Your Weekly Dylan Cover [#14]

Leon Russell
"A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall"
Original Dylan version found on The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963)

A native Oklahoman, Claude Russell Bridges suddenly found himself an in-demand studio musician in California in the mid-1960s. He was part of the famous "Wall of Sound" on some Phil Spector records and played on songs by artists as diverse as The Byrds, Bobby "Boris" Pickett and Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass.

By 1967, the man now billing himself as Leon Russell had a studio built for himself in the Sooner State. With partner Marc Benno, he cut his first solo album, Look Inside The Asylum Choir.

Russell's major breakthrough was his production (with collaborator Denny Cordell) of Joe Cocker!, released in 1969. The album was a hit and contained two Russell-penned compositions, "Hello, Little Friend" and a song that was to become a signature for Cocker: "Delta Lady." A highly successful - and very raucous - tour followed, resulting in the double live LP Mad Dogs & Englishmen.

In late 1970, Russell's second album, released on Shelter Records, was cut in the studio. Leon Russell and the Shelter People remains a great effort worthy of any record collection. Along with a group of stellar originals, Russell tried his hand at a number of Bob Dylan selections during the Shelter People sessions: "It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry" (which made the cut), "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue," "Love Minus Zero/No Limit" and "She Belongs To Me" (which all didn't).

And one notable other Dylan gem: "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall," the chilling and daunting number that electrified the folk community upon its introduction back in 1962. I still love the way that Russell put his stamp on this cover. His rolling New Orleans-style piano is perfectly accented by the deft slide guitar of Jesse Ed Davis and the ace drumming of Jim Keltner. The vocal is quintessentially Midwestern American - just like the original - except the geographic tone is obviously turned more to the south.

Cocker had also recorded two Beatles' tunes during the Joe Cocker! sessions. This, as well as his studio playing and production prowess, brought Russell to the attention of the Fab Four's Apple Records. Along with George Harrison and Klaus Voorman, Russell was an uncredited musician on Badfinger's Straight Up (1971), an album that spawned two big singles that remain staples on classic rock radio to this day: "Baby Blue" and "Day After Day."

By March 1971 Russell found himself in a small studio in New York's Greenwich Village, playing on and producing some new songs written by Dylan. "Watching The River Flow" and "When I Paint My Masterpiece" were included on Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits, Vol. 2.

And on August 1 of that same year, Leon Russell would be standing on stage playing bass with Harrison and Dylan at the Concert For Bangla Desh in New York City. The selection? "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall."

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Reams of paper have been devoted to analysis of "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall." We'll leave you with two quotes.

One from Dylan himself, in a 1963 interview with Studs Turkel on Chicago radio (courtesy transcript in Jonathan Cott's compilation Dylan On Dylan: The Essential Interviews): "No, it's not atomic rain, it's just a hard rain. It isn't the fallout rain. I mean some sort of end that's just gotta happen . . . In the last verse, when I say, 'the pellets of poison are flooding the waters', that means all the lies that people get told on their radios and in their newspapers."

The second is from an emotional Allen Ginsberg, from the Martin Scorsese film No Direction Home:



Original Listening: Bob Dylan, "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall"

Live Listening: Bob Dylan, "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" (The Concert For Bangla Desh, 1971; with George Harrison, Leon Russell)

Other Cover Versions: Bryan Ferry, "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" (These Foolish Things, 1973); Pete Seeger, "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" (Live in Australia, 1963)

In Performance At The White House: A Celebration of Music From The Civil Rights Movement

Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Paul Stookey at The Lincoln Memorial, before performing at the March On Washington, August 28, 1963.



From The White House (via Chicago Sun-Times):

The 2010 White House Music Series begins on Wednesday, February 10th, when the President and First Lady will host "In Performance at the White House: A Celebration of Music from the Civil Rights Movement" - a concert celebrating Black History month. Participants include Natalie Cole, Bob Dylan, Jennifer Hudson, John Legend, John Mellencamp, Smokey Robinson, Seal, the Blind Boys of Alabama, the Howard University Choir and others. Morgan Freeman and Queen Latifah will serves as emcees for this concert which will feature songs from the Civil Rights Movement as well as readings from famous Civil Rights speeches and writings. The President will make opening remarks at this concert held in the East Room which will be streamed live on http://www.whitehouse.gov starting at 5.15 p.m. ET.

The concert will be televised on February 11th at 8.00 p.m. ET on public broadcasting stations nationwide as part of WETA Washington, D.C.'s "In Performance at the White House" series. NPR will also produce a one-hour concert special from this event for broadcast nationwide on NPR Member stations throughout the month of February, beginning February 12th. The special will be available on http://www.npr.org/music.

