Notes about the John Denver and
Denver, Boise & Johnson songs
There was a short period of time starting on May 21, 1966
when many people in a folk music organization called The Queen City Balladeers
were able to be around The Mitchell Trio, Denver Boise & Johnson, John
Denver, and Michael Johnson for more than just concerts. It was the mutual love of folk music that
enabled this remarkable time. The Queen
City Balladeers are a
Several years before he was well known, we knew John Denver
as a wonderfully talented singer and guitar player who was very willing to
spend hours with us, singing and playing.
We came to know the other members of the group also and had many
after-concert picking parties with all of them.
We were in awe of Paul Prestopino and his multiple talents, we loved
Michael Johnson’s voice and guitar playing, we marveled over Bob Hefferan’s
superb French Jazz and we enjoyed the humor and talent of David Boise. But on top of it all were the songs. It was their fantastic songs that made me
want to tape their concerts and parties.
Admittedly, a selfish part of wanting to tape them was to learn the
songs for ourselves. When I looked at
the set lists of John Denver, Denver Boise & Johnson and Michael Johnson
recently, I was amazed at the number of their songs we learned for our own folk
groups. The
There was an unspoken trust between the Balladeers and John Denver where he knew that we would never do anything with these recordings. I only used these tapes to learn the songs, and for almost 40 years I’ve dragged these old tapes of mine from house to house. The last concerts of Denver, Boise & Johnson were mailed by John Denver to myself and two other Balladeers in Cincinnati on reel-to-reel tape. The tape was a compilation of what John thought were the best songs from their last two concerts. We didn’t ask him to do that, he just did it as a gesture to fellow folk musicians and friends. He knew how much we loved their music.
Many of these songs have never been recorded and
I hope you enjoy these songs as much as I do. If you have any questions about this treasure trove, email me at JohnMarlowe@CincinnatiDancingPigs.com. If you really want the CD’s from the original tapes that make up these concerts, email me and I’ll arrange to get them to you, time permitting and if you make it as easy on me as possible. And, if anyone knows of anything incorrect in this document, let me know.
John Marlowe
April 1, 2007
Photo courtesy of Bob
Hefferan, circa 1967
Left to right: Jacque Morgan, John Marlowe
Paul Prestopino, Nancy Lee, Bob Hefferan,
Barb Marek
John Denver
Denison University, Bandersnatch Coffeehouse – March 15,
1969
See this link for Jeffrey Pettegrew’s “Birth of the Bandersnatch” article: http://www.cincinnatidancingpigs.com/BirthOfTheBandersnatch.html
See this link for some of the words to the songs from this and the next 2 concerts, and thanks to Jason Xion Wang, who put them out there:
http://lyricwiki.org/John_Denver:The_Bandersnatch_Concert_%281969%29
Intro at Bandersnatch – John
Denver
John is introducing his “I Like To Deal With The
Ladies”. The first three songs were
“Ann, “It’s A Sin To Tell A Lie” and “Today”, the great Randy Sparks song, all
sung without pause. These are the same songs he started with at the Wise Owl
Coffeehouse in
“Paul Prestopino…. where are you?”
From my memory, this is not the only time John expressed how he missed Paul Prestopino. I believe I can hear us Balladeers in the audience chiming along with him when he almost moaned this plaintive statement. Paul brought stability and a sense of musical professionalism to John and the Trio. The story John is conveying in this cut is most likely not true. I think it was his attempt to be humorous when he was talking about how he missed Paul Prestopino. But I do believe it’s true that Paul helped John many times with his music and 12 string tuning and that John thought of Paul often and not only when he was having trouble getting his instruments in tune.
See this web site for the impressive number of artists that Paul Prestopino has backed up and recorded with over the years. http://home.cogeco.ca/~mansion1/paulprestopino.html. Also, see the somewhat recent picture of Paul with Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler, here at http://www.recordplantremote.com/
Last Thing on My Mind
– Tom
Paxton
John plays his classical guitar on this legendary Tom Paxton
song. John had a deep respect for
Michael Johnson when he was in
Frankie and Johnny
– Traditional
American Folk Song
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankie_and_Johnny_(song) for the origins of this song. John may have gotten this version from Bob Gibson but it could have been anyone. As an example, Nancy Lee and Barb Marek, who played with us in 1966, got the song from Joe and Eddie, I believe.
Mr. Bojangles – Jerry Jeff Walker
The Trio and John probably got this song from Jerry Jeff Walker, but it was the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band who had the hit on their “Uncle Charlie & His Dog Teddy” album in 1976. I’ve got to admit that even though I loved the DB&J version of this song and it’s probably where the Balladeers learned it, that the Dirt Band (who us Jug-Bander’s admire a lot) really brought this song to life with their folk-rock version of it. I remember having the whimsical thought back then that the Denver, Boise & Johnson version of this song might have been the hit, had they stayed together.
