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the BBC brought him over to participate in the recording of the television play, Mad- house On Castle Street. To anyone then interested in the US folk scene, Richard Far- iña, with his movie star looks and a Beat novel written, would have appeared the star of the sessions with Dylan as court jester, the sardonic runt of the litter.
Dylan, under contract to Columbia Records, could not officially join the ses- sions, but, being a Greenwich Village buddy of Fariña and Von Schmidt, he wanted in. He didn’t add greatly to the evening’s proceedings – occasional back- ing vocals, a little harmonica – but got into the spirit of things. For this Bob was credit- ed as Blind Boy Grunt. For Dylan obses- sives, the album issued on Doug’s Folklore label as Singing Shouting And Playing American Ballads Worksongs And Blues and credited to ‘Dick Fariña & Eric von Schmidt with Ethan Signer & occasionally Blind Boy Grunt’ is something of a holy relic, featuring Dylan on the verge of star- dom yet at his least guarded.
he set-up for recording proved very simple: a Ferrograph recorder and microphone were set up on the counter of Rath- bone Street’s basement while the musicians sat on chairs. Events pro- ceeded at a very relaxed rate and Dobell’s employee Ron Gould remembers his wife being sent out several times to buy booze. At one point Fariña passed Dylan an open bottle of Guinness and he, after taking a large swig, gagged and spat it out, seem- ingly unacquainted with stout. Doug Dobell, unimpressed, reprimanded the future superstar.
T On the move – Dobell’s Folk & Blues Shop adverts from Folk Scene, Sept ‘65 to Feb ‘66
Gould recalled all participants grow- ing drunker as the session progressed and Dylan, while not playing much music, appearing uninhibited and very confi- dent. Von Schmidt later admitted they were all stoned on strong marijuana. Once the session finished everyone head- ed down to The Troubadour on Old Brompton Street in Earls Court. At Lon- don’s foremost folk club the Americans drunkenly commandeered the stage. For some in the audience it was a treat, seeing rising stars of the US and UK folk move-
ments loosely jamming together. For oth- ers it was disrespectful. When Scottish folk singer Nigel Denver took the stage he became agitated at the hoots and hollers coming from the Americans and directly asked Dylan, who was talking louder than everyone else, to be quiet. Bob replied, “I don’t shut up for anyone.” This aggrieved Denver who shouted, “I don’t give a fuck who you are. Shut up!”
Dylan’s performance on Folklore is a minor note in his discography yet his time in London proved important as he devel- oped several songs that would appear on The Times They Are a-Changin’ from British folk songs. Quite possibly he heard
some of the songs during his regular vis- its to Dobell’s: his anti-war ballad With God On Our Side, for example, being a rewrite of Dominic Behan’s The Patriot Game (which appeared on Behan’s 1961 Folklore LP The Irish Rover). Singing Shouting And Playing American Ballads Worksongs And Blues is not difficult to find on vinyl which suggests that Doug, over the years, pressed up considerably more than 99 copies.
Garth Cartwright’s Going For A Song: A Chronicle Of The UK Record Shop is pub- lished on March 22nd by Flood Gallery Publishing.
thefloodgallery.com F OK, let’s make a record and then head for the Troubadour: the LP cover, and Signer, Martin Carthy, Fariña, Dylan & Von Schmidt misbehaving!
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