Category: Music

Bob Dylan’s 1964 Quest

Dylan 1964
In 1964 on the Toronto television show Quest, 23-year-old Bob Dylan performed several of his now-classic songs. At the time, he was promoting his latest album, The Times They Are a-Changin’ (1964). Quest was a regular series, initially called Q for Quest, that featured various artists and ran on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) network during 1961-1964.

In 1964, Robert Whitehead hosted the series. But for Dylan’s segment, the producers offered Dylan the entire 30 minutes for his music with no interviews. So Dylan performed throughout the show in a rustic cabin-like setting with various actors in the background. The music, though, is fantastic.

In the entire 30-minute program, Dylan performed “The Times They Are a-Changin’,” “Talkin’ World War III Blues,” “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll,” “Girl from the North Country,” “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall,” and “Restless Farewell.” The version of “Girl from the North Country” from this show appears on the DVD release of Martin Scorsese’s No Direction Home (2005). [Update: The video of the entire show is no longer available, so below is the opening song of the show, “The Times They Are a-Changin’.”]

According to the TV Talkin’ website about Dylan’s early recorded performances, this Quest show is the earliest video of a full Dylan performance available. The TV Talkin’ website lists the date of the show as January 2, 1964, although that may be the date of the recording instead of the broadcast. Another website, Queens’ Film and Media, lists the date of the Dylan show as March 10, 1964, which is probably the broadcast date.

The audio for the show is available on the 10-CD Man on the Street bootleg (Thanks to one of our readers for this information!).  It appears on the eighth CD under ” Quest Canada CBC-TV (Feb. 1, ’64).”  So it puts the date somewhere between the January and March dates listed above.

Dylan’s special TV episode was the last one executive producer Daryl Duke did for Quest before leaving the show. He went on to produce The Steve Allen Show, where Dylan would appear on February 25, 1964.

Reportedly, prior to these TV appearances, Dylan had appeared on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in summer or late 1963. But no video survives of that appearance and nobody seems even to know what Dylan sang then. Fortunately, though, this Quest performance from the same period survives.

What is your favorite song in the segment? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Colbie Caillat Comments on Beauty Standards in “Try”

    No Makeup Song

    Singer-songwriter Colbie Caillat has released a new song and video taking on the ridiculous beauty standards imposed throughout popular culture. In the video for “Try,” she and others take off their makeup and hair extensions to reveal the real people.

    The lyrics ask about the commercial culture that inspires us to go to stores and go into debt just to meet someone else’s standards of beauty. Ultimately, Caillat asks: “Why, should you care, what they think of you?/ When you’re all alone, by yourself, do you like you?” Check out her video for “Try.”

    On Twitter, Caillat explains, “‘Try’ is the 1st video I’ve never prepared for. Didn’t go tanning or diet or heavily workout… & it felt wonderful!” “Try” appears on Caillat’s EP Gypsy Heart Side A (2014).

    What do you think of Colbie Caillat’s “Try”? Leave your two cents in the comments.

    The Chaos of Disco Demolition Night

    Disco Demolition Night On July 12, 1979, the White Sox hosted Disco Demolition Night at Comiskey Park. The promotional event, however, resulted in chaos and a forfeited baseball game.

    The once-popular music seemed to stir a lot of anger at the time. Even songs were written attacking disco. As many others have noted, the disco-hating trend of the late 1970s evolved out of a number of emotions.  Some of the hate came from those who consciously or subconsciously attacked the music out of racism and homophobia.

    In retrospect, it is hard to imagine how a type of music went from being so popular to being so hated. In fact, the White Sox had hosted a “Disco Night” in 1977, only two years prior to the 1979 Disco Demolition Night.

    The Disco Demolition Night Promotion

    It is also surprising in retrospect that nobody foresaw how Disco Demolition Night would be such a disaster. The entire idea was based on hatred of something, culminating with blowing up something (records) between the two games of a double header with Sparky Anderson’s Detroit Tigers.

    Steve Dahl, a morning DJ for rock station WLUP-FM, was on a campaign against disco music. As part of his campaign, he helped come up with the idea for the baseball promotion where he would blow up disco records on the field.

    Dahl’s animosity was both deep and personal.  He had lost his job at WDAI-FM on Christmas Eve in 1978 when that station switched to an all-disco format.

    As part of the promotion for the game, the cost of entry was 98-cents and a disco record.  Thus, there were many in the sold-out crowd who were not there for baseball.

    After the chaos, Dahl was surprised at the crowd’s reaction.  But the notoriety of the event would help make him a dj superstar in Chicago.

    This website hosts memories from folks who were at the stadium that night. And below is a short video about Disco Demolition Night.

