, “House of the Rising Sun”] The story of the Animals, like so many of the British bands of this time period, starts at art school, when two teenagers named Eric Burdon and John Steel met each other. The school they met each other at was in Newcastle, and this is important for how the band came together. If you’re not familiar with the geography of Great Britain, Newcastle is one of the largest cities, but it’s a very isolated city. Britain has a number of large cities. The biggest, of course, is London, which is about as big as the next five added together. Now, there’s a saying that one of the big differences between Britain and America is that in America a hundred years is a long time, and in Britain a hundred miles is a long way, so take that into account when I talk about everything else here. Most of the area around London is empty of other big cities, and the nearest other big city to it is Birmingham, a hundred miles north-west of it. About seventy miles north of that, give or take, you hit Manchester, and Manchester is in the middle of a chain of large cities — Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, and Sheffield, and the slightly smaller Bradford, are more or less in a row, and the furthest distance between two adjacent cities is about thirty-five miles. But then Newcastle is another hundred miles north of Leeds, the closest of those cities to it. And then it’s another hundred miles or so further north before you hit the major Scottish cities, which cluster together like the ones near Manchester do. This means Newcastle is, for a major city, incredibly isolated. Britain’s culture is extraordinarily London-centric, but if you’re in Liverpool or Manchester there are a number of other nearby cities. A band from Manchester can play a gig in Liverpool and make the last train home, and vice versa. This allows for the creation of regional scenes, centred on one city but with cross-fertilisation from others. Now, again, I am talking about a major city here, not some remote village, but it means that Newcastle in the sixties was in something of the same position as Seattle was, as we talked about in the episode on “Louie, Louie” — a place where bands would play in their own immediate area and not travel outside it. A journey to Leeds, particularly in the time we’re talking about when the motorway system was only just starting, would be a major trip, let alone travelling further afield. Local bands would play in Newcastle, and in large nearby towns like Gateshead, Sunderland, and Middlesborough, but not visit other cities. This meant that there was also a limited pool of good musicians to perform with, and so if you wanted to be in a band, you couldn’t be that picky about who you got on with, so long as they could play. Steel and Burdon, when they met at art school, were both jazz fanatics, and they quickly formed a trad jazz band. The band initially featured them on trumpet and trombone, but when rock and roll and skiffle hit the band changed its lineup to one based around guitars. Steel shifted to drums, while Burdon stopped playing an instrument and became the lead singer. Burdon’s tastes at the time were oriented towards the jazzier side of R&B, people like Ray Charles, and he also particularly loved blues shouters like Jimmy Witherspoon and Big Joe Turner. He tried hard to emulate Turner, and one of the songs that’s often mentioned as being in the repertoire of these early groups is “Roll ‘Em Pete”, the Big Joe Turner song we talked about back in episode two: [Excerpt: Big Joe Turner, “Roll ’em Pete”] The jazz group that Burdon and Steel formed was called the Pagan Jazz Men, and when they switched instruments they became instead The Pagans R&B Band. The group was rounded out by Blackie Sanderson and Jimmy Crawford, but soon got a fifth member when a member from another band on an early bill asked if he could sit in with them for a couple of numbers. Alan Price was the rhythm guitarist in that band, but joined in on piano, and instantly gelled with the group, playing Jerry Lee Lewis style piano. The other members would always later say that they didn’t like Price either as a person or for his taste in music — both Burdon and Steel regarded Price’s tastes as rather pedestrian when compared to their own, hipper, tastes, saying he always regarded himself as something of a lounge player, while Burdon was an R&B and blues person and Steel liked blues and jazz. But they all played well together, and in Newcastle there wasn’t that much choice about which musicians you could play with, and so they stayed together for a while, as the Pagans evolved into the Kansas City Five or the Kansas City Seven, depending on the occasional presence of two brass players. The Kansas City group played mostly jump blues, which was the area of music where Burdon and Steel’s tastes intersected — musicians they’ve cited as ones they covered were Ray Charles, Louis Jordan, and Big Joe Turner. But then the group collapsed, as Price didn’t turn up to a gig — he’d been poached by a pop covers band, the Kon-Tors, whose bass player, Chas Chandler, had been impressed with him when Chandler had sat in at a couple of Kansas City Five rehearsals. Steel got a gig playing lounge music, just to keep paying the bills, and Burdon would occasionally sit in with various other musicians. But a few members of the Kon-Tors got a side gig, performing as the Alan Price Rhythm & Blues Combo as the resident band at a local venue called the Club A Go-Go, which was the venue where visiting London jazzmen and touring American blues players would perform when they came to Newcastle. Burdon started sitting in with them, and then they invited Steel to replace their drummer, and in September 1963 the Alan Price Rhythm And Blues Combo settled on a lineup of Burdon on vocals, Price on piano, Steel on drums, Chandler on bass, and new member Hilton Valentine, who joined at the same time as Steel, on guitar. Valentine was notably more experienced than the other members, and had previously performed in a rock and roll group called the Wildcats — not the same band who backed Marty Wilde — and had even recorded an album with them, though I’ve been unable to track down any copies of the album. At this point all the group members now had different sensibilities — Valentine was a rocker and skiffle fan, while Chandler was into more mainstream pop music, though the other members emphasised in interviews that he liked *good* pop music like the Beatles, not the lesser pop music. The new lineup was so good that a mere eight days after they first performed together, they went into a recording studio to record an EP, which they put out themselves and sold at their gigs. Apparently five hundred copies of the EP were sold. As well as playing piano on the tracks, Price also played melodica, which he used in the same way that blues musicians would normally use the harmonica: [Excerpt: The Alan Price Rhythm & Blues Combo, “Pretty Thing”] This kind of instrumental experimentation would soon further emphasise the split between Price and Burdon, as Price would get a Vox organ rather than cart a piano between gigs, while Burdon disliked the sound of the organ, even though it became one of the defining sounds of the group. That sound can be heard on a live recording of them a couple of months later, backing the great American blues musician Sonny Boy Williamson II at the Club A Go Go: [Excerpt: Sonny Boy Williamson II and the Animals, “Fattening Frogs For Snakes”] One person who definitely *didn’t* dislike the sound of the electric organ was Graham Bond, the Hammond organ player with Alexis Korner’s band who we mentioned briefly back in the episode on the Rolling Stones. Bond and a few other members of the Korner group had quit, and formed their own group, the Graham Bond Organisation, which had originally featured a guitarist named John McLaughlin, but by this point consisted of Bond, saxophone player Dick Heckstall-Smith, and the rhythm section Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker. They wouldn’t make an album until 1965, but live recordings of them from around this time exist, though in relatively poor quality: [Excerpt: The Graham Bond Organisation, “Wade in the Water”] The Graham Bond Organisation played at the Club A Go Go, and soon Bond was raving back in London about this group from Newcastle he’d heard. Arrangements were quickly made for them to play in London. By this time, the Rolling Stones had outgrown the small club venues they’d been playing, and a new band called the Yardbirds were playing all the Stones’ old venues. A trade was agreed — the Yardbirds would play all the Alan Price Rhythm & Blues Combo’s normal gigs for a couple of weeks, and the Alan Price Rhythm & Blues Combo would play the Yardbirds’. Or rather, the Animals would. None of the members of the group could ever agree on how they got their new name, and not all of them liked it, but when they played those gigs in London in December 1963, just three months after getting together, that was how they were billed. And it was as the Animals that they were signed by Mickie Most. Mickie Most was one of the new breed of independent producers that were cropping up in London, following in Joe Meek’s footsteps, like Andrew Oldham. Most had started out as a singer in a duo called The Most Brothers, which is where he got his stage name. The Most Brothers had only released one single: [Excerpt: The Most Brothers, “Whole Lotta Woman”] But then Most had moved to South Africa, where he’d had eleven number one hits with cover versions of American rock singles, backed by a band called the Playboys: [Excerpt: Mickie Most and the Playboys, “Johnny B Goode”] He’d returned to the UK in 1963, and been less successful here as a performer, and so he decided to move into production, and the Animals were his first signing. He signed them up and started licensing their records to EMI, and in January 1964 the Animals moved down to London. There has been a lot of suggestion over the years that the Animals resented Mickie Most pushing them in a more pop direction, but their first single was an inspired compromise between the group’s blues purism and Most’s pop instincts. The song they recorded dates back at least to 1935, when the State Street Boys, a group that featured Big Bill Broonzy, recorded “Don’t Tear My Clothes”: [Excerpt: The State Street Boys, “Don’t Tear My Clothes”] That song got picked up and adapted by a lot of other blues singers, like Blind Boy Fuller, who recorded it as “Mama Let Me Lay It On You” in 1938: [Excerpt: Blind Boy Fuller, “Mama Let Me Lay it On You”] That had in turn been picked up by the Reverend Gary Davis, who came up with his own arrangement of the song: [Excerpt: Rev. Gary Davis, “Baby, Let Me Lay It On You”] Eric von Schmidt, a folk singer in Massachusetts, had learned that song from Davis, and Bob Dylan had in turn learned it from von Schmidt, and included it on his first album as “Baby Let Me Follow You Down”: [Excerpt: Bob Dylan, “Baby Let Me Follow You Down”] The Animals knew the song from that version, which they loved, but Most had come across it in a different way. He’d heard a version which had been inspired by Dylan, but had been radically reworked. Bert Berns had produced a single on Atlantic for a soul singer called Hoagy Lands, and on the B-side had been a new arrangement of the song, retitled “Baby Let Me Hold Your Hand” and adapted by Berns and Wes Farrell, a songwriter who had written for the Shirelles. Land’s version had started with an intro in which Lands is clearly imitating Sam Cooke: [Excerpt: Hoagy Lands, “Baby Let Me Hold Your Hand”] But after that intro, which seems to be totally original to Berns and Farrell, Lands’ track goes into a very upbeat Twist-flavoured song, with a unique guitar riff and Latin feel, both of them very much in the style of Berns’ other songs, but clearly an adaptation of Dylan’s version of the old song: [Excerpt: Hoagy Lands, “Baby Let Me Hold Your Hand”] Most had picked up that record on a trip to America, and decided that the Animals should record a version of the song based on that record. Hilton Valentine would later claim that this record, whose title and artist he could never remember (and it’s quite possible that Most never even told the band who the record was by) was not very similar at all to the Animals’ version, and that they’d just kicked around the song and come up with their own version, but listening to it, it is *very* obviously modelled on Lands’ version. They cut out Lands’ intro, and restored a lot of Dylan’s lyric, but musically it’s Lands all the way. The track starts like this: [Excerpt: The Animals, “Baby Let Me Take You Home”] Both have a breakdown section with spoken lyrics over a staccato backing, though the two sets of lyrics are different — compare the Animals: [Excerpt: The Animals, “Baby Let Me Take You Home”] and Lands: [Excerpt: Hoagy Lands, “Baby Let Me Hold Your Hand”] And both have the typical Bert Berns call and response ending — Lands: [Excerpt: Hoagy Lands, “Baby Let me Hold Your Hand”] And the Animals: [Excerpt: The Animals, “Baby Let Me Take You Home”] So whatever Valentine’s later claims, the track very much was modelled on the earlier record, but it’s still one of the strongest remodellings of an American R&B record by a British group in this time period, and an astonishingly accomplished record, which made number twenty-one. The Animals’ second single was another song that had been recorded on Dylan’s first album. “House of the Rising Sun” has been argued by some, though I think it’s a tenuous argument, to originally date to the seventeenth century English folk song “Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard”: [Excerpt: Martin Carthy, “Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard”] What we do know is that the song was circulating in Appalachia in the early years of the twentieth century, and it’s that version that was first recorded in 1933, under the name “Rising Sun Blues”, by Clarence Ashley and Gwen Foster: [Excerpt: Clarence Ashley and Gwen Foster, “Rising Sun Blues”] The song has been described as about several things — about alcoholism, about sex work, about gambling — depending on the precise version. It’s often thought, for example, that the song was always sung by women and was about a brothel, but there are lots of variants of it, sung by both men and women, before it reached its most famous form. Dave van Ronk, who put the song into the form by which it became best known, believed at first that it was a song about a brothel, but he later decided that it was probably about the New Orleans Women’s Prison, which in his accounting used to have a carving of a rising sun over the doorway. Van Ronk’s version traces back originally to a field recording Alan Lomax had made in 1938 of a woman named Georgia Turner, from Kentucky: [Excerpt: Georgia Turner, “Rising Sun Blues”] Van Ronk had learned the song from a record by Hally Wood, a friend of the Lomaxes, who had recorded a version based on Turner’s in 1953: [Excerpt: Hally Wood, “House of the Rising Sun”] Van Ronk took Wood’s version of Turner’s version of the song, and rearranged it, changing the chords around, adding something that changed the whole song. He introduced a descending bassline, mostly in semitones, which as van Ronk put it is “a common enough progression in jazz, but unusual among folksingers”. It’s actually something you’d get a fair bit in baroque music as well, and van Ronk introducing this into the song is probably what eventually led to things like Procul Harum’s “A Whiter Shade