{"id":16649,"date":"2023-09-22T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-22T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/?p=16649"},"modified":"2023-09-09T15:10:06","modified_gmt":"2023-09-09T14:10:06","slug":"talking-music-part-5-of-the-bloodliners-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/2023\/09\/22\/talking-music-part-5-of-the-bloodliners-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"TALKING MUSIC: part 5 of The Bloodliners Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Spencer Leigh & John Stewart<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Norman Warwick listens in on an<\/strong> INTERVIEW WITH AN ANGEL<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/em><\/strong>It was very much a bitter-sweet highlight of what I laughingly look on as \u00b4my folk music career.\u00b4 Some five years after Colin Lever and I, as Lendanear, had written and recorded Cup Finals Every Night we had seen it placed in the Lomax Gold Chart by Peter OBrien in his Omaha Rainbow, his John Stewart appreciation magazine. That placement had been seen by American artist Jeff McDonald who then covered covered another song, Old Black Guitar Case off our Moonbeam Dancing song.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

When , he subsequently toured  the UK to promote his Smack Dab In The Middle album, Jeff stayed at my place throughout his short tour and together we took part in a recorded conversation with presenter and author Spencer Leigh (right)<\/strong> for his show on BBC Radio Merseyside. Two nights later Jeff played a live gig at the radio station in front of an invited audience and generously invited me and my pal Pete Benbow to perform with him. The three of us included California Bloodlines in a short set of half a dozen songs. The beauty of the moment was tarnished slightly by the fact that Colin and I had ended Lendanear only a few weeks earlier, and missed out on an event that would have meant as much to him as to me.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless. performing a song by John Stewart, the man I considered to be the greatest songwriter in the world, accompanied on guitar by Pete, the man who had introduced me to Stewart\u00b4s work with his versions of California Bloodlines, alongside a man who had opened shows with John Stewart and who ended this show by inviting Pete and I to join him on a rendition of that song remains the most exciting experience of my life.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Norman Warwick listens in on an interview with<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AN ANGEL ON THE ROAD-SHOULDER<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>\u201cSpence, how are you?  It\u2019s John Stewart here.\u201d  It was 12 noon on Monday 20th April 1998.  \u201cDo you want to come to York for an interview?\u201d  With a speed unknown to myself, I left my Liverpool home and met John at his hotel at 4pm.  He\u2019d been there for just one night but the clutter suggested that he had been there a week.  He took a picture of me with his digital camera and sat on the bed, next to his guitar and his latest sketches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John (left)<\/em><\/strong> was in the UK for appearances in Dalry, Scotland and York.  Over the Bloodlines website, Bob Elliot had asked for questions for John Stewart and he had passed them to me.  I grouped them, added some of my own, and conducted the interview you see below.  My thanks are due to the following Bloodliners for their contributions: Tom Adams, Alan Adrian, Mark Austin, Ron Beffa, M.Butters, Catherine from Santa Cruz, David Eric, Pat Finn, Roy Fritz, Rod Geddes, Tony Gurney, Cara Laidlaw, Leslie from New York, Lonesome Dan, Kent Martin, Peter Pearson (Now a regular contributor to Sidetracks And Detours and a columnist in its weekly PASS IT ON  supplement) <\/em>and , Terry Ransom and Dave Sundberg.  Thanks also to Bob Elliot, Andy Fergus and Chris Lawrence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whilst we were talking, I told John that Michael Heatley and I had included \u2018Armstrong\u2019 in a new book, \u2018Behind The Song: The Stories Of 100 Great Rock And Pop Classics\u2019.  When the book was reviewed on Radio 2\u2019s \u2018Reading Music\u2019, one critic dismissed it for its choice of songs.  \u201cThey can\u2019t be great songs,\u201d he said, \u201cI\u2019ve never even heard of John Stewart.\u201d  Just because someone hasn\u2019t heard a song doesn\u2019t stop it from being great, but I repeated this to John.  \u201cThat\u2019s it,\u201d said John, \u201cMy whole life is a quest for anonymity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We continued from there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spencer Leigh:  Could this be an interview with an angel?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stewart:  Not in the furthest stretch of your imagination.<\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What prompted that song?  Was it the film, \u2018Interview With The Vampire\u2019?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