“The 12-String Guitar”
This was just included to show John’s frustration with
tuning. I originally thought that Dave
Boise came up with the funny things to say about it, but, I listened to my bad
tape of a 1967 Mitchell Trio concert and found that Mike Kobluk was doing them
in 1967. So, it seems that these humorous
12-string jokes were passed along from The Mitchell Trio, to
That’s The Way It’s Gonna Be – Phil Ochs, from the LP “The Broadside Tapes 1”
This was previously recorded by The Mitchell Trio, the group
in which John had taken Chad Mitchell’s place.
John’s initial repertoire as a solo performer contained many songs from
the set lists of The Mitchell Trio and
The Weight – The Band
Every folk singer in this era knew and played this song. At the Wise Owl concert, John dedicated this song to the son of one of the Balladeers in the audience.
Reason to Believe – Tim Hardin
Folk songs in the 60’s were almost universally known, meaning that you could travel from one part of the country to another and people knew the same songs. Tim Hardin’s song was in this category, as were many in John’s repertoire.
Marcie – Joni Mitchell
Like all folk singers back then, John had several Joni Mitchell songs in his repertoire. This song is from her “Song to a Seagull” album.
All The While - Myles Rudge and Ted Dicks
"All the While" was written by Myles Rudge and Ted
Dicks as a novelty song for the British performer Bernard Cribbins. Cribbins recorded it under the title
"Folk Song". It appears on
Cribbins' albums "Carry On Cutler" and "The Very Best Of Bernard
Cribbins”. Another recorded version was
by the Modern Folk Quartet. The song (titled "And All the While”) appears
on the MFQ album "Changes".
This was released on vinyl in 1964 (Warner Bros. Record WS-1546). A
Japanese CD of the album was released in 1990, but it is very rare and
difficult to find (
(Thanks to Jochen Michalak for the above research on this song)
“The song "All The While" is also released on a 2007 John Denver album called "John Denver In Concert" under the title of "Old English Folk Song" and it is available on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/John-Denver-Concert-Australian/dp/B000WMGDA2 .” (compliments of Jaxon Xion Wang)
For Lovin’ Me – Gordon Lightfoot
There wasn’t a folksinger around in the 60’s who did not have at least one Gordon Lightfoot song tucked in their guitar case and John had two he did at these concerts.
“Frustrated with tuning…..”
In this cut, John’s about at his wits end with tuning his 12-string.
Cindy’s Crying – Tom Paxton
This is a Mitchell Trio song too, performed on their “Alive”
album. I just wish I had the
A lot of folk singers in this era played this song, especially after Peter, Paul & Mary recorded it.
Wherefore and the Why
– Gordon Lightfoot
This is a good, solid Gordon Lightfoot song which was learned by several groups and soloists in the Balladeers because John played it.
Abraham, Martin and
John – Richard Holler, sung by “Dion”
In the context of 1969, the year these concerts were recorded, the deaths of Martin Luther King and John Kennedy were still fresh memories.
You Done Stompt on my
Heart – Extended – Mason Williams
This version is our emulation of the
See Jeff Pettegrew’s “History of the Bandersnatch” on the concert songs home page, for a very interesting story about this song and about himself and John Denver making up words for the song. http://www.cincinnatidancingpigs.com/BirthOfTheBandersnatch.html
“Country And Western Songs..”
The Balladeers as well as John and Michael and David, appreciated a funny titled or versed C&W song and John mentions that Erich Zwertschek knew “Dim Lights, Thick Smoke and Loud, Loud Music”. At least one of the songs he’s mentioning came from Mike Johnson. My earliest recollection of these kinds of songs was “Amelia Earhart”, which we all sang together at a party, and “We Need A Whole Lot More of Jesus, And A Lot Less Rock and Roll”, which The Cincinnati Dancing Pigs still do. In the same vein, the Dancing Pigs also do “Drop Kick Me Jesus, Through the Goal Posts of Life”. There are several websites listing some of them. Two of them I know of are http://www.downstream.sk.ca/country1.htm and http://www.countrysongtitles.com
Everybody’s Talkin’ – Fred
Neil
This was a
Suzanne – Leonard Cohen
What folk singer back then did not know at least the C-chord guitar part for this song?
The Game Is Over – Denver/Bourtayre/Bouchety
I’ve always thought that this is one of John’s best songs ever. John wrote this song to the music from the 1966 French movie “The Game Is Over”, which starred Jane Fonda. He played it for us at one of the after concert jam sessions, where at that time the movie was currently in theaters. The version on “Whose Garden Was This” never did seem right to me, with the tinkling bells in it. I wish I had a good version on tape where Paul Prestopino was backing up John and where John was playing a steel string guitar on this song, but my party tape versions are very poor quality. Before John’s death, Michael Johnson was also known to have pointed this song out as an example of one of John’s best at songwriting. The recording has a little interference on it but it’s on here because it’s unique. This version is more subdued than the other times we heard it and John using a classical guitar makes it even more so. It’s also performed almost at the end of this three hour concert.