of Pale” ripping off Bach doing essentially the same thing. What van Ronk did was a simple trick. You play a descending scale, mostly in semitones, while holding the same chord shape which creates a lot of interesting chords. The bass line he played is basically this: [demonstrates] And he held an A minor shape over that bassline, giving a chord sequence Am, Am over G, Am over F#, F. [demonstrates] This is a trick that’s used in hundreds and hundreds of songs later in the sixties and onward — everything from “Sunny Afternoon” by the Kinks to “Go Now” by the Moody Blues to “Forever” by the Beach Boys — but it was something that at this point belonged in the realms of art music and jazz more than in folk, blues, or rock and roll. Of course, it sounds rather better when he did it: [Excerpt, Dave van Ronk, “House of the Rising Sun”] “House of the Rising Sun” soon became the highlight of van Ronk’s live act, and his most requested song. Dylan took van Ronk’s arrangement, but he wasn’t as sophisticated a musician as van Ronk, so he simplified the chords. Rather than the dissonant chords van Ronk had, he played standard rock chords that fit van Ronk’s bassline, so instead of Am over G he played C with a G in the bass, and instead of Am over F# he played D with an F# in the bass. So van Ronk had: [demonstrates] While Dylan had: [demonstrates] The movement of the chords now follows the movement of the bassline. It’s simpler, but it’s all from van Ronk’s arrangement idea. Dylan recorded his version of van Ronk’s version for his first album: [Excerpt: Bob Dylan, “House of the Rising Sun”] As van Ronk later told the story (though I’m going to edit out one expletive here for the sake of getting past the adult content rating on Apple): “One evening in 1962, I was sitting at my usual table in the back of the Kettle of Fish, and Dylan came slouching in. He had been up at the Columbia studios with John Hammond, doing his first album. He was being very mysterioso about the whole thing, and nobody I knew had been to any of the sessions except Suze, his lady. I pumped him for information, but he was vague. Everything was going fine and, “Hey, would it be okay for me to record your arrangement of ‘House of the Rising Sun?’” [expletive]. “Jeez, Bobby, I’m going into the studio to do that myself in a few weeks. Can’t it wait until your next album?” A long pause. “Uh-oh.” I did not like the sound of that. “What exactly do you mean, ‘Uh-oh’?” “Well,” he said sheepishly, “I’ve already recorded it.” “You did what?!” I flew into a Donald Duck rage, and I fear I may have said something unkind that could be heard over in Chelsea.” van Ronk and Dylan fell out for a couple of weeks, though they later reconciled, and van Ronk said of Dylan’s performance “it was essentially my arrangement, but Bobby’s reading had all the nuance and subtlety of a Neanderthal with a stone hand ax, and I took comfort thereby.” van Ronk did record his version, as we heard, but he soon stopped playing the song live because he got sick of people telling him to “play that Dylan song”. The Animals learned the song from the Dylan record, and decided to introduce it to their set on their first national tour, supporting Chuck Berry. All the other acts were only doing rock and roll and R&B, and they thought a folk song might be a way to make them stand out — and it instantly became the highlight of their act.  The way all the members except Alan Price tell the story, the main instigators of the arrangement were Eric Burdon, the only member of the group who had been familiar with the song before hearing the Dylan album, and Hilton Valentine, who came up with the arpeggiated guitar part. Their arrangement followed Dylan’s rearrangement of van Ronk’s rearrangement, except they dropped the scalar bassline altogether, so for example instead of a D with an F# in the bass they just play a plain open D chord — the F# that van Ronk introduced is still in there, as the third, but the descending line is now just implied by the chords, not explicitly stated in the bass, where Chas Chandler just played root notes. In the middle of the tour, the group were called back into the studio to record their follow-up single, and they had what seemed like it might be a great opportunity. The TV show Ready Steady Go! wanted the Animals to record a version of the old Ray Charles song “Talking ‘Bout You”, to use as their theme. The group travelled down from Liverpool after playing a show there, and went into the studio in London at three o’clock in the morning, before heading to Southampton for the next night’s show. But they needed to record a B-side first, of course, and so before getting round to the main business of the session they knocked off a quick one-take performance of their new live showstopper: [Excerpt: The Animals, “House of the Rising Sun”] On hearing the playback, everyone was suddenly convinced that that, not “Talking ‘Bout You”, should be the A-side. But there was a problem. The record was four minutes and twenty seconds long, and you just didn’t ever release a record that long. The rule was generally that songs didn’t last longer than three minutes, because radio stations wouldn’t play them, but Most was eventually persuaded by Chas Chandler that the track needed to go out as it was, with no edits. It did, but when it went out, it had only one name on as the arranger — which when you’re recording a public domain song makes you effectively the songwriter. According to all the members other than Price, the group’s manager, Mike Jeffrey, who was close to Price, had “explained” to them that you needed to just put one name down on the credits, but not to worry, as they would all get a share of the songwriting money. According to Price, meanwhile, he was the sole arranger. Whatever the truth, Price was the only one who ever got any songwriting royalties for their version of the song, which went to number one in the UK and the US. although the version released as a single in the US was cut down to three minutes with some brutal edits, particularly to the organ solo: [Excerpt: The Animals, “House of the Rising Sun (US edit)”] None of the group liked what was done to the US single edit, and the proper version was soon released as an album track everywhere The Animals’ version was a big enough hit that it inspired Dylan’s new producer Tom Wilson to do an experiment. In late 1964 he hired session musicians to overdub a new electric backing onto an outtake version of “House of the Rising Sun” from the sessions from Dylan’s first album, to see what it would sound like: [Excerpt: Bob Dylan, “House of the Rising Sun (1964 electric version)”] That wasn’t released at the time, it was just an experiment Wilson tried, but it would have ramifications we’ll be seeing throughout the rest of the podcast. Incidentally, Dave van Ronk had the last laugh at Dylan, who had to drop the song from his own sets because people kept asking him if he’d stolen it from the Animals. The Animals’ next single, “I’m Crying”, was their first and only self-written A-side, written by Price and Burdon. It was a decent record and made the top ten in the UK and the top twenty in the US, but Price and Burdon were never going to become another Lennon and McCartney or Jagger and Richards — they just didn’t like each other by this point. The record after that, “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood”, was written by the jazz songwriters Benny Benjamin and Horace Ott, and had originally been recorded by Nina Simone in an orchestral version that owed quite a bit to Burt Bacharach: [Excerpt: Nina Simone, “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood”] The Animals’ version really suffers in comparison to that. I was going to say something about how their reinterpretation is as valid in its own way as Simone’s original and stands up against it, but actually listening to them back to back as I was writing this, rather than separately as I always previously had, I changed my mind because I really don’t think it does. It’s a great record, and it’s deservedly considered a classic single, but compared to Simone’s version, it’s lightweight, rushed, and callow: [Excerpt: The Animals, “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood”] Simone was apparently furious at the Animals’ recording, which they didn’t understand given that she hadn’t written the original, and according to John Steel she and Burdon later had a huge screaming row about the record. In Steel’s version, Simone eventually grudgingly admitted that they weren’t “so bad for a bunch of white boys”, but that doesn’t sound to me like the attitude Simone would take. But Steel was there and I wasn’t… “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” was followed by a more minor single, a cover of Sam Cooke’s “Bring it on Home to Me”, which would be the last single by the group to feature Alan Price. On the twenty-eighth of April 1965, the group were about to leave on a European tour. Chas Chandler, who shared a flat with Price, woke Price up and then got in the shower. When he got out of the shower, Price wasn’t in the flat, and Chandler wouldn’t see Price again for eighteen months. Chandler believed until his death that while he was in the shower, Price’s first royalty cheque for arranging “House of the Rising Sun” had arrived, and Price had decided then and there that he wasn’t going to share the money as agreed. The group quickly rushed to find a fill-in keyboard player for the tour, and nineteen-year-old Mick Gallagher was with them for a couple of weeks before being permanently replaced by Dave Rowberry. Gallagher would later go on to be the keyboard player with Ian Dury and the Blockheads, as well as playing on several tracks by the Clash. Price, meanwhile, went on to have a number of solo hits over the next few years, starting with a version of “I Put A Spell On You”, in an arrangement which the other Animals later claimed had originally been worked up as an Animals track: [Excerpt: The Alan Price Set, “I Put A Spell On You”] Price would go on to make many great solo records, introducing the songs of Randy Newman to a wider audience, and performing in a jazz-influenced R&B style very similar to Mose Allison. The Animals’ first record with their new keyboard player was their greatest single. “We Gotta Get Out Of This Place” had been written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weill, and had originally been intended for the Righteous Brothers, but they’d decided to have Mann record it himself: [Excerpt: Barry Mann, “We Gotta Get Out Of This Place”] But before that version was released, the Animals had heard Mann’s piano demo of the song and cut their own version, and Mann’s was left on the shelf. What the Animals did to the song horrified Cynthia Weill, who considered it the worst record of one of her songs ever — though one suspects that’s partly because it sabotaged the chances for her husband’s single — but to my mind they vastly improved on the song. They tightened the melody up a lot, getting rid of a lot of interjections. They reworked big chunks of the lyric, for example changing “Oh girl, now you’re young and oh so pretty, staying here would be a crime, because you’ll just grow old before your time” to “Now my girl, you’re so young and pretty, and one thing I know is true, you’ll be dead before your time is due”, and making subtler changes like changing “if it’s the last thing that we do” to “if it’s the last thing we ever do”, improving the scansion. They kept the general sense of the lyrics, but changed more of the actual words than they kept — and to my ears, at least, every change they made was an improvement. And most importantly, they excised the overlong bridge altogether. I can see what Mann and Weill were trying to do with the bridge — Righteous Brothers songs would often have a call and response section, building to a climax, where Bill Medley’s low voice and Bobby Hatfield’s high one would alternate and then come together. But that would normally come in the middle, building towards the last chorus. Here it comes between every verse and chorus, and completely destroys the song’s momentum — it just sounds like noodling: [Excerpt: Barry Mann, “We Gotta Get Out Of This Place”] The Animals’ version, by contrast, is a masterpiece of dynamics, of slow builds and climaxes and dropping back down again. It’s one of the few times I’ve wished I could just drop the entire record in, rather than excerpting a section, because it depends so much for its effect on the way the whole structure of the track works together: [Excerpt: The Animals, “We Gotta Get Out Of This Place”] From a creators’ rights perspective, I entirely agree with Cynthia Weill that the group shouldn’t have messed with her song. But from a listener’s point of view, I have to say that they turned a decent song into a great one, and one of the greatest singles of all time “We Gotta Get Out Of This Place” was followed by another lesser but listenable single, “It’s My Life”, which seemed to reinforce a pattern of a great Animals single being followed by a merely OK one. But that was the point at which the Animals and Most would part company — the group were getting sick of Most’s attempts to make them more poppy. They signed to a new label, Decca, and got a new producer, Tom Wilson, the man who we heard earlier experimenting with Dylan’s sound, but the group started to fall apart. After their next single, “Inside — Looking Out”, a prison work song collected by the Lomaxes, and the album Animalisms, John Steel left the group, tired of not getting any money, and went to work in a shop. The album after Animalisms, confusingly titled Animalism, was also mostly produced by Wilson, and didn’t even feature the musicians in the band on two of the tracks, which Wilson farmed out to a protege of his, Frank Zappa, to produce. Those two tracks featured Zappa on guitar and members of the Wrecking Crew, with only Burdon from the actual group: [Excerpt: The Animals, “All Night Long”] Soon the group would split up, and would discover that their management had thoroughly ripped them off — there had been a scheme to bank their money in the Bahamas for tax reasons, in a bank which mysteriously disappeared off the face of the Earth. Burdon would form a new group, known first as the New Animals and later as Eric Burdon and the Animals, who would have some success but not on the same level. There were a handful of reunions of the original lineup of the group between 1968 and the early eighties, but they last played together in 1983. Burdon continues to tour the US as Eric Burdon and the Animals. Alan Price continues to perform successfully as a solo artist. We’ll be picking up with Chas Chandler later, when he moves from bass playing into management, so you’ll hear more about him in future episodes. John Steel, Dave Rowberry, and Hilton Valentine reformed a version of the Animals in the 1990s, originally with Jim Rodford, formerly of the Kinks and Argent, on bass. Valentine left that group in 2001, and Rowberry died in 2003. Steel now tours the UK as “The Animals and Friends”, with Mick Gallagher, who had replaced Price briefly in 1965, on keyboards. I’ve seen them live twice and they put on an excellent show — though the second time, one woman behind me did indignantly say, as the singer started, “That’s not Eric Clapton!”, before starting to sing along happily… And Hilton Valentine moved to the US and played briefly with Burdon’s Animals after quitting Steel’s, before returning to his first love, skiffle. He died exactly four weeks ago today, and will be missed.