No, I\u2019ve always written about angels – right back to the 60s – and I was musing what it would be like if you actually met an angel.  You would ask them questions, and the song came from that<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why did you record it with Buffy Ford?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Well, somebody had to be the angel.  When I did it the first time, it was just me, but it was obvious that it should be Buffy.  The song\u2019s like a little play and it\u2019s from a musical that I\u2019m still working on, \u2018Johnny Flamingo On The Blue Dream Road\u2019, which is about a guy looking for his innocence and his youth on Route 66.  Buffy plays an angel, which is one of the characters in it.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you feel apprehensive about doing a musical?  Look what\u2019s happened to Paul Simon?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, I won\u2019t be doi Ford <\/em><\/strong>(right<\/em>) ng it on Broadway for millions of dollars but that does give one pause for thought.  I\u2019ve done the show a couple of times with my wife Buffy in America but I\u2019m still not happy with it, so it is still in rewrites.  We did it on Route 66 once in a little old theatre in Williams, Arizona with a 50s car and such, which was great.  I\u2019m going to do it in very out of the way places until I know it\u2019s right<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When do you think there will be a full production with dialogue?<\/strong>

Oh, there\u2019s dialogue already but I\u2019m going to add some more characters.  As a musical, it would be nice to have dancers and big numbers, but I\u2019m interested in going a more introspective way like \u2018Our Town\u2019, \u2018The Fantasticks\u2019 and \u2018The Spoon River Anthology\u2019.  To be honest, I\u2019m still trying to find which way I want to go with it.  Certainly, I will not be dancing myself!  Of course, the more people you add, the more it costs so that has to be a factor.  A musical either works or it doesn\u2019t as Paul Simon found out, and if it doesn\u2019t<\/em> work, the whole thing doesn\u2019t work – it\u2019s not like one song doesn\u2019t work.  I love the challenge but it is very difficult.  I\u2019ve been working on it for a year and a half and it may be a lifelong project, I may never get it to my liking.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And why \u2018Johnny Flamingo\u2019?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t know, it was just a moniker I came up with.  I just like the rhythm of \u2018Johnny Flamingo On The Blue Dream Road\u2019.  The pink flamingoes are one of the great pop icons of America in the 50s, and I thought the name, Johnny Flamingo, had a great ring to it.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You always take a lot of care over titles.  You\u2019d never call an album just plain \u201cJohn Stewart\u201d, would you?<\/strong>

Oh, no.  (Laughs)  It\u2019s the music of the words that I love.  The music of the words is what it\u2019s all about.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Pete Seeger <\/strong>(left) tribute, \u2018Where Have All The Flowers Gone\u2019, has just been released here.  How did you get involved with that?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Appleseed is a new label started by Jim Musselman and when he asked me if I would like to be part of it, I said, \u2018Of course I would\u2019.  Pete Seeger is one of the first folk players I heard and it was a Pete Seeger songbook with banjo lessons that got me playing the five-string banjo.  Pete has always been an idol of mine.  I still can\u2019t be around him without being somewhat tongue-tied.  I was told that Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt and Ani DiFranco were going to be on the album and I assumed that they would be doing updated versions of these Pete Seeger songs.  I wanted to do mine very traditionally and one of my favourite songs off \u2018The Weavers At Carnegie Hall\u2019 is the field-holler called \u2018Old Riley\u2019 with a frailing banjo.  I did it with just banjo and bass and it\u2019s gotten some good reaction.  It was a logical way to go, but I\u2019m the only guy that did a traditional version of anything on that record, so at least it stands out for that reason.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Did you like the way that Bruce Springsteen did \u2018We Shall Overcome\u2019?<\/strong>

Yes, I did but having been involved with the Civil Rights movement in the 60s, I had a problem with him personalising it, making it a love song.  It is the anthem for a movement but Springsteen has always been known for making songs his own and he did it very well.  It was just that little tweak of the screw that did it for me.  I love the version of \u2018Where Have All The Flowers Gone\u2019 by Tommy Sands.  That is the best version that has ever been recorded.  It is just chilling, isn\u2019t it?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few years ago you recorded with another of your heroes, Johnny Cash.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, and \u2018Get Rhythm\u2019 was a song I did in high school.  It is one of the strange manifestations of the electronic age that I never even saw him to do the song.  I sent a DAT down to Nashville and he put on his part and sent it back.  I didn\u2019t meet him until Rosanne Cash\u2019s wedding, first time I\u2019d ever met him, so I did a duet without ever meeting him, but it was close enough for me.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did you discuss it on the \u2019phone with him first?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