The real question about this song is, why did he write the words to the music from the movie? I actually watched this awful movie again recently, after 40 years, thinking I might find the song in the movie, but, it’s the melody only that’s in the movie. JD has no credits in the movie. I’m sure we Balladeers knew more about this song 40 years ago, but the memory is gone. If anyone knows the background story, let me know! I have to admit that in doing my research, I was a little disappointed to find out John only wrote the words to the song, which are great but, it’s not entirely his song.
Both Sides Now – Joni Mitchell
John learned this song from the
“Closing thoughts about
It’s been great to have met by email, the founders of the Denison Bandersnatch coffeehouse, especially Jeff Pettegrew, who has written a history of it on the concert songs home page. See http://www.cincinnatidancingpigs.com/BirthOfTheBandersnatch.html
Jeff has verified for me that folk singers from this era all
knew the same songs, no matter what part of the country they were in. The Balladeers never met Jeff or his group of
fellow folk singers, yet when Jeff recently sent me a list of his favorite
songs from that time, I knew 99% of them, probably played 75% of them and they
were my favorites too. This time in
music was unique for that aspect. The
only equivalent today might be with
Queen City Balladeers Wise Owl Coffeehouse – Saturday
May 10, 1969
Note: The Balladeers still operate a coffeehouse in Cincinnati, having done so continuously since the early 60’s. Their web site is at http://www.qcballadeers.org. This organization is responsible for a large number of people playing folk songs. The Cincinnati Dancing Pigs still play at their coffeehouse occasionally, and at their long running Summer Concerts in Eden Park in Cincinnati.
See this link for the words to some of the songs from this concert, compliments of Jason Xion Wang
http://lyricwiki.org/John_Denver:The_Wise_Owl_Concert_%281969%29
And, see this link with a small paragraph from the University of Cincinnati student newspaper announcing the Wise Owl and Nowhere concerts. Search for “Denver”: http://digitalprojects.libraries.uc.edu/newsrecord/1969/1969_05_09.pdf. I was surprised to find no review of these two concerts in subsequent issues.
Ann – Billy Ed Wheeler
This Billy Ed Wheeler song leads off two of the 1969 concerts that are on the website. Since John did not do “For Bobbi” at either of those concerts, it’s my opinion that he was doing this song for his wife Annie. I believe John may have gotten this version from The Kingston Trio album “Back In Town”, released in 1964, or from the Glen Campbell version. It was one of many Billy Ed Wheeler songs that The Kingston Trio did.
It’s a Sin To Tell a
Lie – Billy Mayhew – 1935
The Cincinnati Dancing Pigs still do this song, having learned it in the era where Queen City Balladeers were around John a lot.
Today – Randy Sparks
This is a wonderful, classic folk song, although folk purists from that era disdained it as too commercial. The Balladeers at the Wise Owl are all singing the chorus after John’s prompting. Randy Sparks was of course, the founder of The New Christy Minstrels and many other groups, including one that Michael Johnson was in. John Denver also worked for Randy in his very early career. In one of the (6) interviews Randy gives on the Folk Alley site, Randy remembers when everyone in the New Christy Minstrels thought “Today” was a bad song after Randy had just written it and had them listen to it. Randy has a long memory for these kinds of things, especially since he was vindicated by the song being a huge hit for the Minstrels. These 6 Randy Sparks interview mp3’s are at http://www.folkalley.com/music/extras/randy-sparks/. The clip about his memories of the Minstrels thinking that “Today” was a piece of crap is here at http://198.234.121.107/folkalley/extras/randy_sparks/part5.mp3
Intro at Wise Owl – John
Denver
This is pretty much the same intro he did at the
Bandersnatch, except that John got a kick out of all the Queen City Balladeers
singing along on “Today”, which was the song before this intro. And he mentions that the last time he was at
our coffeehouse, David Boise had just joined The Mitchell Trio two years ago. The concert where Dave Boise first appeared
with the Mitchell Trio was on 4/15/67 at the
You Done Stompt on My Heart – Mason Williams (audience participation)
The Queen City Balladeers in the audience are singing the chorus in harmony to John’s “directions”. The Balladeers were able to learn this song among many others, because of having these recordings. Back then, we all enjoyed doing songs that John or his group had not recorded yet. The Denison version of this song did not have mostly Balladeers in the audience and therefore didn’t have the audience participation as on this version. That version does have two Balladeers playing and singing on the song, though.
