Category: Music

A Famous Encounter and “Like a Rolling Pin”

Bob Dylan walked in on the Replacements doing a parody of his song “Like a Rolling Stone.”

highway 61 revisited dylan amazon A “Talk of the Town” segment in The New Yorker featured a short profile of record producer Scott Litt, who had produced records by the likes of Nirvana and R.E.M. In the article, Litt told an interesting story about the first time he met Bob Dylan.

More than a few decades ago, Litt was producing a Replacements album, working in the studio with the band. Dylan was working on his own record nearby, so he stopped by to check out the Replacements.

When Dylan walked in the studio wearing a hoodie, it just happened to be the same time that the Replacements’ leader Paul Westerberg was singing a parody of Dylan’s hit song “Like a Rolling Stone” called “Like a Rolling Pin.”

Westerberg did not notice Dylan standing there, and Litt failed to alert the singer, who continued with the parody. Finally, when Westerberg finished, Dylan asked, “You guys rehearse much?” Then he left.

The lyrics to “Like a Rolling Pin” are nothing special, using phrases from Dylan’s original mixed with some small changes. I believe the song did not end up on the album at the time, appearing later with B-sides and unreleased tracks on All For Nothing/Nothing For All (1997). But the Replacements can sing the phone book and make it sound like a great song. So when they start off with a great Dylan song, one cannot complain.

More than twenty years later, Litt finally got to work with the singer of “Like a Rolling Stone” when he was the engineer for Dylan’s 2012 album Tempest. While working with Dylan on Tempest, Litt did not mention their previous studio encounter. [Nick Paumgarten, Hello, Bobby, The New Yorker, 1 Oct. 2012: 22-23.]

What is your favorite Bob Dylan cover? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    That Walking Dead Torture Song: “Easy Street”

    Collapsable Hearts Club In the third episode of season seven of The Walking Dead, “The Cell,” the producers gifted us with an earworm of a song, “Easy Street.”  In the episode, Negan’s The Saviours are holding Daryl Dixon as prisoner.  As Dwight (Austin Amelio) works to break Daryl, he plays the song repeatedly as part of a torture tactic.

    “Easy Street” is  performed by The Collapsable Hearts Club, and it was written by Jim Bianco.  Bianco explained to The Independent that he was happy to hear his song used on the show, even if it were being used to torture someone.  “I think the show used it brilliantly,” he explained, “Framing such an upbeat song as a torture advice is a work of genius by the music supervisor.”

    We’re on easy street,
    And it feels so sweet;
    ‘Cause the world is ’bout a treat,
    When you’re on easy street.

    Bianco wrote the song while driving in his car and thinking about those “rare moments” when you are “holding the winning card.” Below is a video of 10 hours of the song.

    There is not much about The Collapsable Hearts Club on the Internet, but the lead singer is Petra Haden, who has done a substantial amount of other musical work.  Bianco is also part of the group, singing backup.  And Brad Gordon plays the horns.

    Currently, Daryl, played by Norman Reedus, is no longer the only person with the song stuck in his head. After the episode, “Easy Street” appeared on the UK Singles Chart, and it also has climbed to #1 on the US Spotify viral charts.

    What do you think of “Easy Street”? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    • Springsteen’s “Long Walk Home” and the Alienating Feeling of Election Results

    Bruce Springsteen released “Long Walk Home” in 2007 on his Magic album.  He wrote the song to reflect how he felt during the years of the George W. Bush presidency.

    Last night I stood at your doorstep,
    Trying to figure out what went wrong.

    “Long Walk Home” is about a guy coming back to his hometown and not recognizing anything.  As Springsteen explained about the singer’s character in The New York Times,  “The things that he thought he knew, the people who he thought he knew, whose ideals he had something in common with, are like strangers.”

    Long Walk Home

    In town I pass Sal’s grocery,
    Barber shop on South Street;
    I looked in their faces,
    They’re all rank strangers to me.

    The reference to “rank strangers” in Springsteen’s “A Long Walk Home” was inspired by the song “Rank Strangers to Me,” sometimes called “The Rank Stranger” or just “Rank Stranger.” Albert E. Brumley wrote “Rank Strangers to Me,” which was made famous by The Stanley Brothers.

    “Rank Strangers to Me” is also about a man returning to the town of his youth.  As in Springsteen’s song, the singer discovers he does not recognize anything.

    The meaning of “Rank Stranger” is open to interpretation. There is no resolution or explanation about why the singer does not recognize the people in his town. Has he died? Has everyone else died? It is a mystery that makes the song haunt you long after you have heard it.

    Similarly, in Springsteen’s song, the unrecognizable world feels alien to the singer. The meaning would be mysterious too, except that Springsteen has provided context for “The Long Walk Home.” He explained about the alienation during the Bush administration, “I think that’s what’s happened in this country.”

    It’s gonna be a long walk home;
    Hey pretty darling, don’t wait up for me;
    Gonna be a long walk home,
    A long walk home.

    While some celebrated the election results this week, many felt they were seeing their country in a way they could not recognize. Maybe Springsteen had a feeling about what was going to happen when he chose to play “Long Walk Home” outside Philadelphia’s Independence Hall during a rally for Hillary Clinton the night before the election.

    Either way, the song captures the disappointment that one side often feels after an election. But that is the nature of democracy. At one time or another, we all have to take a long walk to get back home.

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

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    Happy Birthday Susan Tedeschi!

    angel from montgomery

    Singer and guitarist Susan Tedeschi was born in Boston on November 9, 1970.  Tedeschi has made some great music as a solo artist as well as with her current work with the Tedeschi Trucks Band along with her husband Derek Trucks. We wish her a happy birthday.

    In celebration of Tedeschi’s birthday, check out this performance of “Angel from Montgomery” from October 5, 2016.  In this performance, Luther Dickinson joined in on guitar with the Tedeschi Trucks Band at the Beacon Theatre in New York City.

    If that performance leads you to wanting more from the Tedeschi Trucks Band, check out this NPR Tiny Desk Concert from March 2016. Songs in the video are: “Just As Strange,” “Don’t Know What It Is,” and “Anyhow.”

    What is your favorite Susan Tedeschi recording or performance? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Song of the Day: “If a Song Could Be President”

    vote here As our U.S. readers go to the polls, listen to one of the more hopeful songs about presidents, “If a Song Could Be President.”  The Ohio band Over the Rhine featured the song on their album, The Trumpet Child (2007).

    Linford Detweiler and Karin Bergquist of Over the Rhine were inspired to write “If a Song Could Be President” after receiving an invitation to visit the White House in 2005.  The band accepted the invitation even though they disagreed with policies of President George W. Bush’s administration.

    But, as they later wrote on Huffington Post, “we soon realized that what was so often missing from the current political climate in America were opportunities for folks who might have differing ideas to sit down face to face and actually engage in real conversation.”

    Detweiler and Bergquist came away from the White House visit thinking about how “American music is one of the last remaining communal enterprises in this country. Music and songwriting still have the potential to bring incredibly diverse people together.”

    They took the experience and put together a song that brought together a beautiful mix of American music.  They came up with a dream wondering what it would be like if a song could be president. Check out “If a Song Could Be President.”

    If a song could be president,
    We’d fly a jukebox to the moon;
    All our founding fathers’ 45’s,
    Lightnin’ Hopkins and Patsy Cline,
    If a song could be president.

    Happy election day.

    Leave your two cents in the comments.

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