Sign on the Window isn't the Bob Dylan podcast you need, but it's definitely the one that you want! Each week we select a Dylan song at random, live with the song for a week (or two) and then get together to discuss. This week we dive into 1961's "Dink's Song"
In lieu of everything happening in the world, we've been super-sizing episodes and this is no different. In this episode, we discuss:
Initial Thoughts and Kelly plays the song for us (3:00)
Context (10:00)
"Dink's Song" — including versions from Josh White, Dave Van Ronk, Caroline Hester, Odetta, and Gabriel Rios (20:30)
Does this song work? (40:00)
Playlist — including asides on STP, Ru Paul, Vitimin C, and Caroline Hester (45:00)
Recommendations (1:10:30)
Endings (1:23:30)
Next episode: Sometimes you gotta do like Elvis did and shoot the damn thing out.
Context (10:00)
The episode begins with our week with "Dink's Song" and Kelly going through the chords.
Daniel quotes Dave Van Ronk's Smithsonian collection, Wikipedia, Clinton Heylin's Behind the Shades, a Vulture article on songs from the movie Inside Llewyn Davis, and John Lomax's Folk Song USA or Best Loved American Folk Songs to reveal the fissures in trying to get to the bottom of where this song is from and Dylan's connection.
He played this song early in his career, but only 3 times live (once in 1961 and twice in 1976).
Versions of the song (33:15)
Instead of just looking at Dylan's version, we introduce multiple "Dink's Song" to compare and contrast for better understanding. In addition to Dylan's version (recorded at Bonnie Beecher's home in Minneapolis on December 22, 1961, on TBLS Vol. 7: No Direction Home), we look at the "original" lyrics, Josh White (1945), Dave Van Ronk (1961), Carolyn Hester (1961), Odetta (1999), and Gabriel Rios (2007).
Eddie Gorodetsky, writing in the No Direction Home liner notes said this song was an early example of
...the young collecting floating lyrics from traditional songs and reshaping them into personal statements
(Stay tuned for after our playlist talk for a deeper dive on Carolyn Hester and Bob Dylan's relationship. Probably should be in its own episode, but here we are!)
For specific treatments of each set of lyrics, here are timestamps: Verse 1 (33:15) / Verse 2 (43:00) / Verse 3 (48:00) / Verse 4 (1:00:00) / Verse 5 (1:06:00)
Does this song work? (40:00)
The longevity and variance of the recordings prove that it does work, if the specifics of story thankfully feel a little further away than today's world. But it works as a historical document and contemporary story of love and loss and wishing to be free.
THE EPISODE’S BOOKLET & PLAYLIST
CAROLYN HESTER DIVE (1:00:00)
Carolyn Hester had never come up on the podcast until now so Daniel related Dylan playing harmonica on her self-titled 1962 album and the recording of it coinciding with Robert Shelton's effusive review in the New York Times on September 29, 1961. This album, produced by John Hammond, led to Dylan being invited to record. Aside from that, what happened to Hester? We follow from there late in this episode.
RECOMMENDATIONS (1:10:00)
Kelly finished Feel Good on Netflix. She also watched the L Word (shouts to Crow fans). The POLLEN playlist on Spotify is in constant rotation. As for movies, Kelly goes into a synopsis of Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael.
Daniel listened to all the new music: Smith Street Band Don't Waste Your Anger, Fiona Apple Fetch the Bolt Cutters, Mountain Goats Songs for Pierre Chuvin, The Strokes The New Abnormal, and Laura Marling Songs for Our Daughter. Music is still coming in clutch in 2020. A few discoveries as well: The Beth's Future Me Hates Me from 2018 is so good I'm ashamed it hasn't been in my life for 2 years and Dolly Parton, ever heard of her? I'm binging every album.
ENDINGS (1:19:00)
We're down to 391 songs. Kelly guesses #132. Would've been "Mama, You've Been On My Mind." It's #120. "T.V. Talking Song" from 1990's Under the Red Sky.
IDLES - TELEVISION (Official Audio)
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