Musical Trivia 1 - Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone".

The tambourine playing forms a key part of the stumbling, syncopated rhythm that makes the track so engaging. I think it's pretty special. The timing might not always be dead accurate, ....but it's not that sort of track, is it?

Interestingly, the Hammond organ playing on this track was a last-minute improvisation from a guy that wasn't a really keyboard player at all. It almost didn't make the final mix.

There's a great scene in Scorcese's masterpiece "No Direction Home" where the London crowd are booing the newly emerging "electric" Dylan and his band as they perform this track live. To be present at a seminal moment in the development of modern music and totally "miss it" must still give the people that were in the audience some pause for contemplation.

quote:

Originally posted by winkyincanada:

Interestingly, the Hammond organ playing on this track was a last-minute improvisation from a guy that wasn't a really keyboard player at all. It almost didn't make the final mix.

That guy was the great Al Kooper, co-founder of Blood Sweat & Tears, among many other prominent credits. Dylan loved the organ part and asked to have it louder.

Fred

Al Kooper also played the essential french horn to be found on the equally essential 'you cant always get what you want'.

Al Kooper has played on 100s of records. He not only assembled the original Blood, Sweat and Tears and put together their excellent first album Child is a Father to Man, which sounds nothing like their subsequent output, but discovered Lynyrd Skynyrd. He produce the first Skynyrd elpee, which included Sweet Home Alabama and Free Bird. He also wrote the music for much of the Banana Splits series, but don't hold that against him. I love Al's work with Mike Bloomfield and, in case anybody cares, Highway 61 Revisited is my favourite Dylan elpee, with Al and Mike in Bob's backing band: a bit of blues project.

ATB Rotf

quote:

Originally posted by ROTF:
Al Kooper has played on 100s of records. He not only assembled the original Blood, Sweat and Tears... He also wrote the music for much of the Banana Splits series, but don't hold that against him.
ATB Rotf

Also wrote "This Diamond Ring" for Gary Lewis and the Playboys, and I saw GL&P perform it live on a Dick Clark tour in the mid-late '60's. Now what have I done with those Dino, Desi & Billy records ?

AK was/is a very talented man, I certainly agree.

Jeff A

[QUOTE]Originally posted by winkyincanada:
The tambourine playing forms a key part of the stumbling, syncopated rhythm that makes the track so engaging. I think it's pretty special. The timing might not always be dead accurate, ....but it's not that sort of track, is it?

..for me I wish I'd never noticed it as I now hear nothing BUT the .....
1)drunk
2)stoned
3)Tempo-less
4)...all of the above

..... tambourine player, bimbling through the track. I bet they we're short in the studio that day and some random guy/gal was asked to step in........"yeh, man... sure dude...whada I have to do - cool".

Bob must have liked it.

Great info about Al Kooper. Especially (for me) "You Can't Always Get . . . " What a classic song! Essential, in no small part, thank's to the beautiful Al Kooper french horn part.

RichK-

The tambourine in "LaRS" forms the essential backbeat, and is a large part of the song.
Definietly, it is playing around with the meter . . . . it's kinda behind the beat, and what it does is effectively widens the groove. Making for a very loose, and great feeling song.

A lot of blues has this loose, kinda draggy quality;that's mainly the point. It's All about the feel! If there were any mistakes in the take, they become part of the song, and that's what make those songs so great.

If you listen to a lot of Motown stuff, the tambourine is part of the essential drum track.

Max

quote:

Originally posted by ROTF:
Al Kooper has played on 100s of records. He not only assembled the original Blood, Sweat and Tears and put together their excellent first album Child is a Father to Man, which sounds nothing like their subsequent output, but discovered Lynyrd Skynyrd. He produce the first Skynyrd elpee, which included Sweet Home Alabama and Free Bird. He also wrote the music for much of the Banana Splits series, but don't hold that against him. I love Al's work with Mike Bloomfield and, in case anybody cares, Highway 61 Revisited is my favourite Dylan elpee, with Al and Mike in Bob's backing band: a bit of blues project.

ATB Rotf

I was going to say!!

I love Al Kooper. His solo stuff is defintely worth a listen, especially I Stand Alone.

I most appreciate his "discovery" of the Zombies and subsequent Odyssey and Oracle. I am forever in his debt for that which is probably one of my top ten albums of all time. And don't forget The Tubes!!!

JM

yeah Al Kooper said he was in the studio at the right time and had the nerve to step in to play the keyboards. LOL Bob loved a spontaneous sound as he wasn't the best guitar player either, but he could get a party going. In his book he mentioned being in Nashville with some old timers wanting to do "Every body must get stoned". He knew it just wouldn't work so he sent someone down to the liquor store and got the old guys lit and the band were smoking dope out the back. It must have been a lot of fun.

I also love the song he sang with Johnny Cash, Cash said he admired him so much. Wonderful voices together in a rough way.

I never did get to see that movie recently on Dylan. I bet Blanchette was good.

I'm with Max here. Tambourine is mighty fine.
RichK....a little harsh? But you're right - Bob must have loved it!

.....Definitive version for me is the (in)famous Manchester Free Trade Hall live one ....emerging from a cacophony of booing (and some cheers) not to mention THAT shout of "Judas!" Bob and the Hawks tear into it following Dylan's plea to "Play f*****g Loud!"
Gives me goosebumps every time I hear it.

quote:

Originally posted by Jet Johnson:
.....Definitive version for me is the (in)famous Manchester Free Trade Hall live one ....emerging from a cacophony of booing (and some cheers) not to mention THAT shout of "Judas!" Bob and the Hawks tear into it following Dylan's plea to "Play f*****g Loud!"
Gives me goosebumps every time I hear it.

Jet, where can I get a copy of that? Sounds great!

I gave that CD to a friend who enjoyed it being an important moment in our history. He said he was taking a car trip down from Seattle and they were going to stop south of San Francisco but all the hotels and motels were booked.

It was the Monterey Rock Festival and he was clueless until after it happened. lol

Just heard it on the radio try out Lay Lady Lay. The drummer has this great syncopated rhythm with a cowbell. It was just so perfect.

quote:

Originally posted by winkyincanada:

quote:

Originally posted by Jet Johnson:
.....Definitive version for me is the (in)famous Manchester Free Trade Hall live one ....emerging from a cacophony of booing (and some cheers) not to mention THAT shout of "Judas!" Bob and the Hawks tear into it following Dylan's plea to "Play f*****g Loud!"
Gives me goosebumps every time I hear it.

Jet, where can I get a copy of that? Sounds great!

Hi Winki
The CD is still available at Amazon although it is still titled "The Royal Albert Hall Concert" for some daft reason! see below (it's on Columbia Records)...

The Bootleg Series, Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live, 1966: The "Royal Albert Hall Concert" [LIVE]

Here's another review of what was mebbe's Dylan's most famous gig

Then at the end of Tom Thumb's Blues the crowd really starts to lay into Dylan, interrupting him when he talks by clapping loudly as well as heckling him (I could barely make out someone yelling "Sell out!!"). It really gets bad before Like a Rolling Stone though. After the clapping for the previous song dies down there is a moment of nearly complete silence and someone yells clearly "Judas!" and is met with rousing applause from the rest of the crowd. When that dies down you can hear someone once again yelling about how Dylan has "sold out". "I don't believe you" Dylan replies, then right before the song he says "You're a liar!" The crowd is so loud at this point that Dylan turns to the band and yells "Play f**king loud!" And they certainly do! The version of Like a Rolling Stone that follows is something to behold. Dylan's singing is fueled by the crowd's boos and insults and is without a doubt his best performance of the song to date.