When That Rough God Goes Riding
Page 15
Hyde-Lees, George “Georgie,”
Hymns to the Silence (Morrison)
Hynde, Chrissie
“I Count the Tears” (Drifters)
“I Get Around” (Beach Boys)
“I Just Want to Make Love to You” (Waters)
“I Wanna Roo You” (Morrison)
“I’ll Take Care of You” (Bland)
Impressions
“In Dreams” (Orbison)
“In the Midnight Hour” (Pickett)
In the Name of the Father (Sheridan)
Inarticulate Speech of the Heart (Morrison)
Into the Music (Morrison)
“Into the Mystic” (Morrison)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Siegel)
Irish Heartbeat (Chieftains)
Irving, John
Isley Brothers
“It’s All in the Game” (Dawes/ Sigman/Edwards/Morrison)
“It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” (Dylan/Them)
“...It’s Too Late to Stop Now ...” (Morrison)
“I’ve Been Loving You Too Long (to Stop Now)” (Redding)
Jackson, Mahalia
Jackson, Michael
Jagger, Mick
John, Elton
“John Brown’s Body” (Morrison)
John Wesley Harding (Dylan)
Johnson, Robert
Jones, Gayl
Jones, Tom
Jordan, Louis
Jordan, Neil
Joy Division
Joyce, James
Julius Caesar (Shakespeare)
“Just Like a Woman” (Dylan/Morrison)
Kaufman, Phil
Kay, Connie
Keep It Simple (Morrison)
Kennedy, Robert F.
Kesey, Ken
KFRC radio, San Francisco, Calif.
Kidd, Johnny, and the Pirates
King, Martin Luther, Jr.
Kirk, Roland
Kissoon, Katie
Klein, Robert
Knopfler, Mark
Kray Twins
KSAN radio, San Francisco, Calif.
Labes, Jef
Laine, Frankie
Landau, Jon
Langhorne, Bruce
“The Last Laugh” (Knopfler/ Morrison)
The Last Waltz (Scorsese)
“Lawdy Miss Clawdy” (Price)
Lead Belly
Leigh, Jennifer Jason
Lennon, John
Let It Be (Beatles)
Lethem, Jonathan
Lewis, Jerry Lee
Lewis, Linda Gail
Lewis, Smiley
Lightcap, Mark
“Like a Rolling Stone” (Dylan)
“Linden Arden Stole the Highlights” (Morrison)
“Listen to the Lion” (Morrison)
The Little Sister (Chandler)
“Little Wing” (Hendrix)
Live at the Grand Opera House Belfast (Morrison)
“Lonely Avenue” (Charles)
“The Lonesome Road” (Austin/Morrison)
The Long Black Veil (Chieftains)
“The Love I Saw in You Was Just a Mirage” (Miracles)
Lydon, John
MacLachan, Kyle
“Madame George” (Morrison)
Marcus, Toni
Maritime Hotel, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Marlowe, Philip
Marsh, Dave
Marsh, Phil
Marshall, Brandon
Mayall, John
Mayfield, Curtis
McCabe, Patrick
McCarthy, Kevin
McCormack, John
McCrae, George
McCrumb, Sharyn
McGhee, Brownie
McShann, Jay
Mellers, Wilfred
Mercer, Johnny
Merenstein, Lewis
Mexico City Olympic Games (1968)
Midnight Special
“Midnight Special” (Lead Belly/ Morrison)
Miles, Emma Bell
Miller, Rice
Mimms, Garnett
Miracles
“Misty” (Morrison)
Mitchell, Joni
Monarchs Showband
Moondance (Morrison)
“Moonshine Whiskey” (Morrison)
Morrison, Mary
Morrison, Shana
“Mystery Train” (Band)
“Mystic Eyes” (Them)
Neeson, Liam
Newman, Randy
Newport Folk Festival
A Night in San Francisco (Morrison)
Nilsson, Harry
Nixon, Richard
No Guru, No Method, No Teacher (Morrison)
Nolan, Tom
“No Mo’ Freedom” (Thomas)
Norman, Peter
Obama, Barack
O’Connor, Sinéad
“Old, Old Woodstock” (Morrison)
Oldies But Goodies
Olympic Project for Human Rights
Once Upon a Time in the West (Leone)
Orange Juice
Orbison, Roy
Pacific High Studios
Page, Jimmy
Page, Patti
Parker, Alan
Parker, Charlie
Payne, John
“Penitentiary Blues” (Thomas)
Pere Ubu
Piaf, Edith
Pickett, Wilson
“Piece of My Heart” (Erma Franklin)
PiL (Public Image Ltd.)
