BobTalk 1978-12-09 Columbia

(before Ballad Of A Thin Man) Remember those carnivals we used to have all over (…..)? They always used to have what they called a geek in there. (…..) what a geek is? It’s a man who eats a live chicken. Bites the head off and eats that, then eats the rest of it. Sweeps all the feathers up with a broom. Anyway, in those days it cost about a quarter to see him, nowadays it might be about 10 to 15 bucks, but back then you could see him for a quarter. So anyway, at the carnival nobody much hung out with him., the geek. People sort of tended to avoid him. And I was speaking one day at breakfast with the bearded lady, she’s telling me that the geek was lower than low down. (…..), but this time he was low down, he didn’t talk to nobody. And to give you an idea of how unusual he really was, she says he thought of everybody else as being quite freaky. (…..). And later on when I was out making my rounds, years later, that thought came back to me once in a while, when people would start looking at me in a strange way. So, I wrote this tune.
Somebody had to write it. 

(before Maggie’s Farm) Thank you. In 1963 I was invited to play at the Newport Folk Festival. Anyway, I went up there and I played this song and they kicked me out of town for doing it. Caused a big commotion. It’s hard to believe that a song could make people feel that way, but it did. It’s called I Ain’t Gonna Work On Maggie’s Farm No More.

(before Señor /Tales Of Yankee Power)) Thank you. Thank you. I was riding on a train one time from Durango, Mexico, to San Diego and the train was pulling into a station in a town called Monterey. I’d fallen asleep earlier in the day and I woke up about midnight. And, a family of about 15 was getting off the train. An old man was stepping up to the platform onto the train. This old man wore nothing but a blanket. I thought he must have been about 150 years old. Anyway, I was dozing off looking into the window of the train, which was like a long mirror, you know. It was like…looking out onto these people was like looking in a mirror. Anyway, I was looking out of this mirror and I saw this man come up the aisle and take a seat across the aisle from me. And he just sat there. After a certain period of time I couldn’t help myself, I turned to look would he would look like. When I looked at him both his eyes were on fire and there was smoke coming out of his nostrils. I knew this was the man I had wanted to talk to. 

(before Rainy Day Women #12 & 35) Thank you. We got three girls now that are gonna sing a song that I wrote. They insist on singing it, they said “You can’t sing this song anymore. We wanna sing it”. I said “All right”. We’re gonna try it tonight. 

(before One More Cup Of Coffee (Valley Below)) On the particular day that I was born on, my birthday (…..), it happen to be a high holy gypsy holiday. This is true. And I’ve heard about this for years and one year decided to go check it out. So I went over to the south of France where all the gypsies get together every year in May. And they have a good celebration, it’s like Christmas time. (…..) check it out and I managed to meet the king of the gypsies. A young man with…ha ha…I swear he had 22 wives and 135 kids, and girlfriends on the side. But I’ll tell you something, he was a powerful man and I’ve seen in my time, I’ve seen a lot of people with power who don’t deserve it and a lot of people who do deserve it but don’t have it. And of all the people I have seen with it, this man did deserve it. No question about that. Anyway, I stayed with them for a week and did what they did, did about everything twice. I’ve stayed awake for that week too. So when it was time to go and…they’re gonna offer me something for the road. So I just needed something to take with me so I’d make it just one more day, so I just asked for one more cup of coffee for the road. And they gave it to me black. (…..) and headed out.

(before Where Are You Tonight (journey Through Dark Heat)) Thank you. We’d like to do a song from the new album called Street-Legal. This was a single. I know it sold about 100 copies. Anyway, I think it just sold 25, but I guess that we can play it anyway. 

(before I’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)) Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, on the drum tonight, give him a warm hand, from Kingston, Jamaica, Ian Wallace. On the bass guitar, Jerry Scheff. On the keyboards, also from Kingston, Jamaica, Mr. Alan Pasqua. On the lead guitar, Billy Cross. All right, the youngest member of this group, fifteen years old, been with me now for five years. Doesn’t smoke dope, drink whiskey, chase women. All that’s gonna change tonight. Ladies and gentlemen, plays the violin, mandolin, (…..), David Mansfield. All right. On the rhythm guitar, a man with great renown, from Bogota, Colombia. One of the great fathers of punk music. Also a racing car driver, (…..). Ladies and gentlemen, Steve Soles. On the tenor saxophone, a young man who’s (…..). A legend in his own lifetime. Played on many amazing things. Anyway, you’ve hear him all night, you know he’s phenomenal, Steve Douglas. On the backup vocals tonight. I don’t know what I’ll do with these girls anymore. (…..). I know I don’t have the greatest voice in the world, but they make it sound just a little bit better. Anyway, on the right, my ex-girlfriend, Helena Springs. In the middle, my current girlfriend, Jo Ann Harris. And on the other side, now the sweetheart of my life, my fiancée, Carolyn Dennis. On the conga drums, from Detroit, Miss Bobbye Hall. I wanna thank you for coming. We’ll be back here real soon. I’m not ready to be put out to pasture yet, so we may be back.