Episode one hundred and nine of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at "Blowin' in the Wind", Peter, Paul and Mary, Bob Dylan, the UK folk scene and the civil rights movement. Those of you who get angry at me whenever I say anything that acknowledges the existence of racism may want to skip this one. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode.   Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus episode available, on "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" by the Crystals. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ ----more---- Resources As always, I've created a Mixcloud streaming playlist with full versions of all the songs in the episode.   This compilation contains all Peter, Paul and Mary's hits. I have used *many* books for this episode, most of which I will also be using for future episodes on Dylan: The Mayor of MacDougal Street by Dave Van Ronk and Elijah Wald is the fascinating and funny autobiography of Dylan's mentor in his Greenwich Village period, including his interactions with Albert Grossman. Chronicles Volume 1 by Bob Dylan is a partial, highly inaccurate, but thoroughly readable autobiography. Bob Dylan: All The Songs by Phillipe Margotin and Jean-Michel Guesdon is a song-by-song look at every song Dylan ever wrote, as is Revolution in the Air, by Clinton Heylin. Heylin also wrote the most comprehensive and accurate biography of Dylan, Behind the Shades. I've also used Robert Shelton's No Direction Home, which is less accurate, but which is written by someone who knew Dylan. Only one book exists on Peter, Paul, and Mary themselves, and it is a hideously overpriced coffee table book consisting mostly of photos, so I wouldn't bother with it.  Roots, Radicals, and Rockers: How Skiffle Changed the World by Billy Bragg has some great information on the British folk scene of the fifties and sixties. And Singing From the Floor is an oral history of British folk clubs, including a chapter on Dylan's 1962 visit to London.   Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript   Today we're going to look at the first manufactured pop band we will see in this story, but not the last -- a group cynically put together by a manager to try and cash in on a fad, but one who were important enough that in a small way they helped to change history. We're going to look at the March on Washington and the civil rights movement, at Bob Dylan blossoming into a songwriter and the English folk revival, and at "Blowin' in the Wind" by Peter, Paul, and Mary: [Excerpt: Peter, Paul and Mary, "Blowin' in the Wind"] Albert Grossman was an unusual figure in the world of folk music. The folk revival had started out as an idealistic movement, mostly centred on Pete Seeger, and outside a few ultra-commercial acts like the Kingston Trio, most of the people involved were either doing it for the love of the music, or as a means of advancing their political goals. No doubt many of the performers on the burgeoning folk circuit were also quite keen to make money -- there are very few musicians who don't like being able to eat and have a home to live in -- but very few of the people involved were primarily motivated by increasing their income. Grossman was a different matter. He was a businessman, and he was interested in money more than anything else -- and for that he was despised by many of the people in the Greenwich Village folk scene. But he was, nonetheless, someone who was interested in making money *from folk music* specifically. And in the late fifties and early sixties this was less of a strange idea than it might have seemed. We talked back in the episode on "Drugstore Rock and Roll" about how rock and roll music was starting to be seen as the music of the teenager, and how "teenager" was, for the first time, becoming a marketing category into which people could be segmented. But the thing about music that's aimed at a particular age group is that once you're out of that age group you are no longer the target audience for that music. Someone who was sixteen in 1956 was twenty in 1960, and people in their twenties don't necessarily want to be listening to music aimed at teenagers. But at the same time, those people didn't want to listen to the music that their parents were listening to.  There's no switch that gets flipped on your twentieth birthday that means that you suddenly no longer like Little Richard but instead like Rosemary Clooney. So there was a gap in the market, for music that was more adult than rock and roll was perceived as being, but which still set itself apart from the pop music that was listened to by people in their thirties and forties. And in the late fifties and early sixties, that gap seemed to be filled by a commercialised version of the folk revival.  In particular, Harry Belafonte had a huge run of massive hit albums with collections of folk, calypso, and blues songs, presented in a way that was acceptable to an older, more settled audience while still preserving some of the rawness of the originals, like his version of Lead Belly's "Midnight Special", recorded in 1962 with a young Bob Dylan on harmonica: [Excerpt: Harry Belafonte, "Midnight Special"] Meanwhile, the Kingston Trio had been having huge hits with cleaned-up versions of old folk ballads like "Tom Dooley": [Excerpt: The Kingston Trio, "Tom Dooley"] So Grossman believed that there was a real market out there for something that was as clean and bright and friendly as the Kingston Trio, but with just a tiny hint of the bohemian Greenwich Village atmosphere to go with it. Something that wouldn't scare TV people and DJs, but which might seem just the tiniest bit more radical than the Kingston Trio did. Something mass-produced, but which seemed more authentic. So Grossman decided to put together what we would now call a manufactured pop group. It would be a bit like the Kingston Trio, but ever so slightly more political, and rather than being three men, it would be two men and a woman. Grossman had very particular ideas about what he wanted -- he wanted a waifish, beautiful woman at the centre of the group, he wanted a man who brought a sense of folk authenticity, and he wanted someone who could add a comedy element to the performances, to lighten them.  For the woman, he chose Mary Travers, who had been around the folk scene for several years at this point, starting out with a group called the Song Swappers, who had recorded an album of union songs with Pete Seeger back in 1955: [Excerpt: Pete Seeger and the Song Swappers, "Solidarity Forever"] Travers was chosen in part because of her relative shyness -- she had never wanted to be a professional singer, and her introverted nature made her perfect for the image Grossman wanted -- an image that was carefully cultivated, to the point that when the group were rehearsing in Florida, Grossman insisted Travers stay inside so she wouldn't get a tan and spoil her image. As the authentic male folk singer, Grossman chose Peter Yarrow, who was the highest profile of the three, as he had performed as a solo artist for a number of years and had appeared on TV and at the Newport Folk Festival, though he had not yet recorded. And for the comedy element, he chose Noel Stookey, who regularly performed as a comedian around Greenwich Village -- in the group's very slim autobiography, Stookey compares himself to two other comedians on that circuit, Bill Cosby and Woody Allen, comparisons that were a much better look in 2009 when the book was published than they are today. Grossman had originally wanted Dave Van Ronk to be the low harmony singer, rather than Stookey, but Van Ronk turned him down flat, wanting no part of a Greenwich Village Kingston Trio, though he later said he sometimes looked at his bank account rather wistfully. The group's name was, apparently, inspired by a line in the old folk song "I Was Born About 10,000 Years Ago", which was recorded by many people, but most famously by Elvis Presley in the 1970s: [Excerpt: Elvis Presley, "I Was Born About 10,000 Years Ago"] The "Peter, Paul, and Moses" from that song became Peter, Paul and Mary -- Stookey started going by his middle name, Paul, on stage, in order to fit the group name, though he still uses Noel in his daily life. While Peter, Paul, and Mary were the front people of the group, there were several other people who were involved in the creative process -- the group used a regular bass player, Bill Lee, the father of the filmmaker Spike Lee, who played on all their recordings, as well as many other recordings from Greenwich Village folk musicians. They also had, as their musical director, a man named Milt Okun who came up with their arrangements and helped them choose and shape the material. Grossman shaped this team into a formidable commercial force. Almost everyone who talks about Grossman compares him to Colonel Tom Parker, and the comparison is a reasonable one. Grossman was extremely good at making money for his acts, so long as a big chunk of the money came to him. There's a story about him signing Odetta, one of the great folk artists of the period, and telling her "you can stay with your current manager, and make a hundred thousand dollars this year, and he'll take twenty percent, or you can come with me, and make a quarter of a million dollars, but I'll take fifty percent". That was the attitude that Grossman took to everyone. He cut himself in to every contract, salami-slicing his artists' royalties at each stage. But it can't be denied that his commercial instincts were sound. Peter, Paul, and Mary's first album was a huge success. The second single from the album, their version of the old Weavers song "If I Had a Hammer", written by Pete Seeger and Lee Hays, went to number ten on the pop charts: [Excerpt: Peter, Paul and Mary, "If I Had a Hammer"] And the album itself went to number one and eventually went double-platinum -- a remarkable feat for a collection of songs that, however prettily arranged, contained a fairly uncompromising selection of music from the folk scene, with songs by Seeger, Dave van Ronk, and Rev. Gary Davis mixing with traditional songs like "This Train" and originals by Stookey and Yarrow. Their second album was less successful at first, with its first two singles flopping. But the third, a pretty children's song by Yarrow and his friend Leonard Lipton, went to number two on the pop charts and number one on the Adult Contemporary charts: [Excerpt: Peter, Paul, and Mary, "Puff the Magic Dragon"] Incidentally, Leonard Lipton, who wrote that lyric, became independently wealthy from the royalties from the song, and used the leisure that gave him to pursue his passion of inventing 3D projection systems, which eventually made him an even wealthier man -- if you've seen a 3D film in the cinema in the last couple of decades, it's almost certainly been using the systems Lipton invented. So Peter, Paul, and Mary were big stars, and having big hits. And Albert Grossman was constantly on the lookout for more material for them. And eventually he found it, and the song that was to make both him, his group, and its writer, very, very rich, in the pages of Broadside magazine. When we left Bob Dylan, he was still primarily a performer, and not really known for his songwriting, but he had already written a handful of songs, and he was being drawn into the more political side of the folk scene. In large part this was because of his girlfriend, Suze Rotolo, with whom Dylan was very deeply in love, and who was a very political person indeed. Dylan had political views, but wasn't particularly driven by them -- Rotolo very much was, and encouraged him to write songs about politics. For much of early 1962, Dylan was being pulled in two directions at once -- he was writing songs inspired by Robert Johnson, and trying to adapt Johnson's style to fit himself, but at the same time he was writing songs like "The Death of Emmett Till", about the 1955 murder of a Black teenager which had galvanised the civil rights movement, and "The Ballad of Donald White", about a Black man on death row. Dylan would later be very dismissive of these attempts at topicality, saying "I realize now that my reasons and motives behind it were phony, I didn’t have to write it; I was bothered by many other things that I pretended I wasn’t bothered by, in order to write this song about Emmett Till, a person I never even knew". But at the time they got him a great deal of attention in the small US folk-music scene, when they were published in magazines like Broadside and Sing Out, which collected political songs. Most of these early songs are juvenilia, with a couple of exceptions like the rather marvellous anti-bomb song "Let Me Die in My Footsteps", but the song that changed everything for Dylan was a different matter.  "Blowin' in the Wind" was inspired by the melody of the old nineteenth century song "No More Auction Block", a song that is often described as a "spiritual", though in fact it's a purely secular song about slavery: [Excerpt: Odetta, "No More Auction Block"] That song had seen something of a revival in folk circles in the late fifties, especially because part of its melody had been incorporated into another song, "We Shall Overcome", which had become an anthem of the civil rights movement when it was revived and adapted by Pete Seeger: [Excerpt: Pete Seeger, "We Shall Overcome"] Dylan took this melody, with its associations with the fight for the rights of Black people, and came up with new lyrics, starting with the line "How many roads must a man walk down, before you call him a man?" He wrote two verses of the song -- the first and last verses -- in a short burst of inspiration, and a few weeks later came back to it and added another verse, the second, which incorporated allusions to the Biblical prophet Ezekiel, and which is notably less inspired than those earlier verses. In later decades, many people have looked at the lyrics to the song and seen it as the first of what would become a whole subgenre of non-protest protest songs -- they've seen the abstraction of "How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man?" as being nice-sounding rhetoric that doesn't actually mean anything, in much the same way as something like, say, "Another Day in Paradise" or "Eve of Destruction", songs that make nonspecific complaints about nonspecific bad things. But while "Blowin' in the Wind" is a song that has multiple meanings and can be applied to multiple situations, as most good songs can, that line was, at the time in which it was written, a very concrete question. The civil rights movement was asking for many things -- for the right to vote, for an end to segregation, for an end to police brutality, but also for basic respect and acknowledgment of Black people's shared humanity. We've already heard in a couple of past episodes Big Bill Broonzy singing "When Do I Get to Be Called a Man?": [Excerpt: Big Bill Broonzy, "When Do I Get to Be Called a Man?"] Because at the time, it was normal for white people to refer to Black men as "boy". As Dr. Martin Luther King said in his "Letter From Birmingham Jail", one of the greatest pieces of writing of the twentieth century, a letter in large part about how white moderates were holding Black people back with demands to be "reasonable" and let things take their time: "when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick, brutalize, and even kill your black brothers and sisters with impunity; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society... when your first name becomes“ and here Dr. King uses a racial slur which I, as a white man, will not say, "and your middle name becomes “boy” (however old you are) and your last name becomes “John,” and when your wife and mother are never given the respected title “Mrs.”; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never knowing what to expect next, and plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of “nobodyness”—then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over and men are no longer willing to be plunged into an abyss of injustice where they experience the bleakness of corroding despair." King's great letter was written in 1963, less than a year after Dylan was writing his song but before it became widely known. In the context of 1962, the demand to call a man a man was a very real political issue, not an aphorism that could go in a Hallmark card. Dylan recorded the song in June 1962, during the sessions for his second album, which at the time was going under the working title "Bob Dylan's Blues": [Excerpt: Bob Dylan, "Blowin' in the Wind"] By the time he recorded it, two major changes had happened to him. The first was that Suze Rotolo had travelled to Spain for several months, leaving him bereft -- for the next few months, his songwriting took a turn towards songs about either longing for the return of a lost love, like "Tomorrow is a Long Time", one of his most romantic songs, or about how the protagonist doesn't even need his girlfriend anyway and she can leave if she likes, see if he cares, like "Don't Think Twice It's Alright". The other change was that Albert Grossman had become his manager, largely on the strength of "Blowin' in the Wind", which Grossman thought had huge potential. Grossman signed Dylan up, taking twenty percent of all his earnings -- including on the contract with Columbia Records Dylan already had -- and got him signed to a new publisher, Witmark Publishing, where the aptly-named Artie Mogull thought that "Blowin' in the Wind" could be marketed. Grossman took his twenty percent of Dylan's share of the songwriting money as his commission from Dylan -- and fifty percent of Witmark's share of the money as his commission from Witmark, meaning that Dylan was getting forty percent of the money for writing the songs, while Grossman was getting thirty-five percent. Grossman immediately got involved in the recording of Dylan's second album, and started having personality clashes with John Hammond. It was apparently Grossman who suggested that Dylan "go electric" for the first time, with the late-1962 single "Mixed-Up Confusion": [Excerpt: Bob Dylan, "Mixed-Up Confusion"] Neither Hammond nor Dylan liked that record, and it seemed clear for the moment that the way forward for Dylan was to continue in an acoustic folk vein. Dylan was also starting to get inspired more by English folk music, and incorporate borrowings from English music into his songwriting. That's most apparent in "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall", written in September 1962. Dylan took the structure of that song from the old English ballad, "Lord Randall": [Excerpt: Ewan MacColl, "Lord Randall"] He reworked that structure into a song of apocalypse, again full of the Biblical imagery he'd tried in the second verse of  "Blowin' in the Wind", but this time more successfully incorporating it: [Excerpt: Bob Dylan, "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall"] His interest in English folk music was to become more important in his songwriting in the following months, as Dylan was about to travel to the UK and encounter the British folk music scene. A TV director called Philip Saville had seen Dylan performing in New York, and had decided he would be perfect for the role of a poet in a TV play he was putting on, Madhouse in Castle Street, and got Dylan flown over to perform in it. Unfortunately, no-one seems to have told Dylan what would be involved in this, and he proved incapable of learning his lines or acting, so the show was rethought -- the role of the poet was given to David Warner, later to become one of Britain's most famous screen actors, and Dylan was cast in a new role as a singer called "Bobby", who had few or no lines but did get to sing a few songs, including "Blowin' in the Wind", which was the first time the song was heard by anyone outside of the New York folk scene. Dylan was in London for about a month, and while he was there he immersed himself in the British folk scene. This scene was in some ways modelled on the American scene, and had some of the same people involved, but it was very different. The initial spark for the British folk revival had come in the late 1940s, when A.L. Lloyd, a member of the Communist Party, had published a book of folk songs he'd collected, along with some Marxist analysis of how folk songs evolved. In the early fifties, Alan Lomax, then in the UK to escape McCarthyism, put Lloyd in touch with Ewan MacColl, a songwriter and performer from Manchester, who we heard earlier singing "Lord Randall". MacColl, like Lloyd, was a Communist, but the two also shared a passion for older folk songs, and they began recording and performing together, recording traditional songs like "The Handsome Cabin Boy": [Excerpt: Ewan MacColl and A.L. Lloyd, "The Handsome Cabin Boy"] MacColl and Lloyd latched on to the skiffle movement, and MacColl started his own club night, Ballads and Blues, which tried to push the skifflers in the direction of performing more music based in English traditional music. This had already been happening to an extent with things like the Vipers performing "Maggie May", a song about a sex worker in Liverpool: [Excerpt: The Vipers Skiffle Group, "Maggie May"] But this started to happen a lot more with MacColl's encouragement. At one point in 1956, there was even a TV show hosted by Lomax and featuring a band that included Lomax, MacColl, Jim Bray, the bass player from Chris Barber's band, Shirley Collins -- a folk singer who was also Lomax's partner -- and Peggy Seeger, who was Pete Seeger's sister and who had also entered into a romantic relationship with MacColl, whose most famous song, "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", was written both about and for her: [Excerpt: Peggy Seeger, "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face"] It was Seeger who instigated what became the most notable feature at the Ballads and Blues club and its successor the Singer's Club. She'd burst out laughing when she saw Long John Baldry sing "Rock Island Line", because he was attempting to sing in an American accent. As someone who had actually known Lead Belly, she found British imitations of his singing ludicrous, and soon there was a policy at the clubs that people would only sing songs that were originally sung with their normal vowel sounds. So Seeger could only sing songs from the East Coast of the US, because she didn't have the Western vowels of a Woody Guthrie, while MacColl could sing English and Scottish songs, but nothing from Wales or Ireland. As the skiffle craze died down, it splintered into several linked scenes. We've already seen how in Liverpool and London it spawned guitar groups like the Shadows and the Beatles, while in London it also led to the electric blues scene. It also led to a folk scene that was very linked to the blues scene at first, but was separate from it, and which was far more political, centred around MacColl. That scene, like the US one, combined topical songs about political events from a far-left viewpoint with performances of traditional songs, but in the case of the British one these were mostly old sea shanties and sailors' songs, and the ancient Child Ballads, rather than Appalachian country music -- though a lot of the songs have similar roots.  And unlike the blues scene, the folk scene spread all over the country. There were clubs in Manchester, in Liverpool (run by the group the Spinners), in Bradford, in Hull (run by the Waterson family) and most other major British cities. The musicians who played these venues were often inspired by MacColl and Lloyd, but the younger generation of musicians often looked askance at what they saw as MacColl's dogmatic approach, preferring to just make good music rather than submit it to what they saw as MacColl's ideological purity test, even as they admired his musicianship and largely agreed with his politics. And one of these younger musicians was a guitarist named Martin Carthy, who was playing a club called the King and Queen on Goodge Street when he saw Bob Dylan walk in. He recognised Dylan from the cover of Sing Out! magazine, and invited him to get up on stage and do a few numbers. For the next few weeks, Carthy showed Dylan round the folk scene -- Dylan went down great at the venues where Carthy normally played, and at the Roundhouse, but flopped around the venues that were dominated by MacColl, as the people there seemed to think of Dylan as a sort of cut-rate Ramblin' Jack Elliot, as Elliot had been such a big part of the skiffle and folk scenes. Carthy also taught Dylan a number of English folk songs, including "Lord Franklin": [Excerpt: Martin Carthy, "Lord Franklin"] and "Scarborough Fair": [Excerpt: Martin Carthy, "Scarborough Fair"] Dylan immediately incorporated the music he'd learned from Carthy into his songwriting, basing "Bob Dylan's Dream" on "Lord Franklin", and even more closely basing "GIrl From the North Country" on "Scarborough Fair": [Excerpt: Bob Dylan, "Girl From The North Country"] After his trip to London, Dylan went over to Europe to see if he could catch up with Suze, but she had already gone back to New York -- their letters to each other crossed in the post. On his return, they reunited at least for a while, and she posed with him for the photo for the cover of what was to be his second album.  Dylan had thought that album completed when he left for England, but he soon discovered that there were problems with the album -- the record label didn't want to release the comedy talking blues "Talking John Birch Society Paranoid Blues", because they thought it might upset the fascists in the John Birch Society. The same thing would later make sure that Dylan never played the Ed Sullivan Show, because when he was booked onto the show he insisted on playing that song, and so they cancelled the booking. In this case, though, it gave him an excuse to remove what he saw as the weaker songs on the album, including "Tomorrow is a Long Time", and replace them with four new songs, three of them inspired by traditional English folk songs -- "Bob Dylan's Dream",  "Girl From the North Country", and "Masters of War" which took its melody from the old folk song "Nottamun Town" popularised on the British folk circuit by an American singer, Jean Ritchie: [Excerpt: Jean Ritchie, "Nottamun Town"] These new recordings weren't produced by John Hammond, as the rest of the album was. Albert Grossman had been trying from the start to get total control over Dylan, and didn't want Hammond, who had been around before Grossman, involved in Dylan's career. Instead, a new producer named Tom Wilson was in charge. Wilson was a remarkable man, but seemed an odd fit for a left-wing folk album. He was one of the few Black producers working for a major label, though he'd started out as an indie producer. He was a Harvard economics graduate, and had been president of the Young Republicans during his time there -- he remained a conservative all his life -- but he was far from conservative in his musical tastes. When he'd left university, he'd borrowed nine hundred dollars and started his own record label, Transition, which had put out some of the best experimental jazz of the fifties, produced by Wilson, including the debut albums by Sun Ra: [Excerpt: Sun Ra, "Brainville"] and Cecil Taylor: [Excerpt: Cecil Taylor, "Bemsha Swing"] Wilson later described his first impressions of Dylan: "I didn’t even particularly like folk music. I’d been recording Sun Ra and Coltrane … I thought folk music was for the dumb guys. This guy played like the dumb guys, but then these words came out. I was flabbergasted." Wilson would soon play a big part in Dylan's career, but for now his job was just to get those last few tracks for the album recorded. In the end, the final recording session for Dylan's second album was more than a year after the first one, and it came out into a very different context from when he'd started recording it. Because while Dylan was putting the finishing touches on his second album, Peter Paul and Mary were working on their third, and they were encouraged by Grossman to record three Bob Dylan songs, since that way Grossman would make more money from them. Their version of "Blowin' in the Wind" came out as a single a few weeks after The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan came out, and sold 300,000 copies in the first week: [Excerpt: Peter, Paul, and Mary, "Blowin' in the Wind"] The record went to number two on the charts, and their followup, "Don't Think Twice it's Alright", another Dylan song, went top ten as well.  "Blowin' in the Wind" became an instant standard, and was especially picked up by Black performers, as it became a civil rights anthem. Mavis Staples of the Staple Singers said later that she was astonished that a white man could write a line like "How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man?", saying "That's what my father experienced" -- and the Staple Singers recorded it, of course: [Excerpt: The Staple Singers, "Blowin' in the Wind"] as did Sam Cooke: [Excerpt: Sam Cooke, "Blowin' in the Wind"] And Stevie Wonder: [Excerpt: Stevie Wonder, "Blowin' in the Wind"] But the song's most important performance came from Peter, Paul and Mary, performing it on a bill with Dylan, Odetta, Joan Baez, and Mahalia Jackson in August 1963, just as the song had started to descend the charts. Because those artists were the entertainment for the March on Washington, in which more than a quarter of a million people descended on Washington both to support President Kennedy's civil rights bill and to speak out and say that it wasn't going far enough. That was one of the great moments in American political history, full of incendiary speeches like the one by John Lewis: [Excerpt: John Lewis, March on Washington speech] But the most memorable moment at that march  came when Dr. King was giving his speech. Mahalia Jackson shouted out "Tell them about the dream, Martin", and King departed from his prepared words and instead improvised based on themes he'd used in other speeches previously, coming out with some of the most famous words ever spoken: [Excerpt: Martin Luther King, "I Have a Dream"] The civil rights movement was more than one moment, however inspiring, and white people like myself have a tendency to reduce it just to Dr. King, and to reduce Dr. King just to those words -- which is one reason why I quoted from Letter From Birmingham Jail earlier, as that is a much less safe and canonised piece of writing. But it's still true to say that if there is a single most important moment in the history of the post-war struggle for Black rights, it was that moment, and because of "Blowin' in the Wind", both Dylan and Peter, Paul and Mary were minor parts of that event. After 1963, Peter, Paul and Mary quickly became passe with the British Invasion, only having two more top ten hits, one with a novelty song in 1967 and one with "Leaving on a Jet Plane" in 1969. They split up in 1970, and around that time Yarrow was arrested and convicted for a sexual offence involving a fourteen-year-old girl, though he was later pardoned by President Carter. The group reformed in 1978 and toured the nostalgia circuit until Mary's death in 2009. The other two still occasionally perform together, as Peter and Noel Paul. Bob Dylan, of course, went on to bigger things after "Blowin' in the Wind" suddenly made him into the voice of a generation -- a position he didn't ask for and didn't seem to want. We'll be hearing much more from him. And we'll also be hearing more about the struggle for Black civil rights, as that's a story, much like Dylan's, that continues to this day.

