Author: chimesfreedom

Editor-in-chief, New York.

Barbara Dane’s Cool Musical Legacy: “Wild Woman,” “Gasser,” “Hard-Hitter”

Dane Barbara

Folk, blues, and jazz singer Barbara Dane was born in Detroit on May 12, 1927.  Smithsonian Folkways released a retrospective of the singer and political activist who has worked with many musical giants of the 1950s, 1960s, and beyond.

In her long career, Dane performed and recorded with artists such as Louis Armstrong, Memphis Slim, Otis Spahn, Memphis Slim, Willie Dixon, Pete Seeger, Mose Allison, Big Mama Thornton, Lightnin’ Hopkins, T-Bone Walker, and many others.

Below she sings with Louis Armstrong on the Timex All-Star Jazz Show, which was broadcast on CBS on January 7, 1959.  Armstrong famously described Dane with the compliment, “She’s a gasser!”

She also made a wonderful album with The Chambers Brothers. Here, they perform “I am a Weary and Lonesome Traveler” from Barbara Dane and the Chambers Brothers.

A recent album from Smithsonian Folkways collects a number of Dane’s recordings into a retrospective. Below is a promo for the two-CD retrospective, Hot Jazz, Cool Blues & Hard-Hitting Songs (2018).

More on Barbara Dane

Dane had a long career with great music while also being active politically for such causes as the civil rights, womens, and anti-war movements.  Her work for social justice led to the FBI monitoring her. She also worked to provide attention to other artists around the world.  If you are unfamiliar with her work, her website is a good place to start. And another resource is the audio documentary, A Wild Woman Sings the Blues: The Life and Music of Barbara Dane.

Dane continued to be active into the twenty-first century.  Below is a video of her performing and talking about her career at the San Francisco Library in 2014.

After this article was originally posted, Barbara Dane passed away on October 20, 2024 at the age of 97.  In 2023, a documentary film about her life was released entitled The 9 Lives of Barbara Dane.

What is your favorite Barbara Dane recording? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Dylan’s Inspiration: “Drifting Too Far From the Shore”

    In the Martin Scorsese documentary about Bob Dylan’s early career, No Direction Home, Dylan recounts being inspired when he stumbled upon a record player with a record in it. The song that inspired him was “Drifting Too Far From the Shore.”

    When Dylan was in kindergarten (in some tellings he is older), his father Abe bought a house on Seventh Avenue in Hibbing, Minnesota. Dylan ultimately lived in the home throughout his childhood and through high school.

    For Dylan, though, something magical happened when they moved into the new home.  As they were moving in, the boy found a guitar left behind by the previous occupants. And he found something else with “mystical overtones.”

    There was a large mahogany turntable with a 78 rpm record in it. The record was of the song “Drifting Too Far From the Shore,” which was written by Charles E. Moody.  The young boy turned on the record player and listened.

    Drifting too far from shore,
    You’re drifting too far from shore,
    Come to Jesus today,
    Let Him show you the way
    You’re drifting too far from shore.
    Drifting Too Far From the Shore

    Dylan has recounted that the record he found in the house was probably the version recorded by The Stanley Brothers. But he also has noted it could have been the Bill Monroe version.

    Here are The Stanley Brothers singing “Drifting Too Far From the Shore.”

    Dylan has described how as a little boy turning on the record player, the sound of the record “made me feel like I was somebody else.” The sound disconnected him from his life at the time, making him feel almost as if he were born to the wrong parents.

    Dylan later paid his own homage to “Drifting Too Far From the Shore.” He wrote his own song with the title “Driftin’ Too Far From Shore.” That song,  which appeared on Dylan’s Knocked Out Loaded (1986) album, otherwise has little in common with the song the young boy heard in the new home.

    Of course, with Dylan, one has to be careful about putting too much weight on his tales.  He often tells entertaining stories about his early life that are more legend than truth. But still, it is easy to imagine a little boy finding a guitar and a record player that would have an impact on his life, even if a large part of that impact is in memory.

    I like to accept the story not so much for Dylan, but to think about the people who lived in the house before the Dylans. I imagine the family moving out and leaving some things behind.  Maybe the record player was too expensive to move.  Or maybe they forgot the items.  Or maybe the items just were not worth much to them.

    And then, how could they know that their left-behind possessions would affect history by inspiring the greatest poet of our generation? It is a great story about how we never know how our lives affect others, even people we have never met.


    Photo by Chimesfreedom. Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Dill from “To Kill a Mockingbird” Was (Almost) in “The Godfather, Part II”

    hyman roth

    One of the most memorable childhood characters from film (and novels) is Dill from Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). In the movie version, John Megna portrayed Dill, who Lee had based upon her friend Truman Capote. Megna also almost appeared in The Godfather, Part II (1974), in a scene deleted from the movie before it was released.

    Megna was born in Queens, New York on November 9, 1952. He had several roles as a child and young man in film and television, notably appearing near the beginning of another classic film, Hush. . . Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964), a few years after Mockingbird.

    Fans of the original Star Trek series may remember him as one of the Onlies from the “Miri” episode. Yet, his most memorable role remains his portrayal of Dill in To Kill a Mockingbird.

    Megna nearly appeared in another all-time great movie. Director Francis Ford Coppola filmed a scene featuring Robert DeNiro as the young Vito Corleone meeting a young man played by Megna. As the young man’s name is discussed, Corleone bestows a new name on him. The scene connects to the modern story with Micheal Corleone (Al Pacino) and his conflicts with Hyman Roth.

