Sign on the Window

"Just a sad pod. One of those pathetic situations in life that can be so overwhelming at times.” 

This is the 14th iteration of the podcast entitled Sign on the Window. This week we discuss 1971's "Wallflower," explore photosynthesis and wonder if showing up to work in a makeshift sling is a good idea or not. Join us won't you! 

As always, full show notes at our website. You can also follow along with our weekly real-time Spotify playlist – See That My Playlist is Kept Clean – and join the conversation on Twitter, message us on Facebook, and like on Instagram. And if you're loving us, consider our Patreon. For as little as one dollar you get early access to every episode we do as soon as they're edited (and a dedicated feed just for you) and exclusive content that'll only ever be on Patreon. Thanks!

Next week: A bunch of hippies cryin'

"Who cares? If you go back far enough we're all one-sixteenth something. I'm probably one-sixteenth Bob Dylan. You think they're gonna let me play Blade?" 

Hello. Episode 13 is in the books and it has the appealing title of "God Knows." It is and isn't quite what you think. Take a listen. We're waiting. 

As always, full show notes at our website. You can also follow along with our weekly real-time Spotify playlist – See That My Playlist is Kept Clean – and join the conversation on Twitter, message us on Facebook, and like on Instagram. And if you're loving us, consider our Patreon. For as little as one dollar you get early access to every episode we do as soon as they're edited (and a dedicated feed just for you) and exclusive content that'll only ever be on Patreon. Thanks!

Next week: take a chance on me

This podcast is a part of the Pumpkin Papers! Join us for the 12th episode of Sign on the Window! We talk Dylan's "Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues," the Red Scare in America, its resonance today and try to make some jokes to feel better about it all. 

As always, full show notes at our website. You can also follow along with our weekly real-time Spotify playlist – See That My Playlist is Kept Clean – and join the conversation on Twitter, message us on Facebook, and like on Instagram. And if you're loving us, consider our Patreon. For as little as one dollar you get early access to every episode we do as soon as they're edited (and a dedicated feed just for you) and exclusive content that'll only ever be on Patreon. Thanks!

Next week: Who knows?

EPISODE

SHOW NOTES

This song first appeared in Broadside, his first. Famously, he was scheduled to perform on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1962 — which had just broke Elvis and would later break the Beatles. He auditioned the song, people loved it, but when it came down to the show, he was told he couldn’t perform because it could be a “libel” against the John Birch Society. He refused to change the song and walked off the set. National attention followed. Sullivan supported him saying the John Birchers shouldn’t be above criticism.

Stodgy Columbia, learning this was scheduled for Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, pulled the song off the record (less than 300 copies of the album went out). Dylan relented and also pulled “Let Me Die in My Footsteps,” “Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Willie”and “Rocks and Gravel.” He replaced them with “Bob Dylan’s Dream,” “Talkin’ World War III Blues,” “Girl From the North Country” and “Masters of War.” John Hammond said, quoted in Shelton’s No Direction Home:

The CBS lawyers, not Columbia Records, decided that the reference to Hitler involved every single member of the John Birch Society, therefore it was libelous, or some crap like that. I get away with much worse material with Seeger than was ever on a Dylan album.

I couldn’t find the Freewheelin’ version of the song for this recording but we did listen to the 1963 demo (released officially on TBLS Vol. 9: The Witmark Demos) and the Halloween 1964 performance at the Philharmonic Hall (released on TBLS Vol. 6) in addition to the de facto version off TBLS Vol. 1-3.

Song itself

The song is a classic and still finds resonance today. “Reds,” of course were one in a long line of boogeymen the United States has sought to make the Other. The Birchers are the real threats to freedom of speech when everything uttered is “communist.”

The song is our first rendition of the “talking blues,” which he’d use often in this period with “Talkin’ New York,” “Talkin’ Bear Mountain Picnic Massacre Blues,” Talkin’ World War III Blues” and “I Shall Be Free” to name a few (to say nothing of less-talky “T.V. Talkin' Song” off Under the Red Sky.

To Dave Glover

Before going into the history of the John Birch Society, Daniel read Dylan’s 1963 open letter to his friend Dave Glover:

I keep rememberin the songs we used t sing an play

John Birch Society today

JBS, somehow, still lives on today. It’s main activity in the 1960s, according to Rick Perlstein, “comprised monthly meetings to watch a film by Welch, followed by writing postcards or letters to government officials linking specific policies to the Communist menace” (kind of like watching cable news and then tweeting at perceived menaces!)

It’s stances are incredible, mainly for being on the wrong side of history on nearly every issue across decades: Against Civil Rights Act of 1964. Against Equal Rights Amendment. Obsessed with the 10th Amendment. Against all free-trade agreements/globalization. Anti-interventionist. Believes fluoride is a communist conspiracy – which they deny but, come on. Thought Eisenhower was a communist. Against OSHA. Against diplomatic ties to China. Against transferring Panama Canal over to Panamanians because, you know, communists.

But it’s interesting: Antisemitic, racist, anti-Mormon, anti-Masonic groups criticized the organization’s acceptance of Jews, non-whites, Masons, and Mormons as members. And in a bitterly ironic twist, given today’s world where the Right still worships Ayn Rand, in a 1964 Playboy interview, she said,

I consider the Birch Society futile, because they are not for capitalism but merely against communism … I gather they believe that the disastrous state of today’s world is caused by a communist conspiracy. This is childishly naïve and superficial. No country can be destroyed by a mere conspiracy, it can be destroyed only by ideas.