Catch Another
Butterfly – Mike Williams
See the extensive notes at the bottom in the Bistro Inn section for lots of information about this wonderful song, including an additional verse and Mike Williams’ recollections about writing the song.
Rhymes and Reasons – John Denver
This song was fairly new when John performed it at the Wise Owl and the Bandersnatch, and as he says, it was going to be the title song on his first album, his having gotten a recording contract with RCA.
What’s That I Hear – Phil Ochs
Here’s a web page with more information on Phil Ochs, another prolific folk song writer. http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~trent/ochs/
You Certainly Have Got A Pretty Fantastic Bod – Michael Peter Smith (audience participation)
Again, Queen City Balladeers are singing the refrain to this song because everyone knew it from these recordings and because John set it up at the Nowhere Coffeehouse the night before. See Michael Smith’s website for more on this prolific and funny songwriter: http://www.artistsofnote.com/michael/index.html. John is playing his classical guitar on this and is emulating Michael Johnson from the DB&J version in my opinion. Even the ending riff is Michael Johnson’s. I don’t have verification of this, but my memories tell me that when the group broke up, John got the same brand classical guitar that Michael played with DB&J. John did have a deep respect for Michael’s abilities.
Intro to Civil War Trilogy
Either John did “Civil War Trilogy” and “Business” together, or in the case of the Nowhere Coffeehouse, “Two Little Boys” and “Last Night I Had The Strangest Dream”. They were his anti-war statement songs at this time.
Civil War Trilogy – Bob Gibson
This song is from the legendary album “Bob Gibson and Hamilton Camp at The Gate of Horn”.
Business Goes On As
Usual – Fred Hellerman and Fran Minkoff
This was a Mitchell Trio song and it fit John’s growing though initially uncomfortable feeling anti-war sentiment. Anti-Vietnam war, that is. It was originally sung by Joe Frazier in the Mitchell Trio. It was interesting that John and Michael Johnson were both initially uncomfortable with “protest” songs back then. John seemed to eventually welcome this into his personality, though Michael was more comfortable not singing about causes in his later years.
What a Friend We Have
In Congress – Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger is featured in a new film documentary released in 2007, called “Pete Seeger: The Power of Song”, that was on PBS, and which will be on DVD soon. It’s a highly recommended documentary to watch. John doesn’t say anything about him, but Pete Seeger is directly responsible for John and all other folk singers of the era.
Games People Play – Joe South
But You Know I Love
You – Mike Settle and Pierre Delanoe
I don’t recall Michael Johnson ever doing this song, but it’s another indication of both of them being fascinated with Jacque Brel songs. This particular one could bring the house down for John.
Nowhere Coffeehouse – University of Cincinnati, Friday
May 9, 1969
See this link for the words to some of the songs from this concert:
http://lyricwiki.org/John_Denver:Live_At_Nowhere_%281969%29
John played at this
Two Little Boys – Theodore Morse/Edward Madden – 1902
John may have gotten his version from Australian folk singer Rolf Harris, who wrote “Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport”. This is apparently a fairly unique recording. When people download these songs off of my web site and republish them, they typically include the word “rare” for a song like this.
Last Night I Had The
Strangest Dream – Ed McCurdy
I’m pretty sure just about every major folk singer of the era did this classic anti-war song, which John mistakenly mentions was almost 50 years old at the time he was singing it. Some of the artists who have recorded it were The Limeliters, Joan Baez, The Kingston Trio, Simon and Garfunkel, The Weavers and Pete Seeger. In doing some research on this song, indications are that it was really written in 1950 and it was Ed McCurdy’s most famous song. I wonder just how familiar John was with the original Chad Mitchell Trio material, as this song was on their 1962 album “The Chad Mitchell Trio At The Bitter End”. It’s just as possible I suppose that he knew the song because it was almost the anthem of anti-war songs back then. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear it being done again now, as we seem to be in somewhat of the same situation. Although, the Iraq war has unfortunately not made people as rabidly anti-war as they were in the Vietnam era when John was singing these songs. But then again, there’s no draft now in the U.S. either.
Farewell Party – Bob Gibson& Bob Connelley
This song was on John’s 1966 250 copy limited edition album, which was known to his friends as “The Christmas Album”. None of the Balladeers were fortunate enough to have gotten a copy of this, although we all knew about it and sure wanted one back then. Bob Gibson was one of the authors of this song and was a prolific and popular folk singer, but I’m not sure who Bob Connelly is/was. If you might like to listen to the other songs on JD’s 1966 solo album and see the album covers, look here:
http://jdshigherground.homestead.com/1966JohnDenverSingsAlbum.html
What can a person say about The Mama’s and The Papas? John apparently admired them as much as any other folksinger of the time. This song has also had the word “rare” attached to it when someone put it on YouTube.
