June 14, 2006

Strangest thing Bob Dylan said on the new "Theme Time Radio Hour" today.

The theme was: Fathers. Toward the end of the show Bob always reads and answers what he says is an email message he's received. Today, he says: "I got an email from Johnny Depp in France. He asks who was the father of Communism?" Bob answers it's Karl Marx and proceeds to say a few things about Karl Marx's relationship with his own children.

Hey, why pick on dear, sweet Johnny? Is it something about this picture?

Memorable songs from today's show:

The Temptations, "Papa Was a Rolling Stone." What a great song!

The Winstons, "Color Him Father." Really touching lyrics:
My real old man he got killed in the war
And she knows she and seven kids couldn't have got very far
She said she thought that she could never love again
And then there he stood with that big wide grin
He married my mother and he took us in
And now we belong to the man with that big wide grin

Think I'll color this man father
I think I'll color him love
Julie London, "Daddy" ("I want a diamond ring, bracelets, everything..."). Before playing it, Bob quoted the lines "Here's an amazing revelation/With a bit of stimulation/I'd be a great sensation/I'd be your inspiration," and I thought that sounded like sequence of rhymes Bob himself would do. But in fact, Bob has only used one of those four words in a song, and it wasn't at the end of a line.

Julie London song that could have been on today's playlist but wasn't: "My Heart Belongs To Daddy."

My father adored Julie London. Growing up, I was deeply affected by album covers like this:

28 comments:

chuck b. said...

Geez, I feel like that album cover is deeply affecting me right now.

Maxine Weiss said...

I adore Julie London, and I'm relatively young. She didn't seem that old to me. She was a regular on "Emergency"....although I guess that was a long time ago....the 70s, but she didn't seem all that old back then.

She is so great. Her best songs were 'Night Life', she had the very best version of 'Wives and Lovers' I've ever heard.

Guys really dig her.

But, she was a swingin' gal.

The quintessential 'Lounge Singer', but I really think she was more than just that.

The poor man's Peggy Lee?

Peace, Maxine

Maxine Weiss said...

By the way: 'My Heart Belongs to Daddy'......belongs to Marilyn Monroe.

As much as I loved Julie London.....Marilyn Monroe owns 'My Heart Belongs To Daddy'.

There's nothing like Marilyn's classic version of that.

Thanks for reminding me. I'm gonna have to pull out my 'Magic of Marilyn' album, and give that song a listen for Father's Day!

Peace, Maxine

MadisonMan said...

I have always like Nicolette Larson's version of "Daddy". And I agree with Maxine re: My Heart Belongs to Daddy. Totally Marilyn's.

Ann Althouse said...

Well, why didn't Bob play Marilyn?

Ann Althouse said...

He played part of the Christopher Walken monologue from "Pulp Fiction" (delivering the dead father's watch).

Ann Althouse said...

Dave: Some of the show is spoken word, clips from movies and the like.

Shake-and-Bake: You need to see the collection of LPs I inherited from my father. I should do a photograph. There's one with Anita Ekberg that just kills me.

michael farris said...

I've only relatively recently discovered Julie London, an amazing, if stylistically limited, singer.

I especially like her mid-late 60's stuff like Watermelon Man (Though Wives and Lovers is great too as is Come to me Softly).

An adult performer in the best meaning of the term.

Palladian said...

I hope he played Bette Davis singing "I've Written a Letter to Daddy"

Ann Althouse said...

Palladian: No, but that would have been cool. And he was favoring "Daddy" over "Papa" or "Father."

That reminds me that he didn't do "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag."

It's hard to think of "Father" songs. The first one I think of is that Judy Collins song that begin's "My father always promised us, that we would live in France...." What a wacky promise!

John Stodder said...

The smokin'-est version of "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" is by Count Basie, with some vampy singer whose name escapes me now.

If you like Julie London, check out June Christy. Same era, same idea (disturbed white chick sings jazz) but less compromising. The song "Something Cool" is a classic. Bob ought to include it if he does a "barflies" themed show.

Ann: I hope you'll report on Bob's radio program on a regular basis a la The Apprentice and American Idol (two shows even you couldn't get me to watch). I don't get XM, but this is great stuff.

Ron said...

Connecting to another thread, Jim Morrison sings about killing his father in "The End."

Does that count?

Lonesome Payne said...

