Is Dylan a Hip-Hopper?
Brain scrambled from attempting to work out rock’s most puzzling mysteries? Please allow us to help.
I recently chanced upon Bob Dylan rapping with Kurtis Blow on 1986’s song Street Rock. How did this come about? It’s wonderfully bonkers. Dean Grant, via e-mail
MOJO says: Dylan, who drops two verses on the track, got down with the programme after he and Harlem MC Kurtis Blow met at New York’s Power Station studios. Writing in Chronicles, Dylan expressed his admiration for young rappers who were “beating drums, tearing it up, hurling horses over cliffs. They were all poets and knew what was going on,” and said Blow had turned him on to Ice-T, Public Enemy, N.W.A. and Run-D.M.C. (as N.W.A. didn’t form until 1987, did Kurtis and Bob keep in touch?). It doesn’t end there: in 2006, Episode Two of Theme Time Radio Hour found Bob reciting lyrics from LL Cool J’s Mama Said Knock You Out, while other editions included selections by De La Soul, P. Diddy and the Beastie Boys. The latter have gained sample clearance from Dylan on numerous occasions (Mike D proudly recalled bartering Bob down from $2,000 to
$700 to use Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues on 1992’s Finger Lickin’ Good, and called him, “one of the first B-Boys, if not the first”), as have Cypress Hill and Necro. That’s without mentioning Dylan’s cameo in a Wyclef Jean video. And don’t Infidels and this year’s Record Store Day Reggae Remix EP Jokerman/I And I by Doctor Dread suggest Bob’s a reggae head too?
STAND-INS AND WEIRD BILLS REVISITED
In 1970 I went to see Black Widow at the Black Prince on the A2 in Bexley, Kent. All the equipment was set up, but the band’s van had broken down. To fill the time, the promoter asked the audience if anyone could play. Several brave souls proceeded to conduct long (no vocals) jams to keep us amused. The band eventually turned up, but only had time to play two numbers. Black Widow’s lead guitarist was horrified when he found his guitar was covered in blood. The volunteer obviously did not have a pick and shredded his fingers on the guitar strings! Happy days, eh? Steve Barnes, Kent
On August 12, 2000, my jazz-rock band M.T. Wizzard played a support gig in Bad Neuenahr, Germany. After 15 minutes, our sax/flute player, the late Tim Belbe from the Krautrock legends Xhol Caravan, played one of his weirdest solos. The promoter came to my side and offered more money if we stopped. We stopped and learnt whom we were supporting: Middle Of The Road (of Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep fame). Edgar Türk, Limburg, Germany
MOJO says: Amazing scenes. Anyone else been paid to stop playing? And thanks to reader Tony Clark for letting us know that when the Buzzcocks weren’t rehearsed enough to support the Sex Pistols at their first Manchester gig in 1976, Bolton proggers Solstice had to step in.
CREDIBLE COMEDY RECORDS?
For my sins, I was revisiting Young Ones comedy spin-off LP Neil’s Heavy Concept Album, and noticed for the first time that members of Hatfield And The North and King Crimson are on it. Are there other records by comedians with ‘serious’ collaborators? Richard Cardew, via e-mail
MOJO says: There are many. George Martin produced Peter Sellers from 1959 to 1965 – who can
forget The Beatles’ She Loves You delivered as if by Dr Strangelove, or A Hard Day’s Night in the style of Olivier’s Richard III? – while Vic Reeves’ 1991 LP I Will Cure You featured The Human League’s Phil Oakey and The Wonder Stuff, though Vic was turned down when he suggested Mark E Smith take part. The 1977 Ian Dury-assisted Max Wall single England’s Glory and Tracey Ullman’s early-’80s LPs with Kirsty MacColl and Hank Marvin also fit the brief, but a special mention must go to Charlie Drake’s 1975 single You Never Know. It was co-written by Peter Gabriel, while the band included Sandy Denny, Robert Fripp, Keith Tippett and Phil Collins. Fans have likened the song to Willow Farm off Genesis’s Supper’s Ready, by the way.
FROESE’S LAST TAPE?
I think the current line-up are doing a great job at keeping the Tangerine Dream name going, but what was the last song Edgar Froese worked on before he passed away? Ian Simmons, via e-mail
MOJO says: According to Jean-Michel Jarre, it was Zero Gravity, a collaborative track released just five months after Froese’s death in January 2015, and later included on Jarre’s Electronica 1: The Time Machine album. “We were immediately in sync,” Jarre told MOJO. “We really succeeded to merge our sounds.”
HELP MOJO
My brother and I periodically reminisce about the dreamy tones of Arnold – vastly underrated. I remember buying the Hillside album (1998) from HMV in Cheltenham and it was one of the best decisions I made. Whatever happened to them? Sam Pearse, via e-mail