    The Effects Today

    Regarding baseball, the event went into the record books.  The unplayed game between the White Sox and the Tigers is the last American League baseball game to be forfeited.

    Regarding the music, others have noted that while disco was dealt a blow, it lives on successfully today in various forms such as house music. You can try to kill music with hate, but it will survive.

    Do you remember Disco Demolition Night? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Charlie Haden’s “Spiritual”

    haden The great jazz bassist Charlie Haden has passed away at the age of 76 after a prolonged illness. Haden had a long and influential career, including being a part of the Ornette Coleman Quartet starting in the late 1950s and a part of the Liberation Music Orchestra starting in the late 1960s. Haden made the world a better place in other ways too, as a teacher and as an advocate for social justice.

    As a teenager, Haden lost his singing voice from bulbar polio while he was playing in a family country band, so he turned his focus to playing bass. The country influence stayed with the Iowa-born Haden on much of his music, including 2008’s Rambling Boy album, even as he became a groundbreaker in a number of genres.

    One of my favorite albums is the Grammy-winning Beyond The Missouri Sky (Short Stories) (1996), where Haden and guitarist Pat Metheny created some of the most haunting and beautiful country-infused jazz music ever recorded. “Spiritual,” one of the tracks on the album was written by Haden’s son Josh Haden. Although I also would later fall in love with the Johny Cash version that included the lyrics, this instrumental version still breaks my heart every time I hear it.

    The same disease that took away Haden’s voice and forced him to turn to the bass eventually affected his playing. In 2010, due to post-polio syndrome, Haden stopped performing in public even though he continued to play at home and with friends. The disease, however, could never take away the beautiful recordings that Haden made during his lifetime. For more on Haden’s life, check out these articles from Variety and the New York Times. RIP.

    Photo via Geert Vandepoele (Creative Commons).What is your favorite Charlie Haden track? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    E. B. White, The Beatles, and “Piggies”

    e. b. white piggies On July 11, 1899, Elwyn Brooks White was born in Mount Vernon, New York. White became the famous writer we know as “E. B. White.”

    As a young man, White joined The New Yorker in its early years and helped shape the magazine. In 1959, White reworked William Strunk Jr.’s The Elements of Style, creating one of my favorite handbooks on writing that is now commonly referred to as “Strunk & White.” But most of us first encounter White’s work as children.

    Charlotte’s Web

    White’s classic children’s books include Stuart Little (1945) and The Trumpet of the Swan (1970). His most famous book, though, may be the story of a pig named Wilbur who becomes friends with a spider named Charlotte, Charlotte’s Web (1952).

    Several years ago, Publisher’s Weekly listed Charlotte’s Web as the best-selling children’s book of all time. Wilbur is certainly one of the most famous pig characters in popular culture, along with Babe, Arnold (Green Acres), and Porky.

    The Beatles and “Piggies”

    There are not many famous songs about pigs.  The most famous may be “Piggies” by the Beatles, even though the song is not really about four-legged porkers.

    “Piggies” was written by George Harrison and appeared on The Beatles album, also known as “The White Album,” in 1968. As recounted in Steve Turner’s book, A Hard Day’s Write: The Stories Behind Every Beatles Song, Harrison described the song making fun of the middle class as “as social comment.”

    The lyrics are not very complex.  The song refers to people as “piggies.” And the song also notes that things are “getting worse” for the little piggies while the bigger piggies “[a]lways have clean shirts to play around in.”

    Although “Piggies” is not on anybody’s list of top Beatles songs, the effectiveness of the song lies in its simplicity.  The song captures the sound of a classical nursery rhyme.

    Charles Manson

    Unfortunately, “Piggies” is another song like “Revolution” that got hijacked by Charles Manson. Reportedly, the crazy man liked the line about the piggies needing “a damn good whacking.”  Also, variations on the word “pig” were written on the walls in blood at the site of Manson family murders.

    Understandably, Harrison was appalled with Manson’s foolish interpretation of the song. The “damn good whacking” line was only added to the lyrics after Harrison’s mom suggested it as something to rhyme with “backing” and “lacking.”

    E.B. White and Death

    It was unfortunate that “Piggies,” designed as a short commentary, ended up associated with horrible deaths. But E. B. White, who wrote about the death of a real pig in a 1948 essay and passed away in 1985, understood that death is everywhere.

    In White’s book about a pig and a spider, he wrote, “After all, what’s a life, anyway? We’re born, we live a little while, we die.” The best we can do is try to live a worthwhile life.  That is not a bad lesson coming from a spider and a pig.

    Leave your two cents in the comments.

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