Did he play the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's version of "The Lord's Prayer" (I think they covered that)?

In re the seeming obviousness of "Papa was a Rolling Stone:" It's easy to forget how a lot of people don't know stuff it seems like everybody should know. Especially young people - it's incredible what these morons don't know. And you simply have to know this song, so it's kind of a public service.

Lonesome Payne said...

"California Cottonfields", sung by Merle, lyrics by Dallas Frazier, the second verse:

Almost everything we had was sold or left behind
From daddy's plow to the fruit that mama canned
Some folks came to say farewell and see what all we had to sell
Some just came to shake my daddy's hand
The Model A was loaded down and California bound
And a change of luck was just four days away
But the only change that I remember seeing for my daddy
Was when his dark hair turned to silver gray

California cottonfields...
Where labor camps are filled with
worried men with broken dreams
California cottonfields
As close to wealth as daddy ever came...

Lonesome Payne said...

Co-written actually by Dallas Frazier and Earl Montgomery, according to the Mighty Web.

Merle champions the great country songwriters like Frank did for the great early standard writers.

Another Merle song, he wrote this one: "Daddy Sang Bass."

michael farris said...

Coal Miner's Daughter by Loretta Lynn is largely about her father IIRC.

She did another song (written by someone else) "They don't make 'em ike my daddy anymore".

"In the great big land of freedom,
at a time we really need 'em,
they don't make 'em like my dadday anymore."

Daddy don't you walk so fast - Wayne Newton (I'm very sorry I remember that)

In the same vein:

With pen in hand,
You'd better sit down kids

Ann Althouse said...

Johnstodderinexile: I have June Christie albums in the set of records my father left me.

Ann Althouse said...

Hey, nobody's talking about Johnny Depp!

Unknown said...

The reference to Anita Ekberg is fitting here given Bob's humorous reference to her in "Talking World War III Blues" from Freewheeling.

On a side note, I always enjoy the art-related posts more than the political posts, which almost immediately devolve into boring rhetorical blather. My 2 cents.

Palladian said...

What about "Dear Father" by Yes:

"If there's anything you'd like to say that could help me in any way,
Cause I've been waiting for so long for you to come along,
Help me on that day,
When you take over all the things
heaven has made for you,
Is there anything you think you
should know,
Is there anything before I go?

Dear Father
I'm hungry, I'm cold,
Feeling terribly old,
I don't think I can see,
I'm not feeling good like I think I should"

Or Jethro Tull's "Son" (sung from the father's perspective):

"It's advice and it's nice to know when you're best advised.
You've only turned thirty, so son, you'd better apologize.
And when you grow up, if you're good
we will buy you a bike."

Jennifer said...

Did he play "Daddy Was A Communist" by Latex Generation for Johnny Depp?

Jennifer said...

He must not be an American Idol fan. I'm assuming he didn't play Ace Young's "Father Figure"?

Away From The Brink said...

Ahh...Julie London. The "Time For Love" compilation of her music, I highly recommend.

No mention of Helen Merrill or Blossom Dearie? Pity.

John Stodder said...

Bruce Springsteen's "Independence Day" is a killer song about a son and father.

Someone mentioned Madonna...what about "Papa Don't Preach?"

I'll mention Blossom Dearie. She's great. I feel like Gomez Adams; I go crazy when she sings in French.

Maxine Weiss said...

"No mention of Helen Merrill or Blossom Dearie? Pity."---Impacted

Jo Stafford, Margaret Whiting, Rosemary Clooney, Nina Simone, Anita O'Day, Diane Schuur, Helen O'Connell, Dinah Washington, Eleanor Parker, Ernestine Anderson....etc

Do you realize how many girlsingers there were? Too many to mention!

Lounge lizards all!

Peace, Maxine

Maxine Weiss said...

Whoops. Forgot June Christy and Carol Sloane !

Dinah Shore and Doris Day---Doris was a better singer than she was an actress IMHO IMHO.

Peace, Maxine

Ann Althouse said...

You people listing female singers: when you get your XM Satellite Radio, go to the channel "Frank's Place." They have male singers too, but you'll hear Blossom Dearie and a huge variety of singers like this.

T.K. Tortch said...

I've got that Julie London Album -- as an actual LP record. The color separation on the cover is kinda bad -- the green is way too intense -- which makes the cover a little freaky and hard to look at!!