For Bobbi – John Denver
At least we now have a recording of John saying he wrote this song for a former girlfriend. I understand that Bobbie (and is it “Bobbi”, or “Bobbie”?) is still around and has been known to attend some fan functions. I wonder how a person would feel about having a love song named after them by someone who eventually became one of the most recognized voices in the world?
The
Party Songs
Picture from the “Miami Student” newspaper,
Miami University, Oxford, Ohio
October 8, 1968, for the 10/12/68 concert,
where some of the party songs came from.
Courtesy of the Miami University Archives
I included the best songs from two parties with the Trio
where I actually had a tape recorder running.
There are several songs on these tapes where they were learning this
song or the other before the group broke up.
As examples, they were doing a wonderful version of the Chuck Berry song
“
I believe John said that he had learned this song from Paul Prestopino. JD was an excellent picker back then. I’ve heard this song done only one time before by JD, and that’s at the beginning of a cut where he goes into “I Like To Deal With The Ladies” (thank you Roger Ooms). Paul Prestopino is playing wonderful backup to John’s fingerpicking on Dallas Rag. Last summer (2007) the Cincinnati Dancing Pigs were playing at the Louisville, Kentucky “Jug Band Jubilee”, and an old friend and I were sitting on a park bench reminiscing about JD and those times. Off in the distance, one of the groups started playing “Dallas Rag” on stage, and it sent chills down my spine. It was very coincidental and was the first time I had heard anyone do this song live since 1968. Recently, an avid Chinese fan, Jason Xion Wang, sent me a link to a video of John doing it in 1973 just as he did on my party tape:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bi1Lnul_pXA. It’s wonderful seeing John playing the song.
Miss Annabelle Lee
Caravan
Sweet Sue
Bugle Call Rag
If it weren’t for these recordings, I don’t know where other Bob Hefferan/Paul Prestopino recordings might be. Bob Hefferan’s French Jazz artistry is very apparent on these songs. I can’t remember if they did this in concert or not, but on “Sweet Sue”, Bob comes over to Paul’s guitar for the last verse and plays his lead part on Paul’s guitar at the same time Paul is playing backup, thus all the laughter you can hear. I can’t quite make out what snide comment JD is making, but it gets a laugh too. Paul and Bob did look pretty funny playing the same guitar.
One interesting note is that Bob Hefferan is now playing again after all these years. Bob is one of the two guitar players for the rarely performing and rejuvenated original Chad Mitchell Trio. Their other guitar player would be none other than Paul Prestopino himself. How good could it get to see one of their concerts? See their excellent website at: http://www.chadmitchelltrio.com/
The Mitchell Trio, courtesy
of Diana & David Boise
John Denver, Mike
Kobluk, David Boise
The Mitchell Trio from
the 5/21/66 concert, courtesy of the University of
Cincinnati student
newspaper the “News Record”
Mike Kobluk, Joe Frazier,
John Denver
You Done Stompt On My
Heart – Mitchell Trio and DB&J early versions
It’s interesting to see the progression of this song from when they barely knew it in the Mitchell Trio days, to where it was the almost finished DB&J version at the Miami University party. At the Oxford, Ohio party, “Stompt” was the first of a round of funny C&W songs, and it was followed by myself mentioning “Egg Suckin’ Dog” (the great Johnny Cash song), Michael Johnson doing a little each of “If You Think You’ve Reached The Bottom, Just Look Down”, “Thank You Dear Jesus, For Victory In Korea”, and then everyone at the party doing “Amelia Earhart”. Erich Zwertschek knew the verses to “Amelia”, and is singing them. It’s interesting that Paul Prestopino was originally in the bluegrass group “The Greenbriar Boys” and that this group was where we all learned “Amelia Earhart”.
Love Is The Answer – John Denver, never recorded
It took me a while to research and then to realize that this was truly an unknown song written by John. I’ve talked with two excellent JD historians and both agree that this is a song that was never recorded anywhere as far as we know. You can find the song listed at least, on the Cherry Lane Publishing site as written by JD. It brings to mind conversations I’ve had with Jochen Michalak about the other JD songs sitting in vaults somewhere, waiting to be rediscovered and recorded by someone, anyone. I personally know of another John Denver song never recorded, called “With The Wind On My Mind”, that I had learned from the sheet music. Unfortunately that sheet music has disappeared, and I only remember a verse and a half of this song, plus the chorus. Someone needs to take on a project of finding and recording these never-recorded John Denver songs.
