#639: C is for Cabot, Sebastian

How the hell
did this record
get into my collection?
I try to remember.
Ah, yes, I remember.
My friend Curtis
is often wont to
gift his friends
very strange records
for birthdays or
Christmas, and one
year he gave this
to me, the British
actor Sebastian Cabot
reading the
“poetry” of Bob Dylan
with musical
accompaniment.
When I begin this
listening endeavor
I am not sure
I will make it
to the end of the
album. The first track,
“Who Killed Davy Moore?
Why? And what’s the
reason for?” shouted at
the top of his lungs
in an American accent
over organs and strings.
WTF. WTF. Who wanted
this? Who thought this
might be cool? I mean,
there’s some interest
in the ridiculousness of it–
this guy, speaking bad
poetry in his best
American over the top of
mostly nice string
arrangements. “Blowin’
in the Wind” is oddly
accompanied by a
Disneyfied orchestration
of the actual song
while Cabot speaks
the lyrics as if he’s
reading a love sonnet.
If nothing else, this
performance proves
that most rock song
lyrics, even those
many would say
(I don’t) are the
best song lyrics,
suck when spoken.
I manage to flip
the record over,
but I can’t imagine
reaching for this for any
other reason than for
its oddity. I think
I’d much rather
listen to Dylan’s singing
even though I mostly
dislike Dylan’s singing,
but the D’s are
an entire letter away.

---

Notes on the vinyl edition: Sebastian Cabot, Actor; Bob Dylan, Poet: A Dramatic Reading with Music, MGM Records, 1967. This record’s in great shape, probably because it never got played.

If you are just joining me for the first time, I am attempting to listen to all of my records in alphabetical order and then writing a poem-like-thing for each artist represented there. As you can tell, I’m even listening to things for which I have low or no enthusiasm, in part, to determine whether I should keep them in the collection. Why keep it if you don’t like it? For a laugh, maybe. This record, and the Bread album–if nothing else, amusing.