It was most likely the "poet angle" that gave some record company guy the bright idea to do an album of someone reciting Dylan lyrics over easy listening musical arrangements. The kind of record that would make your Aunt feel hip. And what better "someone" than that English butler guy on the hit television show "Family Affair".
So Mr. French, the upstanding classy sophisticated man- servant, decides to record an album's worth of song lyrics by some radical hippie commie smart alek Minnesotan. What would Uncle Bill say?
Probably nothing. As long, as the butler kept his trousers pressed, his Argyle socks matched and those two little twins quiet, what did he care what the "help" did on their days off?
What would Sissy say? Also probably not much as I always took her for a Herman's Hermits fan anyway. She probably thought Peter Noone was "dreamy" while Dylan was a "total ick". Which, let's be honest here, he most certainly was.
Don't get me wrong here, I like Uncle Bobby. I used to be one of those people who sat around studying his lyrics to see what hidden meanings they contained. I even wrote a term paper in college examining the lyrics to "Subteranean Homesick Blues".
I still like Dylan but in a pinch I'll take "Monster Mash" over "Desolation Row" any day. As the man himself once sang, "I was so much older than, I'm younger than that now."
Initially, I bought this record for the yuk-yuk factor but over time, the album has grown on me. There is something quite soothing about the combination of Sebastian Cabot's voice, the middle of the road schmaltz musical arrangements and Dylan's over the top lyricism that causes me to fall into a pleasant catatonic stupor. Like a litre NyQuil on an empty stomach, only more lethal.
Listen for yourself.
--Rock N Roll Casey
September 30, 2016
Shangri-La, Ohio
Casey's Website
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