Turn Me On, Dead Man

I don’t know how much time “Turn Me On, Dead Man” has left. Recent events have put the future of the Internet broadcasting in doubt, at least for small webcasters like myself. If the steep increases in royalties imposed on Internet broadcaseters recently passed by the Copyright Royalty Board are enforced, the medium will be dominated by big corporate broadcasters. It doesn’t look like Congress is going to intervene, as was the case when the record industry tried to do this in 2002, but there is still hope that some sort of settlement will be reached. In the meantime, I’m going to try to make the most of the time I have to continue broadcasting “Turn Me On, Dead Man,” starting with regular updates to the playlist and more frequent special shows. That’s where this blog comes it–tune in to the blog to see what’s going on, and tune in to the show to hear what’s going on.

A long time ago, I used to broadcast special shows on “Turn Me On, Dead Man” and with the future of Live365.com (and Internet radio generally) in doubt, I thought I’d start up again. What better theme to start off with than “Tomorrow Never Knows”. At 10:00 PM eastern time on July 29th, I’ll be airing a show focusing on John Lennon’s song inspired by Timothy Leary’s Readings from the Book The Psychedelic Experience, based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead, which was intended as a guide for those using LSD. Though it’s the last song on Revolver, “Tomorrow Never Knows” was the first song the Beatles recorded for that album, and it’s the Beatles’ first psychedelic song–a fascinating listen with its sitar drone, tape loops, and backward and variable-speed sound effects, not to mention the heady lyrics. The show will feature songs that sample or make reference to “Tomorrow Never Knows”, excerpts from Timothy Leary’s audio version of The Psychedelic Experience, tracks by bands who were inspired by the Tibetan Book of the Dead, and a host of cover versions of “Tomorrow Never Knows”. So to turn off your mind, relax, and float downstream with “Turn Me On, Dead Man.”

Though it may not be obvious to many folks, the “Turn Me On, Dead Man” website has been rebuilt (for the most part) using php, with a new logo for the main pages. I hope I will be able to focus on the content now that I’ve got this in place. To that end, I have updated a number of the pages in the “Led Zeppelin’s Influences” feature. The deeper I’ve dug into that topic, the more interesting information I have uncovered. More on that later…

Occasionally I revisit an old feature, and recently I’ve been listening to Led Zeppelin. My most recent update is “Hats Off to (Roy) Harper“, and this song well illustrates the issues surrounding the uneasy relationship between Led Zeppelin and their sources on some of their tracks. Perhaps the strangest thing about “Hats Off to (Roy) Harper” is how the songwriting credits are listed: “Traditional, arr. by Charles Obscure”, presumably a pseudonym of Jimmy Page. With multiple artists quoted in “Hats Off to (Roy Harper)”–Bukka White, Oscar Woods, Sonny Boy Williamson–shouldn’t at least one of them have received songwriting credit for this song? How much of an artist’s work needs to quoted before they deserve to be acknowledged in the credits? A line? A refrain? A verse? Two verses? I don’t know what the rules for songwriting credits are, but to my mind quoting two verses, as is the case with “Lone Wolf Blues”, warrants songwriting credits for Oscar Woods. Aslo, Bukka White’s refrain, repeated several times throughout the track, plays a key role in “Hats Off to (Roy) Harper”, and so Bukka White should have been credited on this song as well. It should be noted that Bukka White was still alive when “Hats Off to (Roy) Harper” was recorded. A similar set of issues is raised in “Custard Pie” and “How Many More Times“, which I also have recently updated.

To continue devoting Sunday night to special shows, this Sunday “Turn Me On, Dead Man” will air “Vanished in the Haze.” This show is devoted to brilliant psychedelia from the late-1960s, all recorded by obscure American bands. These tracks feature plenty of fuzz, feedback, reverb, phasing, trippy lyrics and even a few studio tricks like backwards drums. All of these bands are from the US and released only singles while they were together. One band, the Dovers, released four 45s during their run but most of the bands featured in this program released only one single before calling it a day. So tune in to “Turn Me On, Dead Man” on Sunday, August 5, 2007, at 10:00 PM eastern time to hear some ethereal psych.

Today I received a copy of The Gate at the End of the World: A Collection of Songs by Anne Bredon in the mail, so I was able to update the page on “Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You”. This song has had some misinformation stubbornly attached to it for years, so I’m glad to be able to help set the record straight. When Led Zeppelin recorded “Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You,” they believed that this song was a traditional folk song because that’s how the credits appeared on Joan Baez’s 1963 album Joan Baez In Concert, Part 1. It wasn’t until the mid-1980s that the actual writer of the song, Anne Bredon, approached the group asserting that she had written “Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You” and her name was added to the credits. One final note, Anne Bredon is not Anne Briggs, as has been reported elsewhere, including in the All-Music Guide. Anne Briggs was a seminal but reclusive English folk singer who also had some influence on Led Zeppelin, but despite the similarities in their names, Anne Bredon and Anne Briggs are not the same person. If nothing else, I hope “Turn Me On, Dead Man” can help set the record straight on this point.