As an FYI, Jochen Michalak belongs to a John Denver fan club
in
Last Two Concerts, November 18 and 22, 1968
That's The Way It's
Gonna Be – Phil Ochs
This was on the first Mitchell Trio album, with John as the new replacement for Chad Mitchell. Back in the 60’s everyone did a Phil Ochs song or two. See another video of DB&J doing this song exactly as they did it on this cut, on Michael Johnson’s web site at http://www.mjblue.com/clips/video/dbj3.html
The Draft Dodger Rag – Phil Ochs
The Draft was traumatic in those days, especially to those
who had to go to
The student newspaper from May 26, 1966 at the University of Cincinnati had three articles on the Draft, one titled “Why I’m Here – Vietnam Viewpoint” and “More On The Draft And How To Appeal”, and another one titled “Dr. Parker Devises Student Draft Cards”. These were in the newspaper that reviewed The Mitchell Trio concert at U.C. on 5/21/66: http://digitalprojects.libraries.uc.edu/newsrecord/1966/1966_05_26.pdf. I attended at least one “Draft Dodging class” at U.C., and remember the paranoia being palpable that someone from the government was sitting there with us, taking notes and names.
We Didn't Know – Tom Paxton
This was also on a Mitchell Trio album, where Mike Kobluk had the lead. Tom Paxton was and is one of the most prolific and recorded folk song writers of all time. See his website at http://www.tompaxton.com
Intro of DB&J and Take Me To Tomorrow – John Denver
Take Me To Tomorrow –
John Denver
This song was done by the group on their only official recording, a 45 that also included “The 68 Nixon”.
Intro to Both Sides Now – John Denver
Here’s the mention of DB&J being in
Both Sides Now – Joni Mitchell
This is one of the most beautiful versions of this many times recorded song. Michael Johnson’s lead singing on it is superb, the harmonies are great and John’s harmony is almost ethereal. John’s 12 string background picking made it even better. This song is a good representation of Paul Prestopino playing his Martin D-28 as a bass guitar. Paul may have started doing this because there were too many guitars in the group with Michael Johnson’s addition. Want to see them on video doing the song exactly as on this recording? See http://www.mjblue.com/clips/video/dbj1.html
Intro To
Saturday Night in
This song has a fascinating history. Randy Sparks, founder of The New Christy
Minstrels, originally wrote the song and has a narrative online about it at: http://198.234.121.107/folkalley/extras/randy_sparks/part1.mp3. Michael Johnson was part of a Randy Sparks
folk group and learned the song from Randy and George Blackwell while Michael
was touring in Saigon, Vietnam with Randy.
John Denver was originally part of Randy Sparks’ organization too. Michael brought the song to
And, I don’t believe there are many people in the world who know these extra verses to the song, written by Randy. Here they are, and sing them in your mind….they fit, they were just not chosen by Michael Johnson and John Denver to be part of the song, for whatever reason, but probably because these verses made it too long:
There once was a ship that went down on
Not far from
I met one poor sailor who'd floated to town
He told me quite frankly he'd rather have drowned
So you bring the flowers and I'll give the eulogy
We'll, once and for all, do it right
We'll all shed a tear for
It dies every Saturday Night
Compared to the splendor of lovely
Great standards of beauty grow pale
The voice of Caruso emerges a grunt
Elizabeth Taylor become Allen Funt
(Note: Allen Funt was
famous for creating and doing “Candid Camera” the TV show)
Afterward to
Some people are so old they remember the issue of Playboy he was talking about back then.
Coal Tattoo – Billy Ed Wheeler
David Boise is playing guitar on this song besides doing the
lead. David also played guitar when Paul
Prestopino was doing his
Mr. Bojangles – Jerry Jeff Walker
David Boise keeps the guitar on after “Coal Tattoo” for this song and is doing the initial lead 6 string steel guitar picking on it. John’s 12-string is heard in the background and Michael Johnson can be heard doing very nice picking also. It sounds like Paul Prestopino is doing muted banjo on the song.
Intro To Rhymney – David
David Boise had a good sense of humor and had inherited from Mike Kobluk the perfect things to say during John’s sometimes long periods of 12 string tuning. This is also John’s explanation of the song.
Bells of Rhymney – Pete Seeger, based on a poem by Idris Davies
This became John’s signature song as a great 12 string
guitar player and singer. It was
included on the first Mitchell Trio album.
John mentioned in his autobiography that he learned it from Mike Crowley
of the “Back Porch Majority” out in
It was pointed out to me by Jochen Michalak (thanks Jochen!) that this song was based on a poem by Welsh coal miner, Idris Davies, who was inspired by the hardships of himself and other miners. The poem was in Idris Davies’ 1938 book, Gwalia Deserta, and Pete Seeger found it in a book by Dylan Thomas in a chapter called “Welsh Poetry in the English Language”. http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/southeast/sites/caerphilly/pages/bellsofrhymney.shtml. There’s more at this address too, http://www.celticlounge.com/news/templates/?a=17&z=0
Bandersnatch Intro to Old Folks – John Denver
This was a fairly new story for John introducing this song in his solo act. He played at the Bandersnatch in March, 1969 and mentions that the party for his grandparents-in-law was in February. I’m putting both of the coffeehouse intros for the song on the website because they’re very personal and slightly different, and chilling in some places, such as when he mentions that he can’t imagine being 50.
