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Work It · 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, 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]
0:38
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 postnotes.
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! Today we begin with a voice that knows exactly what it can get away with.
1:04
SPEAKER_00: Missy Elliott's Work It makes a phrase reverse direction while the beat carries on.
1:09
SPEAKER_00: For a moment, the sound is familiar and the words are a puzzle.
1:13
SPEAKER_00: That gap is part of the fun.
1:15
SPEAKER_00: Our six songs follow what happens when a phrase changes hands, through a sample,
1:19
SPEAKER_00: a rock collaboration, and two different performances of a blues song,
1:23
SPEAKER_00: before we reach Bob Dylan.
1:25
SPEAKER_00: Work It appeared on Under Construction in 2002, with Timberland producing.
1:30
SPEAKER_00: Listen to the contrast between Missy's easy conversational delivery
1:34
SPEAKER_00: and the precision of the sounds around her.
1:37
SPEAKER_00: Then, as the record moves towards its ending, notice the bells and scratches.
1:41
SPEAKER_00: They will take us directly into our second song.
1:44
SPEAKER_00: Pause here for Missy Elliott's Work It, the explicit album recording,
1:48
SPEAKER_00: and come back when you're ready.
1:52
SPEAKER_00: Those sounds lead to Run-DMC's Peter Piper.
1:55
SPEAKER_00: The connection is a sample, something physically carried from one recording into another.
2:01
SPEAKER_00: Peter Piper opens the 1986 album Raising Hell.
2:05
SPEAKER_00: Ron and DMC trade lines, while Jam Master Jay makes the turntables another voice
2:10
SPEAKER_00: in the conversation.
2:11
SPEAKER_00: The Bells have an earlier history in Bob James' recording of Take Me
2:15
SPEAKER_00: to the Mardi Gras, but today we stay with the way this group handles them.
2:19
SPEAKER_00: Listen for the exchange between the two rappers and the rhythm underneath.
2:23
SPEAKER_00: Each return makes the next variation easier to feel.
2:27
SPEAKER_00: Missy's studio manipulation and Jay's handling of records belong
2:31
SPEAKER_00: to different moments in hip-hop,
2:33
SPEAKER_00: and both make recorded sound a material you can shape.
2:37
SPEAKER_00: Pause for Peter Piper, then return for a change in what sits beneath the rhyme.
2:43
SPEAKER_00: We stay on Raising Hell for Walk This Way.
2:46
SPEAKER_00: Now a guitar riff gives the voices their repeating shape.
2:50
SPEAKER_00: Steven Tyler and Joe Perry join Run DMC on this recording,
2:54
SPEAKER_00: so the link to Aerosmith is there in the performance itself.
2:57
SPEAKER_00: The rappers place their stresses around Perry's figure,
3:00
SPEAKER_00: and Tyler's arrival changes the scale of the sound.
3:04
SPEAKER_00: This is the full album version, with time to hear the exchange develop.
3:08
SPEAKER_00: The collaboration reached number eight in Britain in 1986.
3:12
SPEAKER_00: For this listening stop, follow the riff through the different voices.
3:16
SPEAKER_00: Notice what the guitar keeps doing, and how each singer or rapper makes it feel different.
3:21
SPEAKER_00: Pause for Run DMC featuring Aerosmith, Walk This Way, then come back.
3:26
SPEAKER_00: We will follow the guests into their own band's blues repertoire.
3:31
SPEAKER_00: Aerosmith's Baby Please Don't Go takes us to Honkin' On Bogo, released in March 2004.
3:38
SPEAKER_00: The song is credited to Big Joe Williams,
3:41
SPEAKER_00: and its central plea has travelled through many performances.
3:44
SPEAKER_00: Here, the band gives it weight.
3:47
SPEAKER_00: Tyler can push a short phrase until it seems to take up the whole room,
3:51
SPEAKER_00: while the guitars keep driving it forward.
3:54
SPEAKER_00: Listen to how the repeated request changes under that pressure.
3:57
SPEAKER_00: It can sound commanding and vulnerable in almost the same breath.
4:01
SPEAKER_00: Our next song will have the same title, which makes the comparison unusually direct.
4:06
SPEAKER_00: Keep the shape of this refrain in your ear, and notice the force of the band around it.
4:11
SPEAKER_00: Pause for Aerosmith's Baby Please Don't Go, then come back for another group,
4:16
SPEAKER_00: another decade, and another emotional temperature.
4:21
SPEAKER_00: Them's Baby Please Don't Go takes us back to 1964 with Van Morrison singing.
4:27
SPEAKER_00: The selected recording comes from the later Complete Them collection,
4:31
SPEAKER_00: but the performance belongs to those early years.
4:34
SPEAKER_00: Against Aerosmith's heavier attack, this version feels lean and impatient.
4:39
SPEAKER_00: That is my listening comparison.
4:41
SPEAKER_00: The same short request seems more exposed when there is less weight around it.
4:45
SPEAKER_00: The studio history also reaches beyond the group.
4:48
SPEAKER_00: Sony's account identifies Jimmy Page playing rhythm guitar on the single.
4:52
SPEAKER_00: For now, concentrate on Morrison's phrasing and the pulse that keeps pulling him forward.
4:57
SPEAKER_00: How does the urgency differ from Tyler's?
5:00
SPEAKER_00: Pause for Them's Baby Please Don't Go, then return.
5:04
SPEAKER_00: The final connection turns a request to stay into a question about being left on your own.
5:11
SPEAKER_00: Morrison's repertoire includes Dylan's It's All Over Now, Baby Blue.
5:16
SPEAKER_00: That gives us a documented connection between the singers.
5:19
SPEAKER_00: The two songs we actually hear also meet through a contrast in their words.
5:24
SPEAKER_00: Baby Please Don't Go tries to prevent a departure.
5:27
SPEAKER_00: Like a Rolling Stone addresses someone whose old security has already disappeared.
5:32
SPEAKER_00: Dylan's original recording was made in June 1965,
5:36
SPEAKER_00: produced by Tom Wilson with Al Cooper's organ and Mike Bloomfield's guitar
5:40
SPEAKER_00: among its defining sounds.
5:42
SPEAKER_00: Listen to that first drum strike and the lift of the band beneath the voice.
5:47
SPEAKER_00: The performance can feel exhilarating even when the address is severe.
5:51
SPEAKER_00: My Watershed Theory begins with that room for complexity inside a popular record.
5:56
SPEAKER_00: The refrain stays with us, while the verses make its question harder to settle.
6:01
SPEAKER_00: Pause for Bob Dylan's Like A Rolling Stone, then come back for one last thought.
6:08
SPEAKER_00: We began with Missy Elliott turning a phrase around while remaining entirely in command.
6:13
SPEAKER_00: We end with Dylan circling someone who has lost her bearings.
6:17
SPEAKER_00: Between them, a sample found its earlier home.
6:20
SPEAKER_00: A guitar riff changed company and a blues plea changed character in another singer's mouth.
6:26
SPEAKER_00: Repetition made each of those changes easier to hear.
6:30
SPEAKER_00: A record can carry the past and still speak in a voice that belongs to this moment.
6:36
SPEAKER_00: I'm Colin the Gaddy.
6:37
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening to Six Degrees of Dylan.
6:39
SPEAKER_00: Until next time.
6:40
[music]