Expecting Rain

Playlist:

(Dr. Dre with Snoop Dog - Nuttin' But a "G" Thang)
The Fugs - Nothing
The Cookies - Don't Say Nothin' Bad about My Baby
Sammy Davis Jr. - There Is Nothin' Like a Dame
Brenda Lee - Sweet Nothin's
Frank Sinatra - I Got Plenty o' Nuttin'
(Amy Sedaris)
Harry Johnson -It's Nothing to Me
Peter Wolf with Mick Jagger - Nothing But the Wheel
Marlene Dietrich - No Love, No Nothin'
Toussaint McCall - Nothing Takes the Place of You
Mose Allison - I Ain't Got Nothin' But the Blues
Mac Curtis - That Ain't Nothin' But Right
(Sid Nathan)
Rockin' Sidney - You Ain't Nothin' But Fine
Townes Van Zandt - Nothin'

A fantastic show!!

"Nothing" January 14, 2009

......Ellen Barkin is back......"the dogs can smell rain"
Bob talks about Dr. Dre
The Fugues - Here Goes Nothing
Bob talks about Shakespeare
The Cookies - Don't Say Nothin' Bad About My Baby
Sammy Davis Jr. - There Is Nothing Like A Dame
Bob reads poetry
Brenda Lee - Sweet Nothings
e-mail and Bob talks about Theme Time Couples Therapy
Frank Sinatra - I Got Plenty Of Nothin'
Bob talks about George Gershwin and Porgy & Bess
Amy Sideris speaks
Harry Johnson - It's Nothing To Me
Peter Wolf - Nothing But The Wheel (Mick Jagger sings background vocals on this song)
Bob talks about famous Road Trips, and dead bodies including Albert Einstein's brain
Marlene Dietrich - No Love, No Nothin'
Bob talks about Zen Buddhism and the "path to nothing"
Toussaint McCall - Nothing Takes The Place Of You
Bob talks about Scrabble words
phone call "request" for Mose Allison
Mose Allison - I Ain't Got Nothin' But The Blues
Bob talks about the word "aint"
Mac Curtis - That Ain't Nothin' But Right
Sid nathan speaks
Rockin' Sidney - You Ain't Nothing But Fine
Elvis Costello talks about Townes Van Zandt
Townes Van Zandt - NothingBob quotes from Benjamin Franklin


This show as notable (to me) for the absence of [b]Billy Preston [/b]"Nothing From Nothing" - maybe next week!!

Great show, and on the day my theme time radio poster ive had put on a large canvas tuned up

Bob played & talked about Snoop Dog? That must've been interesting.

O'nothing.....

More than half this wonderful song was omitted to turn it into a bland, unmemorable piece of nothing, like most of Theme Time Radio Hour . What makes the Fugs the Fugs were lines like "F--king Nothing, Sucking Nothing, flesh and Times Square , Nothing." That was written by Ed Sanders as Tuli does not feel that way about those subjects.
"Karlos Marx nothing, Engels nothing, Krapotkin, Bakunin, nothing, Leon Trotsky nothing. John Stuart Mill, nihil, nihil, Stalin less than nothing" were also omitted just to make sure that no challenging political statement was made by TTRH, as usual Those were written by Nothing author Tuli Kupferberg (now "tulifuli" of YouTube).
"Poetry , nothing, music, nothing painting, nothing, dancing nothing, the world's great books a great set of nothing, arty and farty, nothing." Also omitted on TTRH.
Some numbers, years,and old political leaders likewise negated were left out too.
Do yourself a favor and look for an mp3 of the original of this classic song if you don't know it already. There are a few YouTube vids of it, e.g.:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HmJX11_AQE

And did Ed Sanders grow more famous by his book about Charles Manson? Doubtful. What's more likely, he sullied a literary reputation with it. Also please note that he did not "leave the Fugs" as the Dylan read from his script. He is working on a new Fugs album right now called, "The Fugs Final CD part 2" follow up to the Fugs Final CD part 1 put out a few years ago.
Whoever wrote this script needs a fact checker, and if someone is only going to play a fraction of somebody's song, they need to introduce it as such.