No, no, I discussed it with his people.  Johnny wanted to do it but it kept getting pushed back and finally he decided to do it, but I never spoke to him, no.  I sent him a version with me doing the verses I was going to do and a blank space with the instrumental for him to sing and a note, \u2018Sing this, and I\u2019ll sing it with you\u2019 on the final recording.  It works very well.  I always thought that our voices would go well together and they did.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I could imagine it as part of a Highwaymen project.<\/strong>

hah,, that\u2019s my fantasy, to be one of them!  I am always getting people saying that I look just like Johnny Cash – people think I am Johnny Cash, for God\u2019s sake – or Gary Shandling, who is a Jewish comedian.  There is a similarity, but there is no one who looks less like Johnny Cash than Gary Shandling.  When I got introduced to Johnny, I said, \u2018People either think I look like you or Gary Shandling.  Does anyone ever tell you that you look like Garry Shandling?\u2019  He looked at me as though I had a monkey on my head, it didn\u2019t register at all, so I said, \u2018Nice meeting you\u2019.<\/em><\/strong> <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

While we\u2019re on cover versions, you recorded Tim Hardin\u2019s \u2018Lady Came From Baltimore\u2019.  Did you know Tim ? (left)?<\/strong>

I met him but he was impossible to know – for me, at any rate.  He didn\u2019t seem to like me much but he was a person who didn\u2019t like a lot of people, a brusque fellow but a great writer.  \u2018Lady Came From Baltimore\u2019 was one of my favourites (sings).  I love the way the melody and the words fall, that and \u2018Black Sheep Boy\u2019.  I was glad I got to do it.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it comes to your own songwriting, which comes first – the words or the music?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The phrase, the idea for the song comes first.  I have a new song, which has become one of my favourites of all the ones I have written, \u2018Who Stole The Soul Of Johnny Dreams\u2019, and it was just a phrase that popped into my mind, and I thought, \u2018Oh, I have to write about that.\u2019  The phrase and the idea usually come at the same time.  Sometimes a musical phrase will suggest what the melody is but I don\u2019t ever write the words and then the melody, or vice versa.  It is always hooked on this nucleus that was the inspiration for it.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you always write the songs with your own voice in mind?<\/strong>

Well, I couldn\u2019t write a song for Celene Dion – I know it just wouldn\u2019t work.  I\u2019ve never written songs with anyone else\u2019s voice in mind, but I have never thought of them as for my voice.  There\u2019s a song on the<\/em><\/strong> new cassette, \u2018Wilderness\u2019, that I wrote for Buffy to sing.  It\u2019s for \u2018Johnny Flamingo\u2019 and I know her voice so well that I know exactly what is going to work with it<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you write your songs at one sitting?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The best ones come at one sitting.  The ones on the new cassette were written as I was recording them.  They were coming so fast that I couldn\u2019t get them down.  I had gone through a drought of seven or eight months without writing a note and all of a sudden, the dam broke, and that\u2019s when it is the most fun.  Those I have laboured with for a long time may work, but it\u2019s the ones that just explode that I tend to like best.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did the drought bother you?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes!  It bothered me greatly and the more it bothers you, the harder it is to write.  You have to accept it and let it be.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your most famous song is \u2018Daydream Believer\u2019, which is now a phrase you see in newspaper headlines.  Did you invent the phrase or take it from somewhere?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s mine.  I had certainly never heard it before and it has become a pop phrase now.  The whole phrase, \u201cOh, what can it mean to a daydream believer and a homecoming queen\u201d, just came right out.  I had a melody rather like Paul McCartney\u2019s \u2018Yesterday\u2019, (sings) \u201cI am here, I am gone, I am living with a song\u201d, and it was nice, the words were nice.  I had that for weeks, and then all of a sudden the chorus came to me, \u201cCheer up sleepy Jean\u201d and I thought that I would take the melody from the other song.  Then I wrote the story, \u201cIf I could hide \u2019neath the wings\u2026\u201d  So the melody to the verses was floating around on the back-burner.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has recently been revived by the boy band, Boyzone.<\/strong>

