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On February 17, 1965, I knew, of course, who Bob Dylan was. He was the guy who wrote "Blowin' In The Wind," and "Don't Think Twice," and the liner notes of a Peter, Paul & Mary album that my sister had. But Dylan didn't seem like part of my musical world. I was more of a top 40 fan, not too crazy about the 'folk revival."
I did watch Les Crane's late-night TV show on ABC-TV. It was the first place I ever saw The Rolling Stones (an interview, not a performance). And I tuned in to see it the night Dylan was on.
Crane gave Dylan about a half-hour: 15 minutes of chat (Dylan, in '65, was a notoriously slippery interview subject; I wish I could post the full interview -- the MP3 is too long for MOG -- but he was fascinating and funny), and two new songs, "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue," and something that Dylan told Crane was called "It's Alright Ma, It's Life and Life Only."
We flippantly say, at times, that something or other was a life-altering moment. Seeing Dylan, accompanied by guitarist Bruce Langhorne, singing these two rambling, epic, lyrically devastating songs, was head-spinning. I don't think "Bringing It All Back Home" was out yet, but I bought the single of "Subterranean Homesick Blues."
Not many people remember Les Crane. He went after Johnny Carson, and was clobbered in the ratings, but his show was, for its time, edgy and controversial (and had something of a following: Phil Ochs namechecked Crane in his song "Love Me, I'm A LIberal). I waited up way until the middle of the night, after '64 primary results, just to see the Stones talk. And I saw Bob Dylan for the first time. Crane died the other day, and hearing the news brought those nights back to me in an instant.
The All-Star Game is about to start; Sheryl Crow is singing the National Anthem, not too impressively.
The late Steve Goodman recorded one of my favorite baseball songs, and Jerry Lee Lewis & Neil Sedaka did "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" (Happy 100th Birthday!!) on Shindig.
Play ball!
The thing about having a miserable summer cold is that you get to sit around and rummage through all the stuff you accumulate, and so it was yesterday when I got around to playing an album called "The Invictas A Go-Go," as emblematic a cultural artifact as one is likely to stumble upon.
They were, the liner notes tell us, discovered at the Bengel's Inn in Rochester, NY, where they had originated a dance called "The Hump," a 'close cousin of The Frug, done with the hands behind the head and gyrations in the opposite direction.' A single called "The Hump" was, we are also informed, 'the biggest selling record in the New York state area.'
I must tell you, I've lived in the New York state area all my life, was glued to the radio in 1965, and never heard 'The Hump' once.
Be that as it may. According to an article on The Invictas from 2006 (they were, it appears, still gigging upstate; they even have a website), they were whisked to NYC for a few days to cut their debut album, a rushed effort that they were never happy with.
The album sounds tinny and amateurish, it's true, but it is exactly what it should have been, and you only have to look at the track listing to realize how utterly mid-'60s garagey it is: "Hang On Sloopy," "Shake A Tail Feather," "Like A Rolling Stone," "Satisfaction," "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag"...How they missed "Hey Joe" is beyond me.
I have gathered for your Sunday enjoyment a four-pack of The Invictas, starting with their alleged hit single and moving on to the obligatory "Land of a Thousand Dances," "Farmer John," and a version of "Louie Louie" that has the lead singer making up lyrics I have never heard in any "Louie" before, and I am someone who has heard many "Louie"s.
It dawns on me that this is also an ideal MOG post for Sunday Under The Covers. And since my cold is still pretty awful, under the covers is where I'm going right now.
Comments
New York City isn't in the New York State area, though interestingly, New York State is in the New York City area. You grew up in New York City. I grew up in the New York State area, but I wasn't listening to the radio in 1965.
This set reminds me of working Rock bands in the 1960's that played at dances, "Battle of the Bands" contests, festivals, and other venues. It even sounds like this was recorded at one of these gatherings, such that I can smell the roasting hamburgers and the occasional whiff of MJ.
Comments
Cool. I liked Les Crane, he was kind of a hipper Tom Snyder. How on earth did you find this? (I looked around on the web for it and the Stones stuff but no luck)...Bob kind of messed with his head in the interview, but it was all in good sport, more or less.
A couple pf P.S.'s, of which you are aware:
He was married 5 times, once to the actress Tina Louise, of Gilligan's Island-- and then to a woman named Ginger.
More on topic for Mog, he won a Grammy in 1971 for the spoken-word "Desiderata," about which he said, years later, "“I can’t listen to it now without gagging."
But it did lead to the National Lampoon parody "Deteriorata": "You are a fluke of the universe/You have no right to be here/...The universe is laughing behind your back."
Great Post!!