११ जुलै, २०२४

"Ms. Martin was in the crowd at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival when Mr. Dylan first performed with electric instruments."

"She recalled two things from the appearance: the raucous boos and her conviction that he needed a polished backup band. Around the same time, Rick Danko, a friend, sent her a demo tape by the Hawks, in which he played bass. Ms. Martin thought the group would be a perfect match for Mr. Dylan. But the Hawks were a rock band and Mr. Dylan was still considered a folkie, and at first neither side was interested. 'Mary was a rather persevering soul,' Mr. Dylan said in a 1969 interview with Rolling Stone magazine. 'She kept pushing these guys the Hawks to me.' She persuaded Mr. Dylan to try out two of the band’s five members, the drummer Levon Helm and the guitarist Robbie Robertson. After Mr. Helm insisted that the Hawks were a package deal, Mr. Dylan relented, and the Hawks — soon to be known as the Band — went on tour with him, setting in motion one of the greatest collaborations in rock history...."

From "Mary Martin, Who Gave Many Music Stars Their Start, Dies at 85/Her loyalty to artists and her eye for talent made her a force in a male-dominated business. Among her accomplishments: introducing Bob Dylan to the Band" (NYT).

ALSO: "While climbing the ranks within [Albert] Grossman’s office, she became close friends with many of his clients. One weekend at Mr. Grossman’s home in upstate New York, she swam a race against Mr. Dylan. She lost, but as a consolation prize, Mr. Grossman gave her his cat, Lord Growing — the same cat Mr. Dylan holds on the cover of his 1965 album 'Bringing It All Back Home.'"

Hmm. Lord Growing. Elsewhere, I'm seeing this quote from the photographer, Daniel Kramer, in "The story of the art work on Bringing it All Back Home":
“That [cover shot] was the only time all three subjects were looking at the lens.” That was Bob, Sally and a cat. The cat looks scared, Sally looks bored and Dylan looks like he’s discovered that scowl. According to biographer Robert Shelton, the cat is called Rolling Stone (No Direction Home: The Life and Music of Bob Dylan – Beech Tree Books, 1986), but other sources think his name was Lord Growing.

“It was a very important cover for Bob,” Kramer knows. “And the reason is the first four albums he did, he’s a folk singer. He’s in folk singer clothes, he looks, you know, ‘Oh, woe is me.’

On Bringing It All Back Home, he’s a prince in his blazer and his beautiful cufflinks, sitting with this beautiful cat and a ravishingly beautiful woman behind him in a red dress. It was a change. Everything was changing.”

Did the NYT resolve the controversy over the cat's name? I don't know. I heard cats have 9 names. 


AND: That's a photograph of my personal copy of the album, the first Dylan album I bought. It was the newest of his albums at the time, 1965, and it had the song that made me think it might be worth the high price of a record album: "Mr. Tambourine Man." I remember standing over the folk music bin at Two Guys staring at that photo when I was 14, weighing the pros and cons. The photo gives you a lot to think about, and I've contemplated it for 6 decades. See the unique marks of wear on the Althouse copy. But I have never thought what's the cat's name. What I like about the picture is how absurdly it seems to want to say: We were just sitting around listening to our record albums and reading about LBJ and smoking and petting a cat and then you came in and spoiled the mood.

३१ टिप्पण्या:

rhhardin म्हणाले...

Levon Helm was known for generosity, as a guest on Imus for many years.

R C Belaire म्हणाले...

Acadian Driftwood is still a favorite.

Kate म्हणाले...

What a beautifully composed cover. The position of Sally's cigarette and the subtle stare of Lord Growing, while all the lines point toward Dylan in the foreground.

Did you take the picture from your own album? I can see the wear marks.

AimHighHitLow म्हणाले...

Until I got to the link below the quote, I thought this article was talking about the Broadway singer Mary Martin (Peter Pan, Sound of Music, and others).

tcrosse म्हणाले...

What does it matter how you name a cat, if they never come when you call?

Jamie म्हणाले...

AimHighHitLow, me too - given how inbred the entertainment industry is, I didn't even think it might be unusual.

Now I want to go read about the other Mary Martin.

Dave Begley म्हणाले...

How much did you pay in 1965?