Oh good, the money is always a year behind so I\u2019ll have that to look forward to.  The Four Tops\u2019 version of \u2018Daydream Believer\u2019 is amazing and someone sent me a sitar version on an album of the weirdest tracks in the world and it was hysterical.  \u2018Daydream Believer\u2019 on a sitar is just awful.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You originally wrote \u201cAnd now you know how funky I can be\u201d.<\/strong>

Right, and RCA would not let Davy Jones sing \u2018funky\u2019, so it was changed to \u2018happy\u2019. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Monkees were a happy little band and it has been \u2018happy\u2019 ever since.  Chip Douglas was an old friend of mine who was producing the Monkees and he asked if I had any songs that would be suitable.  I had written \u2018Daydream Believer\u2019 two months before and I had taken it to Spanky And Our Gang and We Five and they had turned it down.  I thought it might work and I hadn\u2019t recorded it myself as I was just leaving the Trio.  I didn\u2019t think too much of the song but I thought the chorus was catchy.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do songs come from newspaper stories?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes.  (narrates) \u201cThere was a story in the \u2018San Francisco Chronicle\u2019 that of course I forgot to save.\u201d  I save them now.  If I see anything I like in a newspaper, I rip it right out.  The TV news is a goldmine of song ideas.  A lot of it I wouldn\u2019t want to write about but there is so much material from all over the world now.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What about \u2018Bad Rats\u2019?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was from an article I saw in \u2018Time\u2019 magazine where a laboratory was doing tests on rats.  When the rats were still in their cages, they could only be killed humanely with chloroform.  But if the same rat got out of the cage, they could kill it any way they wanted \u2019cause it was a \u2018bad rat\u2019 – they could step on it if they wanted to.  They defined them as good rats and bad rats as to whether they were in or out of the cage, and I thought, \u2018That\u2019s fodder for a song as it is the way that we think of each other.\u2019  I am totally mystified at Christians killing each other – they have the same God and the same Bible.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s on \u2018Bullets In The Hour Glass\u2019 and the song next to it is \u2018The Man Who Would Be King\u2019.  You\u2019ve taken that title from a book.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah, and look at the cover of that CD.  When I first saw it, I said, \u2018Those are not my eyes.\u2019  The record company liked the photo but as my eyes were shut, they substituted someone else\u2019s eyes.  \u2018The Man Who Would Be King\u2019 is the title of a book and movie too, starring Sean Connery.  The title is so generic to the American presidency and whoever would assume the crown, the once and future king and all that.  I try not to take titles from elsewhere.  What other ones have I lifted?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019ve often written about the American presidency.  Have you been inspired by President Clinton and his sex scandals?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

No, no, there\u2019s nothing there for me.  You could write a funny song but I hate funny songs.  We are so preoccupied with other people\u2019s sex lives.  We forget what it was like with George Bush: the economy was in the pits and the country was really depressed.  The economy has never been better than now and everyone is doing pretty well.  Clinton hasn\u2019t done anything but raise the economy, and that\u2019s good enough for me.  His wife seems to be doing okay with him, and yet these women come along who want to be media stars.  Most of Europe think we\u2019re being silly about it.  I don\u2019t think he is a great president, but he is a great people person and so leave him alone.  I won\u2019t be writing a song about his dalliances, no.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t you like funny songs that are written by others, say Tom Paxton?<\/strong> (right)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