Wise Owl Intro to Old Folks – John
Denver
It’s May of 1969, and John has refined his intro a bit for
the song “Old Folks”. He does a much
shortened intro with
Old Folks – Jacque Brel, from “Jacque Brel is Alive And Well and Living in
This is sung by Michael Johnson and John also performed the song after the breakup of the trio. John recorded this song on his third album and Michael on his first, “There Is A Breeze”. There’s a very interesting interview with Michael Johnson regarding his love of Jacque Brel songs and his performing in the play after the breakup of DB&J. Apparently Michael had gone to see the show and was very impressed, so much that he auditioned for the show and was in it for a year. The interview is at http://www.mjblue.com/bmanof.html. Search for “Brel” on this page. I was surprised to find out from the Skip Weshner 1970 interview that John apparently had not seen Jacque Brel by 1970.
Intro to “Hort” – John
David, from
You Done Stompt on My Heart – Mason Williams
See notes from
Intro To Jet Plane – Michael Johnson
Michael had as much respect for John’s songwriting as John had for Michael’s talent.
Leaving on a Jet Plane – John Denver
Oh, do I wish I still had the original sheet music from
Paul Prestopino is once again playing bass on this song and using his nice old mellow Martin D-28.
Love of The Common People – Ronnie Wilkins/John Hurley
This song was recorded on John’s first commercial album, “Rhymes and Reasons”. Michael Johnson does the lead on this song and it was a good set closer, intense and driving. I think it was Waylon Jennings’s version that made this song known. Personally, I prefer the DB&J version much more than the one on Rhymes and Reasons. Thanks to Jason Xion Wang for correcting me about the authors of this song.
Last Two Concerts, November 18 and 22, 1968
Good to Be With You – Eric
Andersen
Eric Andersen was a much emulated songwriter of that time and the Mitchell Trio did several of his songs, “Violets of Dawn” being another one. This song is from Eric’s “Avalanche” album.
John Birch Society – Michael Brown
This was a Chad Mitchell Trio
song originally and made the group well known as daring and political. Note the lyrics changes in the song, some to
keep it topical, some that were personal.
I think the group changed this song with every city they played in. Instead of “Westbrook Pegler” they say “Spiro
Agnew” and John says “Well, GAC has agents that are flatly unashamed”, which I
think refers to a booking agency that DB&J had problems with. Instead of
“Norman Vincent Peale”, it’s “Dr. Spock”.
And they say “And even old Eagleville is full of Bolsheviks”, referring
to
Circus – Michael Johnson, John Denver and Laurie Kuehn
I’m not sure who Laurie Kuehn is, but it’s possible this is really mostly a Michael Johnson/Laurie Kuehn song and that John Denver contributed little on it. The Kuehn’s may have been a family that Michael Johnson was close to. This is a quote from Mike Johnson (as he called himself in the late 60’s) in a Wise Owl concert in 1970 about the song, where he says: “I would say that half of this song was instigated by a 13 year old girl….. she had the ideas for the song”. John played “Circus” with a classical guitar at his initial solo concerts, ala Michael Johnson. He recorded this DB&J song on “Rhymes and Reasons”, his first commercial album. But this version is the original way it was written to be sung, with Michael Johnson doing lead and John Denver doing harmony. It was another song of theirs that we “had” to learn.
There was a somewhat long intro to the song in concert, with John telling a story of a lonely looking girl he saw somewhere, and this intro is on the website.
My God I Appreciate Your Bod – Michael Peter Smith
This song was written by
well-known
Paul Prestopino - Flint Hill
Special, David Boise 6 string guitar
Paul Prestopino - Eighth of
January/Hop High Ladies
What can you say about Paul Prestopino? Not enough, certainly. He’s the ultimate finger picker, flat picker, bluegrass and frailing style banjo player, mandolin player, dobro player, bass player, autoharp and harmonica player, sound engineer, machine designer and nice guy. He played with the original Chad Mitchell Trio for years before John Denver joined the group. In a prior life, Paul played mandolin in the bluegrass group The Greenbriar Boys with the great John Herald and Bob Yellin. Paul Prestopino currently is the accompanist for Peter, Paul and Mary and the original Chad Mitchell Trio. These two songs showcase his talents which John and Michael and David appreciated a lot. At one after-concert party, Paul and Bob Hefferan put on a display of guitar wizardly by playing “Sweet Sue” on the same guitar, impressing all of us. Michael Johnson’s thoughts about Paul were that he was this very professional musician and the rest of them were just young dopes. Paul taught the Queen City Balladeers that you could save money by washing your guitar strings with steel wool, which brightened them up again and let you play them for a little bit longer. It was a wonderful tip for folk musicians who couldn’t afford new strings all the time, though it’s been years since I’ve done that.