Episode one hundred and nine of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “Blowin’ in the Wind”, Peter, Paul and Mary, Bob Dylan, the UK folk scene and the civil rights movement. Those of you who get angry at me whenever I say anything that acknowledges the existence of racism may want to skip this one. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode.   Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus episode available, on “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” by the Crystals. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt’s irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ —-more—- Resources As always, I’ve created a Mixcloud streaming playlist with full versions of all the songs in the episode.   This compilation contains all Peter, Paul and Mary’s hits. I have used *many* books for this episode, most of which I will also be using for future episodes on Dylan: The Mayor of MacDougal Street by Dave Van Ronk and Elijah Wald is the fascinating and funny autobiography of Dylan’s mentor in his Greenwich Village period, including his interactions with Albert Grossman. Chronicles Volume 1 by Bob Dylan is a partial, highly inaccurate, but thoroughly readable autobiography. Bob Dylan: All The Songs by Phillipe Margotin and Jean-Michel Guesdon is a song-by-song look at every song Dylan ever wrote, as is Revolution in the Air, by Clinton Heylin. Heylin also wrote the most comprehensive and accurate biography of Dylan, Behind the Shades. I’ve also used Robert Shelton’s No Direction Home, which is less accurate, but which is written by someone who knew Dylan. Only one book exists on Peter, Paul, and Mary themselves, and it is a hideously overpriced coffee table book consisting mostly of photos, so I wouldn’t bother with it.  Roots, Radicals, and Rockers: How Skiffle Changed the World by Billy Bragg has some great information on the British folk scene of the fifties and sixties. And Singing From the Floor is an oral history of British folk clubs, including a chapter on Dylan’s 1962 visit to London.   Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript   Today we’re going to look at the first manufactured pop band we will see in this story, but not the last — a group cynically put together by a manager to try and cash in on a fad, but one who were important enough that in a small way they helped to change history. We’re going to look at the March on Washington and the civil rights movement, at Bob Dylan blossoming into a songwriter and the English folk revival, and at “Blowin’ in the Wind” by Peter, Paul, and Mary: [Excerpt: Peter, Paul and Mary, “Blowin’ in the Wind”] Albert Grossman was an unusual figure in the world of folk music. The folk revival had started out as an idealistic movement, mostly centred on Pete Seeger, and outside a few ultra-commercial acts like the Kingston Trio, most of the people involved were either doing it for the love of the music, or as a means of advancing their political goals. No doubt many of the performers on the burgeoning folk circuit were also quite keen to make money — there are very few musicians who don’t like being able to eat and have a home to live in — but very few of the people involved were primarily motivated by increasing their income. Grossman was a different matter. He was a businessman, and he was interested in money more than anything else — and for that he was despised by many of the people in the Greenwich Village folk scene. But he was, nonetheless, someone who was interested in making money *from folk music* specifically. And in the late fifties and early sixties this was less of a strange idea than it might have seemed. We talked back in the episode on “Drugstore Rock and Roll” about how rock and roll music was starting to be seen as the music of the teenager, and how “teenager” was, for the first time, becoming a marketing category into which people could be segmented. But the thing about music that’s aimed at a particular age group is that once you’re out of that age group you are no longer the target audience for that music. Someone who was sixteen in 1956 was twenty in 1960, and people in their twenties don’t necessarily want to be listening to music aimed at teenagers. But at the same time, those people didn’t want to listen to the music that their parents were listening to.  There’s no switch that gets flipped on your twentieth birthday that means that you suddenly no longer like Little Richard but instead like Rosemary Clooney. So there was a gap in the market, for music that was more adult than rock and roll was perceived as being, but which still set itself apart from the pop music that was listened to by people in their thirties and forties. And in the late fifties and early sixties, that gap seemed to be filled by a commercialised version of the folk revival.  In particular, Harry Belafonte had a huge run of massive hit albums with collections of folk, calypso, and blues songs, presented in a way that was acceptable to an older, more settled audience while still preserving some of the rawness of the originals, like his version of Lead Belly’s “Midnight Special”, recorded in 1962 with a young Bob Dylan on harmonica: [Excerpt: Harry Belafonte, “Midnight Special”] Meanwhile, the Kingston Trio had been having huge hits with cleaned-up versions of old folk ballads like “Tom Dooley”: [Excerpt: The Kingston Trio, “Tom Dooley”] So Grossman believed that there was a real market out there for something that was as clean and bright and friendly as the Kingston Trio, but with just a tiny hint of the bohemian Greenwich Village atmosphere to go with it. Something that wouldn’t scare TV people and DJs, but which might seem just the tiniest bit more radical than the Kingston Trio did. Something mass-produced, but which seemed more authentic. So Grossman decided to put together what we would now call a manufactured pop group. It would be a bit like the Kingston Trio, but ever so slightly more political, and rather than being three men, it would be two men and a woman. Grossman had very particular ideas about what he wanted — he wanted a waifish, beautiful woman at the centre of the group, he wanted a man who brought a sense of folk authenticity, and he wanted someone who could add a comedy element to the performances, to lighten them.  For the woman, he chose Mary Travers, who had been around the folk scene for several years at this point, starting out with a group called the Song Swappers, who had recorded an album of union songs with Pete Seeger back in 1955: [Excerpt: Pete Seeger and the Song Swappers, “Solidarity Forever”] Travers was chosen in part because of her relative shyness — she had never wanted to be a professional singer, and her introverted nature made her perfect for the image Grossman wanted — an image that was carefully cultivated, to the point that when the group were rehearsing in Florida, Grossman insisted Travers stay inside so she wouldn’t get a tan and spoil her image. As the authentic male folk singer, Grossman chose Peter Yarrow, who was the highest profile of the three, as he had performed as a solo artist for a number of years and had appeared on TV and at the Newport Folk Festival, though he had not yet recorded. And for the comedy element, he chose Noel Stookey, who regularly performed as a comedian around Greenwich Village — in the group’s very slim autobiography, Stookey compares himself to two other comedians on that circuit, Bill Cosby and Woody Allen, comparisons that were a much better look in 2009 when the book was published than they are today. Grossman had originally wanted Dave Van Ronk to be the low harmony singer, rather than Stookey, but Van Ronk turned him down flat, wanting no part of a Greenwich Village Kingston Trio, though he later said he sometimes looked at his bank account rather wistfully. The group’s name was, apparently, inspired by a line in the old folk song “I Was Born About 10,000 Years Ago”, which was recorded by many people, but most famously by Elvis Presley in the 1970s: [Excerpt: Elvis Presley, “I Was Born About 10,000 Years Ago”] The “Peter, Paul, and Moses” from that song became Peter, Paul and Mary — Stookey started going by his middle name, Paul, on stage, in order to fit the group name, though he still uses Noel in his daily life. While Peter, Paul, and Mary were the front people of the group, there were several other people who were involved in the creative process — the group used a regular bass player, Bill Lee, the father of the filmmaker Spike Lee, who played on all their recordings, as well as many other recordings from Greenwich Village folk musicians. They also had, as their musical director, a man named Milt Okun who came up with their arrangements and helped them choose and shape the material. Grossman shaped this team into a formidable commercial force. Almost everyone who talks about Grossman compares him to Colonel Tom Parker, and the comparison is a reasonable one. Grossman was extremely good at making money for his acts, so long as a big chunk of the money came to him. There’s a story about him signing Odetta, one of the great folk artists of the period, and telling her “you can stay with your current manager, and make a hundred thousand dollars this year, and he’ll take twenty percent, or you can come with me, and make a quarter of a million dollars, but I’ll take fifty percent”. That was the attitude that Grossman took to everyone. He cut himself in to every contract, salami-slicing his artists’ royalties at each stage. But it can’t be denied that his commercial instincts were sound. Peter, Paul, and Mary’s first album was a huge success. The second single from the album, their version of the old Weavers song “If I Had a Hammer”, written by Pete Seeger and Lee Hays, went to number ten on the pop charts: [Excerpt: Peter, Paul and Mary, “If I Had a Hammer”] And the album itself went to number one and eventually went double-platinum — a remarkable feat for a collection of songs that, however prettily arranged, contained a fairly uncompromising selection of music from the folk scene, with songs by Seeger, Dave van Ronk, and Rev. Gary Davis mixing with traditional songs like “This Train” and originals by Stookey and Yarrow. Their second album was less successful at first, with its first two singles flopping. But the third, a pretty children’s song by Yarrow and his friend Leonard Lipton, went to number two on the pop charts and number one on the Adult Contemporary charts: [Excerpt: Peter, Paul, and Mary, “Puff the Magic Dragon”] Incidentally, Leonard Lipton, who wrote that lyric, became independently wealthy from the royalties from the song, and used the leisure that gave him to pursue his passion of inventing 3D projection systems, which eventually made him an even wealthier man — if you’ve seen a 3D film in the cinema in the last couple of decades, it’s almost certainly been using the systems Lipton invented. So Peter, Paul, and Mary were big stars, and having big hits. And Albert Grossman was constantly on the lookout for more material for them. And eventually he found it, and the song that was to make both him, his group, and its writer, very, very rich, in the pages of Broadside magazine. When we left Bob Dylan, he was still primarily a performer, and not really known for his songwriting, but he had already written a handful of songs, and he was being drawn into the more political side of the folk scene. In large part this was because of his girlfriend, Suze Rotolo, with whom Dylan was very deeply in love, and who was a very political person indeed. Dylan had political views, but wasn’t particularly driven by them — Rotolo very much was, and encouraged him to write songs about politics. For much of early 1962, Dylan was being pulled in two directions at once — he was writing songs inspired by Robert Johnson, and trying to adapt Johnson’s style to fit himself, but at the same time he was writing songs like “The Death of Emmett Till”, about the 1955 murder of a Black teenager which had galvanised the civil rights movement, and “The Ballad of Donald White”, about a Black man on death row. Dylan would later be very dismissive of these attempts at topicality, saying “I realize now that my reasons and motives behind it were phony, I didn’t have to write it; I was bothered by many other things that I pretended I wasn’t bothered by, in order to write this song about Emmett Till, a person I never even knew”. But at the time they got him a great deal of attention in the small US folk-music scene, when they were published in magazines like Broadside and Sing Out, which collected political songs. Most of these early songs are juvenilia, with a couple of exceptions like the rather marvellous anti-bomb song “Let Me Die in My Footsteps”, but the song that changed everything for Dylan was a different matter.  “Blowin’ in the Wind” was inspired by the melody of the old nineteenth century song “No More Auction Block”, a song that is often described as a “spiritual”, though in fact it’s a purely secular song about slavery: [Excerpt: Odetta, “No More Auction Block”] That song had seen something of a revival in folk circles in the late fifties, especially because part of its melody had been incorporated into another song, “We Shall Overcome”, which had become an anthem of the civil rights movement when it was revived and adapted by Pete Seeger: [Excerpt: Pete Seeger, “We Shall Overcome”] Dylan took this melody, with its associations with the fight for the rights of Black people, and came up with new lyrics, starting with the line “How many roads must a man walk down, before you call him a man?” He wrote two verses of the song — the first and last verses — in a short burst of inspiration, and a few weeks later came back to it and added another verse, the second, which incorporated allusions to the Biblical prophet Ezekiel, and which is notably less inspired than those earlier verses. In later decades, many people have looked at the lyrics to the song and seen it as the first of what would become a whole subgenre of non-protest protest songs — they’ve seen the abstraction of “How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man?” as being nice-sounding rhetoric that doesn’t actually mean anything, in much the same way as something like, say, “Another Day in Paradise” or “Eve of Destruction”, songs that make nonspecific complaints about nonspecific bad things. But while “Blowin’ in the Wind” is a song that has multiple meanings and can be applied to multiple situations, as most good songs can, that line was, at the time in which it was written, a very concrete question. The civil rights movement was asking for many things — for the right to vote, for an end to segregation, for an end to police brutality, but also for basic respect and acknowledgment of Black people’s shared humanity. We’ve already heard in a couple of past episodes Big Bill Broonzy singing “When Do I Get to Be Called a Man?”: [Excerpt: Big Bill Broonzy, “When Do I Get to Be Called a Man?”] Because at the time, it was normal for white people to refer to Black men as “boy”. As Dr. Martin Luther King said in his “Letter From Birmingham Jail”, one of the greatest pieces of writing of the twentieth century, a letter in large part about how white moderates were holding Black people back with demands to be “reasonable” and let things take their time: “when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick, brutalize, and even kill your black brothers and sisters with impunity; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society… when your first name becomes“ and here Dr. King uses a racial slur which I, as a white man, will not say, “and your middle name becomes “boy” (however old you are) and your last name becomes “John,” and when your wife and mother are never given the respected title “Mrs.”; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never knowing what to expect next, and plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of “nobodyness”—then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over and men are no longer willing to be plunged into an abyss of injustice where they experience the bleakness of corroding despair.” King’s great letter was written in 1963, less than a year after Dylan was writing his song but before it became widely known. In the context of 1962, the demand to call a man a man was a very real political issue, not an aphorism that could go in a Hallmark card. Dylan recorded the song in June 1962, during the sessions for his second album, which at the time was going under the working title “Bob Dylan’s Blues”: [Excerpt: Bob Dylan, “Blowin’ in the Wind”] By the time he recorded it, two major changes had happened to him. The first was that Suze Rotolo had travelled to Spain for several months, leaving him bereft — for the next few months, his songwriting took a turn towards songs about either longing for the return of a lost love, like “Tomorrow is a Long Time”, one of his most romantic songs, or about how the protagonist doesn’t even need his girlfriend anyway and she can leave if she likes, see if he cares, like “Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright”. The other change was that Albert Grossman had become his manager, largely on the strength of “Blowin’ in the Wind”, which Grossman thought had huge potential. Grossman signed Dylan up, taking twenty percent of all his earnings — including on the contract with Columbia Records Dylan already had — and got him signed to a new publisher, Witmark Publishing, where the aptly-named Artie Mogull thought that “Blowin’ in the Wind” could be marketed. Grossman took his twenty percent of Dylan’s share of the songwriting money as his commission from Dylan — and fifty percent of Witmark’s share of the money as his commission from Witmark, meaning that Dylan was getting forty percent of the money for writing the songs, while Grossman was getting thirty-five percent. Grossman immediately got involved in the recording of Dylan’s second album, and started having personality clashes with John Hammond. It was apparently Grossman who suggested that Dylan “go electric” for the first time, with the late-1962 single “Mixed-Up Confusion”: [Excerpt: Bob Dylan, “Mixed-Up Confusion”] Neither Hammond nor Dylan liked that record, and it seemed clear for the moment that the way forward for Dylan was to continue in an acoustic folk vein. Dylan was also starting to get inspired more by English folk music, and incorporate borrowings from English music into his songwriting. That’s most apparent in “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall”, written in September 1962. Dylan took the structure of that song from the old English ballad, “Lord Randall”: [Excerpt: Ewan MacColl, “Lord Randall”] He reworked that structure into a song of apocalypse, again full of the Biblical imagery he’d tried in the second verse of  “Blowin’ in the Wind”, but this time more successfully incorporating it: [Excerpt: Bob Dylan, “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall”] His interest in English folk music was to become more important in his songwriting in the following months, as Dylan was about to travel to the UK and encounter the British folk music scene. A TV director called Philip Saville had seen Dylan performing in New York, and had decided he would be perfect for the role of a poet in a TV play he was putting on, Madhouse in Castle Street, and got Dylan flown over to perform in it. Unfortunately, no-one seems to have told Dylan what would be involved in this, and he proved incapable of learning his lines or acting, so the show was rethought — the role of the poet was given to David Warner, later to become one of Britain’s most famous screen actors, and Dylan was cast in a new role as a singer called “Bobby”, who had few or no lines but did get to sing a few songs, including “Blowin’ in the Wind”, which was the first time the song was heard by anyone outside of the New York folk scene. Dylan was in London for about a month, and while he was there he immersed himself in the British folk scene. This scene was in some ways modelled on the American scene, and had some of the same people involved, but it was very different. The initial spark for the British folk revival had come in the late 1940s, when A.L. Lloyd, a member of the Communist Party, had published a book of folk songs he’d collected, along with some Marxist analysis of how folk songs evolved. In the early fifties, Alan Lomax, then in the UK to escape McCarthyism, put Lloyd in touch with Ewan MacColl, a songwriter and performer from Manchester, who we heard earlier singing “Lord Randall”. MacColl, like Lloyd, was a Communist, but the two also shared a passion for older folk songs, and they began recording and performing together, recording traditional songs like “The Handsome Cabin Boy”: [Excerpt: Ewan MacColl and A.L. Lloyd, “The Handsome Cabin Boy”] MacColl and Lloyd latched on to the skiffle movement, and MacColl started his own club night, Ballads and Blues, which tried to push the skifflers in the direction of performing more music based in English traditional music. This had already been happening to an extent with things like the Vipers performing “Maggie May”, a song about a sex worker in Liverpool: [Excerpt: The Vipers Skiffle Group, “Maggie May”] But this started to happen a lot more with MacColl’s encouragement. At one point in 1956, there was even a TV show hosted by Lomax and featuring a band that included Lomax, MacColl, Jim Bray, the bass player from Chris Barber’s band, Shirley Collins — a folk singer who was also Lomax’s partner — and Peggy Seeger, who was Pete Seeger’s sister and who had also entered into a romantic relationship with MacColl, whose most famous song, “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face”, was written both about and for her: [Excerpt: Peggy Seeger, “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face”] It was Seeger who instigated what became the most notable feature at the Ballads and Blues club and its successor the Singer’s Club. She’d burst out laughing when she saw Long John Baldry sing “Rock Island Line”, because he was attempting to sing in an American accent. As someone who had actually known Lead Belly, she found British imitations of his singing ludicrous, and soon there was a policy at the clubs that people would only sing songs that were originally sung with their normal vowel sounds. So Seeger could only sing songs from the East Coast of the US, because she didn’t have the Western vowels of a Woody Guthrie, while MacColl could sing English and Scottish songs, but nothing from Wales or Ireland. As the skiffle craze died down, it splintered into several linked scenes. We’ve already seen how in Liverpool and London it spawned guitar groups like the Shadows and the Beatles, while in London it also led to the electric blues scene. It also led to a folk scene that was very linked to the blues scene at first, but was separate from it, and which was far more political, centred around MacColl. That scene, like the US one, combined topical songs about political events from a far-left viewpoint with performances of traditional songs, but in the case of the British one these were mostly old sea shanties and sailors’ songs, and the ancient Child Ballads, rather than Appalachian country music — though a lot of the songs have similar roots.  And unlike the blues scene, the folk scene spread all over the country. There were clubs in Manchester, in Liverpool (run by the group the Spinners), in Bradford, in Hull (run by the Waterson family) and most other major British cities. The musicians who played these venues were often inspired by MacColl and Lloyd, but the younger generation of musicians often looked askance at what they saw as MacColl’s dogmatic approach, preferring to just make good music rather than submit it to what they saw as MacColl’s ideological purity test, even as they admired his musicianship and largely agreed with his politics. And one of these younger musicians was a guitarist named Martin Carthy, who was playing a club called the King and Queen on Goodge Street when he saw Bob Dylan walk in. He recognised Dylan from the cover of Sing Out! magazine, and invited him to get up on stage and do a few numbers. For the next few weeks, Carthy showed Dylan round the folk scene — Dylan went down great at the venues where Carthy normally played, and at the Roundhouse, but flopped around the venues that were dominated by MacColl, as the people there seemed to think of Dylan as a sort of cut-rate Ramblin’ Jack Elliot, as Elliot had been such a big part of the skiffle and folk scenes. Carthy also taught Dylan a number of English folk songs, including “Lord Franklin”: [Excerpt: Martin Carthy, “Lord Franklin”] and “Scarborough Fair”: [Excerpt: Martin Carthy, “Scarborough Fair”] Dylan immediately incorporated the music he’d learned from Carthy into his songwriting, basing “Bob Dylan’s Dream” on “Lord Franklin”, and even more closely basing “GIrl From the North Country” on “Scarborough Fair”: [Excerpt: Bob Dylan, “Girl From The North Country”] After his trip to London, Dylan went over to Europe to see if he could catch up with Suze, but she had already gone back to New York — their letters to each other crossed in the post. On his return, they reunited at least for a while, and she posed with him for the photo for the cover of what was to be his second album.  Dylan had thought that album completed when he left for England, but he soon discovered that there were problems with the album — the record label didn’t want to release the comedy talking blues “Talking John Birch Society Paranoid Blues”, because they thought it might upset the fascists in the John Birch Society. The same thing would later make sure that Dylan never played the Ed Sullivan Show, because when he was booked onto the show he insisted on playing that song, and so they cancelled the booking. In this case, though, it gave him an excuse to remove what he saw as the weaker songs on the album, including “Tomorrow is a Long Time”, and replace them with four new songs, three of them inspired by traditional English folk songs — “Bob Dylan’s Dream”,  “Girl From the North Country”, and “Masters of War” which took its melody from the old folk song “Nottamun Town” popularised on the British folk circuit by an American singer, Jean Ritchie: [Excerpt: Jean Ritchie, “Nottamun Town”] These new recordings weren’t produced by John Hammond, as the rest of the album was. Albert Grossman had been trying from the start to get total control over Dylan, and didn’t want Hammond, who had been around before Grossman, involved in Dylan’s career. Instead, a new producer named Tom Wilson was in charge. Wilson was a remarkable man, but seemed an odd fit for a left-wing folk album. He was one of the few Black producers working for a major label, though he’d started out as an indie producer. He was a Harvard economics graduate, and had been president of the Young Republicans during his time there — he remained a conservative all his life — but he was far from conservative in his musical tastes. When he’d left university, he’d borrowed nine hundred dollars and started his own record label, Transition, which had put out some of the best experimental jazz of the fifties, produced by Wilson, including the debut albums by Sun Ra: [Excerpt: Sun Ra, “Brainville”] and Cecil Taylor: [Excerpt: Cecil Taylor, “Bemsha Swing”] Wilson later described his first impressions of Dylan: “I didn’t even particularly like folk music. I’d been recording Sun Ra and Coltrane … I thought folk music was for the dumb guys. This guy played like the dumb guys, but then these words came out. I was flabbergasted.” Wilson would soon play a big part in Dylan’s career, but for now his job was just to get those last few tracks for the album recorded. In the end, the final recording session for Dylan’s second album was more than a year after the first one, and it came out into a very different context from when he’d started recording it. Because while Dylan was putting the finishing touches on his second album, Peter Paul and Mary were working on their third, and they were encouraged by Grossman to record three Bob Dylan songs, since that way Grossman would make more money from them. Their version of “Blowin’ in the Wind” came out as a single a few weeks after The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan came out, and sold 300,000 copies in the first week: [Excerpt: Peter, Paul, and Mary, “Blowin’ in the Wind”] The record went to number two on the charts, and their followup, “Don’t Think Twice it’s Alright”, another Dylan song, went top ten as well.  “Blowin’ in the Wind” became an instant standard, and was especially picked up by Black performers, as it became a civil rights anthem. Mavis Staples of the Staple Singers said later that she was astonished that a white man could write a line like “How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man?”, saying “That’s what my father experienced” — and the Staple Singers recorded it, of course: [Excerpt: The Staple Singers, “Blowin’ in the Wind”] as did Sam Cooke: [Excerpt: Sam Cooke, “Blowin’ in the Wind”] And Stevie Wonder: [Excerpt: Stevie Wonder, “Blowin’ in the Wind”] But the song’s most important performance came from Peter, Paul and Mary, performing it on a bill with Dylan, Odetta, Joan Baez, and Mahalia Jackson in August 1963, just as the song had started to descend the charts. Because those artists were the entertainment for the March on Washington, in which more than a quarter of a million people descended on Washington both to support President Kennedy’s civil rights bill and to speak out and say that it wasn’t going far enough. That was one of the great moments in American political history, full of incendiary speeches like the one by John Lewis: [Excerpt: John Lewis, March on Washington speech] But the most memorable moment at that march  came when Dr. King was giving his speech. Mahalia Jackson shouted out “Tell them about the dream, Martin”, and King departed from his prepared words and instead improvised based on themes he’d used in other speeches previously, coming out with some of the most famous words ever spoken: [Excerpt: Martin Luther King, “I Have a Dream”] The civil rights movement was more than one moment, however inspiring, and white people like myself have a tendency to reduce it just to Dr. King, and to reduce Dr. King just to those words — which is one reason why I quoted from Letter From Birmingham Jail earlier, as that is a much less safe and canonised piece of writing. But it’s still true to say that if there is a single most important moment in the history of the post-war struggle for Black rights, it was that moment, and because of “Blowin’ in the Wind”, both Dylan and Peter, Paul and Mary were minor parts of that event. After 1963, Peter, Paul and Mary quickly became passe with the British Invasion, only having two more top ten hits, one with a novelty song in 1967 and one with “Leaving on a Jet Plane” in 1969. They split up in 1970, and around that time Yarrow was arrested and convicted for a sexual offence involving a fourteen-year-old girl, though he was later pardoned by President Carter. The group reformed in 1978 and toured the nostalgia circuit until Mary’s death in 2009. The other two still occasionally perform together, as Peter and Noel Paul. Bob Dylan, of course, went on to bigger things after “Blowin’ in the Wind” suddenly made him into the voice of a generation — a position he didn’t ask for and didn’t seem to want. We’ll be hearing much more from him. And we’ll also be hearing more about the struggle for Black civil rights, as that’s a story, much like Dylan’s, that continues to this day.