No, I just don\u2019t like funny songs, period.  I don\u2019t know why.  Oh, Lonnie Donegan I loved.  I loved \u2018Does Your Chewing-Gum Lose Its Flavour On The Bedpost Overnight\u2019 and \u2018My Old Man\u2019s A Dustman\u2019.  (Laughs)  They were hysterical – and brilliantly written.  I love Tom Paxton as a person, he is one of my favourite guys.  I love his spirit, but I just don\u2019t like those songs.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe you\u2019ve just answered my next question: why have you never done a children\u2019s album?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have written songs for my grandchildren and I\u2019ve sung them to them, but I\u2019ve never felt that I\u2019ve had the handle on doing a children\u2019s album.  There\u2019s a guy in America called Raffi, and he is huge.  You listen to his children\u2019s songs and you think, \u2018Come on, that\u2019s easy to do.\u2019  I have tried to write something like that, but it is hard to be so clear and so simple that you can connect with kids.  There would be nothing worse than releasing a children\u2019s album and having children hate it.  (Laughs)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And you\u2019ve never done a Christmas album.  What\u2019s the reason for that?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, Buffy and I have recorded a Christmas album which will be out this year.  We wanted to find the right songs and we wanted it to be very traditional. Buffy does a great version of \u2018Silent Night\u2019, and there\u2019s \u2018What Child Is This\u2019 and that great old folk song, \u2018Virgin Mary\u2019.  I love \u2018I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day\u2019, which Belafonte recorded it in the 60s.  I have written a new Christmas song and we have done the album with just one guitar and a few strings.   I love when Christmas comes around and you start hearing those songs again.  We might play a Christmas album in July because they are such great songs.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you particularly like about them?<\/strong>

Yeah, Christmas songs have the biggest chords of any song, they just jump off your guitar, they are the big church chords, big hymn chords – G, C and then E.  The big A chord and the D, they are heroic and they swell.  They would be corny with other songs but with carols and hymns, they are so singable and so uplifting..  Talk about timeless, they never get old.  \u2018Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer\u2019 and \u2018I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus\u2019 will not be on the album.  We wanted to have a mood that says Christmas, and Buffy has such a marvellous lyrical voice that I can sit back and let her do most of the work.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why did you call Buffy \u2018Angel Rain\u2019 in one of your songs?<\/strong>

I give everybody code names.  She was Angelrain. Arnie \u2018Wideload\u2019 Moore is another.  All my friends have codenames.  They just pop out.  I\u2019ll have one for you, Spence, my man in Liverpool<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You call yourself the \u2018Monkey Boy\u2019 in one of your songs.<\/strong>

Well, I\u2019m Johnny Dreams now, that\u2019s the latest.  I had very big ears when I was in grammar school and they used to call me Monkey Boy, which was a knife in my heart.  I shall always remember that.  I wrote the song and so the thing you\u2019re ashamed of is now worn as a badge of honour.  It no longer owns me, I own it.  \u2018Hard times for the Monkey Boy\u2019 – I love the sound of that.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If someone hears \u2018Monkey Boy\u2019, he mightn\u2019t understand the reference.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doesn\u2019t matter, I\u2019m a firm believer in mystery.  The more mystery in a song the more it intrigues people.  It is fun to figure it out.  There are so many code lines that I have put in songs that if people put them together, they would really know who I was, but I laugh as they go right past them.  I have revealed so much without ever having come out and said, \u2018Well, this is me here\u2019.  You know the adage – hide it in plain sight.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have you ever written songs that were too personal or too painful to release?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Pause)  Yes, there is one I wrote about my first love and my kids when they were growing up.  We were divorced and it was too personal and I didn\u2019t want to put it out.  I love Eric Clapton and I am so impressed by his bravery in writing about the death of his son, but I can\u2019t stand listening to songs like that, they are too sad.  \u2018Tears From Heaven\u2019 and \u2018Little Man\u2019 tear my heart out.  It is wrenching stuff and it has nothing to do with entertainment.  If I saw Clapton in concert, I would go \u2018Oh my god\u2019 – I couldn\u2019t go \u2018Very nice\u2019 and applaud.  It is amazing that he can do that, but it must be very healing for him.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the new cassette, there is a song about Princess Diana, \u2018Turn Of The Century\u2019.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah, I wrote it as I was watching the funeral, just as I wrote \u2018Armstrong\u2019 as I was watching him land on the moon.  I wrote it as a documentary as it is such a sentimental topic.  I didn\u2019t want to come on like her brother.  It was such a moving time and the song has gotten a huge reaction, but last night a couple of English people said I shouldn\u2019t sing it.  Maybe it is a little controversial – (quotes) \u201cWe must love one another, again it is heard, From Mother Calcutta who embodied the words, Humbled and shamed by the head of the Queen, As she passed by Diana as if in a dream.\u201d  I watched the Queen bow her head as the monarchy had got such flak for the way they had handled it.  I didn\u2019t make that up.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

