Episode Three: Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan is one enigmatic kind of a guy.

It is only in the last few years that my love for Dylan has been augmented by a slightly greater understanding of who he is. Partially due to reading his most recent book "Chronicles: Volume One" and partially due to his own words from interviews like this radio piece from 1963 with Stud Terkel.

The Stud Terkel's Wax Museum Radio interview is pretty well known amongst the Dylan bootleg trading circles, and it is considered a "must" own by all.

The first time I listened to the interview I just loved how annoyed Dylan always seems to be, never admitting anything, never agreeing with Stud (is that right?)

Now, I just feel like it is a great moment in time, hearing Dylan play music, already in complete command of his song at the ripe age of 21, it is pretty mind blowing if you ask me. The snippet I have included may not do the interview justice, see what you think. If you want a copy of the whole thing drop me a line and I will burn you one. Till then.

Bob Dylan
Stud Terkel's Wax Museum
WFMT Radio, Chicago, IL
05/01/1963

Episode Two: Hunter S. Thompson

I might as well follow up with the guy Whose name I could not remember on my inaugural show!

Hunter S. Thompson

Thomspon recently blew his brains out so there has been a flurry of gonzo related news bits out there. the one I like the best was a contest to see who could come up with the best way to carry out Thompson wish to have his ashes blasted into the atmosphere through a cannon. You might laugh or you might cry, but the truth is that it looks like his desire will be met by a loyal family and friends aided through the deep pockets of Johnny Depp who has committed to make it happen.

It is all going to happen soon, as well. Thompson's liftoff is set for August 20th, 2005 somewhere near his home of Woody Creek, Colorado. Can you believe I have actually been to Woody Creek? A friend of mine got married there!!

My interest in Thompson may have come initially through "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas", but to be honest the works that made me a real fan are "Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs" and "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail 1972". Both books are a staggering reads of gonzo madness which somehow captures a reality for more believable and interesting than reading through "normal" journalistic accounts of the same events.

Here is the bad news. I did find the 1977 Boulder, Co discussion that has been floating around and though it does give some glimpse into the troubled, yet fascinating mind of the good Dr. I would not say it is not by a long shot the most exciting piece of audio I am going to present.

With that said, have a listen and take what you want from it.

Hunter S. Thompson
UC Auditorium
Boulder,CO
11/01/1977

I wiki'd him as well, I think I will Wiki all my SoundBytez guests, and there is plenty o' info worth looking at, I thought I would end with this:

Hunter S. Thompson's Famous quotations
A slogan of Thompson's, "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro," appears as a chapter heading in Kingdom of Fear. He was also quoted as saying, "I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me." Another one of his favorite sayings, "Buy the ticket, take the ride," is easily applied to virtually all of his exploits.

Episode One: Neal Cassady

SoundBytez Episode One: Neal Cassady

OK, the first soundbytez podcast is the gonna be the very same item I was listening to when I decided to start SoundBytez.

Neal Cassady (February 8, 1926 – February 4, 1968) was many things, a heretic, a prophet, a drug addict and even a hero to some. Most probably he was unknown to most.

My exposure to Casady came through my interest in books like Jack Kerouac's "On The Road" and Ken Kesey's "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest", both of which played a strong role in my drug induced upbringing. Kerouac's indispensable side kick, partner in crime was indeed Neal Cassady (aka "Dean Moriarty") a persona filled with a 90 mph stream of consciousness that championed the Merry Pranksers as one of the strongest mythical icons to many of us psychadelic drug users. especially the ones who came onto the scene well after the height of Haight Ashbury and were looking for guidance form the "elders". Neal has stayed in my unconscious, and I was quite interested when I found this audio file.

Cowboy Neal at the Wheel + Acid Test Filler
Neal Cassady
10/??/65
San Francisco, CA.

It is mostly a fast paced run on monologue with Neal talking about cars, LA, cars, booze, cars and lots of less than intelligible ramblings. The clip I chose is Neal signing along and making up on the fly lyrics to "The William Tell Overature"

I Wiki'd Neal and this is certainly worth noting before listening to the Soundbytez.

"After a party in San Miguel de Allende in Mexico in 1968 he went walking by a railroad track to reach the next town, but passed out in the cold and rainy night wearing nothing but a T-shirt and his jeans. In the morning he was found in a coma by the track and brought to the closest hospital, where he died a few hours later. Kesey retells the story of his death in a short story named The Day After Superman Died (in his collected short stories published as Demon Box) where Cassady is quoted with mumbling the number of nails (sixty-four thousand nine hundred and twenty-eight, 64928) in the rail he'd counted so far, as his last words before dying"

I Soundbytez follower sent me this comment on Neal:

"On the Neal Cassady piece you described Kerouac as one of the Merry Pranksters. This is incorrect. Kerouac distanced himself from the Hippie movement. Neal was Dean Moriarity in On The Road (as well as other characters in Kerouac's books)."

Thanks for listening,

You can listen the show in your browser HERE!

Welcome to SoundBytez

This afternoon as I was driving home listening to a very odd, yet entertaining sound byte of Neal Cassady spewing his rap of another world at a thousand miles an hour and I realized that this is the perfect thing for a new podcast.

I realized that I have started a relatively small collection of interesting spoken words sound files. And as I spend more and more time looking for things of interest I realize it would be pretty cool to share this stuff. In small doses.

One of the reason I have faith in Podcasts is that I believe there is a real desire to have unique content delivered with the ease of dialing a radio station ranging from the likes of garage made indie rock to conversant Macintosh operating system tech support.

So I decided to start a podcast containing odd, off-beat, hard to find, out of print or otherwise iconoclastic spoken word sound clips from figures ranging from Jerry Garcia to Orson Welles.

I will rely on the listeners to tell me what they like, dislike, want more of, less of or where to look for other sound files of interest.

The internet has brought many things to our doorsteps, but right now, at this moment in time it has brought an awful lot of soundbytez to my doorstep.

Thanks, keep coming back.

-Interactivehank