Monday, March 19, 2012

When Dylan Put Ma Rainey and Pa Beethoven in Bed Together

Bob Dylan, my OTHER musical hero, released his first album 50 years ago today, they say, although it took me, and most others, until at least #2 to catch on.  So, what is the one Dylan song where he mentions LvB?  Buzzzzzzz, your time's up.  Of course, it is "Tombstone Blues," off his greatest album, Highway 61 Revisited, from 1965.   The line is "Ma Rainey and Beethoven once unwrapped a bed roll."  Someone helpfully did a mashup of the pair at left.   Ma, of course, was the great blues singer later immortalzed on Broadway for her "black bottom."    The song is here, although guitarist Mike Bloomfield gets the heading to sneak this past You Tube.

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