The New Basement Tapes "Nothing To It"

Maybe you want to listen with your eyes closed first?  Especially if you don't know anything about this project . . .


Hear the song on Youtube.

Okay, so if you didn't know the story behind this project, and you just heard it on the radio while driving down the street, would you say that it was a great, radio friendly song?

I don't know that I would.  I mean, it's fine.  Somewhat hummable.  A little ragged.  But is it a standout?

Now imagine that you know all about the back-story. 

These are lyrics written by Bob Dylan in the late 60s.  Never recorded.  Dylan recently gave them to T Bone Burnett, who then assembled Elvis Costello, Marcus Mumford, Taylor Goldsmith (of Dawes), Rihannon Giddens (of Carolina Chocolate Drops) and Jim James (who sings here) to record an album's worth of these songs.

Do you hear the song differently, with that knowledge?

That's what makes a track like this so hard for radio.

If you have the context, then it is a fascinating song.  But on it's own, it's not a great sounding single.

And most people who hear it, are not going to know the story behind it.  There more likely to say, "What the hell?" and move on to the next station.

Or am I wrong?  Does the song captivate you, even without knowing the story behind it?

Oscar Isaac & Marcus Mumford "Fare Thee Well (Dink's Song)"

I nearly just posted this as my Facebook status:

I Googled "Dink."

It sounds positively dirty, doesn't it?  Or at least, completely incomprehensible.

The soundtrack to the forthcoming Coen Brothers' film "Inside Llewyn Davis" includes a version of a tune entitled "Fare Thee Well (Dink's Song)."  The soundtrack has both a newly recorded version by Oscar Isaac and Marcus Mumford, as well as an older version by Dave Van Ronk, who's memoirs apparently form a loose basis for the film.

Once again, I was faced with the "Joseph Arthur" dilemma, of trying to decide if I should put it on the playlist that the MVY DJs use as "Fare Thee Well (Dink's Song)" or just "Fare Thee Well."

Growing up, the ONLY use of the work "dink" in my neighborhood, was as a slightly toned down synonym of "dick" that was okay to use as a 4th Grader.

I did learn later in life that "Dink" has some other connotations, including being a military acronym for"Desperately In Need of Knowledge" and the census/statistician acronym for "Double Income, No Kids."

But I realized that despite knowing that "Fare Thee Well" was known as "Dink's Song," (via Jeff Buckley's version), I had no idea why it was called "Dink's Song."

And that's when I Googled "dink" just praying that I didn't get a computer porn virus the way I did the day I Googled "Edith Head."

Though the song has been around for a couple hundred years, the first recording of it was by John Lomax in 1908.  He was doing field recordings of African American levee-builders in Texas, and made the first known recording of this song, as sung by a woman know as "Dink."

Hence, "Dink's Song."

So, is it more likely that a DJ is going to play the song and discuss turn-of-the-century ethnomusicologist's recordings?  Or that they'll play the song and be tempted to release their inner 4th-Grader by saying "Dink dink dink dink dink dink dink . . ." on the air?

Yeah, you know it, I left "Dink" out of the track listing.


Hear the song on Youtube.