TTRH does a great service. It got 'lightening' to provide additional info and material from The Fugs. I could see this person feeling a bit emotional, but if Theme Time became a political pulpit I would be disappointed. I like the way Theme Time hints at things without getting all preachy. Thank you for posting the whole song.
I actually played a show in the 80's with Tuli & Ed at the now defunct Speakeasy in the village, and was entertained and enlightened. My band at the time was called Folk You, but the venue made us change it to Folk U. (implying Folk University).

Never heard Folk You (funny name) or got to the Fugs show at the Speakeasy but wasn't that where the Fast Folk scene was and the annual Dylan Imitator contests were held? I got to some of those. What happened to your band, and do you still play music?

The Fast Folk scene was happening there, along with the early anti-folk scene. I'm on one of their comps.

They also held Dylan impersonator contests. I entered one once. I look nothing like him, but wore a Rolling Thunder hat with a big feather and played a hyped-up punk rock version of Subterranean Homesick Blues (letter perfect) and was gladly booed off the stage. I had a great laugh about that and have since been performing in the lower east side (NYC) as part of this anti-folk thing. I'm actually playing at the end of the month. The link (in the signature) will give the details.

Hmm... Seems strange about that edited Fugs song. Isn't it unlikely that some censoring has been involved from XM? To make nothing of politics, philosophy, religion, civilization and beyond should hardly be that controversial in 2009 - heck, the entire "Smoking" show is more edgy these days! It doesn't really sound like an alternate "cleaned up" recording either, even though this may be a possibility. Maybe it was an alternate edit done at its release in 1965. Can anybody shed some light?

Lightning: Thanks for bringing this to our attention! However, I severely disagree with you about the general emptiness of TTRH - to me it's anything but...

A little more about The Fugs' "Nothing," as well as an mp3 of the full song can be found at this interesting article posted on the "Guilt & Pleasure" site. There's also an mp3 of what I assume is the full song.

I may be repeating something that Mr. D. already said, as I haven't listened to the "Nothing" show yet, but apparently "Nothing" the song is based on a Yiddish folk melody called "Bulbes" about the monotony of having nothing to eat but potatoes.

Potatoes ("Bulbes')
On Sunday - potatoes, on Monday - potatoes,
on Tuesday and Wednesday - potatoes, on
Friday - potatoes, on Sabbath - a novelty, the
potato kugel. On Sunday - potatoes again.
Bread with potatoes, meat with potatoes, lunch
and dinner. Potatoes, potatoes over and over
again.
One meal is a novelty - the potato pie.
On Sunday -- potatoes again



Enlightening (no pun intended) post, lightning. Fwiw, it's not the first time TTRH has played an abridged version of a song. But having said that, I agree that it'd be the right thing to do to tell people to go out and find the full version. Not sure I agree with you about Sanders' "The Family" 'tho. I still think it one of the best pieces of non-fiction I've read, certainly better and more revealing than Bugliosi's book on the Manson Family.

"Maybe it was an alternate edit done at its release in 1965. Can anybody shed some light?"

I don't think they had anything like "alternate edits" in 1965--ESP DISK never did anything like that (I used to work for them briefly). You can find several performance versions of "Nothing" in the recently released 4CD Fugs Box "Don't Stop, Don't Stop." For anyone who doesn't have their first two albums, this is worth looking into.

Well, acc. to Wikipedia (ahem), there's two different versions of the Fugs first LP--it was first released by Folkways and then re-jiggered and re-released some months later by ESP-Disk. Note the parenthesis.

"The Village Fugs Sing Ballads of Contemporary Protest, Point of Views [sic], and General Dissatisfaction 1965, Broadside 304, Folkways FW 05304. Re-released 1966 on ESP-1018 as The Fugs First Album (with alternate takes/edits of at least three songs and stronger language[/i]); ESP version re-released on CD by Fantasy as The Fugs First Album 1994"

So maybe that's the confusion, altho I don't have the Folkways version.

Sometimes Bob Dylan is positively spooky. The week after William Zantzinger dies, Ellen Barkin opens the show with "... a wealthy man terrorizes a waitress."
Sorry The Fugs got censored, but I thought this was the best show of Season 3.

"A wealthy man terrorizes a waitress..."

Oh my God! I hadn't noticed that...

If that's coincidental I'm starting to be supersticious...

"Well, acc. to Wikipedia (ahem), there's two different versions of the Fugs first LP--it was first released by Folkways and then re-jiggered and re-released some months later by ESP-Disk. Note the parenthesis.