Join the conversation with MICE Talk 360 guest: Brandi Ronk, Regional Sales Manager for Melia Hotels as she shares how SITE Midwest takes action and executes the ideas that earned recognition in January 2020 at the SITE Global Conference. It's not bragging if you can do it.  

Join us for another episode of Take 5 with MICE Talk 360 as my guest, Brandi Ronk, Regional Sales Manager for Melia Hotels, shares her hope, and a personal observation, of two good things to come out of the pandemic. A little of both can go a long way!

Dagens bonusavsnitt handlar om audiell erotik. Hur många av oss blir kåtare av vad vi hör än vad vi ser, om bra erotiska ljudböcker och hur du kan använda hörseln som effektivt verktyg för att förföra. Och så läser Marika upp några ångande heta smakprov förstås... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Ett riktigt psykbryt bryter ut i veckans program när Nicklas spelar upp ÅRETS STARKASTE låt. Sen blir det en djupdykning i de mörkaste rösterna som GARANTERAT kommer få det att mullra i prostatan. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

A Ronk bite to the armCovering X-Wing Rogue Squadron #4Writer: Michael A Stackpole and Mike BaronArtist: Allen NunisReleased: 10/31/95Thank you for listening to Star Wars Comics DailyMonday’s Episode is Star Wars #34Tuesday X Wing Rogue Squadron #4Wednesday’s Star Wars Legacy #35Thursday’s Darth Vader #12You can follow the show on Twitter and Instagram @swcomicsdailyTo support the show, continue to listen, leave us a review on your podcast provider of choice, share with a friend and visit our patreon at Patreon.com/starwarscomicsdailyYou can watch episodes of Star Wars Comics Daily on YoutubeYou can contact us at Starwarscomicsdaily@gmail.comAnd visit us at Starwarscomicsdaily.com and Scorcherhill.comYou can follow Brian on Twitter and Instagram @jacklazerYou can follow Matt on Twitter and Instagram @johnnymattwoodStar Wars Comics Daily is a Scorcher Hill Production

Brian Ronk - Owner of Ronk's Heating and Cooling based in Washington state joins us as we talk about building a dynamite culture in your business, implementing systems, and scaling up to 7 figures in annual revenue.