Planet, Janet
Platania, John
Platters
Pleasure, King
Poetic Champions Compose (Morrison)
Pop from the Beginning/ Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom (Cohn)
Pop wars
Porter, Cole
Powell, Michael
Presley, Elvis
Price, Lloyd
Rawlings, David
Ray, Johnny
Red, White & Blues (Figgis)
Redding, Otis
Reed, Lou
Reilly, Sam
Relf, Keith
Richard, Cliff
“Richard Cory” (Robinson/Them)
Richard, Little
Righteous Brothers
Robertson, Robbie
“Robh thu ’sa’ bheinn?” (Mary Morrison)
Robinson, Edward Arlington
“Rock Island Line” (Lead Belly/Donegan)
“Rock Your Baby” (McCrae)
Rodgers, Jimmie
Rodriguez, Chris
Rolling Stone magazine
Rolling Stones
Rotten, Johnny. See Lydon, John
Rubettes
“Ruler of My Heart” (Irma Thomas)
Sailing to Philadelphia (Morrison)
Sam and Dave
Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs
San Jose State University, Calif.
Scorsese, Martin
A Sense of Wonder (Morrison)
Sex Pistols
Shadows of Night
“Shakin’ All Over” (Kidd)
Shattuck, Roger
Shore, Dinah
Shteamer, Hank
Siegel, Don
Sigman, Carl
Simon, Paul
Sisters of Mercy
The Skiffle Sessions (Morrison/ Donegan)
“Slim Slow Slider” (Morrison)
Smith, Tommie
Smith, Warren, Jr.
“Sometimes We Cry” (Morrison)
Springfield, Dusty
Sputniks
Squeeze
St. Dominic’s Preview (Morrison)
“St. Dominic’s Preview” (Morrison)
Stansfield, Lisa
“The Star-Spangled Banner,”
“The Story of Them” (Them)
“Starting a New Life” (Morrison)
“Stepping Out Queen” (Morrison)
“Stones in My Passway” (Johnson)
“Stop! In the Name of Love” (Supremes)
Street Legal (Dylan)
“Sugar B
aby Love” (Rubettes)
“Sultans of Swing” (Dire Straits)
Supremes
“Sweet Thing” (Morrison)
“T. B. Sheets” (Morrison)
“Take Me Back” (Morrison/Leigh)
Taylor, James
Tell Me Something (Morrison)
Terry, Sonny
Tharpe, Sister Rosetta
Thatcher, Margaret
“That’s My Desire” (Laine)
Thomas, David
Thomas, Irma
Thomas, Mattie May
Thunderbolts
Tilbrook, Glenn
To The Lighthouse (Woolf)
Too Long In Exile (Morrison)
Toussaint, Allen
Townshend, Pete
Traces on the Appalachians: A History of Serpentine in the Americas (Dann)
“The Tracks of My Tears” (Miracles)
“Transmission” (Joy Division)
Traum, Happy
“Try a Little Tenderness” (Redding)
Tupelo Honey (Morrison)
“Tupelo Honey” (Morrison)
“Turn! Turn! Turn!” (Byrds)
“Twist and Shout” (Isley Brothers)
Two Girls Fat and Thin (Gaitskill)
Valens, Ritchie
Veedon Fleece (Morrison)
“Waiting Game” (Morrison)
Waters, Muddy
Welch, Gillian
Wells, Junior
“When My Little Girl Is Smiling” (Drifters)
“When That Evening Sun Goes Down” (Morrison)
“When That Rough God Goes Riding” (Morrison)
Whisky A-Go-Go, Los Angeles, Calif.
