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Straight To Hell · 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]
• 0:39
  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! Tonight we begin with the clash,
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: and a rhythm that seems to keep moving even when the people inside
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: the song have nowhere to go.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: Straight to Hell comes from Combat Rock, the final album made by Joe Strummer,
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: Mick Jones, Paul Simonon and Topper Heedon.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: My thread through this route is repetition.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: How the same musical idea can carry a protest, a promise, a plea or a threat.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: That is a listening argument, not a claim that all six songs tell one story.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: Start by noticing the space around the vocal and the recurring figure that holds
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: the song together.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: Let that sound stay with you.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: We will hear part of this recording again, in a very different setting.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: Pause now for the clashes Straight to Hell, then come back for the first connection.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: That first connection is a sample.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: MIA's Paper Planes takes material from Straight to Hell and makes it part of a new record.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: The familiarity of the backing and the attitude of the voice pull in different directions.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: To my ears, the song makes a catchy hook into an uncomfortable mirror
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: for assumptions about outsiders.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: It belongs to Kala, released in 2007 and went on to reach number four on the American Hot 100.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: But the chart's success does not settle what the song means.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: Listen for the clash fragment beneath the vocal,
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: then notice the interruptions that cut into the apparently easy rhythm.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: Pause for MIA's paper planes and return for a connection based on admiration rather
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: than a shared sample.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: Nina Cherry explicitly praised MIA in an interview.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: That gives us a real artist-to-artist link.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: The musical comparison is mine.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: We move from a tightly organized pop loop into the flexible repetition of Cherry and the Thing.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: Their Dream Baby Dream is the original 2012 album performance, not the Fortet remix.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Cherry described approaching its repeated words almost as a mantra.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: What interests me is how a small phrase can keep opening a larger space.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to how the voice holds its course while the ensemble changes the atmosphere around it.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: Repetition here can feel generous rather than restrictive.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: Pause for Nina Cherry and the Thing's Dream Baby Dream.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: Take the whole eight minutes, then come back to meet the song's writers.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Dream Baby Dream was written by Alan Vega and Martin Rev, the duo Suicide.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: We now hear them performing a different song, Ghost Rider, from their 1977 debut.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: The original performance is presented in its 2019 remaster.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: After the breadth of Cherry's cover, this short track feels concentrated and urgent.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: The repeated electronic figure and the vocal seem to push against each other.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: That contrast is a listening impression.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: The authorship of the previous song is the factual bridge.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to the pulse and to Vega's delivery.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: How much tension can two musicians create with such a spare arrangement?
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: Pause for Suicide's Ghost Rider, then return for an unexpected admirer of their work.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: Bruce Springsteen has been very clear about Suicide's importance to him.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: He specifically named Frankie Teardrop as an influence on the way he wrote State Trooper.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: We have just heard Ghost Rider, another song from the same debut.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: It would be wrong to claim that Ghost Rider was the particular influence he named.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: Our selection represents the band's sound.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: His testimony provides the artist-level connection.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: State Trooper comes from Nebraska, the album recorded on four-track cassette at home.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to the repeating guitar and the way the exposed voice changes
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: the pressure inside that limited space.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: Small vocal shifts become big events.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: Pause for the original Nebraska recording of State Trooper and come back for our final step.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: Springsteen inducted Bob Dylan into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: In his speech, he remembered the shock of hearing Like a Rolling Stone and the force
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: of Dylan's voice.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: That is our final documented connection.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: My comparison is between unsettled speakers.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: After the private anxiety of State Trooper,
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: Dylan opens the door onto an electric public address.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to the opening drum strike, the lift of the organ,
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: and the way the recurring chorus gathers pressure.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: My theory is that this record helped expand what a popular song could hold,
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: without losing its physical appeal.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: That is an editorial argument, not a claim that every musical tradition begins here.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: Pause for Bob Dylan's original Like a Rolling Stone, then return for a closing thought.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: We began with the clash and a pulse for people outside.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: MIA moved a piece of that recording into a new frame.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: Cherry and the Thing turned repetition into room for an ensemble.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: Suicide made it feel urgent.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: Springsteen made it feel enclosed.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: Dylan brought us back into the crowd,
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: with a question that grows more demanding each time it returns.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: These connections are different kinds of evidence.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: A sample, an expression of admiration, a cover, an acknowledged influence,
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: and a memory of first hearing a record.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: The listening journey happens in the spaces between them.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Colin McGaddy.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening to Six Degrees of Dylan.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time.
• 6:28
  [music]