    Ultimately, though, Coppola cut the scene. Perhaps the backstory was so convenient it might not be believable for viewers. But either way, it was unfortunate Megna lost his scene.  [2020 Update: Unfortunately, the scene seems to no longer be available on YouTube.]

    In the cut scene, the young man names Arnold Rothstein as a man he admires. Rothstein was famous for allegedly fixing the 1919 World Series featuring the Chicago White Sox (“Black Sox”) and the Cincinnati Reds.

    As for Megna, he eventually left acting. For a while he directed plays, and then he taught high school English in California. He died on September 4, 1995 at the age of 42 from AIDs-related complications. Despite his young death, he left his mark on movie history as one of our most beloved childhood characters.

    Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Song of the Day: “Just Like the Rest” by Arlo McKinley & The Lonesome Sound

    YouTube often can help you find artists you have never heard before.   I start with a search for a musician I like, and then I start clicking through other artists’ videos on the side.  That is how I recently ran across Arlo McKinley & The Lonesome Sound.

    Arlo McKinleyThe band released its self-titled debut album in 2014.  But there is not a lot about them on the Internet.  There is no proper Arlo McKinley & The Lonesome Sound website beyond the Bandcamp site.

    There is a Facebook page keeping fans updated about their performances (around 2,300 Likes so far).  But the band — whose members are from the Cincinnati area — was recently listed as the most popular band in that Ohio city.

    Their Arlo McKinley & The Lonesome Sound album is darn good, featuring a great country lead voice from McKinley with great backing vocals and band.  It might remind you a bit of Whiskeytown.

    Sure enough, Arlo McKinley & The Lonesome Sound list Whiskeytown among the band’s influences, along with Neil Young, The Band, Otis Reading, Circle Jerks, The Ramones, Larry Sparks, Keith Whitley, Chamberlain, Whiskeytown, Gram Parsons, and Misfits, George Jones. There is maybe a little similarity to Tyler Childers, who is the artist I started with on YouTube.

    That is a good mix of influences, and Arlo McKineley & The Lonesome Sound delivers. Do not take my word for it.  Check out some of their music.  One of my favorites is “Just Like the Rest.”  McKinley’s voice perfectly conveys the heartache in the heartbreak song. The following performance is from the 2014 Bellwether Live at Buckle Up Music Festival.

    Arlo McKinley & The Lonesome Sound is made up of McKinley, Tyler Lockard, Brian Pumphry, Zac Roe, Sylvia Mitchell, and Sarah Davis.  Their live performances often concentrate around the Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia area.  But with their talent, look for them in your neck of the woods one day, hopefully with a new album.

    What is your favorite song by Arlo McKinely & The Lonesome Sound?  Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    “Borg vs. McEnroe” On the Men and the Match (Short Review)

    Borg vs. McEnroe I recall watching the famous 1980 Wimbledon men’s championship game between John McEnroe and Björn Borg. In what may be the most famous tennis match of all time, the two men battled back and forth, highlighted by a tie-breaker in the fourth set that was won by a score of 18-16.  A new film, Borg vs. McEnroe (2018), attempts to capture that drama while also revealing more details about the two tennis players.

    Borg vs. McEnroe, with a screenplay by Ronnie Sandahl, provides some backstory about the two men, especially Björn Borg.  We see the Swede as a driven child with a bit of the temperament and lack of emotional control we associate with McEnroe.  But Borg works to establish a more cool and calm persona, while the movie reveals trouble burning beneath the surface.  As Borg, actor Sverrir Gudnason is the highlight of the film, presenting a realistic portrayal while bearing an uncanny resemblance to the tennis player who was attempting to win his fifth consecutive Wimbledon championship.

    As the upstart emotional challenger John McEnroe, Shia LaBeouf gives one of his best performances to date.  But partly because the film focuses more on Borg and partly because McEnroe had such a larger-than-life personality, it is more difficult to imagine anyone else as him.

    Regarding the drama of the big match, Borg vs. McEnroe does a decent job capturing the back-and-forth of the match and the anguish and joy of the competition.  Still, because tennis is a game of so many points scored and no ticking clock, filmmakers face a challenge to create a great sports movie about tennis.  There is no one key football play as time runs out, there is no game-winning home run, and there is no rally in the final minutes in the boxing ring.

    So, in the classic match, the movie version lacks the drama of watching the players in real time in a match where even today the main parties remember every point.  Still, director Janus Metz Pedersen keeps the viewer engaged in the Borg-McEnroe battle until the end, helping explain why the film has a decent 83% critics rating and 72% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

    Regarding the match and the relationship between the two men, HBO produced an excellent 2011 documentary McEnroe/Borg: Fire & Ice.  I recommend that film, which features extensive interviews with the two key players, for anyone interested in learning more about Borg and McEnroe and their relationship after watching Borg vs. McEnroe.

    Overall, Borg vs. McEnroe will not go down as one of the all-time great sport movies and it never quite completely captures one of sports’ all-time great rivalries.  But if you wish to re-live the famous match or do not know anything about it, you may enjoy spending 100 minutes with this well-directed and well-acted film.

    Borg vs. McEnroe is available in theaters, pay-per-view, and on Amazon Prime.

    Below is video of the actual match from 1980, although you may want to wait to watch it until after you see the movie.  Check it out.



    Do you remember the famous Borg-McEnroe match? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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