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N0KFQ > TODAY 12.05.11 16:24l 61 Lines 3000 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Today in History - May 12
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May 12, 1963:
Bob Dylan walks out on The Ed Sullivan Show
By the end of the summer of 1963, Bob Dylan would be known to
millions who watched or witnessed his performances at the March
on Washington, and millions more who did not know Dylan himself
would know and love his music thanks to Peter, Paul and Mary's
smash-hit cover version of "Blowin' In The Wind." But back in
May, Dylan was still just another aspiring musician with a
passionate niche following but no national profile whatsoever.
His second album, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, had not yet been
released, but he had secured what would surely be his big break
with an invitation to perform on The Ed Sullivan Show. That
appearance never happened. On May 12, 1963, the young and unknown
Bob Dylan walked off the set of the country's highest-rated
variety show after network censors rejected the song he planned
on performing.
The song that caused the flap was "Talkin' John Birch Paranoid
Blues," a satirical talking-blues number skewering the
ultra-conservative John Birch Society and its tendency to see
covert members of an international Communist conspiracy behind
every tree. Dylan had auditioned "John Birch" days earlier and
had run through it for Ed Sullivan himself without any concern
being raised. But during dress rehearsal on the day of the show,
an executive from the CBS Standards and Practices department
informed the show's producers that they could not allow Dylan to
go forward singing "John Birch." While many of the song's lyrics
about hunting down "reds" were merely humorous_"Looked up my
chimney hole/Looked down deep inside my toilet bowl/They got
away!"_others that equated the John Birch Society's views with
those of Adolf Hitler raised the fear of a defamation lawsuit in
the minds of CBS's lawyers. Rather than choose a new number to
perform or change his song's lyrics_as the Rolling Stones and the
Doors would famously do in the years to come_Dylan stormed off
the set in angry protest.
Or so goes the legend that helped establish Dylan's public
reputation as an artist of uncompromising integrity. In reality,
Bob Dylan was polite and respectful in declining to accede to the
network's wishes. "I explained the situation to Bob and asked him
if he wanted to do something else," recalls Ed Sullivan Show
producer Bob Precht, "and Bob, quite appropriately, said 'No,
this is what I want to do. If I can't play my song, I'd rather
not appear on the show.'" It hardly mattered whether Dylan's
alleged tantrum was fact or reality. The story got widespread
media attention in the days that followed, causing Ed Sullivan
himself to denounce the network's decision in published
interviews. In the end, however, the free publicity Bob Dylan
received may have done more for his career than his abortive
national-television appearance scheduled for this day in 1963
ever could have.
73, K.O. N0KFQ
Another old retired guy
E-mail: n0kfq@winlink.org
N0KFQ@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
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