Green Dragon Tavern
A place to sit down with a couple of pints of ale and wax subversive.
Organizer:
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Music to Make You Better….
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Music to Make You Better….
Hey Taverneers, Mike and the S-Man really knocked it out of the park today. But keeping to my “no news, none of the time” policy, I got all the news I needed from the broadcast this morning. That was a plenty. It seems the air waves are poisonously charged with frantic, insane, negatively charged particles, like everyone broadcasting the news has taken LSD, but not as entertaining. Do any of y’all remember the James Woods movie “El Salvador?” There’s a scene where some sexy news-babe had scooped a big story from Woods, and Jim Belushi (James Woods’ buddy) dosed her drink with a large amount of LSD about 30 minutes prior to the news cameras rolling, debuting the big scoop. Everything went to hell in a hand basket (along with her career, I’d imagine) when the acid kicked in hard, and she melted into a blob of simpering, giggling goo in front of the entire world. Yeah, it’s Hollywood, but we can always dream, can’t we? Mike has said, and I wholeheartedly agree that music can be healing, and medicinal. So let’s talk music once more, instead of politics or news. Would that be OK? Since the Tavern is a place to get subversive, it should be remembered that music can also be subversive. There’s a great scene in Mel Gibson’s “Braveheart,” where young William Wallace and his uncle are standing on a hill at night and bagpipe music is playing in the distance. Young William asks about what he’s hearing, and his uncle answers, “Forbidden songs played on forbidden pipes.” Also think what the 60’s, and early 70’s music did to disrupt the conservative and hawkish establishment, advocate for Civil Rights, stop the war, and change the entire political landscape. Now some might argue that that set the stage for a lot of the bad stuff going on today, but that’s not my point. My point is music can be subversive for good or ill. That’s tremendous power! Some of the subversive music I’m talking about also helped bring about a revolution; a musical one, not a social, political or military one. Growing into my early teens and a bit before, I was a huge fan of the Byrds. David Allen Coe said it best, “Roger McGuinn had a 12 string guitar; it was like nothing I’d ever heard.” And how! I was never the same after hearing it. Now along with the Byrds, I was blessed enough to have access to most of the 1960’s “protest” music via a good AM receiver with a long antenna. Before the Byrds, there was Woodie Guthrie, and Bob Dylan, Cisco Houston, Ramblin’ Jack Elliot, Pete Seeger, Odetta, and so many others. My mind was like a two track tape machine. One track was the 60’s counter culture music in all its forms. And the other track was influenced by the only radio stations in my little town, which were one Country and Western station, and one Bluegrass and Old Time music station. So a few years later when Gram Parsons joined the Byrds and they transitioned from psychedelic Folk Rock to Country, I was ready. Unfortunately not many others were. The Byrds’ pivotal record album was “Sweetheart of the Rodeo.” Country and Rock audiences either ignored or hated it—it was kind of like when Dylan went electric. When the Byrds performed at the Grand Old Opry, they were booed vehemently as dirty hippies soiling the sacred stage of the venerable Ryman Auditorium. When interviewed on Nashville Country radio, the DJ refused to play their music, and ridiculed them to their faces over the air. But the Byrds didn’t back down, and made no apologies. Now music connoisseurs consider “Sweetheart of the Rodeo” a classic. Ah, “But I was so much older then; I’m younger than that now.” (Bob Dylan). And, for better or worse, Country and Rock are now conjoined twins. Who’d have ever thought that? Several years back, Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman (the two surviving original members of the Byrds) decided to do a 50th anniversary tour commemorating “Sweetheart of the Rodeo.” To make up the rest of the band, they selected Marty Stuart and his Fabulous Superlatives to fill the ranks. Time prohibits me from writing all I could on Marty Stuart and his band. It takes cojones of steel to name your band “The Fabulous Superlatives,” but they’ve more than earned the title. Like old Walter Brennan used to say in the TV show, “The Guns of Will Sonnet,” “…No brag; just fact.” For the record, Marty Stuart as a young virtuoso lad, played guitar and mandolin for Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs (the Bluegrass band which played the theme song for “The Beverly Hillbillies,” and the memorable chase scene music from “Bonnie and Clyde,” with Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway). And yes, I had a huge crush on Faye Dunaway! Later, after Flatt and Scruggs, Marty was Johnny Cash’s guitar and mandolin player for nearly 15 years. Even if you’re not Country music fans, you owe it to yourselves