Click on title to link to YouTube's film clip of Roger McGuinn performing The Birds "Eighth Miles High".
DVD Review
This Land Is Your Land: The Folk Years, Rhino Records, 2002
Sorry, fellow folkies but I am going to get up on my soapbox today. I have just viewed a Public Broadcasting System (PBS)- made concert film from 2002 that stars a number of the lesser lights of the folk revival of the 1960s that, frankly, has set my teeth on edge. You know groups like the Kingston Trio, The Highwaymen, the present day version of the New Christy Minstrels, and individuals like Judy Collins and Roger McGuinn. Soft-core folk, or as I put it in my headline- folk musak. Hell, the producers even brought out the Smothers Brothers and their tired old shtick. Now, as I pointed out elsewhere, this is a calculated and clever stratagem on their parts, in order to use this concert as a vehicle for the seemingly endless fundraiser that the system does. As I also pointed out a number of month ago in a similar review of a James Taylor concert these PBS guys know their demographics.
What they apparently don’t know is when to cry “uncle”. Some voices from the folk revival of the 1960s still have some spunk. Dylan on a good night. Same with Baez. A whole slew of lesser known names like Geoff Muldaur, Maria Muldaur, Jim Kweskin, Rosalie Sorrels before she retired, and others put on solid performances with new material at comparable ages to the folks who performed here. Now all musical tastes are highly individual and I admit that, on more than one occasion, have been heard in the old hootenanny days and now, to sing a go to things like the Kingston Trio’s “MTA” song and “Tom Dooley”. Judy Collins’ “Amazing Grace” and “Both Sides Now”. Or even the Limelighters “Greensleeves”. But, almost two hours of this stuff. Come on. Give me fifteen minutes of Dave Van Ronk, Lou Reed, or any of that slew mentioned above any day. No, I will not go gentle into that good night, thank you.
Note: The only really redeeming musical factor in this whole concert were the three songs performed by Roger McGuinn. He came alive with his versions of Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man”, Pete Seeger’s adaptation of “Turn, Turn, Turn” and a virtuoso long acoustic performance of “Eight Miles High”. He, at least, knew how to keep us awake past our bedtimes. Thanks, Roger.
Mr. Tambourine Man
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to.
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
In the jingle jangle morning I'll come followin' you.
Though I know that evenin's empire has returned into sand,
Vanished from my hand,
Left me blindly here to stand but still not sleeping.
My weariness amazes me, I'm branded on my feet,
I have no one to meet
And the ancient empty street's too dead for dreaming.
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to.
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
In the jingle jangle morning I'll come followin' you.
Take me on a trip upon your magic swirlin' ship,
My senses have been stripped, my hands can't feel to grip,
My toes too numb to step, wait only for my boot heels
To be wanderin'.
I'm ready to go anywhere, I'm ready for to fade
Into my own parade, cast your dancing spell my way,
I promise to go under it.
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to.
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
In the jingle jangle morning I'll come followin' you.
Though you might hear laughin', spinnin', swingin' madly across the sun,
It's not aimed at anyone, it's just escapin' on the run
And but for the sky there are no fences facin'.
And if you hear vague traces of skippin' reels of rhyme
To your tambourine in time, it's just a ragged clown behind,
I wouldn't pay it any mind, it's just a shadow you're
Seein' that he's chasing.
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to.
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
In the jingle jangle morning I'll come followin' you.
Then take me disappearin' through the smoke rings of my mind,
Down the foggy ruins of time, far past the frozen leaves,
The haunted, frightened trees, out to the windy beach,
Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow.
Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free,
Silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands,
With all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves,
Let me forget about today until tomorrow.
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to.
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
In the jingle jangle morning I'll come followin' you.
Copyright ©1964; renewed 1992 Special Rider Music
DVD Review
This Land Is Your Land: The Folk Years, Rhino Records, 2002
Sorry, fellow folkies but I am going to get up on my soapbox today. I have just viewed a Public Broadcasting System (PBS)- made concert film from 2002 that stars a number of the lesser lights of the folk revival of the 1960s that, frankly, has set my teeth on edge. You know groups like the Kingston Trio, The Highwaymen, the present day version of the New Christy Minstrels, and individuals like Judy Collins and Roger McGuinn. Soft-core folk, or as I put it in my headline- folk musak. Hell, the producers even brought out the Smothers Brothers and their tired old shtick. Now, as I pointed out elsewhere, this is a calculated and clever stratagem on their parts, in order to use this concert as a vehicle for the seemingly endless fundraiser that the system does. As I also pointed out a number of month ago in a similar review of a James Taylor concert these PBS guys know their demographics.
What they apparently don’t know is when to cry “uncle”. Some voices from the folk revival of the 1960s still have some spunk. Dylan on a good night. Same with Baez. A whole slew of lesser known names like Geoff Muldaur, Maria Muldaur, Jim Kweskin, Rosalie Sorrels before she retired, and others put on solid performances with new material at comparable ages to the folks who performed here. Now all musical tastes are highly individual and I admit that, on more than one occasion, have been heard in the old hootenanny days and now, to sing a go to things like the Kingston Trio’s “MTA” song and “Tom Dooley”. Judy Collins’ “Amazing Grace” and “Both Sides Now”. Or even the Limelighters “Greensleeves”. But, almost two hours of this stuff. Come on. Give me fifteen minutes of Dave Van Ronk, Lou Reed, or any of that slew mentioned above any day. No, I will not go gentle into that good night, thank you.
Note: The only really redeeming musical factor in this whole concert were the three songs performed by Roger McGuinn. He came alive with his versions of Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man”, Pete Seeger’s adaptation of “Turn, Turn, Turn” and a virtuoso long acoustic performance of “Eight Miles High”. He, at least, knew how to keep us awake past our bedtimes. Thanks, Roger.
Mr. Tambourine Man
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to.
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
In the jingle jangle morning I'll come followin' you.
Though I know that evenin's empire has returned into sand,
Vanished from my hand,
Left me blindly here to stand but still not sleeping.
My weariness amazes me, I'm branded on my feet,
I have no one to meet
And the ancient empty street's too dead for dreaming.
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to.
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
In the jingle jangle morning I'll come followin' you.
Take me on a trip upon your magic swirlin' ship,
My senses have been stripped, my hands can't feel to grip,
My toes too numb to step, wait only for my boot heels
To be wanderin'.
I'm ready to go anywhere, I'm ready for to fade
Into my own parade, cast your dancing spell my way,
I promise to go under it.
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to.
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
In the jingle jangle morning I'll come followin' you.
Though you might hear laughin', spinnin', swingin' madly across the sun,
It's not aimed at anyone, it's just escapin' on the run
And but for the sky there are no fences facin'.
And if you hear vague traces of skippin' reels of rhyme
To your tambourine in time, it's just a ragged clown behind,
I wouldn't pay it any mind, it's just a shadow you're
Seein' that he's chasing.
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to.
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
In the jingle jangle morning I'll come followin' you.
Then take me disappearin' through the smoke rings of my mind,
Down the foggy ruins of time, far past the frozen leaves,
The haunted, frightened trees, out to the windy beach,
Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow.
Yes, to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free,
Silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands,
With all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves,
Let me forget about today until tomorrow.
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to.
Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,
In the jingle jangle morning I'll come followin' you.
Copyright ©1964; renewed 1992 Special Rider Music
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