I’m impressed you still have the album.

Temujin म्हणाले...

I love that you still have that album. I hate that I got rid of mine. Years ago now. Tired of dragging cases and cases of albums with me as I continued to move around the country. I just walked into a small record shop in Sarasota 35 or so years ago when this was a quiet little spit of a town. The record store was dead- no one in it. The guy seemed surprised to see anyone. I almost had to talk him into taking my album collection from me. Sometimes I wish I had those back. They would all be talking to me now.

The Band was one of my favorite bands. All great musicians. And Robbie Robertson was a great songwriting. Bob Dylan did well going with them, as they did going with him.

Ann Althouse म्हणाले...

"Did you take the picture from your own album? I can see the wear marks."

Yes, but there's a bit more to the photo...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bringing_It_All_Back_Home#/media/File:Bob_Dylan_-_Bringing_It_All_Back_Home.jpg

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves म्हणाले...

It's funny to see leftist loyalists rush to Biden's side. (all while they ignore him most of the time - as commanded by the Biden regime itself/democrat media industrial Soviet machine - and obsess over Trump 24/7)
As soon a Biden drops out - these same Q-annon Leftist hiveminders will rejoice.

Quaestor म्हणाले...

Cat names. Why? Do people name their furniture? Where shall I sit? Try Larry, he's striving to be more supportive. I absolutely do not get it. Actually, I do, but the unvarnished veritas regarding cats and their names -- strike that -- the names people attempt to thrust upon them like greatness upon Malvolio (which the cats resolutely refuse to acknowledge) is rather sad.

Some dogs appear to associate a distinct human vocalization with "themselves" to the extent that dogs have selves. Following consistent drills and rewards, a call of ”Here, Rex!” will probably result in Rex’s presence before you. This ability to recognize Rex or some other monosyllabic utterance is why dog trainers don’t use complex dog names. Lord Growing might appear on the animal’s papers, but as far as addressing the creature audibly, the name stops at Lord.

But cats? Cats are more indifferent to their human-imposed vocalizations than virtually anything else in the environment they share with us. So you've bought a new recliner -- within 10 minutes the cat has either claimed it for its own comfort or has used it as a scratching post, likely both. You sit down before your Mac or PC, within 10 minutes the cat has imposed itself between you and the display, stomping several random keys in the process. Call the cat by name, and with luck the cat might leave the room in its typically unhurried, sauntering manner, prominently directing its butthole at you in the process.

So why nine names? Perhaps that's the maximum naming attempts the typical cat owner ventures before giving up.

Ann Althouse म्हणाले...

"How much did you pay in 1965?"

Stereo and mono were different prices. I bought this in stereo. I think the price was either 4 or 5 dollars. My allowance was $2 a week. You could buy a nice school dress at a good department store for $12, and shoes were only about 4 or 5 dollars back then. A first-run movie cost only $2 in the theater (but it still felt expensive, since that was a whole week's allowance).

I seriously worried about buying an album and then not liking it enough.

But this album was the best album purchase I ever made. It was so important to me. It lead to buying the earlier Dylan albums (except the first one) and to buying each new album as it came out, including "Highway 61" and "Blonde on Blonde" within the next year. I listened to all these albums so many times when I was a teenager. They're really structured into my brain.

Wince म्हणाले...

Obviously, Mary and Sally at the time had no compunction about being photographed smoking.

Ann Althouse म्हणाले...

In my family, it absolutely never happened that I'd be in the store with a parent and be in a position to ask them to buy a record for me.

I could buy a record with my allowance, save lunch money, or babysit, or... now that I think about it, most of the records I was able to buy came from forgoing the school cafeteria hot meal -- which might have cost about 50 cents — and making a lunch out of milk and potato chips — which cost exactly 12 cents (2 for the milk and 10 for the potato chips).

Ann Althouse म्हणाले...

"Until I got to the link below the quote, I thought this article was talking about the Broadway singer Mary Martin (Peter Pan, Sound of Music, and others)."

That's why I left it as "Ms. Martin" in the post title, but it does say Mary a few times in the quote.

I thought the same thing when I saw the obituary headline, even though the time line seems so off. The Peter Pan Mary Martin would have lived to be 111 if she died this year. But she died in 1990.

