remembering les crane
-
Artist:
-
Album:The Les Crane Show 2/17/65
-
Track:It's Alright Ma, It's Life and Life Only
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.
Comments (10)
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!!
I know that name check in the Phil Ochs song, but it's before my time. Great rememberance though. I'm gonna look over the tubes and pipes for those interviews. Thanks!
God I love this shit. Posts such as these keep me Moggin'.
When I saw he died, my first thought was of "Desiderata." But no one should forget Crane's use of a shotgun mike that he aimed at audience members like a firearm when they wanted to question his guests. The guy was like a harder-nosed Phil Donahue/Sally Jessie/Maury/Oprah
Great find!
Hate to pull a "but I was born in the 80's" but I've never heard of him. Thanks for that!
~Roxy
Hate to pull "but I was born in Australia" but I've never heard of him outside of 'Desiderata'. Thanks for this. I'm a take it-leave it Dylan fan but this is searing stuff - easy to hear why the Red Sea parted for him.
Les Crane was always entertaining no matter what side of a controversial issue he was standing behind.
A quick bit of trivia for the National Lampoon parody - the singing voice is Melissa Manchester.
:=)