Whitla Hall, Belfast, Northern Ireland
“Who Drove the Red Sports Car” (Morrison)
“Wild Night” (Morrison)
Williams, Big Joe
Williams, Hank
Williamson, John Lee “Sonny Boy”
Williamson, Sonny Boy (Rice Miller)
Wilson, Jackie
Wilson, Murry
Wilson, Tom
“The Windmills of Your Mind” (Dusty Springfield)
Winterland, San Francisco, Calif.
Witherspoon, Jimmy
Wolf, Peter
Wood, John
Woolf, Virginia
“Wooly Bully” (Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs)
Wordsworth, William
“Workhouse Blues” (Thomas)
The World According to Garp (Irving)
Wynter, Dana
Yardbirds
Yeats, William Butler
“You Don’t Pull No Punches, But You Don’t Push the River” (Morrison)
Young, Lester
Young, Neil
“You’re My Woman” (Morrison)
GREIL MARCUS is the author of Bob Dylan by Greil Marcus, Writings 1968–2010 (PublicAffairs, 2010), The Shape of Things to Come, Like a Rolling Stone (PublicAffairs, 2010), The Old Weird America, and other books; a twentieth-century anniversary edition of his book Lipstick Traces was published in 2009. With Werner Sollors he is the editor of A New Literary History of America, published in 2009 by Harvard University Press. Since 2000 he has taught at Princeton, Berkeley, Minnesota, and the New School in New York; his column “Real Life Rock Top 10” appears regularly in The Believer. He lives in Berkeley.
PublicAffairs is a publishing house founded in 1997. It is a tribute to the standards, values, and flair of three persons who have served as mentors to countless reporters, writers, editors, and book people of all kinds, including me.
I. F. STONE, proprietor of I. F. Stone’s Weekly, combined a commitment to the First Amendment with entrepreneurial zeal and reporting skill and became one of the great independent journalists in American history. At the age of eighty, Izzy published The Trial of Socrates, which was a national bestseller. He wrote the book after he taught himself ancient Greek.
BENJAMIN C. BRADLEE was for nearly thirty years the charismatic editorial leader of The Washington Post. It was Ben who gave the Post the range and courage to pursue such historic issues as Watergate. He supported his reporters with a tenacity that made them fearless and it is no accident that so many became authors of influential, best-selling books.
ROBERT L. BERNSTEIN, the chief executive of Random House for more than a quarter century, guided one of the nation’s premier publishing houses. Bob was personally responsible for many books of political dissent and argument that challenged tyranny around the globe. He is also the founder and longtime chair of Human Rights Watch, one of the most respected human rights organizations in the world.
For fifty years, the banner of Public Affairs Press was carried by its owner Morris B. Schnapper, who published Gandhi, Nasser, Toynbee, Truman, and about 1,500 other authors. In 1983, Schnapper was described by The Washington Post as “a redoubtable gadfly.” His legacy will endure in the books to come.
Peter Osnos, Founder and Editor-at-Large
1 And after: Morrison recorded “Alabamy Bound” with Lonnie Donegan and Chris Barber as part of The Skiffle Sessions, the album recorded at Whitla Hall in Belfast in 1998. Donegan starts slowly, not hiding his English accent, Barber hiding his even less so when he takes the song, but when Morrison comes in, first singing background, then swallowing the song whole, he sounds like a sea monster, and his accent seems to have been something the song was searching for all along.
2 Andrew Das, “Obama Fever on the Field,” New York Times, 8 November 2008: “On Thursday night ... after scoring the winning touchdown against the Browns with 1 minute and 22 seconds to go, [Denver Broncos receiver Brandon] Marshall reached into his pants and pulled out a glove before his teammates quickly surrounded him.
“Marshall told the NFL Network postgame crew: ‘When we look at the 44th president, Barack Obama, he inspired me. And not just me and my teammates, but the nation.’
“Marshall said his planned celebration—which was stopped by teammate Brandon Stokely, who worried that a 15-yard penalty could cost the Broncos in a see-saw game—had its roots in the black power salutes of John Carlos and Tommie Smith at the 1968 Olympics.
“Carlos and Smith each wore a black glove for their salutes, but Marshall said his was black and white.