WK म्हणाले...

Levon Helm had an interesting role in the movie “Shooter” with Mark Wahlberg.

Whiskeybum म्हणाले...

He missed his chance to name his new band “Bobby D and the Hawks”!

Big Mike म्हणाले...

I thought the name was “Lord Growling,” with an ‘l’

Caroline म्हणाले...

No way was Mary Martin. Her son Larry Hagman is about that age! I’d guess she’s at least my mother’s age,96.

Narr म्हणाले...

Ha. I'm not the Dylan fan the Prof is, but I too used to pocket my lunch money for better uses--like model planes and books, mostly.

I've still got about 50 LPs in a Peaches crate, which is all of them that my wife and I had accumulated (separately and together) when tapes and then CDs took over. Most of them were pop/rock but I was starting to buy classical too. (Not counting the Time-Life Complete Beethoven set from DG, which is also around here somewhere.)

Thanks for the memories.

Narr म्हणाले...

I'm allergic to cats.

One of my late friends had the best name for his cat: Dammit!

Ficta म्हणाले...

Bringing It All Back Home was my first Dylan album purchase as well, but it was 1980 at that time. I wish I could remember what song prompted me to buy that one. Maybe Subterranean Homesick Blues. Slow Train Coming was, I think, his latest at that point and my brother had that album. I listened to both of them over and over. Definitely changed my life.

Joe Smith म्हणाले...

Lord Growling would work too.

I've only heard hits from The Band and I should listen to more as I like the laid-back style.

But I never thought of them as a 'rock band.' Too much country influence without being slick.

More of a country/folk band which is maybe why it worked.

Quaestor म्हणाले...

"One of my late friends had the best name for his cat: Dammit!"

Get off the bed, Dammit!

Don't kill the songbirds, Dammit!

That's not a scratching post, Dammit!

What's this on the carpet? Awww... a hairball, Dammit!

It costs that much to get a cat euthanized? Dammit!

Dammit!, a clever yet futile work of the imagination.

Biff म्हणाले...

Common ground with Althouse!

I came to the party a bit later, but the first time I bought an album with my own money was at my local Two Guys store in northern New Jersey. (It was Queen's News of the World, by the way.)

Two Guys was an interesting place, and I have some real nostalgia for it. They were surprisingly close to the modern WalMart model, but didn't quite push forward. Supermarket, record store, hardware store, white goods, etc. Hot dog carts at the entrance. I vividly recall how upset I was as a young sci-fi geek to see an ad for a promotional visit to my local Two Guys by Leonard Nimoy (!!!) after he visited.

Two Guys eventually focused on its real estate holdings, sold off its stores, and became a large real estate trust.

MadTownGuy म्हणाले...

I recall seeing a Bob Dylan themed cartoon in Mad Magazine around the time he was switching from folk to rock. The gist was that after an album of protest songs, he was switching to a collection of old standards - not to cover them, but to protest them. See it here:

https://alldylan.com/a-collection-of-bob-dylan-themed-cartoons-part-1/

Link

Paul From Minneapolis म्हणाले...

Two small points:

The cat doesn't look scared. The cat looks annoyed.

Who gives away a cat on the spur of the moment, even to Mary Martin?

Paul From Minneapolis म्हणाले...

Has everyone except me - and evidently Caroline - been aware that the Mary Martin who introduced The Band to Dylan is a totally different Mary Martin? Not the Broadway star Mary Martin? I just figured it out. Duh.

typingtalker म्हणाले...

What ever happened to Fallout Shelters?

For shelters to protect against radioactive fallout, see Fallout shelter. For the Island Records studio known as The Fallout Shelter, see 22 St Peter's Square.

Wikipedia

Mary Beth म्हणाले...

"The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter,
It isn’t just one of your holiday games;
You may think at first I’m as mad as a hatter
When I tell you, a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES."

Valentine Smith म्हणाले...

I have to chime in here at this late hour. I guess it’s mostly a matter of time and place when deciding who is the greatest band of all time. Like the late great Terry Teachout, it’s my belief that The Band was the greatest rock ‘n’ roll group of all time. I saw a lot of the great ones back in the old Fillmore East, too many to it enumerate. The Band was truly incomparable.