006 – “Outlaw Blues”

Episode 6. “Outlaw Blues.” Bringing It All Back Home. Apartment. April 6, 2017.

Kelly sums up this song succinctly:

It makes you want to do cool shit.

It made me just want to day-dream and not do anything.

We talk about the departure of this compared to the older Dylan we’ve been listening to so far. This episode will be remembered for being our first discussion about the blues (aided by “Little Wing” by Mike Bloomfield). Kelly catches us up with the schisms between blues and jazz after World War II.

While listening to “Liza (All the Cloud’ll Roll Away” by Thelonious Monk, we dive into Alan Lomax and cultural appropriation (9:15). In this discussion, we try to clarify what we’re doing with looking at Dylan through a bunch of lenses and how it, clearly, is lacking after only 6 episodes. Taking a broad brush to the blues and post-war music is instructive but if the point is to dive deep, we need to be able to keep the differences between reverence and revenue, stealing and borrowing, appropriation and appreciation in our head at the same time. We sample Little Richard, Leadbelly, Cisco during this talk.

We then dip into the song itself, going verse-by-verse (21:10). Is this a narrative or vignettes? Who is Jesse James and Robert Ford? What Australian mountain range are we talkin’? What are the implications behind don’t ask me nothin about nothin I just might tell you the truth?

Recommendations (30:00): Kelly recommends Sneaker Pimps Becoming X (as well as shout to our other podcast, If the Apocalypse Comes, Beep Me)

Chuck Berry passed away this week, in addition to all his back catalog, we’ve got a new tune from him as well: “Big Boys.” Also, and this recommendation isn’t taken lightly, one of the most gut-wrentching albums you’ll hear all year, Mt. Erie’s A Crow Looked At Me.

Endings (33:00): Kelly guessed some numbers but I surprised her with our surprise Triplicate announcement! We say goodbye to Dead Kennedy’s “Nazi Punks Fuck Off.”