“‘I wanted to create that symbol of unity because Obama inspires me, our multicultural society,’ he told reporters after the game, stopping several times during his news conference as emotion overwhelmed him. ‘And I knew at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico, Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised the black glove in that fist as a silent gesture of black power and liberation. Forty years later, I wanted to make my own statement and gesture to represent the progress we made.’
“Marshall probably would have been fined if he had carried out his salute, but he said, ‘Social landmarks are bigger than fines to me, especially two days after the election.’”
3 It’s all in “I Cover the Waterfront,” as Morrison once recorded the song with John Lee Hooker—as Hooker, not Morrison, sings the standard as a ghost, back for another look, to make sure nothing has changed.
4 “Well, actually it’s Ulster Scots,” Morrison said as he retraced the story in 2009 in a conversation with Dave Marsh. “We’re taught in school, and also places in Europe—I don’t know if they teach it in America—the Scots were actually from Northern Ireland, originally. When they went to Scotland, they called them Scots. It’s the same people. And the same people also later went back to Ulster. They were going back and forth all the time. And at one point, the kingdom of Delradia was Northern Ireland and the western part of Scotland—which was a kingdom unto itself. They’re so close, Northern Ireland and Scotland—it’s so close, you can see it on a clear day.”
5 In 1974, just as he was about to release the record, Morrison went on KSAN in San Francisco to promote it. “The album’s called Veedon Fleece,” he said. “V-E-E-D-O-N F-L-E-E-C-E. And it doesn’t, it means, ah”—and at just that instant there was a huge burst of static. He might have been saying “it me
ans what it says,” but I wouldn’t bet on it.
6 When the movie version came out in 1929, the producers took no chances: Austin’s song was right there too, with Jules Bledsoe’s dubbed vocal coming out of Stepin Fetchit’s mouth. Morrison recorded a colorless version in 1993.
7 Along with “Dangerous Blues,” “Big Mac from Macamere,” “No Mo’ Freedom,” and “Penitentiary Blues” with accompaniment by other singers, Mattie May Thomas’s “Workhouse Blues” first appeared in 1987 on Mississippi Department of Archives and History Presents Jailhouse Blues: Women’s a cappella songs from the Parchman Penitentiary, Library of Congress field recordings, 1936 and 1939 (Rosetta Records, 1987), with liner notes by Bernice Johnson Reagon, Leon F. Litwack, Cheri L. Wolfe, and Rosetta Reitz, with photographs by Dorothea Lange and Marion Post Walker, including one of the sewing room where the recordings were made. Minus “Penitentiary Blues,” Thomas’s recordings gained a wider audience in 2005 when they were included on the anthology American Primitive II—Pre-War Revenants (Revenant), a collection of recordings by performers about whom almost nothing was known (according to Reitz, in her notes to Jailhouse Blues, Thomas learned “Workhouse Blues” in a penal facility in 1926, and served two previous terms at Parchman before recording there in 1939). A few years later, as entranced by Thomas as I’d been when I first heard her, it occurred to me that the general release of her songs might have sparked someone—a relative, a neighbor, a friend of a friend—to set down who she was. I googled her—and there she was, Mattie May Thomas, with her own MySpace page. An anonymous fan had put it up: her four songs and someone else’s face.
The fan turned out to be the Greek techno artist who records as Biomass, who later posted videos of his reworkings of Thomas’s music. Each takes a Thomas performance and cuts it up, loops it, shuffles words and phrases, repeats them in stuttering echo, adds clicks and hum and whine, and sets it against footage of conflict: a tank speeding through the Iraqi desert; heavily armed police driving back Italian protesters; what might be film from the Vietnam War. Most striking is a piece that opens with split-second flashes of people running separated by much longer segments of black screen. As it goes on, the moments of action imperceptibly lengthen, until you begin to realize you’re watching the riots in Paris during May 1968. The glimpses of people and streets accumulate, building a tension to the point of explosion, all to Thomas as if she’s looking back on the event, not forward to it, not on some other plane of being, her voice carrying “No mo’ freedom” as students throw stones, rush forward, burn cars, are beaten, and even when as a comment on the ameliorating powers of modern capitalism they are replaced by three black women in a nightclub, dressed in furry bikinis and doing the limbo—one of the women giving Thomas the face she now bears.