Covering a broad range of topics including politics and 2A rights, we attempt to pull back from the zoo that we see on CNN and ask how we should live in light of an unknown future and the perennial cries of looming doom.  Beer -  Astoria IPA - Collaboration of local Astoria, OR breweries The Terry Porter - Porter from Gilgamesh Brewing Whiskey - Triple Barrel Blended Whiskey from Woodinville Whiskey

Episode 77 is the second half of my conversation with fellow music fan, recovered alcoholic, remarkable stay-at-home Dad and future podcaster: Jason Ronk. We pick up the conversation right where Part 1 left off (if you didn't hear that yet, take the time to go back... great stuff in there and, you know, it's part 1 of 2. Would you watch The Godfather II without devouring the original first?)Jason takes us back into his mid-'90s history and what music really started to do for him at that time of his life. He traces directly back to a friend of his putting on Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" album and remembers that really driving him further in his desire to be a musician. In 1994 and 1995, Jason was not only getting introduced to the Grateful Dead and Phish but his one and only time seeing Jerry Garcia on stage was the Grateful Dead's final official concert before Jerry's untimely and unfortunate death: the July 1995 show at Soldier Field in Chicago. "...I found my people... I had no clue what it was, but I knew that I fit..." That snippet of Jason's description of being around the community of Deadheads at Soldier Field, whether in the parking lot or in the actual show, I think resonates with a lot of us. It absolutely hit the mark for me... it all sounded incredibly familiar to my first time in a parking lot at a show back on New Year's Eve weekend in 1990. Drum circle, and all. Jason walked through the most difficult times of his life, talking about all of the craziness that his struggle with alcoholism put him through. One of my favorite things Jason said during our entire conversation came soon after that: "...my life really began on July 4, 2015... when I met my wife..." I mentioned this in my intro of the episode, but a big reason that we talked when we did for these episodes was that Jason was set to meet with Trey before one of his shows. His re-telling of that night and the extraordinary circumstances surrounding it gave me goosebumps. It's always refreshing when you hear about a celebrity or someone who spends some of their life "in the spotlight" and people talk about how humble or friendly or just overall cool that person is. Jason's meetup with Trey fell right in line with that. And this is the way it seems like all of the stories of people meeting Trey out and about are, of late. I won't spell out the whole experience here... it won't do it justice. Truly. If for no other reason, you should check out the actual episode to hear Jason tell about this awesome experience. Daddy Unscripted can be found on:iTunes | Spotify | Stitcher Radio | Google Play | Tune-In RadioTwitter: @DaddyUnscriptedFacebook: Daddy UnscriptedWebsite: www.daddyunscripted.comDaddy Unscripted is proud to be a part of Osiris Media! You can check out the Osiris Media website to see what other great podcasts are part of the network by going to OsirisPod.com. Osiris is partnered with JamBase and JamBase empowers music fans everywhere to go see live music. You should check them out at Jambase.com.Intro and Outro music proudly provided with a partnership by Umphrey's McGee. Check them out at www.Umphreys.comYou can send questions and suggestions for future guests to us via email to daddyunscripted@gmail.com and you can always use my Google Voice number for comments, questions, etc.: (872) 444-6784. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/daddyunscripted. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Episode 76 is the first half of my conversation with fellow music fan, recovered alcoholic, remarkable stay-at-home Dad and future podcaster: Jason Ronk.We started out the episode with some singing out the praises of the Moms out there. I did a little bit of the stay-at-home / work-from-home Dad situation with my first-born. Jason definitely is having a longer go at it than I did. Pretty much every SAHD I have talked about that job with has just gotten on their knees to bow in reverence to the work that Moms do.Jason talked a little about some of the surprising things he has noticed during trips to the park for his kids to play. Both the other kids and the other parents can really be interesting to observe; I've notice this a lot, myself. How do parents at the park interact, if at all, with their children while there? It's almost like a personality test on a live, visual scale. Do they plop down and get right on their phones and ignore their kids? Do they sit and talk with other parents there? Do they play with their kids if they're asked to? It can be quite fascinating, really.He talked a bit about what his older child's experience is like currently in school. We eventually got into talking about how much of a difference outdoor play can be for kids. This obviously isn't us being pioneers on the subject... this gets talked about a lot these days, with all of the electronics kids have access to and how easy that can be for us, as parents, to let them "do what they're going to do"... you know, the "electric babysitter".As a kid of the '70s, this all resonates with me dramatically. I spent a lot of my childhood outdoors. Having the incredibly good fortune of being raised in Southern Orange County, and being able to walk about a mile to get to the beach, I took advantage of that a lot in my youth. There was a time, however, that changed a little for me. I did love video games and reading and even writing (I wrote a "book" -- it never went anywhere, so don't ask -- during the summer between my 8th and 9th-grade school years). But, I definitely benefitted from what was our locale.Jason traces his move away from his childhood locale to the discovery of the Grateful Dead and that community of Deadheads in 1995. One of his first shows was actually the Grateful Dead's last show, in Chicago in the summer of '95, at the age of 19. (We get into this more in Part 2, by the way)We went back into the childhoods and lives of both his Dad and his Mom... who both were raised in old farm families. Jason's Dad was in a band that toured with Dolly Parton, played the Grand Ole Opry and had some actual hits! I played a segment of one of their songs in the episode, that you can click here to check out on Youtube. Dick Ronk and the Revenuers and their tune: Let Me Kill The Bottle Bartender.Jason is not afraid to talk openly and honestly about the battle he fought with drugs and alcohol. He also really said a lot of great things about passing on respect and understanding to our kids and helping them to become great men and women as adults.Again, this is just the first half of our conversation and you won't want to miss the second half and Jason's story about meeting up with Trey Anastasio and a lot of what he has learned in the work he has done over years on himself.Daddy Unscripted can be found on:iTunes | Spotify | Stitcher Radio | Google Play | Tune-In RadioTwitter: @DaddyUnscriptedFacebook: Daddy UnscriptedWebsite: www.daddyunscripted.comDaddy Unscripted is proud to be a part of the Osiris Podcast Network! You can check out the Osiris Pod website to see what other great podcasts are part of the network by going to OsirisPod.com. Osiris is partnered with JamBase and JamBase... Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/daddyunscripted. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sean is a tax-focused financial planner. He helps individuals and small businesses with financial planning, tax strategies, and tax return preparation. The discussion we have is not intended to be financial, tax, or investment advice for any particular individual. You should consult your own advisor regarding your specific situation. Website: I have a tax and financial independence blog at https://fitaxguy.com https://mullaneyfinancial.com Resources mentioned in this episode: 7 day Budget Challenge (www.budgetsmadeeasy.com/budget-challenge) Millionaire Next Door (https://amzn.to/2ReIpVT) aff link Simple Path to Wealth (https://amzn.to/2TjmuiW) aff link Full transcript: Welcome to the money mindset podcast where you will find the inspiration and motivation you need to manage your money better so you can stress less and live the life you want. I'm Ashley Patrick with budgets means easy and the money mindset podcast. Today we are talking to Shawn Malaney. He is a tax focused financial planner and he helps individuals and small. This is with financial planning tax strategies and tax return preparation. And today we are going to talk with him about preparing for your taxes so that you can lower your tax bill. Now it may be a little too late to lower your tax bill for this year, but these are some helpful tips in planning for next year. So if you're getting a big tax refund, there's even some tips in here with what to do with the money to lower your tax bill for next year. Now, as a disclaimer, you know the discussion we have is not intended to be financial tax or investment advice for any particular individual. You should consult with your own advisor regarding your specific situation. But of course he's got lots of different ideas and helpful tips that kind of help you, uh, lower your tax burden for the coming year and possibly years down the road. So before we jump in, I do want to mention that the seven day budget challenge will be changing. I plan to change it by the end of this month. So this is airing in January of 2020 and right now the budget challenge is a pay what you want, challenge minimum of $5. So I am going to be changing mat. I'm going to be turning it into a mini course and the price will be going up. Now I may have another budget challenge where I shorten it. Um, but you know, for those of you who have taken the budget challenge, you know, it's um, pretty detailed videos, step-by-step videos on how to do everything. So I am going to be adding to that and increasing the price probably and by you know, next month. So if you haven't already, go ahead and check that out. You know, if you've been waiting, you know, people on average that do the seven day budget challenge save almost $500 every single month. I think the math is like $493 on average whenever I take out the average. So almost $500 a month just by doing their budget. And then there's lots of helpful tips, a Facebook group and everything like that. So if you have waited to jump on the budget challenge, if you are overwhelmed and you just really don't know where to start, this is where you start. This is where you start to save money. It's where you start to pay off debt is where you start to build longterm wealth. It all with your budget. It's the foundation. If you hate the B word, you know, call it a cashflow plan, you know, call it whatever you want, that'll get you to motivate you to actually do it. So, you know, if you just really hate the word budget, think of another word. Uh, you know, a lot of people call it a cash flow plan, which you know, is what it is. So go ahead and check that out at budgetsmadeeasy.com/budget-challenge. And now we will jump into Sean's interview. Hi Sean. Thanks for being here today. Thanks so much for having me Ashley. It's a pleasure to be with you today and I am so excited. You know, it's, it's beginning the new year and Tech's time and you know, you focus on taxes and so I'm really excited to talk to you about, uh, ways that people can prepare for taxes or maybe even, you know, next year, things that they can do throughout the year to kind of get ready for tax season because you know, it's coming whether you like it or not, you gotta pay your taxes so it's better to be prepared than surprised come tax time. Right? Absolutely. Ashley, you know, I think there are two things people should think about, right? One is every year you must file a federal income tax return. And in most States you're going to have to file a state income tax return too. And that's an important exercise, right? The IRS is a high priority credit or so you don't want to be on the wrong side of the IRS current in your filing obligations. But even more important I think is the longterm planning that I think some teachers, sometimes people get lost, you know, they say, Oh, I've got this tax return. You gotta make sure it's prepared on time and I'm all anxious and concerned about that. They get that done whenever they get that done. And then it's like, okay, I'll think about taxes some other time and then that other time becomes next year's tax return. But it's important to do some strategic thinking around your own tax situation. And that's true whether you're just starting out in your career or if you're much later or if you're, even if you're retired, uh, I think all people can benefit some from some intentional action on the tax front. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, and it's so easy to just kinda put it off and think about all, I'll do it later. But you're right. Preparing for is the best thing, you know, especially if you think that you're going to owe money or you know, you're close or you typically owe money or something like that. Um, what are some ways that people can prepare and just kind of make adjustments through the year? Yeah, so I think for younger workers, I think to my mind I'd have four top priorities and then we could talk a little bit more about some tactics in terms of making tax season itself better. So the first thing is if you work for an employer, you should absolutely contribute up to the employer match in your 401k. Um, I say that because one, it's a way to reduce your taxes, but to, it's a way of a guaranteed return. So think about if your, if your employer says we will match dollar for dollar up to 5% of your salary or maybe we'll match 50 cents up to 5% of your salary, you'd be a fool not to take advantage of that. And unfortunately in America there are plenty of people not doing that. And the reason it isn't so much a tax reason as it is a financial reason, which is a guaranteed return on your money, right? There's no investment that I or anyone else can guarantee you a return on what if your employer is going to make a an a match to your 401k or your four Oh three B or your TSP. Then you need to be taking advantage of that because that's guaranteed money. The second you put in the first dollar you get back from the employer, 25 cents, 50 cents a dollar, whatever, the match percentages. So I'd say that's the first thing you should do in terms of organizing your tax life. The second would be if a health, a high deductible health plan makes sense for you. You want to cut that are a high deductible health plan with the matching health savings account. And Ashley, I don't know if you've talked about that previously with your listeners. Maybe might want to take a a S a minute to step back and just explain what a uh, an HSA is and just why it might be so powerful for your, Oh yeah, go ahead. I have not talked about it. Um, I actually have a high deductible plan and an HSA. Um, but I'd love to get your perspective on it. Yeah. So what this is, is it's a special kind of insurance that typically has higher deductibles than most people are used to, but there are some trade offs for that, right? So the deductible means it means you might have to pay more out of pocket, but if you're young and relatively healthy, that may not be such a bad thing, right? Because you're essentially a calculated risk. And on the other side you're getting benefits for, for taking that risk. One is the insurance premiums themselves typically are lower. Second is you have the ability to contribute to a tax advantage account called a health savings account. And that account lets you put in for an individual, it's up to 35 50 and 2000 or 2020 for a family it's 7,120 20 you can put in 35 50 every year of tax deductible contributions, which is really cool, right? So you see income tax around that. Not only do you save on the income tax around that, if you do it through your workplace withholding, you save on your payroll tax, so your FICA and your Medicare, you save on that stuff as well. So it's real neat tax saving tool. And then the, the money sits in the HSA, it builds up over time. You can invest it and hopefully grow it that way. And then if you take it out for qualified medical expenses, the money comes out tax and penalty free. So you get a tax deduction the way in and then the money comes out tax and penalty free. It's the best of both worlds, right? It's, it's like a Ronk and that you get a deduction upfront and then it's like a Roth IRA or a Roth 401k in that you get the money out tax free. Now you have to manage it correctly, right? You can't just take that out for a vacation or things like that. Um, and I also say make sure if you don't have major medical expenses, the only thing you got in the year is a cold and maybe a sprained ankle. Try to not take out from your HSA so you'll let the money sit and compound tax-free for many more years. Um, but I, I think if your circumstances warrant using a high deductible plan, the HSA high deductible plan combination is very powerful. Those who might not want to take this path would be people with chronic medical conditions, things like Crohn's and colitis, things that will have predictable high annual medical expenses. Um, these plans are great for the relatively young and the relatively healthy because their way of reducing your medical insurance costs while at the same time building tax advantage wealth and many employers are actually trying to move their employees toward these plans, which is, you know, good and bad. But if you're young, it can be very powerful, partly because the employer will usually make a contribution to the plan as well. So you're, you're making your own contributions and then the employer might put in 600, 700, a thousand bucks. And that's more tax-free compensation and more tax-free wealth building if you magic correctly. [inaudible] yeah, we had, um, at my previous employer, which is a, um, it's city government, uh, we had both options. We could stay on the regular plan, which, you know, cost more per month or go to this and they would give you so much for your HSA. And then, uh, my husband's plan, um, previously they had moved to it and then they contributed, but now they don't, uh, he moved to a different employer and they don't contribute anything and then they have the high deductible. So actually for like our family of three kids, so we meet our deductible every year and so it costs us quite a bit of money really. But the plan itself is pretty cheap. Like we don't pay that much per month for the plan, but I'm also putting, I have to put in like $500 a month into the HSA just to cover all the medical bills through the year. Like it's, it's a lot. Yeah, it's interesting actually. You say you're making this calculation around, well, okay, yes, we're going to pay more at the doctor's office, but we're going to pay less every pay period for the health insurance premium. We get all these tax benefits from funding the health savings accounts. Right. You're making, you know, it's a trade off and you know it, you know, so that's your family where, yeah, you've got three kids and there's a lots of, a lot of doctor's visits and those sorts of things. But think about your, your listeners who are 25 years old, right? Who maybe have any children, right? And maybe they're very healthy. Why would you pay a whole lot? For a gold plated insurance plan when you're doctor, hopefully twice a year if that. Oh yeah, absolutely. I think these, these HSA is, can make a lot of sense, um, for folks in terms of getting their tax life in order and saving on income tax and on payroll tax. Yeah. I didn't realize the payroll tax part, like I knew we saved just on taxes, but I guess I didn't realize that aspect of it. I'm not big into, you know, all those fine details. Think about that Ashley though, is you need to get the payroll tax saving. You need to do it through employer withholding, right? So if you just say, Hey, I've got this HSA, but yeah, you know, employer don't take any money from my paycheck every two weeks and put it in the HSA and then you get to the end of the year, there's no money in the HSA. What you could do is you could say, well, all right, I, you know, I've got this HSA I didn't contribute say for 2019. Right? Maybe you didn't contribute, but you are covered by a high deductible plan for the whole year. What you could do is then write it, check in early 2020 to your HSA and say this is for 2019 you would get the income tax deduction on your federal tax return, but you wouldn't get the payroll tax safe if you can do it through your employer withholding, which most employers will facilitate that right through your HR portal. Right? You set that up. Um, it's a, it's such a powerful tool, especially if you're below, right? If you're below the social security threshold, you're gonna save not only the Medicare tax, which is 1.45% of every paycheck, but also the social security tax, which is 6.2%. You know, a lot of younger workers, they pay more in payroll tax and they pay an income tax. So the HSA can be very powerful for them as a tax planning strategy. Yeah, that's, those are really good ideas. I didn't know about all that, all those details. So that's why I'm so happy you're here talking to us today. Um, so those are really great options and things to plan. Um, did you have a couple more? I'm trying to think how many you said you had. I've got at least four to start and then at least one tactical run one. The third one is the Roth IRA. And I know you've talked with your listeners before about the Roth IRA, but you know, as long as you're making a relatively modest income, the Roth is a very powerful planning tool. And actually I remember you talked about the experience you and your husband had a few years ago with a 401k loan. To refresh your listeners memory, please correct me if I'm getting any of this wrong, but if I'm remembering correctly, you and your husband did significant home renovations and you found yourselves cash strapped. And so what you did was you said, okay, well we've got money in a 401k, we'll take a loan from the 401k and yeah, sure we'll pay it back and we'll get the house, you know, built and [inaudible] and then we'll repay the loan. And then your husband left his job. And so that required you guys to either pay back the loan very quickly or to have the loan show up in your taxable income and have it be lip on your rate. You know, on your one year big slug of taxable income plus a 10% penalty. Right? Right. So let's think about if, what if you guys instead had had a Roth IRA at that time? You know, if you had had a Roth IRA and say you'd borrowed 40,000 of, well let's say each of you had a Roth IRA, you would contribute each $5,000 for the four years previous. So you each had 20,000 worth of contributions to that Roth IRA. What you could have done is you could have taken each the 20,000 of contributions out tax and penalty free, and you could have used that for any purpose. You know, under the sun, right? You could've taken a vacation with that. You could have done medical expenses, you could have, you know, rebuilt your house, whatever you want to do, 20,000 you just withdraw your old contributions. That's it. You don't withdraw the earnings. You now have $40,000 you can redo the house. Now, that's not exactly great tax planning and that you're going to lose the future growth on that $40,000 that would have been tax free, but at least you could have used that money, gotten the house repaired, gotten all those renovations done, and now tax time, there's no income tax hit, there's no penalty and you walk away from it and you say, well next time we go through that path, hopefully we'll have money in cash or other taxable investments to pay for it, but at least we don't have this huge penalty and this big slug of taxable income this time. Right. So I think the Roth IRA is powerful one because it's tax free growth for your retirement, but two, because the contributions that you've previously made could be withdrawn tax and pound, be free at any time for any reason. Not to say that that's something you should be planning on doing, redrawing early. But if you had to, it's a nice life raft where you are a tax hit and a penalty hit on top of an already difficult financial situation. Yeah. Cause our taxes, I mean it was crazy. We should have got back, you know, I think it was around $4,000 and we ended up owing over 6,000 so it was like a 50% hit. It was crazy. Cause I mean it just, it costs us a whole lot. And so like give you, like you said, if you have the other option then you don't take that big hit. Yeah. So I think the Roth IRA is just such a powerful tool. Four, pretty much all Americans have at least some access. You know, there are some who make too much to make a direct contribution. There's some strategies around that. You can also have a Roth 401k or four or three B Roth TSP. So I think for most Americans, and certainly for younger Americans, having Roth accounts is imperative because it just gives you so many more options and opens that door to tax free growth in the future. That's very powerful. And I think a lot of employers are moving to give the option of Roth 401k. Um, but if somebody didn't have that option at their job, like how would they go about opening a Roth? Like could they, you know, sometimes I see, um, just you know, at banks they have IRA accounts but those really aren't the same thing are they? Yeah. So these days to open a Roth IRA is relatively simple. There are plenty of discount brokerages and I'm not recommending any one particular brokerage or financial institution for any of your listeners, but just to list some examples that are commonly cited, Vanguard, fidelity, Schwab, there are others, right, where you can go to their websites or call them off and say, Hey, you know, I have earned income for whatever year it is. And in fact your, your listeners, if you're listening in January of 2020, you could still make a contribution to a Roth IRA is assuming you qualify in before April 15th of 2020. So there's still time in 2020 to do some tax planning for 2019. And the way yet, the way you would do it is you would contact one of these discount brokerages and say, you know, I want to open up a Roth IRA and their websites are usually pretty user friendly in terms of navigating you through that process. You'll have to link a bank account, right? Cause they all need some stores of funds to get the money. You know, in the contribution limit. If you're under 50 years old in 2019, uh, in 2020 is six thousand seven thousand. If you're over 50, you know, so you, you know, and this is done person by person, right? So even in a community property state, I live in California, retirement accounts are individual accounts. So you know, you can do it and then your spouse can also do it too. I'm assuming that you have, between you and your spouse, there's a