There is an index to our current series and a range of previous articles on the home page and an index to earlier articles from this series at the end of this piece. If you are interested in writing for Untold Dylan, I’d be delighted to hear from you. Please drop me a line to tony@schools.co.uk
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By Tony Attwood
In this series on the Theme Time Radio Hour programmes, I am looking back at some episodes recorded by Bob for series one, and choosing a few songs that interest or perhaps intrigue me, and for which I can find copies on the internet that I can share. A list of the episodes already considered in this way is given at the end.
As I say, I do add my comments, but the key point is to offer a reminder online of some of the songs that Bob commented upon – particularly those which, because of their age, might not otherwise be noticed.
Previously in this series
- 1: Happy 20th anniversary, Theme Time Radio Hour. Still offering us fun
- 2: Mother
- 3: Drinking
- 4: Coffee
- 5: Jail
- 6: Father
- 7: Wedding
- 8: Divorce
- 9: Summer
In this episode, we consider is “Flowers” which causes me a problem since although I have a garden attached to my house I moved into 20 years ago or mroe, I am not a gardener in any sense of the word. That is something that can readily be explained by having been brought up in north London in a very small two-bedroom flat (apartment) built at high speed on a bomb site, after the end of the Second World War. Flowers were not really part of our lives.
But on 12 July 2006 Bob gave us a collection of 14 songs mostly recorded between 1940 and 2006, which has helped expand my knowledge of this theme within music.
The earliest song in the collection is “New San Antonio Rose” by Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys from 1940. And in common with most popular songs of the era, it starts with an instrumental, before the vocalist comes in. I am not sure when this order of the performance (starting with the instrumental) reversed, so that in most pop music from the 1950s onwards does the reverse, and starts with the vocal verses and puts in the instumental as a break about two-thirds of the way through the performance. But whenever it was, the order of events we have here was the norm of the day.
And I really do have to highlight Tulip or Turnip from Duke Ellington simply because it is a song with one of the whackiest names I have ever come across.
But there is another point – if one is into the music of this era one surely can’t hear the opening of this recording without thinking of Duke Ellington… And I have to add I love the notion of a song that is fundamentally about “what am I to you” should have the title “Tulip or Turnip”. You couldn’t get away with that today!
I did note above that most of the songs were recorded between 1940 and 2006, but there was one exception which came from The Carter Family, recorded in 1928. As you are taking the time to read this, I imagine you’ll know of the importance of the Carter Family to Bob’s understanding of his own heritage, but forgive me if I put in a few basic facts to accompany this recording
This 1928 recording comes from very close to the start of the family’s recording work, and although we may, listening to it in the second quarter of a new century, lose some of the significance of what is going on here, the fact is that they took, and then influenced everyting from bluegrass to gosep, nad from pop to the folk revival of which Bob was such a vital part. They were, in fact, the first (or at least one of the first) country music groups whose work reached an audience beyond the traditional country music enthusiasts.
Now moving on, the most recent recording included by Bob in this episode was “The Sharpest Thorn” recorded by Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint in 2005 – another piece very much at the centre of my emotional world.
This is one of the songs that I thought I was on my own with, as hardly anyone else mentioned it much (in England), at least not until Bob’s programme and it is one of those that I have carried with me (metaphorically) ever since I first heard it. And I find its influence upon me quite extraordinary.
As Elvis Costello said in an interview, “It’s a simple tale about somebody who goes out, full of pride, to join a parade, and comes home at the end of the day with confetti in his hair and his pocket’s been picked and a little wiser and humbler.” I’m not at all sure I get anywhere near being a little wiser and humbler, but at least since this song I do try more.
And of course, as we all know, Bob went through his period of conversion and came out the other side, (a little wiser and humbler I would say, but that’s just my interpretation). Maybe no one else sees the connection between Bob’s past and this song, but it is there for me, and this is a wonderful performance reminds me how our thoughts and views on life can be transformed by passing events, if we are willing to allow that to happen.
Indeed that seems to be me to be the point of all this. Music can of course, just be entertainment, or something to sing along with, play, dance to, etc., etc. But also, just sometimes it can remind us of life-changing moments, and our lives are generally all the better for that.
So glad Bob included this.
I wore my finest suit of clothes
The sharpest thorn defending the rose
Hot as a pistol keen as a blade
The sharpest thorn upon parade
And it's the same most every year
Ghosts of the dear departed are near
We raise our glasses and we cheer
Should old acquaintance disappear
Just as we wipe away a tear
Archangel Michael will lead the way
Archangel Gabriel is ready to play
Although we know we must repent
We hit the scene and look for sins
That haven't even been invented
The strongest cage that guards the prize
The longest lash that covers your eyes
A sight no eyes are meant to know
Then on the third day he arose
Archangel Michael will lead the way
Archangel Gabriel is ready to play
Although we know we must repent
We hit the scene and look for sins
That haven't even been invented
So Good and Evil were having a fight
It lasts much longer than any one night
It may last longer than a life
And turn a mistress into a wife
And so confetti fills the air
My head is aching
My pockets are bare
I didn't recognise their warning
Then I wasn't born the sharpest thorn
I wasn't born the sharpest thorn
At least for this episode, there isn’t anything else I can add. Here’s the full track list.
- “Grazing in the Grass” – The Friends of Distinction (1968)
- “A Good Year for the Roses” – George Jones (1970)
- “The Bonny Bunch of Roses” – Paul Clayton (1957)
- “Laying on a Bed of Roses” – The Muffs (1995)
- “The Grape Vine” – Lucky Millinder & His Orchestra (1951)
- “Tulip Or Turnip” – Duke Ellington & His Orchestra (1947)
- “Tiptoe Through the Tulips” – Tiny Tim (1968)
- “Wildwood Flower” – The Carter Family (1928)
- “When the Roses Bloom Again” – Laura Cantrell (2002)
- “Only a Rose” – Geraint Watkins (2004)
- “I Threw Away the Rose” – Merle Haggard (1967)
- “Don’t Let the Green Grass Fool You” – Wilson Pickett (1971)
- “The Sharpest Thorn” – Elvis Costello & Allen Toussaint (2006)