As part of this special event, Mrs. Obama will host "Music that Inspired the Movement," a workshop that several of the event's performers will lead for 120 high school students from across the country on Wednesday, February 10th from 1.00 p.m. - 2.00 p.m. ET. The students will come to learn about the continuing relevance of music from the Civil Rights Movement to today's generation and its original impact in the 1960s. The event will be streamed live on www.whitehouse.gov and students all over the country will be invited to watch and engage in the workshop.

FURTHER LISTENING AND VIEWING

Bob Dylan sings "When The Ship Comes In" at the March On Washington.

"People Get Ready," written by the great Curtis Mayfield and performed by his group The Impressions in 1965. Mayfield was inspired by the throngs that gathered at the Lincoln Memorial two years earlier.

Pete Seeger talks about the history of "We Shall Overcome." And scores of artists sing it in honor of Seeger's 90th birthday party at Madison Square Garden last year.

Mavis Staples & The Blind Boys of Alabama sing the civil rights standard "Eyes On The Prize."

Tribute (In Memoriam): Liam Clancy

[Editor's note: Celtic Ray, TNOP's correspondent from County Clare, Republic of Ireland, contributed to this report.]

Regular readers of this blog know that one of TNOP's goals is to ensure that our readers are aware of the vital roots of popular music in addition to keeping abreast of the latest news about today's performers. As the history of rock and roll reaches past its fifth decade, the inevitable (or sometimes untimely) deaths of its singers, songwriters, musicians and producers become more common. And sometimes there are those on the periphery that, unbeknownst to most fans, have made a noted impact on some of rock's most important artists.

Liam Clancy (pictured left with Shane MacGowan of The Pogues, above) was one such fellow. And music fans should know why Bob Dylan called him "the best ballad singer I have heard in my life." He died at the age of 74 this past week in Cork, Ireland.

Born in Carrick-on-Suir, County Tipperary, Clancy was one eleven children. His mother was a noted singer, and because of that fact in the mid-1950s he met Diane Hamilton Guggenheim, who was in the Republic to record noted Irish folk singers. It was during his travels in 1955 with Guggenheim that he would meet his future band partner Tommy Makem, whose mother also was a singer of some repute.

Young Liam's dream was to be an actor; after studying in night school at the National College of Art, he had minor success in Dublin, including an appearance in the production of The Playboy of the Western World starring Siobhan McKenna and Cyril Cusack. He struck off for the United States, landing fortuitously in Grennwich Village, staying with his brother Paddy and his wife. In between toiling through auditions and landing small parts in television and small films, Clancy would frequent establishments like the White Horse Bar and Gerde's Folk City, meeting jazz musicians, folk singers and actors aspiring to success in their respective crafts. It was during this time that he met Bob Dylan and they became regular acquaintances. Dylan would later recall a particular line of Liam's in the early days, after a number of pints of Guinness: "Remember Bob: No fear. No envy. No meanness."

But achieving success as an actor was difficult, and Liam reunited with Tommy Makem in New York. Along with his bothers Pat and Tom, the four recorded an album of republican rebel ballads entitled The Rising of the Moon in 1959. Not surprisingly, Clancy indicated he chose music over acting because "the pay was significantly better."

On St. Patrick's Day 1961, The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem got their big break. An act cancelled on The Ed Sullivan Show, a very popular national variety show on CBS Television. The boys' set was extended to 16 full minutes, and Irish traditional songs were suddenly in the vogue. Liam's wonderful baritone was a key reason for the group's artistic success. And as fate would have it, the boys had recently received new sweaters from home, knit by the Clancy Brothers' Aunt Peggy; the group had "a hook and a look" according to their agent. John Hammond of Columbia Records (also responsible for the signing of artists like Billie Holliday, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen) signed The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem, and they became international stars, riding the accompanying wave of folk music popularity in the early 1960s. Millions of albums were sold. Carnegie Hall was conquered. An audience with the first Irish-American president, John F. Kennedy, occurred in 1963.

By 1964, it was claimed that one-third of all albums sold in the Republic of Ireland were Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem records.

The folk music boom faded by the late 1960s with the emergence of a different brand of rock and roll. The group would break up and Liam Clancy, suddenly less well off because of bad business decisions, found himself in Canada, where he remade himself as a popular TV personality. Over the coming years, he would reunite in various configurations with Makem and his brothers.

Liam Clancy was the last surviving member of The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem. So lift "The Parting Glass." But every June, their hometown of Carrick-on-Suir will continue to hold a festival to celebrate the musical legacy of their native sons.

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FURTHER LISTENING, VIEWING & READING:

The New York Times obituary of Liam Clancy (1935-2009).

Liam Clancy's final published interview from The Irish Times in September of this year.

Liam sings lead on "I Never Will Play The Wild Rover No More" with his brother Tom, Tommy Makem and Pete Seeger on the first episode of Rainbow Quest with Pete Seeger.

Liam talks a couple of years ago on RTE about meeting Dylan in the early days and having a drink with him and Bono in Dublin.

View the trailer from the 2007 documentary The Yellow Bittern: The Life and Times of Liam Clancy.