Hollis Brown and The Monochord on the Radio

 

You may have seen the essays and comments about Bob Dylan's "Hollis Brown" here and here. Well today, Jerry Clark played three records on KFAI to illustrate some of those ideas — and gave The Celestial Monochord a big juicy plug, too.

You'll be able to hear the June 21 show online (for the next two weeks only) by streaming it from here. I think the Celestial Monochord section starts somewhere after 1:16 and ends around 1:38.

Jerry begins with "Pretty Polly" (which Greil Marcus says inspired "Hollis Brown"), playing a version by Ralph Stanley.

He then plays "Poor Man" by the Louisiana Honeydrippers. Jerry contends it was certainly a more direct inspiration for Bob Dylan's song — I'll be damned if he doesn't turn out to be right about that.

He then plays an unfamiliar recording of Dylan doing "Hollis Brown." At the end, Jerry and host Dakota Dave Hull ruin my reputation with very kind words and high praise for me and The Celestial Monochord. (When you stream the audio, you can skip right to that part if you want.) Thanks, Jerry and Dave!

Listen to this episode and, come to think of it, every episode you can of Dave Hull's radio show, where Jerry is a frequent guest. I always learn enormously from it and I enjoy it mightily. I've heard rumors that radio used to be good — that it used to be kinda like this. Nah, couldn't be!

 

Comments

[Trevor Blank]

Say now, that was a nice little trio of tunes there! And my, thanks to Jerry for nodding his head to the Monochord, a great program (both the radio show and the Monochord)-- I wish that I was out in the Twin Cities more often to have a listen!

Hope all is well, Kurt! Bravo!