As a performer yourself, did you feel for Elton John (left) <\/em> on that day?<\/strong>

I thought he was in a very tough place and he and Bernie did an incredible job in making that work.  Maybe she should have had her own song but it could have been tripe.  When you are that much involved and the world is in such shock, you can write something that you think is terrific and it really is awful.  I had a song on a Kingston Trio album called \u2018Song For A Friend\u2019 that I wrote for JFK when he died and it doesn\u2019t hold up at all.  I forget words all the times, there are just too many songs to remember, and to be on worldwide TV, to be at the funeral of a friend and to be in the spotlight with a song that you have never sung before and to pull it off is remarkable.  I have great admiration for him being able to do that.  He has a great flair for the ridiculous but there is also great substance there.  I\u2019m not sure Keith Richards feels the same way – he said that Elton was always writing about dead blondes!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of your recent songs, \u2018I Remember America\u2019, is like a rap, looking back on old times.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wrote that song for myself and didn\u2019t think I would be doing it on stage.  It comes from having children and realising that there are so few places in America to be safe anymore.  It has become part of the fabric of America.  I did it once in a club and it had such a devastating effect that I kept on doing it, but many people say it is too nostalgic and too right-wing.  There have been arguments about it on the Internet, which is great, I love that.  A friend of mine, Fritz Scholder, who is half-American Indian and half German, paints Indians as they really are in reservations – fat and drunk, not the heroic Indians of the past, and when he had his first show, he said, \u2018Some hated me and some loved me, but they couldn\u2019t deny me.\u2019  I love that, and that\u2019s what I hope happens with some of my songs.  A fellow said \u2018Who Stole The Soul Of Johnny Dreams\u2019 was very disturbing, and I said, \u2018Good, it\u2019s supposed to be.\u2019<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few years back, I remember you announcing that this was going to be your last tour, but you keep coming back.<\/strong>

Well, those old tours of the past have stopped.  I couldn\u2019t start in London and drive all the way and do those towns anymore.  It  was partly jet-lag, but it wore me out.  It\u2019s not that I don\u2019t love playing for the people, I do, it\u2019s just that I can\u2019t do those drives.  As an American, I almost have heart failure every time I drive along one of your roads.  You are on the other side and the roads are so narrow and I\u2019m going, \u2018My god, there\u2019s another car coming\u2019, so I\u2019m a nervous wreck by the time I get to the gig.  I\u2019m a vegetarian and it\u2019s hard to find things to eat here -and when I go to Ireland, it seems that everyone smokes.  I have asthma and by the second show, I can hardly<\/em><\/strong> breathe.  The people who are most into my music are the people of the UK and Ireland, so I will never stop coming.  There are plans to do something in a London theatre in September and perhaps I could also do something in Edinburgh and Ireland.  Anything but those long drives.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are your memories of the UK dates you did with Peter Rowan, Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n


Well, it was no surprise to anyone when Townes died.  No-one could believe that he had lasted so long, and if anybody was on a suicide, kamikaze mission, it was Townes Van Zandt.  He and Guy Clark totally lived up to their reputations, and they were like one person.  They would do the show together and would be falling down drunk.  Their audience loved it, they\u2019d come expecting that, while my audience was wondering what they\u2019d walked in on.  We didn\u2019t connect other than as writers, and friends a bit.  Townes\u2019 idea of humour is to tell you some heart-wrenching tale of someone in his family dying and then at the end, he\u2019s teasing you.  Real funny, Townes, great story.  I was blown away by his writing, his songs are seamless, you can\u2019t see where he did the writing.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can you be more specific about that?<\/strong>