The story goes as follows:

One of the reasons Jimmy Page liked the name “Led Zeppelin” was that it suggested music that was both light and heavy. Jimmy Page’s vision for the group was to mix heavy, blues-based rock with acoustic, folk-influenced music. In their initial meeting, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant played a number of songs to introduce their musical tastes to each other. One of the songs Jimmy Page chose was an acoustic folk song Joan Baez had performed called “Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You”. Jimmy Page knew from the start that he wanted to rework this song in a style that would become characteristic of Led Zeppelin, contrasting heavy rock with the lighter acoustic sections. “Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You” was included on Led Zeppelin I and the songwriting credits were listed as “Traditional, arr. Page”. On recent reissues, however, this song is now also credited to Anne Bredon.
In The Gate at the End of the World: A Collection of Songs by Anne Bredon, Janet Smith relates the story of how this song found its way to Led Zeppelin. Janet Smith was a folk singer who occasionally appeared on a live folk-music radio show “The Midnight Special” on radio station KPFA in Berkeley around 1960. Anne Bredon (who at this time was named Anne Johanson) also appeared on “The Midnight Special” and Janet Smith became interested in learning the songs the Anne Bredon sang, particularly “Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You”. Janet Smith assumed that this song was a traditional folk song, but she was surprised to learn that Anne Bredon had written the song herself. Upon learning that Anne Bredon was the author of “Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You”, Janet Smith had Anne Bredon sing the song to her and she jotted down the words and the chords to the song. Janet Smith then developed her own version of the song, which she sang at hootenany folk-song events at Oberlin College. After performing in Oberlin, Joan Baez attended a hootenany where Janet Smith sang “Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You”. The song appealed to Joan Baez, and she asked Janet Smith to send her a tape of her songs, making sure to include “Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You”. Joan Baez then began performing the song herself and it became the opening track on her 1963 album Joan Baez in Concert, Part 1. As this album was in production, Vanguard Records contacted Janet Smith to determine the authorship of the song. Janet Smith was unable to track down Anne Bredon prior to the release of Joan Baez’s album, so the song was credited as “Traditional, arr. Baez” on Joan Baez in Concert, Part 1. Anne Bredon was properly credited, however, in the Joan Baez Song Book, which was published in 1964.

When Jimmy Page played “Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You” for Robert Plant, he didn’t know the true authorship of this song, as he assumed that the credits on Joan Baez in Concert, Part 1 were correct. It wasn’t until the mid-1980s that Anne Bredon contacted Led Zeppelin about the authorship of “Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You”. Once she stepped forward the songwriting credits were changed without legal action. The song is now credited to Anne Bredon and Jimmy Page. One final note, Anne Bredon is definitely not Celtic folk singer Anne Briggs, as has been reported elsewhere, including in the All-Music Guide.

In June, 2004, I broadcast an interview with Jimmie Jersie of the Queen’s Nectarine Machine. I talked to Jimmie a number of times on the phone around the time that we taped the interview and we continued to correspond off and on after that. He loved talking about his days with the Queen’s Nectarine Machine, as it was a real high point for him, but our conversations ranged over a variety of topics. It was clear that Jimmie was not in good health, but he was always in good spirits whenever we talked. Recently, a member of Jimmie’s family contacted me to let me know that he had died a few months ago. I was saddened to hear the news and I wanted to express my condolences to Jimmie’s friends and family.

As part of the general overhaul of the “Turn Me On, Dead Man” website, I reorganized the audio content of the site. I moved the interview shows to a new “Podcasts” section under the “Radio” heading, and I hope to add more podcasts in the coming days. The podcasts now stream at 128K high quality audio using the Wimpy Player. I have no idea why the folks who produced the Wimpy Player chose to give it that name, because it is anything but wimpy. It is easily the best tool for audio streaming I’ve found.

Despite problems with the Studio365 Loader, I managed to add several tracks to the playlist. And check out yet another “Turn Me On, Dead Man” icon that appears on the website. This one matches the (recently improved) swirl “favicon”. Check the address bar of your browser for that one.

I have received quite a few emails over the last few years asking me where to find the garage/psych compilations that are listed on the “Turn Me On, Dead Man’ website. Well, recently I decided to sell off a chunk of my CD collection, including many garage/psych compilations. If you’re interested in checking it out, my eBay handle is “tkgtkgtkg“. So far I have posted seven compilations, but many more are on the way.