Peter, Jon & Linda

Peter Yarrow has died but here he lives in his famous retrieval of Dylan at Newport--plus great cuts from Jon Batiste and Linda Thompson, and Bob. And more Ann Telnaes tributes.

Greg Mitchell is the author of more than a dozen books including “The Tunnels” “Tricky Dick and the Pink Lady” and “The Campaign of the Century” and now writer/director of three award-winning films aired via PBS, including “Atomic Cover-up” and “Memorial Day Massacre.” You can still subscribe to this newsletter for free. Watch the trailer for his new film “The Atomic Bowl: Football at Ground Zero & The Forgotten Bomb.”

Just a quick ramble today, as we are distracted by the L.A. area fires (we have close family in Pasadena).

If you’ve seen the new Dylan biopic, you spotted a very good impersonation of Peter Yarrow in a couple of table scenes discussing plans for the Newport ‘65 fest (he was indeed an organizer), and later before and after Bob’s performance there, when he helped calm the crowd by getting Dylan back on stage with Johnny Cash’s acoustic guitar. Here’s how it actually went down. What’s missing is Dylan coming out and asking if anyone inthe crowd could send up a harmonica— and dozens soon clanked on stage.

I did see Peter, Paul and Mary live in 1966, but one of my favorites from them was their later cover of Bob’s “Too Much of Nothing” in 1969, which was new tune for most of us as the Basement Tapes bootleg still had not circulated widely.

Speaking of Bob, most of you probably have not seen his appearance with Steve Allen on national TV in February 1964—just as the Beatles were hitting America . Steve reveals ignorance about Dylan, who tries to cope, then sings “Hattie Carroll.” One of weakest points of the Timmy/Zimmy biopic is that it virtually ignored what you might call Dylan’s crucial “middle period” in its rush to get to, as the big numbers on the screen IDed, “1965.” It was a year earlier when he made the transition away from “protest” to more personal concerns and his first truly poetic, mystical stanzas—with the great “Chimes of Freedom.” Here is “Hattie.”

Moving on, it was great to see a number of critics putting one of the following (below) on their “Best Songs of 2024.” Also was great to see Linda Thompson, long overshadowed by hubby Richard as a songwriter, really come into her own on a new album. In a true tragedy, one of our best singers of the 1970s slowly lost her ability to fully record music due to spasmodic dysphonia. On the latest album, she writes or co-writes all of the songs but they are sung by guests including son Teddy (who produced), Rufus Wainwright, Martha Wainwright, The Unthanks and others. And hence the early Roxy Music title and cover photo takeoff (as “Proxy Music”).

Here are the two cuts: “John Grant” sung by…John Grant….and “Those Damn Roches”—another extended family of singer/songwriters—with Teddy leading the way but Richard Thompson

joining in.

Next, as a huge Beethoven fan (and co-producer of a film about his Ninth Symphony and co-author of a book about that), I am thrilled to see Jon Batiste just out with a kind of solo tribute album, “Beethoven Blues.” This week at his old Colbert “Late Show” launching pad, he did a kind of creative “medley” along with inner voicings of his thoughts.

And finally, four additions to my examples already posted: fellow cartoonists honoring Ann Telnaes and blasting Jeff Bezos and the Washington Post.