"The Village Fugs Sing Ballads of Contemporary Protest, Point of Views [sic], and General Dissatisfaction 1965, Broadside 304, Folkways FW 05304. Re-released 1966 on ESP-1018 as The Fugs First Album (with alternate takes/edits of at least three songs and stronger language[/i]); ESP version re-released on CD by Fantasy as The Fugs First Album 1994"

So maybe that's the confusion, altho I don't have the Folkways version."


This is news to me. I thought Bernard Stollman issued the same tracks that Moe Asch of Folkways did. This is what I found in the Wiki:
"Following recording sessions in April and June 1965, the album The Village Fugs—Ballads and Songs of Contemporary Protest, Points of View and General Dissatisfaction was released. Following a nationwide tour, The Fugs signed a contract with ESP-Disk, who re-released the album in 1966."
I didn't find anything about alternate takes or edits.
You could e-mail Ed Sanders at :
info@thefugs.com.
or contact ESP Disk from their website http://www.espdisk.com
If they don't answer I could try to find out some other way.

Harry Johnson -It's Nothing to Me

Anyone know anything about this ?
Bob says on the show that all he knows is that it was from a compilation called "God Bless America"

Hi Stewart,

The cut is from an obscure CD compilation called "God Less America: Country Music for All Ye Sinners & Sufferers" Playlist is below. Unfortunately, I can't find any info on the date of the cut or on Johnson himself.

God Less America

1. 8 Weeks In A Barroom -- Ramblin Red Bailey
2. Too Many Pills -- Arkey Blue & The Blue Cowboys
3. The Story Of Susie -- Billy Ray
4. Down And Out -- Chuck Wells
5. It's Nothing To Me -- Harry Johnson
6. Ed's Place -- Horace Heller
7. Pierce Brothers -- Pierce Brothers
8. Caryl Chessman -- Country Johnny Mathis
9. Please Don't Go Topless, Mother -- Troy Hess
10. Rock'N'Roll Killed My Mother -- Hi-Fi Guys
11. Enchanted Forest -- Mohawk And The Rednecks
12. Paralysed -- Cal Vale
13. My Neighbor The Firefighter -- Paul Barton
14. The Drunken Driver -- Granpa Joe
15. Dolores -- Eddie Noak
16. Behind The Fear -- Lum Hatcher

Lightning wrote:

Interesting puzzle. I listened to the show last night and "Nothing" doesn't sound edited. I think I'll send off an email to Ed Sanders and see what he has to say.

"God Less America: Country Music for All Ye Sinners & Sufferers" >

Ha ha ! Good title !

The tracks on "God Less America" are apparently all from 1955-66

"Interesting puzzle. I listened to the show last night and "Nothing" doesn't sound edited. I think I'll send off an email to Ed Sanders and see what he has to say."

I checked the times. The Nothing track Dylan played was 2 minute and 32 seconds.

Smithsonian-Folkways is selling downloadable MP3s of the 1965 Village Fugs Album. Their Nothing is 4 minutes and 16 seconds.

I own the CD of the Fugs First Album which duplicates the 1966 ESP Disk. Their Nothing is 4 minutes 14 seconds.

That means, most likely, Theme Time cut away 25 seconds less than half the song!

I am still waiting to hear from a friend who has the actual Village Fugs LP, a collector's item.
Is this much ado about Nothing?

Here is a reply from a friend whose mother has the original 1965 Village Fugs Folkways vinyl album and who grew up with it in his house:

No, the version of "Nothing" on the original Folkways album is the regular full-length version, so Dylan must have played some weird edit that his producers made for him or something. Ironic, because on the 1966 Bob Fass CD that you gave me with Dylan on the show, he requests that Fass play "Nothing" and Bob says that he can't do it because of the language... I wonder if Dylan was reminded of this exact moment 40 years ago now that the tables are turned and HE is the DJ!

Fascinating. Thank you, lightning. That's a great story.

Sirius XM content is unregulated by the FCC (hence Howard Stern) so in theory they could play the seven dirty words you can't say on the air continuously if they wanted, but it does make you wonder. Who knows. Maybe Mr. D. didn't want his grand kids to hear the offending lyrics. He is, after all, the World's Greatest Grandpa, and has the bumper sticker to prove it.

We should all e-mail Bob
Then he could reply, "Nothing was edited !" (which would only further the confusion !!)