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This is an excellent little book both for singers seeking well-crafted, melodic material with themes in Celtic Mythology and Spiritu- ality And The Natural World, and for Jake Walton fans seeking a little insight into the creative impulse of this unassuming man who Colin Irwin (in Mojo) called “A Celtic music pioneer before the term was invented”.
www.jakewaltonmusic.co.uk Steve Hunt Dylan Goes Electric!
Elijah Wald Dey Street Books (ISBN: 978- 0062366689)
Given the sheer quantity of books published about every cobwebby corner of Bob Dylan’s life there are surprisingly few dedi- cated to the single most mythologised moment of his career.
Elijah Wald, whose previous works
include An Alternative History Of American Popular Music and Robert Johnson And The Invention Of The Blues, is perfectly placed to sieve through the anecdotes and rumours of Bob Dylan’s notorious appearance at New- port in 1965, because he knows that history is not a static truth. To understand why one man playing an electric guitar who didn’t ordinarily play an electric guitar caused such an enormous cultural fuss we need to know the context, not just the recollections.
And so, like a classic monster movie, the phantom engineer of US folk’s schism doesn’t appear until two-thirds of the way into Wald’s story. Before that we learn about the world in which Pete Seeger fell from chart star to polit- ical pariah, regrouping to build a movement based on a shared vision of peace, community and traditional music. We’re shown Dylan accelerating quickly from teen rocker to Woody Guthrie tribute act to Seeger- approved, Joan Baez-accompanying crowd- puller at the increasingly popular Newport Folk Festival. What could possibly go wrong?
Some at the festival were already uncomfortable with Dylan’s drift towards pop music in ’65, and the younger, famestruck fans who’d descended on their idyll. Like A Rolling Stone was already on the radio. They knew something was happening, even if they didn’t yet know what it was.
And neither, it seems, did Bob. As far as the author can tell, Dylan’s electric set was a spontaneous decision inspired either by the Butterfield Blues Band making a terrific noise the previous day, or Alan Lomax’s withering onstage introduction of that same noise (and the ensuing scuffle with manager Albert Grossman).
Eliza Carthy & the Wayward Band
And then the crowd of diehard folk fans booed. Or did they? Because while newspa- pers, punters and even Bob himself reported a hostile reaction, the undoctored bootleg of the show reveals only applause between songs. Very loud booing can be heard, but only in reaction to Dylan and his makeshift band leaving the stage after three songs – his absurdly allotted time at a festival the book paints as chaotically organised. When the Newport footage was officially released it is that booing we hear pasted after a sear- ing Maggie’s Farm; the document altered to fit the facts.
What really happened? No one knows. Accounts were conflicting even while Michael Bloomfield’s riffs rang in their thrilled or affronted ears. That Pete Seeger went on a furious rampage appears true, but the reasons for it, the direction it took and the existence or not of an axe differs with every witness.
We may never excavate the facts from the mud of myth but Wald’s meticulous framing leaves the reader in no doubt that this brief, under-rehearsed, poorly pro- grammed and instantly divisive squall of electricity signalled the end of the American folk revival as Seeger knew it. Some guitars kill more than fascists.
Available via the usual outlets. Tim Chipping Bob Dylan at Newport ‘65 with Donovan and Mary Travers
ELIZA CARTHY & JIM MORAY
The Wayward Tour Live Scarlet Records SRR033DVD
I’d forgotten how good these shows were. Eliza Carthy collaborating with Jim Moray on a big band tour – a very big band tour involv- ing the likes of Sam Sweeney, Lucy Farrell, Saul Rose, Dave Delarre, Barnaby Stradling and a full-blooded brass section – was one of the great highs of 2013. In the wake of the Sophie Parkes’ biography Wayward Daughter and accompanying retrospective album, Eliza elected to put together an ambitious show re-enacting many varied highlights of her 21- year career.
Mostly drawn from the Union Chapel show in London, it binds together many of the dizzying threads of that career, opening with the magical Gallant Hussar and encom- passing everything from her rocking shanty Rolling Sea to the joyous calypso Good Morn- ing Mr Walker to the mysterious Child Among The Weeds, one of the lesser celebrated tracks from the Lal & Mike Waterson classic Bright Phoebus. As ever, whether singing, playing fiddle, dancing or often doing all three at the same time, Eliza throws herself into every track body and soul and is visibly exhausted by the end of it. If you missed it – shame. This will go some way to redressing the balance.
There are precious few fireworks within the DVD itself, a relatively simplistic represen- tation of the show with no arty camera angles, interviews or backstage material. Disappoint- ingly, there’s nothing either, from Jim Moray’s fine set in the first half of the show, while the less than enticing packaging is choked to death by sleevenotes so tightly packed to be virtually unreadable. But there is a bonus CD of the music – and the music is great.
www.elizacarthy.com Colin Irwin
Photo: © Judith Burrows
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