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Funky Stuff · Six Degrees of Dylan - Audio Episodes

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Colin McGady and I have a theory.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: Bob Dylan's Like A Rolling Stone changed what a popular song could be and every rock
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: and pop song since can be connected back to it.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: This is a journey through musical evolution,
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: following the influences,
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: shared ideas and unexpected encounters that connect one record to another.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Six songs, five connections, one destination.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Six Degrees of Dylan.
• 0:26
  [music]
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: Before we begin, a quick listening note.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: For licensing reasons, the songs themselves aren't included in this episode.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: You'll find today's Spotify playlist linked in the post notes.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'll let you know when to pause and listen,
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: and point you towards particular moments in each song.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: Take your time, then come back when you're ready to follow the next connection.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: Enjoy!
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: Today we begin with a groove,
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: and follow what happens
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: when musicians hear new possibilities inside somebody else's record.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Our opening song is Funky Stuff.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: By Kool and the gang from Wild and Peaceful in 1973.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: Robert Koolbell's bass belongs to a wonderfully collective sound.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: Horns, drums, voices and guitar making short phrases must feel abundant.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: This isn't a claim that funk needed Dylan's permission, it has its own history.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: My theory is a way of listening across those histories,
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: and today's route follows specific samples and credits.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: For this first stop, notice how the horns and voices answer the rhythm section.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to the spaces as well as the notes.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: Pause here for Funky Stuff, then come back when you're ready.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: That first connection is quite literal.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: Kool and the Gang's own sample map identifies Funky Stuff inside
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: the Beastie Boys' Hold It Now, Hit It.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: Released in 1986 and included on Licence to Ill,
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: It turns recorded fragments into the setting for three voices that seem to tumble
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: over one another.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: Rick Rubin produced the recording and shares the writing credit with Mike D, Ad Rock and MCA.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: What I hear across the two records is a shared sense of people making excitement together.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's my interpretation.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: The sample itself is documented.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: For this listening stop,
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: follow the handovers between voices and the way the backing makes room
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: for their interruptions.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: Pause here for Hold It Now, Hit It, then Return.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: Now we follow another sample backwards.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: The Beastie Boys recording also draws on Bob James's Take Me to the Mardi Gras.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: The University Musical Society identifies that connection in its listening guide.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: James recorded this instrumental version for his 1975 album too.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: Paul Simon wrote the composition.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: Creed Taylor produced the album.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: This is an important distinction.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: Writing a song and shaping its recorded sounds are different creative acts.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to the opening percussion, but stay for the arrangement that follows.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: A break that later becomes famous can be only one small part of
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: the source record's larger story.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: Pause here for Bob James's Take Me to the Mardi Gras and come back afterwards.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: Bob James takes us into Paul Simon's Still Crazy after all these years through
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: a specific credit.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: He arranged the strings and woodwinds on the title recording.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: He isn't the electric pianist on this track.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: That part is credited to Barry Beckett.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: An arrangement can change the emotional temperature of a song without taking the spotlight.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: Here, Simon's voice seems relaxed, but the story becomes harder to settle into.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: In my reading, its elegance makes the loneliness more noticeable.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: The recording was produced by Simon and Phil Ramone.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: For this stop,
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: listen to the contrast between the conversational singing and
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: the instrumental swells, and notice the saxophone's entrance.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: Pause for the original studio recording of Still Crazy After All These Years, then come back.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: We stay with Simon's songwriting, but change performers and mood.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: He also wrote the 59th Street Bridge song, better known by its Feeling Groovy subtitle.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: We're hearing Mike Bloomfield and Al Cooper's live version,
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: From the live adventures of Mike Bloomfield and Al Cooper,
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: recorded at the Fillmore in September 1968.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: It runs over five minutes, giving a compact song room to become a band conversation.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: The common songwriter is a documented link.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: The contrast I hear between the previous song's uneasy memories
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: and this one's pleasure in the present is an editorial connection.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: Listen for the guitar and organ as the performance opens out beyond the familiar tune.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'll pause here for the live 59th Street Bridge song, then return for our final connection.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: Two musicians now take us directly to our destination.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: Mike Bloomfield played guitar and Al Cooper played organ
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: on Bob Dylan's original Like a Rolling Stone.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: Their presence is documented in Dylan's official cutting-edge project.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: We don't have to pretend that every record in this sequence sounds like Dylan.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: This final link is about people in a recording room.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: Listen for the organ's sustained phrases and the guitar moving around the vocal.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: Hear how the band supports a long and unsettled address without making it feel static.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: This is the original Highway 61 Revisited Studio recording.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: Pause here for Like a Rolling Stone, then come back for a final thought.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: Six songs don't prove a single origin story.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: What they reveal is a network.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: A funk performance becomes a sample.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: Another sample leads to a jazz arranger.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: An arranger leads to a songwriter.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: A songwriter leads to two players who helped make our destination record.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: My watershed theory is an invitation to notice possibility,
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: not to erase the independent histories along the way.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: Today, the spark travelled through hands, recordings and memory.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Colin McGady.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening to Six Degrees of Dylan.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, keep following the connections.
• 5:58
  [music]