When you watch a great actor, you can\u2019t tell he\u2019s acting.  You look at a great painter and you wonder how he did it, he\u2019s covered up his tracks.  Same with song-writing.  I love Leonard Cohen, his songs are brilliant but you can see the writing, you know he\u2019s worked on the lines.  With Townes, you didn\u2019t see the writing, it was like he was making it up as he went along.  When I first heard his songs, I thought, \u2018That\u2019s nice\u2019, and if anything, Townes Van Zandt\u2019s songs were not nice.  \u2018Nice\u2019 is like a card you get on your birthday from your aunt.  Then I listened to the words and it sounded like he was making it up, but it was brilliant.  He is one of the most under rated songwriters I\u2019ve ever heard.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What about guitars?  You\u2019re not someone who sticks to the same guitar so is a guitar just a tool for writing really?<\/strong>

Yes, it is.  I hear songwriters say that there are no songs left in this guitar.  It is the darnedest thing but it\u2019s true.  You get a new guitar and the songs will start coming.  I don\u2019t know what it is, maybe the vibration of the sound.  I\u2019ve got two new guitars at the moment and I\u2019m always looking for the magic guitar.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you do with the old ones?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sell them or trade them.  Some I keep.  I might use them for different sounds on a record.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Would you think of donating the guitar you wrote \u2018Daydream Believer\u2019 on to a museum?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was stolen at an airport.  It was a beautiful Martin D-28 and I never would have given it away.  The one thing I wouldn\u2019t take on the road is my Kingston Trio banjo, which I got in 1960 and played on every Kingston Trio album.  An insurance assessor told me it was worth $17,000 and if I\u2019d took it on the road, it would cost $100 a trip.  I don\u2019t want to take the chance.  Martin has come out with a Kingston Trio signature set – the remade Vega banjo, Bobby\u2019s Martin D-28 and Nick\u2019s tenor guitar.  We all signed them, and it was $10,000 for the set.  The banjo was beautiful, better than the original, so I take that on the road.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you do a lot of painting and sketching now?<\/strong>

