clarkspicks.com

In this day, when an egregious tax increase is being foisted on the middle class under the guise of a tax cut for Joe the Plumber, let us remember that day, long ago, when the Kingston Trio stood up for truth, justice and the American way, standing up to the powers of big government and wasteful spending to get Charlie off the MTA. As you may know, Joe is worried that when he buys the business he is working for and is making money hand over fist, he might have to pay a higher tax rate. Joe is not concerned about the tax rate he is paying now and will continue to pay for the foreseeable future. Joe thinks big. Joe thinks about the future. Joe, like many Americans would rather pay more now, while he is relatively poor, than pay more later, if ever, when he becomes rich.

The Kingston Trio formed in 1957 by Dave Guard, Bob Shane and Nick Reynolds in Palo Alto California became the leading recording artists for Capitol Records with their second album “The Kingston Trio At Large,” which included this song, originally a campaign song written for Walter O’Brien’s run for mayor of Boston in 1947. O’Brien’s platform included a plan to simplify the overly complicated system of fares on the city’s mass transit system, the MTA, which really did include “exit fees,” which riders had to pay when getting off the subway or bus.

I have just finished reading Suze Rotolo’s memoir A Freewheelin’ Time and I feel like a little Dylan tonight.

This clip is an outtake from the making of the film “Don’t Look Back,” released in 1967. The performance is from 1965, at London’s Royal Albert Hall. The Mike Nesmith lookalike at the beginning, I believe, is Bob’s road manager Bob Neuwirth. The other people are some nondescript Brit’s in all likelihood. The bearded man resembles Alan Ginzberg, but by this time Ginzberg was getting quite bald. I don’t believe Ginzberg was in London with Dylan in ‘65 anyway.

In her book Rotolo declines to say who might be the subject of any of Dylan’s songs. There has been speculation that Joan Baez was the target of this particular barbed arrow. I think Dylan my have been thinking of both Baez and Rotolo as he wrote it. Suze Rotolo had recently left him, because of his affair with Baez, yet Joan Baez was far to strong an individual, with a career and entourage of her own, to be the supporting background figure Dylan was used to. Both were artists. Neither looked back.

Paul Siebel wrote this song, and many other gems. He had a short career as a singer songwriter and recorded two albums in 1970 and 1971 and then disappeared. In addition to Leo, Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt, Jerry Jeff Walker, Kate Wolf, Mary McCaslin, Emmylou Harris and Waylon Jennings have recorded Paul’s songs.

What happened to Paul is that he had a bout with depression and tried to self medicate in various ways. Eventually, though Paul was rescued by the mysterious one armed folk music fan, Steve Wilson, and brought down to Maryland where Steve gave Paul a place to live and helped him to get back on his feet.

I just ran across a mention of Steve Wilson in Suze Rotolo’s memoir “A Freewheelin’ Time.” Suze is best known for appearing in the photo on the cover of Bob Dylan’s “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan” album, with Bob, in the show, on the street in Greenwich Village. She was his girlfriend for four of his formative years in the early 190s. Here’s what Suze says about Steve.

Back in Charlottsville Paul Clayton threw a party for Bob’s twenty-first birthday. We had a real good time listening to music and making music at Steve Wilson’s house. Steve was an old buddy of Paul’s and he friendship opened to include us. When Steve Moved up to New York City at some point we saw a lot of each other and he became a close friend of Van Ronk’s. I think Steve played a dobro, although I’m not sure how because he had only one arm.

Paul Siebel now works at a day job here in Maryland and very infrequently goes on stage to sing his songs. I had a small part in persuading him to take part in the Greenwich Village Folk Festival a number of years ago, his performance was recorded and one song “The Ballad of Hones Sam” appears on a CD released by Gadfly Records in 1996.

One night, my friend, Johnson, and I sang “Louise” at an open mic, with Paul Siebel sitting in the back of the room to critique our performance. He kindly said that he really liked one of the other songs we did.

There don’t seem to be any videos of Paul Siebel performing on the net, so here is Leo Kottke’s version of “Louise.”