Today, the Southern Poverty Law Center lists the society as a “‘Patriot’ Group. It believes a “one world government” is coming so it pushes the US to get out of the United Nations. They still want to dismantle the Federal Reserve. It’s currently led by Ray Clark, who has a fake degree from Donsbaugh University School of Nutrition in Huntington Beach, California – and he puts nutrional supplements in every photo of JBS literature. And, if you want a trip, go to their Twitter to see how hard they’re trying to #hashtag their way into the hearts of the youth.

THE EPISODE’S BOOKLET & PLAYLIST

RECOMMENDATIONS

Recommendations. Kelly recommended Nick Drake and Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 while Daniel listened to Chris Stapleton From A Room: Volume 1.

ENDINGS

Only 653 songs left.

Kelly guessed #319, which would have been “Bourbon Street” off The Basement Tapes.

It was #642, "God Knows," off 1990's Under the Red Sky.

Follow us wherever you listen to podcasts. See our real-time playlist See That My Playlist is Kept Clean on Spotify. Follow us intermittently on Twitter and Instagram.

Tell your friends about the show, rate and review wherever they let you, and consider supporting us by subscribing or at Patreon.

Welcome to the FIRST EVER episode of what we're calling The Supplemental Series." 

In this inaugural episode, we're watching 2005's Martin Scorsese directed No Direction Home. We talk about our show's philosophy after ten episodes. We create contexts around the timeframe of the movie and Kelly shares her thoughts about who she'd been listening to - or thought she'd been - and who she was listening to now. 

As always, full show notes at our website. You can also follow along with our weekly real-time Spotify playlist – See That My Playlist is Kept Clean – and join the conversation on Twitter, message us on Facebook, and like on Instagram. And if you're loving us, consider our Patreon. For as little as one dollar you get early access to every episode we do as soon as they're edited (and a dedicated feed just for you) and exclusive content that'll only ever be on Patreon. Thanks!

"Aquapay. Or Activate. Or Act Up Babe." 

This week, in a short one, we discuss "Don't You Try Me Now" from The Basement Tapes. Or, we try to. We write new lyrics and discuss the stringency of our song policies. Come join us! 

As always, full show notes at our website. You can also follow along with our weekly real-time Spotify playlist – See That My Playlist is Kept Clean – and join the conversation on Twitter, message us on Facebook, and like on Instagram. And if you're loving us, consider our Patreon. For as little as one dollar you get early access to every episode we do as soon as they're edited (and a dedicated feed just for you) and exclusive content that'll only ever be on Patreon. Thanks!

Next week: Are you now or have you ever been?

#jollysaucycrew 

After a thorough historical examination of the Gold Rush and what the world looked like in 1849, Daniel and Kelly break down "Days of '49," talk some Self Portrait and despair at the ups and downs of the last ten weeks. 

As always, full show notes at our website. You can also follow along with our weekly real-time Spotify playlist – See That My Playlist is Kept Clean – and join the conversation on Twitter, message us on Facebook, and like on Instagram. And if you're loving us, consider our Patreon. For as little as one dollar you get early access to every episode we do as soon as they're edited (and a dedicated feed just for you) and exclusive content that'll only ever be on Patreon. Thanks!

Next week: a deep Basement Tape cut, which I call by the wrong name so you can't even begin to guess!

"Marmite and jealousy all that he sells us / He's content when you're under his thumb." 

Today we look at "No Time to Think," off 1978's Street Legal. We had a longer outtake reel than an actual episode so, from the future, you're welcome. From the present, come join us as we dance around religion and Dylan's personal life. 

As always, full show notes at our website. You can also follow along with our weekly real-time Spotify playlist – See That My Playlist is Kept Clean – and join the conversation on Twitter, message us on Facebook, and like on Instagram. And if you're loving us, consider our Patreon. For as little as one dollar you get early access to every episode we do as soon as they're edited (and a dedicated feed just for you) and exclusive content that'll only ever be on Patreon. Thanks!

Next week: a gem from Self Portrait (I mean, there's only a few)

Evil Kelly and Evil Daniel! If you love chaos, stay tuned to the end! Otherwise, we talk about a deep-cut from the Basement Tapes, "King of France." It's unlistenable but we aren't. 

As always, full show notes at our website. You can also follow along with our weekly real-time Spotify playlist – See That My Playlist is Kept Clean – and join the conversation on Twitter, message us on Facebook, and like on Instagram. And if you're loving us, consider our Patreon. For as little as one dollar you get early access to every episode we do as soon as they're edited (and a dedicated feed just for you) and exclusive content that'll only ever be on Patreon. Thanks!

Next week: There's no time... NO TIME!

"I feel like an alien is singing me songs." 

Our full-length week spent with Triplicate is here! We talk songs and nostalgia and even get a visit from the myth himself! Join us, won't you. 

As always, full show notes at our website. You can also follow along with our weekly real-time Spotify playlist – See That My Playlist is Kept Clean – and join the conversation on Twitter, message us on Facebook, and like on Instagram. And if you're loving us, consider our Patreon. For as little as one dollar you get early access to every episode we do as soon as they're edited (and a dedicated feed just for you) and exclusive content that'll only ever be on Patreon. Thanks!

Next week: Liberté, égalité, fraternité