I am always sketching and taking photographs.  I\u2019m usually writing or painting but I rarely do them together.  I\u2019m not thinking of songs while I\u2019m sketching.  I will sit in diners and cafes and sketch the people across the room.  It would be too intrusive to say to someone, \u2018Sit down, I want to sketch you\u2019 and of course, it mightn\u2019t work out.  Bobby Shane is such a big Fritz Scholder fan that he even framed the directions he had written for a restaurant.  I asked Fritz to<\/em><\/strong> do a sketch<\/em> of Bobby on the placemat and it looked nothing like him.  Fritz couldn\u2019t have cared less – he picked up the placemat and handed it to him.  Buffy and my son Luke were in Paris last week and we all went to a live drawing class at the Academy where Picasso and Matisse drew.  The room was steeped in tradition and I may get a song from that – it was so romantic.  It was a high to be with those Paris artists, but I was delighted to see that none of them were that much better than me.  That was a kick for the old confidence.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You have moved from Virginia to California.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah, Novota, California.  Luke graduates this year and is going to move out on his own, so maybe we will go down to Santa Barbara.  I\u2019d love to move to Arizona but I don\u2019t think Buffy wants to live there.  I want to get out of Northern California.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you ever go to Nashville to sell your songs?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, but it is a disaster, an absolute disaster.  I have a terrific publisher, Bug Music, but there is no room for my songs in country music now.  There\u2019s a publisher in Nashville called Woody Bomar, who has Little Big Town Music and owns every album I\u2019ve made.  He\u2019s a big fan but even he says, \u2018I couldn\u2019t sign you, John.  You don\u2019t write what they\u2019re doing here.\u2019  I listen to country music now and think it is awful.  There are some Vince Gill songs I like but on the whole, I can\u2019t connect with the \u2018hat\u2019 songs.  I did some writing with the guys down there but it was so fabricated.  It is writing to make money.  There is no heartin the stuff.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You recorded a song called \u2018Women\u2019 with Rosanne Cash, which could be seen as your feminist anthem.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have a condition called ADD – Attention Deficit Disorder – and one of the symptoms is living dangerously.  Most people who have it drive racing cars or motorcycles or they go sky-diving or bungee jumping.  Mine is to do things on stage that no-one should ever do.  I sang \u2018Women\u2019 for the first time in Texas at the Kerrville Folk Festival with an audience full of cowboys and hats, and it went down a storm. I was so pleased that \u2018Women\u2019 went over so well as it was such a dangerous song at that time.  I love dangerous songs – \u2018Christ And The Devil\u2019 is a dangerous song and it\u2019s a rush to do it.  It can go wrong.  We played a gig opening for the Pleasure Barons and the audience were just animals – beer-swilling animals.  We often open with \u2018Lost Her In The Sun\u2019 but I went for \u2018Songs Of All The Angels\u2019, which is the slowest ballad I know as it was the most dangerous thing to do at that time.  I wasn\u2019t going to pander and I wasn\u2019t going to try and get \u2018em because I knew I couldn\u2019t.  They were talking and yelling all the way through.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There really is something called ADD?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah, it\u2019s very real.  I found out I had it four years ago.  It is very treatable but my mind is like a remote control for a TV, it usually won\u2019t lock on anything.  When you have ADD and you lock on something, you are so into it that if you are jarred out of it, it fries your nervous system.  You cannot hold a thought at all.  It\u2019s a hideous thing but it is very common.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/strong>You\u2019re also part of a new band, Darwin\u2019s Army.  What is that?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is an idea I\u2019ve had for ten years.  I wanted to have a folk group that would not only do traditional songs but would also do newer folk songs that people might not think of as folk like \u2018Reason To Believe\u2019, \u2018The Boy In The Bubble\u2019 and \u2018Silver Wings\u2019.  At first I tried to do it with Chuck McDermott and Buffy.  We had one rehearsal, but Buffy and Chuck were like ten year olds, laughing and making faces, and I said, \u2018That\u2019s the end of the rehearsal, this is too silly.\u2019  Finally, Buffy and I decided to do it with John Hoke and I fell in love with the name, Darwin\u2019s Army.  Someone referred to a town in the South as Darwin\u2019s Waiting Room, and Darwin\u2019s Army sounded so strong.  I called three different labels and told them about the idea, and all three wanted to sign us without hearing any demos, which was amazing.  Most of the times they want to hear the songs and I\u2019ve never ever had a label sign me on just an idea before.  We have done<\/em><\/strong> an album for Appleseed which will be out in June.  It\u2019s a really good album.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which of your songs are you most pleased with?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Who Stole The Soul Of Johnny Dreams\u2019 -one of the latest ones, but it\u2019s always that way.  I feel that \u2018Mother Country\u2019 and \u2018The Pirates Of Stone County Road\u2019 are completely original, I have never heard any song like them, and I think I really was able to craft \u2018Cody\u2019 but this new song is so minimal, it has so much mystery and yet it is so clear.  I love it and I am so happy that other people seem to like it.  I can usually find something wrong with them but I haven\u2019t with that one.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You must have written one of the first e-mail songs with \u2018Davey On The Internet\u2019?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I love Bloodlines, the bulletin board that we have on the Internet, and I love the immediacy of e-mail.  A lot of people write into Bloodlines and I get immediate feedback from people who like my music.  I had a title for thirty years, \u2018Judy On The Intercom\u2019, (sings) and I thought, \u2018Someday I\u2019ll write that\u2019, but it never worked.  Dave Batti said, \u2018It\u2019s Davey on the Internet\u2019, and I wrote the song in ten minutes<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you put any music on the Internet?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, I put 30 seconds of a new song, \u2018Dogs In The Bed\u2019 on Bloodlines, but I don\u2019t know if anyone ever went to it.  I also put a bit of Rosanne and I singing \u2018Price Of The Fire\u2019 at a club in New York but again, I never heard anyone mention it<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can tell how many people have visited a site.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah, but I haven\u2019t figured out how to do that yet.  (Laughs)  Some things I just don\u2019t connect with.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

John Stewart, thank you very much.  I hope this hasn\u2019t been a hard time for the Monkey Boy.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n


Not at all, the time has passed very quickly.  Thanks for all those questions and I\u2019ve got a name for you: Spencer \u201cMurrow\u201d Leigh.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

cover<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

this concludes our five day festival celebrating the muic of John Stewart and the coninued growth of The Bloodliners. This has been a celebartion of our 1,000th edition and we are hugely grateful for your support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16663,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71,13,45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture-and-tradition","category-literary","category-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16649"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16667,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16649\/revisions\/16667"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aata.dev\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}