to check out Marty Stuart. There may be musicians as good as he, but it’s hard to say there’s really anybody better. But I digress…. If you look up “Sweetheart of the Rodeo” 50th Anniversary Concert on YouTube, you’ll find it. Interesting thing is, it wasn’t publicized very well, consequently there was no official filming of the concert tour. The movie is made up of uploaded YouTube videos. Some really great engineers took all the footage and remastered it into a wonderful and historical musical document. There’s several different encores from different cities on the tour. Also, it should be noted, several times there are tributes to the late Tom Petty, who the Byrds and Marty Stuart and his Fabulous Superlatives all highly loved and respected. At one concert Mike Campbell, the lead guitar player for T.P. and the Heartbreakers, comes out and plays with the band. And, it’s quite watchable; not too amateurish or YouTube-y at all. Check it out; it’ll bless you. Medicine for a soul enduring troubled times. Well, I guess it’s time “for my boot heels to be wanderin’….” (Bob Dylan) Love y’all.
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14 Replies
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Gray advice and awesome content Dana. Lots there to take in and consider. These are indeed crazy, dark times… each day I look around me and I swear, I see the reality I once knew continue to melt in front my eyes… music does help in many ways. I find myself going back to Johnny Cash and various blue grass musicians like Bill Monroe. But the hour is late, so I’ll say farewell for now. Once again, great to hear from you!
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Given the number of people that are taking medication these days for various “mental issues” coupled with the jabs, many of this current crop would probably be better of doing acid.
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I knew someone had to have clipped the promotion, great topic big guy!
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The photos all show Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman. They are standing in front of a WSM microphone. WSM was the 50,000 watt radio station that broadcast the Grand Old Opry every Saturday night to millions of people country-wide. I could pick it up and I lived 8 hours east of Nashville. Can you say BIG RADIO? They were probably getting booed when those pictures were taken.
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Upon rewatching, they did sneak a photo of Roger McGuinn into the montage. When I first saw it, I thought it was Gram. Gotta look close.
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Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman also were in another band together: The Flying Burrito Brothers. Their albums, “Gilded Palace of Sin” and “Burrito Deluxe” are two of the greatest albums of that whole generation and music movement. They were a game changer.
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Not the Burrito Bros but close.
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Interesting! I haven’t seen that one before. Very cool!
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Apparently when McGuinn first heard American Girl (Tom Petty), he thought it was an outtake of something they did- so he gave it a go on that recording and did a pretty good job. Another thing about this band is the story that Clarence White’s (wife or other family member- can’t remember) ended up giving his b-bender to Marty! Marty ain’t Clarence but he was a great choice!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=tcZnyqKacOE
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You’re right about Clarence’s guitar. I heard Roger’s manager played “American Girl” for him, and he asked, “When did I write that?” Their musical styles were similar, and they respected each other tremendously rather than competing. TP was a Traveling Wilbury, keeping company with great ones.
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Interesting that the Byrds became popular covering Dylan, with Dylan giving them songs, like “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” for the “Sweetheart of the Rodeo” album, and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were Dylan’s tour band back in the 80’s. Not quite 6 degrees of separation, but close enough.
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Hey Dana watched and enjoyed the whole show. They even played 25miles from my home so I missed out. Anyway the last 3 years I have been exposed to so much new music and it had changed me inspired me to keep moving forward or steer straight you could say. I alway appreciate your shares. You’re right about music being food for your soul, way better than dope lol. Have a listening filled day and I will do the same ☮️
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Who are the regulars on your playlist?
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Learning something new every day thanks.
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