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Let It Happen · 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: Tonight,
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: we're starting with Tame Impala's Let It Happen,
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: the full album recording from Currents.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: This is a journey through change.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: The change we choose,
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: the change we resist, and the moment when the familiar stops feeling secure.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: We'll move through Rihanna, The Beatles, The Birds and Them before arriving at Bob Dylan.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: Some links are documented in the credits,
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: others are my listening comparisons, and I'll tell you which is which.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: In Let It Happen, listen for the passage where the repeating sound seems to get stuck.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: Notice how that apparent interruption becomes part of the music's forward movement.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: The recording gives its ideas time to change around you.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: Pause here, listen to the full Let It Happen and come back when you're ready.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: Our first connection is a songwriter and an album.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: Rihanna's Same Old Mistakes covers Kevin Parker's New Person Same Old Mistakes,
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: another song from Currents.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: She isn't covering Let It Happen.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: Tame Impala's management confirmed that Rihanna's team approached them about
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: the song and that Parker welcomed her recording.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: Now the same songwriter's world is occupied by another voice.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to how Rihanna sits inside the repeating accompaniment.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: Does she sound certain, conflicted, or both?
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: The music allows those feelings to coexist.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: A cover doesn't have to erase its source to change our experience of it.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: Pause here and listen to Same All Mistakes, then return for our next connection.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: From Rihanna, we move to The Beatles and Tomorrow Never Knows.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: This is my musical and thematic comparison, not a claim of a sample or proven direct influence.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: In both recordings, a recurring musical centre makes room for an unsettled interior world.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: The Beatles' official account describes tape loops,
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: a modal backing, and Ringo Starr's unusual constant drum pattern.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: John Lennon's voice was treated through a Leslie speaker cabinet.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: George Martin produced the recording.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to the contrast between the dependable drum pulse and the sounds arriving
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: and disappearing around it.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: The rhythm gives us a place to stand while the studio changes the scenery.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: Pause here and listen to Tomorrow Never Knows.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: Come back when you're ready.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: The next step goes backwards in time.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: The Byrds recorded Mr.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: Tambourine Man in 1965,
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: before Tomorrow Never Knows,
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: so the later Beatles song cannot have inspired this recording.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Our documented connection is to the Beatles' earlier example.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: Roger McGuinn has described the importance of their beat
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: and George Harrison's electric twelve string guitar to the Byrd's approach.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to the ringing guitar and the vocal blend.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: Dylan's composition becomes a bright, concentrated pop performance.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: Expansion doesn't always mean making a song longer.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it means finding a new arrangement that gives more listeners a way inside.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: Pause here and listen to the birds' Mr. Tambourine Man, then return.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: From the birds,
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: we follow a shared songwriter to them,
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: with Van Morrison singing It's All Over Now, Baby Blue.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: Both songs were written by Bob Dylan.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: That is the factual connection.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: The contrast in atmosphere is my interpretation.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: After the birds' brightness, them can feel darker and more enclosed.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: We are listening to the original performance from Them Again,
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: not a later solo Van Morrison recording.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: Pay attention to the space around his voice and the instrumental pattern holding
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: the mood together.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: The song's sense of departure needn't be pinned to one person or one event to feel immediate.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Pause here and listen to Them's It's All Over Now, Baby Blue.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: Then come back for our destination.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: Now the writer becomes the performer.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: Ob Dylan's Like A Rolling Stone is our sixth and final recording.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: The thematic connection from Baby Blue is departure,
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: lost certainty, and a difficult possibility of beginning again.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: This isn't simply a comforting message about change.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: The voice can sound accusatory, exhilarated, and unsettled at once.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to its pressure against the band,
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: and to how the recurring refrain keeps reopening the question.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: My theory treats this song as a watershed in what popular songwriting could hold.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: That is, an invitation to listen, not proof that every later record comes from a single source.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: Pause here and hear the original studio like a Rolling Stone, then return for a final thought.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: We began with a musical pattern that seemed to break down,
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: and found that its disruption could become part of the design.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: Along the way,
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: songs changed singers,
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: studios changed the shape of performance,
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: and Dylan's writing found different lives in other musicians' hands.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: These six records don't give us one simple family tree.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: They give us several ways of hearing transformation.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Colin McGaddy, and this has been Six Degrees of Dylan.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: Six songs, five connections, one destination.
• 6:10
  [music]