Paul Prestopino (mandolin), Bob Yellin (banjo), John Herald (guitar)
Picture from http://www.cvil.wustl.edu/~gary/Lee/bio-folknik.html
Yellow Cat - Steve Fromholz
This was another song Michael Johnson brought to the group. On a party tape I recorded, John Denver can be heard saying “This is one of the greatest songs you’ll ever hear”. The words seem a little rearranged from the Steve Fromholz original, whose lyrics can be downloaded at: http://www.stevenfromholz.com/SongsandLyrics.html. John recorded this song on his first album, “Rhymes and Reasons”. This song was also done by John on the Nowhere Coffeehouse tape, and I know JD purists will want to shoot me over this, but his solo version is truly awful in my humble opinion, and especially on the Rhymes and Reasons album, when compared to the way Michael Johnson did it with DB&J.
One interesting piece of information is that Steven Fromholz was named “Poet Laureate of Texas” on April 19, 2007.
The ‘68 Nixon (This Year’s Model) – June Reizner
This was on the only commercial
recording released by
And, here’s a picture of the ’45:
Turning Point/Blowin' in the Wind medley – Martha Holmes/Bob Dylan
It’s a guess that the trio got this song from Nina Simon, who apparently called it “Turning Point”, as opposed to “Little Brown Girl”, or “Mom Can She Come Over”. Thanks to Roger Ooms for the research on this song. It makes sense that the song came from Nina Simone, since the next song was done by her too.
I Wish I Knew How It
Would Feel To Be Free - Billy Taylor & Dick Dallas
This song was one of the best that DB&J did and one of the Queen City Balladeers favorite John Denver, Michael Johnson, David Boise and Paul Prestopino songs. See the Michael Johnson web site clip of DB&J doing this song: http://www.mjblue.com/clips/video/dbj2.html. It’s possible they got the song from Nina Simone’s version, but John Denver and the trio’s rendition of it is far and above the better one. This is also another good demonstration of Paul Prestopino playing bass backup on his old Martin D-28. This is yet another DB&J song that John recorded on “Rhymes and Reasons”.
Note: I don’t believe The Bistro
Inn is still in business in
What This Country
Really Needs Is, Another Movie Star – June Reizner
Who out there would know who June Reizner is? This is a clever song, and I understand she had written “Barry’s Boys”, “The ’68 Nixon”, and “Alabama Mother” too. The same article I read mentioned that “June Reizner” may be a pseudonym. With the current presidential election coming up, and Fred Thompson running, this song would be appropriate to sing again, with updated lyrics of course.
Red Velvet – Ian Tyson
This song was written and recorded at the height of the Folk Music Scare of the 60’s. Ian and Sylvia were one of the most favorite and emulated groups of The Queen City Balladeers and were one of the satirical folk group prototypes for the movie “A Mighty Wind”. There was nothing like an Ian and Sylvia recording with John Herald and Ian playing their Martin guitars on them. I still think that the early Ian and Sylvia recordings had the best sounding acoustic guitars on them. “Red Velvet” came from Ian and Sylvia’s album “Early Morning Rain”, which also had “Darcy Farrow” on it. I wish I knew Dave Boise’s history before he joined the Trio, but I’m guessing this was either one of his favorite songs, and/or one he did before the Trio. I found the words and chords for “Red Velvet” on the Internet, and it makes me think I may go back and try and retrieve words and chords for all these songs on here that I can.
I Like To Deal With
The Ladies – John Denver
See notes above
Everybody’s Talkin’ –
Harry Nillson
This is a beautiful Trio version of this song, which we first heard DB&J doing at a party.
Shackles – Who wrote this song, and is that the name of
it?
Ok, I throw the challenge out. I know nothing about this song, including who
wrote it. Anyone? Even the name of the song may not be
“Shackles”, but that’s what DB&J called it.
I’ve put the Philadelphia Folk Festival version of DB&J doing this song
on the web site, since my taped version on the website is not complete. The song was not recorded by
For Bobbi – John Denver
Unfortunately this is not a good recording at all of this song. I liked the song the from very first time I heard it because it’s a good, distinctive sounding 3-chord song (regardless of how much PP&M screwed it up), and because of Paul Prestopino’s Carter Family style of Martin guitar picking on it.
Your Friendly,
Liberal Neighborhood Ku Klux Klan – Bernie
Cross
This is from The Mitchell Trio album “Violets of Dawn” and now I’m wondering who “Bernie Cross” is? Anyone know? (but thanks to Jochen Michalak for the first name)
Get Together –