neuro [inaudible] earned income there for a Roth IRA. And the threshold is pretty low, right? It's about $12,000 if you're under 50 years old. Um, but assuming between you and your spouse, you have 12,000 of earned income, you can go to one of these websites and set it up. Yeah. You link a bank account, the funds come over and then you invest them, you know, obviously for a younger investor that's gonna probably be, you know, skewed towards a, a [inaudible] equity portfolio. Um, perhaps if you're older you might want to do it in a more conservative portfolio. But you know, the, the brokerages are generally pretty user friendly. You know, some people will critique certain websites, but generally speaking, they're pretty user friendly in terms of setting up a Roth IRA. Great. And I do have a quick question because I see this in Facebook groups all the time and your comment about, um, having to have a $12,000 earn income. Like I see people in Facebook groups, obviously they're not, you know, they're just random people, uh, on the internet. So obviously everybody has different opinions, but they'll make comments about, um, okay, putting money in for your child into a Roth IRA, or how do you do that? Or can you do that? If they technically don't have any income, can you start a Roth for your child? Yeah, that's a great question actually. So the answer is yes, as long as your child is an American with earned income, that's the big key earn income, you can contribute to a Roth IRA for them. So a lot of kids don't have earned income and thus wouldn't be able to do it. Right. Where this comes up a lot is if you know mom or dad has a small business and as long as it's a sole proprietorship or partnership owned by mom and dad, then theoretically that business could hire you know, junior or daughter and you would then, you know, pay junior daughter, there's a payroll tax exemption if you do it the way I said you did it. And as long as that compensation is reasonable for the activity, right? So we're talking about relatively low value services, but you know in most cases you could justify, Hey, you know what, somebody who's got cleaned this office or you know, you know that mom and dad used for their, their trader business, you would then pay them. And based on the tax rules, you would not owe payroll taxes on that compensation because they're working for their mom and dad and their mom and dad's trader business. And then they would have, you know, if it's $1,000, 2000, 3000, whatever their earnings for the year are, that's the cap, right? So you would say, okay, and you could, you can just gift them that piece of it, right? So you can pay them the $3,000. They then put that in, you know, their savings account or you know, they do whatever they do with it. And then you could separately then say, Oh, well you had $3,000 worth of earnings, I'll just gift you the other 3000 to actually put in the Roth IRA account. Um, or you just use the earnings that they actually took home. Um, yeah, so this can be a powerful tool. I would say though, you want to be careful because if you're saying, Hey, you know, my 12 year old has, you know, school and soccer practice and swim practice and Oh by the way, my, my 12 year old earned $10,000 this year, the IRS might start looking a little scance at that. And the issues there can be that they would deny your business the deduction for that compensation, and they might even say, Oh, you made your child made an excess contribution to your return to his or her retirement. So you want to be careful and logical here with this stuff. But it certainly can be, you know, it's one of those things where, yeah, a thousand this year in 2000 next year, these aren't big numbers, but if you start stacking them on top of each other and you give your child, you know, your child's 10 years old and they don't touch that money till they're 60 or seven years old, all of a sudden it can be quite impactful. Absolutely. I mean, the younger you can start investing the better because it just has so much time to grow. I mean, it's just crazy how the compound interest work. That is exactly right. Um, and, and yeah, they will love you if, you know, you put in, you know, four or five, $6,000 over their childhoods and then that grows for 50 years con, you know, tax-free. It can be a very impactful maneuver. And if you can get a business deduction for it because it was reasonable compensation for the tasks that your kids did, you know, all the better. Right? Absolutely. Now would you recommend doing that as opposed to like an ESA or a five 29 plan for college? So it depends on the purpose, right? So if the purpose is we want to get our child to a place where they're going to have a lot of wealth or a relatively high amount of wealth in the future to have flexibility, I tend to like the Roth IRA. If the purpose is I want to use that money for my child's college education, I would not put it in my child's Roth IRA. And there are two reasons for that, right? One, if the money comes out of the child's Roth IRA while they're in college. You know, like I said earlier, it could be a return of their contribution. So there'd be no tax and there'd be no penalty. Well that's fine, but one, you're going to lose decades of tax free growth on that money. And then too, for the purpose of the FAFSA form, right? So the form that determines the federal aid, the student aid that your kid will get, that money that comes out of the Roth IRA goes into what's called the expected family contribution. The EFC. Yeah. So, and what happens is they say, Oh, that's income of the child, even though it's not taxable income, it's still income of the child. And we expect up to 50% of that income to go into the family's contribution for tuition next year. So you've just created essentially a 50% tax on a Roth IRA, which is not, you know, not advantageous planning. So if your goal is, look, I just want to fund Junior's college education, then I would look at alternatives such as you mentioned the ESA or the five 29 plan. The other thing to keep in mind too is we've got to take care of mom and dad, right? Mom and dad are going to get older by the time the kid is in college and it's gonna have a lot of time to repay the student loan, right? So, um, sometimes there's, there's a real benefit of just investing that money in a taxable account in the parent's own name and sure that that taxable account will generate interest and dividends and capital gain distributions over time. That'll go on the parents' tax return. But now mom and dad have more of a cushion and their financial futures more stable so that when, you know, the child is 25, 30, 40, you know, 50, the child doesn't have to worry about mom and dad's finances as much, you know. So I think there's a, there's a bit of a balance that needs to be struck there. Um, and before, you know, fully committing to a large contribution to your child's college and Oh, you know, five 29, that sounds great. Or ESA, that sounds great. I think you need to step back and say, well, what about mom and dad? How are we doing in our finances? And if it's, Oh, we're living paycheck to paycheck and we've got a big debt and those sorts of things, then maybe you say, well, why don't we focus on mom and dad and pay down debt or whatever we need to do to build up our finances. And then we can think about mom or about junior or daughter and their college education. So building off of that, would you recommend people, like if they're already in debt, living paycheck to paycheck to paycheck, should they still be investing or should they take that money and put it into debt? Like paying down debt, like even your company match or your 401k? So I would be hard pressed in most cases to tell folks not to take advantage of the company match. Right. So let's say, because you know, let's think about your debts, even if it's credit card debt. So let's say you've got credit card debt and that's at 19% so that's not a good place to be in. That needs to get paid down, you know, as soon as possible. Yeah. But let's say you're getting a dollar for dollar match at your company 401k yeah, I, you know, so essentially every dollar you put into your 401k, you get another dollar back. Instantaneously. Every dollar you put towards the credit card debt, you're getting 19 cents back, right? Because essentially you don't have to pay down 19% in interest. So what I would tell a person in that situation is, first of all, you've got to meet your minimums right on your credit card. That's number one. Number two. Then you've got to get that employer match on your 401k. And then after that you need to aggressively pay down the debt. And I know actually you subscribed to the debt snowball will say, well, you should look at the mathematics. What I would say is what's most important is behavior, right? If the debt snowball is going to be that thing that gets your behavior on the right track so that you're aggressively paying down debt, go for it. Right. Um, cause at the end of the day we want to get that debt paid off and if that's going to be that carrot that for whatever reason gets you particularly to get that pay down, absolutely go for it. Mmm. But you know, if some other say no, I've got my spreadsheet here and my spreadsheet says pay down 19% first and 8% second and 3% third and that's what I'm going to do and I'm satisfied with that. Then if that's what works for you, go with that. Exactly. I mean as long as you're paying down debt, I don't care how you do as long as you're doing it. That's exactly right. Right. And it's more about behavior than prediction. Right? Right. Yeah. I mean I think start good habits now, right. Contributing to your 401k to at least get the employer match, doing an HSA if you can, doing a Roth IRA. If you start those habits now, then it's just going to be so much easier in the future to keep doing that and to get the right results. You know, we don't know. No financial planner can come on and say, you know what, the S and P is going to return 8.3% for the next 10 years. Who knows? Right. That's just, we're all just guessing. Right. But what we can control today and what we do know today is your behavior today. So let's get that. If you're right and then go forward and you know what, the numbers are probably going to work out pretty good if we get the behaviors right. Okay. You're exactly right and then you'll stay out of debt. Because I do see a lot of people that tried to take shortcuts or they say they paid off debt, but really all they did was move it. Like you know, he lock or refinance their mortgage or you know, 401k loan. Then they say they paid off their debt, but they really did it. They just moved it. So whenever you can actually like make those changes, you will stay out of debt also and not go back into it. That's exactly right, Ash. My fourth point is just save, save, save. Right? So, you know, people will get, and this goes back to that, uh, behavior versus predictions, right? People get sort of, Oh, what should I be investing in? Oh, the market's high, the market's low. There's going to be a crash. We're going to have a recession. You know what, yes, the 401k to the employer match. Absolutely. The HSA, the Roth IRA, once you're beyond that, just start saving, right? And you could figure out what you're invested in tomorrow, right? Um, but just start saving. The more you save, the more wealth you're going to create, the more you're going to be in good shape. And the other thing about saving is if you were do, if you increase the asset side, you're also reducing the expense side, right? So every dollar you save today accustomed you to a little bit lower expenses. And just that, forget the assets for a second. Forget the savings. Just building up that I'm getting used to spending less and less on once you're going to become much more used to, um, paying less for your wants in the future. So I'll give you an example, right? Say you're 22 years old, you're coming out of college, you got a good finance or tech job, right? Well, I would tell you do not get a BMW for your first car out of college because if you get the BMW, then it's going to be so much harder in your 30s and forties to cut back to the used Corolla. Right? But if you start off in your 20s with, I'm going to get a, a used accord and then, you know what, in my thirties, well maybe a slightly better used accord and now I feel rich versus, Oh, I started off with a BMW and now I'm cutting. You know, it's so much harder to cut back if anything, you're going to have lifestyle creep, but on successful. So I would just say, you know, focus on getting those expenses lower and getting those savings up and your taxes will be better because investments are generally taxed at a lower rate, then earned income and your finances are going to be so much better too. That's really good advice. I mean, just keep living like a broke college student and pay off your student debt and then you can enjoy your money and buy the BMW later if you want. But it's not so much a status symbol, you know? And like you said, lifestyle creep and everything. So, um, you know, just keep saving now and then work toward it in the future and then that way you can, um, you know, instill those good habits as saving money and investing cause that's what's so important. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And then you actually, you'd mentioned about what are those things you could do around tax season, right? To make your tax return a little more or a little less painful. Right. The big thing I think, I think it's two things, right? So one in January and February be very attentive to your mailbox because you're going to get very important documents, right? You're gonna get your form W2 from your employer. You're gonna get these fancy things called forms 10 99, right? It might be called a 10 99 int, which is for your interest, might be called a 10 99 div for your dividends. It might be called a 10 99 B. That's for your capital gains and losses from your financial institutions, right? So you sold, you know, a hundred shares of Apple stock and there's a gain and you got to report that on your tax return. So January and February, sometimes in the March, be very attentive to your mailbox. Just make sure you're collecting that data these days. You can usually go online and grab those documents too. But either way, just be very attentive to that. And then during the year, be attentive to your expenses that could possibly be tax deductible. Um, but that said, you know, the landscapes changed a little bit here. Um, so it used to be that there was a relatively low standard deduction or you could choose to itemize, right? So to take your mortgage interest, your state taxes, your charitable contributions, those sorts of things. Well there was a tax law change in late 2017 and it significantly increased the standard deduction, right? So for 2019, the standard deduction is 12,200 for a single person, 24,400 for a married filing joint couple. And they even kept the amount of state and local taxes you can deduct for that purpose to 10,000 per year tax return. So think about if you live, say in Texas, right? Yeah. And you ha so you have no income state income tax and say you have a relatively modest home and so you're paying, I dunno, say 8,000 in mortgage interest. That might not be all that modest of a home in Texas, but just say 8,000. Well, that means in order to deduct, uh, itemized deductions [inaudible] and say you're married, you and your husband at that point would need over $16,000 worth of charitable contributions in order to do the itemized deductions. Otherwise, you and your husband are just going to take the standard deduction. So if you think, well, Oh yeah, we easily donate 20,000 a year, then yes, throughout the year, take good notes of all your charitable contributions, do an Excel spreadsheet or a Google doc or Google sheets, you know, a file and just track all your charitable contributions and then you should get a receipt from the charity in most cases. Um, that's, it's a really effective way of handling that. But you might say, you know, yeah, we, we contribute $10,000 to charity every year and we have low mortgage interest and no state income taxes and we're married. We're not going to be anywhere near that 24,000. Well then there's not a whole lot to track. Right. You'll get your, you'll get your W2 and your 10 99 and those things in, yeah, during the year or in January. And February, and then you just use those and you use the standard deduction. The exception to what I just said is business owners, right? So if you're a business owner, even if it's a small business, that's a very different situation, right? If you have a small side hustle, you might be able to get away with tracking your expenses in Microsoft Excel. But the second you have a significant business, you probably need some sort of accounting software to track those throughout the year so that you can, you know, report your business income on your tax return. [inaudible] absolutely. Um, now what about like, do you recommend people get a big tax return or would you recommend adjusting your withholdings throughout the year so that you get a smaller tax return? Yeah, so I generally recommend adjusting your withholdings if you can. Right? So, um, and this is a great time of year to think about that. And you know, what I would do is yet do your 2019 tax return and see where you came out. And if you wind up with a large refund, what you've done is you've given the government an interest free loan and that's not an optimal path, right? Because the government had used to that money. You could have had that money and earn interest or invested earlier and earn more investment returns. So what you could do, the app, the IRS actually has a pretty good online calculator around that and that would be my first, um, stop is I would Google IRS w four withholding calculator. It's IRS w four withholding calculator and the software, you know, the IRS software will ask you some questions and it's, it's a pretty good calculator. And what it'll do is we'll say, okay, through 2020 thus far you've made this much and you've had this much withheld and here's what your withholdings are right now. And it'll tell you, okay, this is what you should do to, um, make sure you're having the right amount withheld every year. Um, yeah, the withholding structure is a very sort of screwy structure. Yeah. It's taking me so confusing. And so some people wind up with very large refunds and then other people wind up, Oh, a whole lot of money. And this was exacerbated by the tax law change and people who generally would get a small refund all of a sudden owing a lot of tax that was particularly true of married people in high tax States like my own California, um, where their tax profile is very much changed and the withholding tables changed but not enough to account for that. So, um, yeah, I, I think the best thing, I think the [inaudible] two action steps. There are one, see what your 2019 refund looked like or if you owed a lot in 2019 and then two, you may want to use the IRS withholding calculator. Um, it's certainly not perfect, but it's a good start. And then if you're in a situation where, wow, we owed all these penalties and we got, you know, it was horrible results, then you might want to consult with a tax professional. Somebody like me. Absolutely. Um, you know, do you recommend that people, like just your average family contact a CPA, or do you think that that's more like if it gets complicated? I think it depends, right? So there are, obviously there are thousands of tax return preparers out there. And to my mind, there's sort of two things that they're doing for you. One is literally the time and expense of doing their tax return. So if, if you've got, you know, three kids and you and your husband have jobs and one of you has a side hustle and you're just busy, it may be worth your while to offload that work to a paid professional, even if your return isn't all that complicated. Um, but then second is the judgment, right? So, um, there are times where you're going to need a professional's judgment. And that often deals with things like businesses, right? So if you have a small business or a side hustle, if you are setting up a small business retirement plan, I think that's a big one where you may need professional assistance. So, yeah, you know, different people are different ways in terms of just how painful that tax return exercise is, right? If you've got some engineers in your audience, they might be like, well, we love playing with spreadsheets, but then what we do at work every day, you know, I'll, I'll knock this out while watching a football game. Right? Well, okay, fine. If you know what you're doing and you're using a good commercially available software, fine. I think that actually it's, it's hard to give a one size fits all. I think I will say this though, for your listeners, there are certain times where you should reach out to a tax professional and you know, this'll vary for folks, but sort of what I'll call him Disha of, Hey, this is a situation where I should reach out to a tax pro. I'd say if I'm starting a business, if you're starting a retirement plan for a business, right, like a solo 401k or something like that, or you think you should, that would be a good time to reach out to a tax return professional. And the other time would be if I ever received an IRS notice, so I owe a lot of money or it could be your state, you know, a taxing authority if you receive a note. So they're going to be sort of two sorts of notices, right? One is going to be, you get a notice from the IRS and it says you owe us 25 or you know, 20 more dollars in tax because there was a $67 dividend on a 10 99 div that you didn't report. And that might be just one of those that got lost in the mail. It got lost in your home office, whatever. If that happens and you think, yeah, they're right, I owe, you know, I got that $70 dividend and I owe some tax on it, fine. You know, write the check and move on. That probably doesn't need a professional's assistance. But if you get a IRS notice saying you owe us $3,000 in tax, I think at that point you need to reach out. In most cases you absolutely need to reach out because one, you gotta make sure, you know, the IRS can be wrong on these things. So you need to make sure, you know, before you cut that $3,000 check, you ought to ask somebody. And then too, even if the IRS is correct, then there's something wrong in your process and you now have $3,000 worth of indication that there's something off in what you did and that needs to be corrected. So, you know, I think, I think those are situations, and again, this can't be comprehensive and we only have so long to chat. Yeah, those are sort of, I think, three situations where you'd really want to think about reaching out to a tax pro. Absolutely. Um, now do you have any last words of wisdom? Last words of wisdom? I would say, um, a point I made earlier is focused on your behavior and the numbers will work out, right? So don't get obsessed of, Oh, we got to run a million different numbers and I need 8.25% return or no, don't be obsessed with that. Do what football teams do, right? So get your blocking and tackling right. And eventually the winds start stacking up, right? So do, do the, you know, pay down your debt, avoid debt, reduce your expenses, get your employer match in your 401k, get your Roth IRA set up, start saving and investing, you know, and those things will make your taxes much better and they'll make your finances much better. Absolutely. Now I do like to ask people, um, at the end of every episode what their favorite nonfiction book is. Do you have any that you would recommend? Yeah, and I'm going to do, some of your previous guests have cheated a little bit, so I'll give you a multiple answer. So the first one is obviously the Bible, right? So, um, that lays the predicate for all that we do on this earth, hopefully. So the Bible would be number one. And then in terms of financial books, I think there are two chestnuts that I strongly recommend to the listeners. One would be the millionaire next door, which is doctors, Stanley and Danko. I believe the author's names are [inaudible]. And that came out in the 90s. And that just goes over the mindset of most of the truly wealthy in this country, uh, against the millionaire next door. Just a classic and personal finance. And then the second one is a more recent book. It's called the simple path to wealth. It's by J L Collins. And the cool thing about this book is it started out as a series of blog posts. So the author was thinking about his daughter who was about to go to college and he does these blog posts, which are essentially just short letters to his daughter about saving, investing, managing your taxes, managing your finances. And what he said was, Oh, you know, I've got a, you know, dozens of these letters. Now I could make that into a book. And so that's what the simple path of wealth to wealth is. It's a book that is based on these blog posts and it's written in a way that's not targeted for somebody who's financially sophisticated. Um, that said, I think everybody can get something out of it, but it's done in a very relatable way. And if you read only those two books, you would be well on your way to a very good financial future. I have heard that the simple path to wealth, but I didn't, I didn't know the backstory. I hadn't heard that. That's pretty good. Yeah, isn't that a, it's a neat, it's a neat way of writing a book, write a book. You've got this other material that you then translate into a book and because of what it was originally intended for, I think that gives the book so much power. Absolutely. And I'm sure it's, it's a lot. It's easy for us to read it if he wrote it for, you know, his daughter going off to college. So it's not, you know, uh, complicated. Yes. Oh, right now before we go, where can people find you? Okay, so you can find me three different places. One would be my firm website, which is Malaney financial.com. You could find me on my blog, which is five tax guy.com. I blog on the intersection of tax and financial independence. So that's five tax guy.com. And lastly on Twitter, I'm at Sean money tax. Um, I'm not on Instagram, I'm not on YouTube. Maybe one day, but those are the three main places you can get. You can find me. Yeah, you should try YouTube or Instagram. I've just started learning Instagram and it's a lot of fun. It's something I got to get to. But um, for now those are the three portals I'm trying to, uh, to optimize. Absolutely. Well thank you so much for being here and talking to us about taxes and making it interesting and making tax not boring. Thanks so much for having me, Ashley. It was a pleasure speaking with you today. Thank you. Thank you so much to Sean for being with us today. And don't forget to go check out the seven day budget challenge before it gets its revamp in the price increases at the end of the month. So go to budgetsmadeeasy.com/budget-challenge to get it at the lowest price that it's going to be. I will talk to you guys next week. Special Guest: Sean Mullaney.

