MP3 Dick Fariña & Eric von Schmidt - Dick Fariña & Eric von Schmidt

Conversion to CD of the cult folkmusic LP by Dick Fariña and Eric von Schmidt, famous for an early 1960s cameo by Bob Dylan, appearing as Blind Boy Grunt.

14 MP3 Songs
FOLK: Folk Blues, FOLK: Political



Details:
Producer's Notes

This is a direct conversion to CD format of the 1963 LP, which I underwrote and produced in London. It has been a hard-to-find cult classic for years, and copies of the LP, when they surfaced, typically brought $200 on eBay.

Word reached me late in 2006 that a pirate CD edition was being readied in England. I took legal action in London to prevent that, and this 2-CD release is the product of that successful effort.

The recording features the first recorded appearance by Richard Fariña, who later married Mimi Baez, Joan's sister, and became a successful novelist and recording artist. Fariña was killed in a motorcycle accident in 1966, on Mimi's 21st birthday, which was also the publication date of his cult novel, Been Down So Long It Looked Like Up to Me, which became a Paramount movie.

Also featured is Eric von Schmidt, who died recently, and who was a leader in the glory days of 1960s folk music. Von Schmidt was also a graphic artist and writer on musical subjects. Ethan Signer, another folkie of that era turned MIT scientist, appears in a background role.

The cult has grown around Fariña's early and tragic death, and the cameo appearance on the album of Bob Dylan, disguised as Blind Boy Grunt, a pseudonym he used four or five times, as a way to appear on fun projects without violating his Columbia Records contract.

Dylan's first LP had just appeared in the US, but not yet in the UK. He was a total unknown, so much so that on the session notes he is identified as "Bob Diglan."

Dylan appeared only on four of the fourteen tracks, all recorded on January 15, 1963 in the basement of Folklore Records in London. The four tracks are: Glory, Glory; Overseas Stomp; Xmas Island and Cocaine.

Fans of Dylan are advised that his contributions are somewhat minimal, and his presence on these four cuts does not add greatly to the final fix. Serious Dylan followers have nevertheless been drawn to the record for more than forty years.

The sound quality is excellent, and there was no "sweetening" or other technical change made in the CD conversion except for the removal of several pops and clicks. The remastering for CD was performed at the famous Plant Studios in Sausalito, CA, by the well-respected John Cuniberti.

The contents of the original LP appear on Disc 1. Disc two contains all the outtakes that were found on the master tapes, 21 tracks in all, including two songs that did not end up on the original LP.

The story behind the story is a complicated one, and it will continue to unreel at www.FarinaCD.com.

-Tom Costner, Producer