Post by manho on Sept 15, 2007 16:25:16 GMT -5
1.
The first musician Dylan mentions in Chroniclies Volume One isn't Woody Guthrie. And it isn't Dave Van Ronk. Or Blind Willie McTell. Or any other blind black guy. Or blind drunk white hillbilly guy. Or just plain pissed country artist. It's Gennaro Louis Vitaliano. Never heard of him, right? Well, what about his stage name? Jerry Vale. Never heard of him either, right?
Was Jerry Vale really the first face that caught his eye in Lou Levy's office?
"I opened up my guitar case... the room was cluttered... signed photos of entertainers, glossy portraits, Jerry Vale, Al Martino..."
Jerry Vale? Al Martino? Oh yeah, Al played the Frank Sinatra role in the Godfather, right? And Jerry's big hit of 1955, Innamorata, was a cover of Dino's hit from the soundtrack of his film, Artists and Models. Oh, and Jerry's also on the Goodfellas soundtrack. He's Mr Mob.
Are Jerry Vale and Al Martino really the first two guys he wants to introduce us to? Well yes, because Dylan wants us to know that when he played Restless Farewell for Mr Frank on his 80th birthday and when he recorded Return To Me for the Sopranos and when he wrote Joey he wasn't deviating. It was all planned. Way back in Lou Levy's office in 1961.
John Hammond had sort of felt this too. he saw right inside the young Dylan:
"He didn't make any schoolboy records or record schoolboy artists. He had vision and foresight, had seen and heard me, felt my thoughts and had faith in things to come."
Hammond had obviously felt the thoughts of Pete Seeger too because he signed him to Columbia at the same time as the young Dylan. Pete went on to record Little Boxes and various songs about ducks and toads.
Snug as a piece of well chewed bubblegum, Dylan the future recording artist tells us what the American music scene was like at the time he signed for Columbia:
"Things were pretty sleepy on the American music scene in the late 50s and early 60s. Popular radio was at a standstill and filled with empty pleasantries. It was years before The Beatles, The Who or The Rolling Stones would breathe new life into it."
At this point it's worth mentioning the Brill building.
A couple of blocks up Broadway from where Dylan was attempting to pull American music out of its empty pleasantries guys like Goffin and King, Leiber and Stoller, Mort Shuman and Doc Pomus, Greenwich and Barry, Mann and Weil, David and Bacharach were churning out classic after classic for, among many others, Phil Spector's groups: The Paris Sisters, The Crystals, The Ronettes, The Cookies. Out of Detroit the first Tamla singles were hitting the charts. Then there was Sam Cooke, Stax, Atlantic, Roy Orbison... It was the golden age of popular music. And it was just up the street. But Dylan didn't notice it. He was too busy chumming up with Pete Seeger and his banjo strumming buddies.
So, deciding to give the Brill building a miss, Dylan hangs out for the next few pages with the guys in Greenwich Village: Ed McCurdy, The New Lost City Ramblers, Peggy Seeger... all the big names.
Dylan is setting out his stall here. And it's both inside and outside the temple. He's the saviour who's arrived in New York to lead the lost musical tribe into the promised land but he's also right inside there with Frank and Dino. On the surface he's a dusty old hobo. In his head he's one of the Rat Pack.
Jerry Vale (or is it Dino?), Innamorata:
www.sendspace.com/file/i8r3e1
Photos: Jerry Vale with Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme. The Brill Building.
The first musician Dylan mentions in Chroniclies Volume One isn't Woody Guthrie. And it isn't Dave Van Ronk. Or Blind Willie McTell. Or any other blind black guy. Or blind drunk white hillbilly guy. Or just plain pissed country artist. It's Gennaro Louis Vitaliano. Never heard of him, right? Well, what about his stage name? Jerry Vale. Never heard of him either, right?
Was Jerry Vale really the first face that caught his eye in Lou Levy's office?
"I opened up my guitar case... the room was cluttered... signed photos of entertainers, glossy portraits, Jerry Vale, Al Martino..."
Jerry Vale? Al Martino? Oh yeah, Al played the Frank Sinatra role in the Godfather, right? And Jerry's big hit of 1955, Innamorata, was a cover of Dino's hit from the soundtrack of his film, Artists and Models. Oh, and Jerry's also on the Goodfellas soundtrack. He's Mr Mob.
Are Jerry Vale and Al Martino really the first two guys he wants to introduce us to? Well yes, because Dylan wants us to know that when he played Restless Farewell for Mr Frank on his 80th birthday and when he recorded Return To Me for the Sopranos and when he wrote Joey he wasn't deviating. It was all planned. Way back in Lou Levy's office in 1961.
John Hammond had sort of felt this too. he saw right inside the young Dylan:
"He didn't make any schoolboy records or record schoolboy artists. He had vision and foresight, had seen and heard me, felt my thoughts and had faith in things to come."
Hammond had obviously felt the thoughts of Pete Seeger too because he signed him to Columbia at the same time as the young Dylan. Pete went on to record Little Boxes and various songs about ducks and toads.
Snug as a piece of well chewed bubblegum, Dylan the future recording artist tells us what the American music scene was like at the time he signed for Columbia:
"Things were pretty sleepy on the American music scene in the late 50s and early 60s. Popular radio was at a standstill and filled with empty pleasantries. It was years before The Beatles, The Who or The Rolling Stones would breathe new life into it."
At this point it's worth mentioning the Brill building.
A couple of blocks up Broadway from where Dylan was attempting to pull American music out of its empty pleasantries guys like Goffin and King, Leiber and Stoller, Mort Shuman and Doc Pomus, Greenwich and Barry, Mann and Weil, David and Bacharach were churning out classic after classic for, among many others, Phil Spector's groups: The Paris Sisters, The Crystals, The Ronettes, The Cookies. Out of Detroit the first Tamla singles were hitting the charts. Then there was Sam Cooke, Stax, Atlantic, Roy Orbison... It was the golden age of popular music. And it was just up the street. But Dylan didn't notice it. He was too busy chumming up with Pete Seeger and his banjo strumming buddies.
So, deciding to give the Brill building a miss, Dylan hangs out for the next few pages with the guys in Greenwich Village: Ed McCurdy, The New Lost City Ramblers, Peggy Seeger... all the big names.
Dylan is setting out his stall here. And it's both inside and outside the temple. He's the saviour who's arrived in New York to lead the lost musical tribe into the promised land but he's also right inside there with Frank and Dino. On the surface he's a dusty old hobo. In his head he's one of the Rat Pack.
Jerry Vale (or is it Dino?), Innamorata:
www.sendspace.com/file/i8r3e1
Photos: Jerry Vale with Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme. The Brill Building.