Set in transit even as they investigate the transitory, the cinematic poems in Love and I move like a handheld camera through the eternal, the minds of passengers, and the landscapes of Ireland and America. From this slight remove, Fanny Howe explores the edge of “pure seeing” and the worldly griefs she encounters there, cast in an otherworldly light. These poems layer pasture and tarmac, the skies above where airline passengers are compressed with their thoughts, and the ground where miseries accumulate, alongside comedies, in the figures of children in a park. Love can do little but walk with the person and suddenly vanish, and that recurrent abandonment makes it necessary for these poems to find a balance between seeing and believing. For Howe, that balance is found in the Word, spoken in language, in music, in and on the wind, as invisible and continuous lyric thinking heard by the thinker alone. These are poems animated by belief and unbelief. Love and I fulfills Howe's philosophy of Bewilderment. Howe is in conversation with Martha Ronk, author of 11 books of poetry and one book of short stories, Glass Grapes.

Elijah Wald is a American folk blues guitarist and music historian, and 2002 Grammy Award winner. He says there was always music around when he was young. He started playing when he was seven and, after seeing Pete Seeger when he was eight or nine, he decided he wanted to be a musician. He also was influenced by Woody Guthrie's book Bound for Glory and, after studying with Dave Van Ronk in New York, spent 15 years playing guitar and traveling the world. He has published more than a thousand articles, mostly about folk, roots and international music for various magazines and newspapers, including over ten years as "world music" writer for the Boston Globe. Elijah says that music can connect people and that it is important to go out and find other types of cultures and music.

We are joined by Brian Ronk for the second half of our cabin discussion. We dive into why we should equip our children to fight with song.

Brian Ronk joins us again for a late night, backwoods cabin session that explores the consequences of voting, bad lawmaking, and raising men with no drive. Of course there are a few rabbit trails, most of which relate to the topic at hand, and several good brews (according to some). Scary Joy by Skookum Brewery 2018 Barren Wood by Skookum Brewery Oakspire Bourbon Barrel Ale by New Belgium Brewing Old Fashioned by Brian Ronk

In the second part of our interview with Brian Ronk we continue with our discussion of military compensation which bleeds into a discussion of public education and why it isn't privatized. We also discuss when a boy should be considered a man. Combat Wombat by Rogue Ales - https://www.rogue.com/products/combat-wombat    

This week we bring back Brian Ronk to the podcast to discuss his experience in the military which leads into a broader discussion of military aggression, military discounts, and the privatization of education.  Stick around for a bonus drop at the end. We drink: Woodinville Whiskey's Rye Stone Brewing's Anni-matter Double IPA Rogue Ales' Combat Wombat Sour NE-style IPA

"For my sisters who remember everything differently..." LINKS: Buy "Displeasures of the Table" here: http://www.greeninteger.com/book.cfm?-Martha-Ronk-Displeasures-of-the-Table-&BookID=44 My SVA evening on Jan 9th: http://www.sva.edu/events/events-exhibitions/robyn-oneil-lecture-and-screening Info about my book signing at Susan Inglett Gallery on Jan 13th: http://www.inglettgallery.com Trailer for my film WE, THE MASSES: https://vimeo.com/26486761 Malvern Books: http://malvernbooks.com Stephanie Goehring: https://twitter.com/eselgoehring

Ken Ronk

"Talent borrows, genius steals." This week Daniel and Kelly dive into the playlist (2:00). They go deep on Savage Garden, Bear Vs. Shark, of Montreal, mewithoutYou, Rage and Tom Morello as a guitarist, Minus the Bear, Strung Out, Screaming Females, Cake, Baths, modern hip hop, The Hotelier and “Weathered,” and the Animals/Dylan/Dave van Ronk nexus — plus some bonus Screamin' Jay Hawkins. Then we look at our recommendations for the week (35:50): Arcade Fire as a total entity, Free Throw, and two interviews - Waxahathee at The Ringer and Billy Bragg on Fresh Air. As always, full show notes at our website. You can also follow along with our weekly real-time Spotify playlist – See That My Playlist is Kept Clean – and join the conversation on Twitter, message us on Facebook, and like on Instagram. And if you're loving us, consider our Patreon. For as little as one dollar you get early access to every episode we do as soon as they're edited (and a dedicated feed just for you) and exclusive content that'll only ever be on Patreon. Thanks!

Uheldige kallenavn, debatten om den mannlige egoismen, kosmonauter, katolske prester og vannsklier.

This album could totally have been made today by some earnest hipsters. It could be you and your neighbor who home-brews playing jugs and washboards on the porch. But no! It’s from 1964. A playful and timeless album of early jazz, blues, and folk tunes. Listen: Ragtime Jug Stompers on AppleMusic Ragtime Jug Stompers on Amazon More information: Dave van Ronk on Wikipedia Video: Dave Van Ronk “St James Infirmary” for Folkways

We welcome musician, historian, and author Elijah Wald to discuss the history of the blues. Sponsor: Master iTunes with Kirk’s ebook and save 30% on Take Control of iTunes 12: The FAQ, the indispensable guide to iTunes. Show notes: Elijah Wald’s website Elijah Wald’s Songobiography Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues Dylan Goes Electric!: Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night That Split the Sixties Inside Llewyn Davis The Mayor of McDougal Street Inside Dave van Ronk (the album with the cat on the cover) Robert Johnson, The Complete Recordings Kirk’s review of Dylan Goes Electric Robert Palmer: Deep Blues: A Musical and Cultural History of the Mississippi Delta Howlin’ Wolf on Shindig, May 20, 1965: Our next tracks: Kirk: Hot Tuna Doug: Howlin’ Wolf: The London Howlin’ Wolf Sessions If you like the show, please subscribe in iTunes or your favorite podcast app, and please rate the podcast. Special Guest: Elijah Wald.

TAYLOR SWIFT PRODUCER & HIT SONGWRITER Have you ever wondered what it would be like to write a #1 hit song or produce a multi-platinum selling record for international superstar Taylor Swift? Mike sits down with acclaimed record producer and hit songwriter Robert Ellis Orrall at the 'infinity Cat' house where they discuss painting, Sturgill Simpson, Chris Stapleton, Jessica Simpson and Taylor Swift. Robert Ellis Orrall is an accomplished painter, singer/songwriter, producer, and still somehow finds the times to manage the operations of the punk rock record label infinity Cat; one of the top 50 independent record labels in the world.

In this episode, Jeff Cobb interviews Cheryl Ronk, CEO of the Michigan Society of Association Executives. Show notes at http://www.leadinglearning.com/leading-learning-podcast-episode-2-cheryl-ronk/

As The 20th anniversary of the Van's Warped Tour is moving through the states I hope you get to hear what some of the artists have to say and enjoy their music. NOW, Part 3 1) 9yr snitches on parents to cops about them growing weed 2) INTERVIEW TIME- Jake from Front Porch Step chat about hip hop, social media and being apart of the tour 3) Hot teacher gets busted for having sex with student 4) INTERVIEW TIME: We The Kings chat with me about their new album, podcast and weird fans 5) "Lighten Up" rant about Youtube wanting to charge indie labels and its rant time! nevergetlaid.com @skeetopia

Partially Kept (Nightboat Books) Skylight welcomes back Martha Ronk, an acclaimed poet and short story writer, to read and sign her latest book of poetry, Partially Kept. Martha Ronk is the author of 9 books of poetry, a collection of short fiction, and a fictional memoir; her most recent poetic work includes Partially Kept from Nightboat Books, Vertigo, a National Poetry Series selection, from Coffee House Books, and Glass Grapes, fiction. She received an NEA award for her work, had residencies at Djerassi and MacDowell, and last year was a visiting poet at the University of Montana. Ronk is Professor of creative writing and Renaissance literature at Occidental College. THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS APRIL 13, 2013. COPIES OF THE BOOK FROM THIS EVENT CAN BE PURCHASED HERE: http://www.skylightbooks.com/book/9781937658014