Something from the folk bag
Another guest blog by Santajan Vollaard, our esteemed host on the upcoming CAGG party in Paradiso (ticket link!):
Hidden on the B-side of a 1966 comedy 45, I found one of the most hilarious versions of the time-honored White Christmas ever. In a conversation between "Senator Bobby" and "Senator McKinley," the latter proposes the brilliant idea that connecting with the young student electorate could be fostered with a song from "the folk bag". Folk music went through a revival in the early 1960s, and the great hero of that movement was, of course, Bob Dylan.
McKinley comes up with a song by a certain Bobby the Poet. After an intro clearly inspired by Like a Rolling Stone the singer launches into a gritty sung White Christmas, unmistakably with the timbre and timing of Dylan circa 1966. He sticks neatly to Irving Berlin's lyrics until he abruptly rhymes "sleighbells in the snow…" with "..it flóws and gróws and blóws." These ad-libs are pure poetry, McKinley speaks loudly through the recording after which, right on top of the fake Dylan's harmonica solo, the weather forecast for a dozen regions of the United States is read out. The result is surreal, to say the least, as befits a good Dylan record from that era. There is a full album of this stuff (also on Spotify).
The two minutes and 14 seconds of White Christmas (3 O'Clock Weather Report) by Bobby the Poet on the Cameo Parkway label is equally enjoyable as the Christmas in the Heart album that the real Bob Dylan released in 2009, with his version of the Christmas classic Must Be Santa, originally by Mitch Miller in 1960. That His Bobness truly has a thing for Christmas was evident from the two episodes of his radio show, Theme Time Radio Hour, that Dylan devoted to Christmas and New Year's music in 2006.
Hidden on the B-side of a 1966 comedy 45, I found one of the most hilarious versions of the time-honored White Christmas ever. In a conversation between "Senator Bobby" and "Senator McKinley," the latter proposes the brilliant idea that connecting with the young student electorate could be fostered with a song from "the folk bag". Folk music went through a revival in the early 1960s, and the great hero of that movement was, of course, Bob Dylan.
McKinley comes up with a song by a certain Bobby the Poet. After an intro clearly inspired by Like a Rolling Stone the singer launches into a gritty sung White Christmas, unmistakably with the timbre and timing of Dylan circa 1966. He sticks neatly to Irving Berlin's lyrics until he abruptly rhymes "sleighbells in the snow…" with "..it flóws and gróws and blóws." These ad-libs are pure poetry, McKinley speaks loudly through the recording after which, right on top of the fake Dylan's harmonica solo, the weather forecast for a dozen regions of the United States is read out. The result is surreal, to say the least, as befits a good Dylan record from that era. There is a full album of this stuff (also on Spotify).
The two minutes and 14 seconds of White Christmas (3 O'Clock Weather Report) by Bobby the Poet on the Cameo Parkway label is equally enjoyable as the Christmas in the Heart album that the real Bob Dylan released in 2009, with his version of the Christmas classic Must Be Santa, originally by Mitch Miller in 1960. That His Bobness truly has a thing for Christmas was evident from the two episodes of his radio show, Theme Time Radio Hour, that Dylan devoted to Christmas and New Year's music in 2006.
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