The Soundtrack Of Our Lives

November 9, 2008 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under Soundtrack Of Our Lives 

Every Sunday The Soundtrack of Our Lives looks back at some of the music that was popular and the performers who were influential forty years ago, around the time Richard Nixon was elected President.

ABRAHAM, MARTIN, & JOHN (DICK HOLLER) performed by DION

At the end of 1968, an unlikely song by an unlikely composer was recorded by an unlikely artist, and became one of the biggest hits in the history of American popular music.  

The subject matter was four murdered leaders; the composer’s only previous hit was a novelty song based on a comic strip character; the singer’s career had recently been eclipsed, for the second time, by his heroin addiction and he was without a record label; and the song was placed on the B-side of a conventional pop single.

But Americans were still reeling from the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in April and Robert Kennedy in June and the urban violence that had ensued, and it isn’t going too far to say that “Abraham, Martin & John” touched and helped to heal the nation.

It’s the only song ever to have reached the Top 40 five times with records by five different artists within the space of a few years.  It seemed as if people drew comfort and strength and inspiration just from hearing it. 

Has anybody here seen my old friend Abraham?
Can you tell me where he’s gone?
He freed a lot of people,
But it seems the good they die young,
You know, and I just looked around and he’s gone.

Has anybody here seen my old friend John?
Can you tell me where he’s gone?
He freed a lot of people,
But it seems the good they die young,
I just looked around and he’s gone.

Has anybody here seen my old friend Martin?
Can you tell me where he’s gone?
He freed a lot of people,
But it seems the good they die young,
I just looked around and he’s gone.

Didn’t you love the things that they stood for?
Didn’t they try to find some good for you and me?
And we’ll be free. someday soon,
It’s gonna be one day.

Has anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he’s gone?
I thought I saw him walkin’
Up over the hill,
With Abraham, and Martin and John.

The record was released in the midst of a musicians strike, so when Dion appeared on the Smothers Brothers show, he was forced to perform an acoustic version — which, like me, you may find superior to the harp-heavy arrangement on the record.  It’s too bad that there wasn’t also a choir strike going on at the same time:

Dion’s version was a hit through the middle of 1969; later that year Smokey Robinson & the Miracles covered the song and their single reached Number 33.

 

IN 1970 A SURPRISINGLY MOVING VERSION BY THE 75-YEAR OLD COMEDIAN
Moms Mabley reached Number 25 of the Top 40.

Jackie “Moms” Mabley (1894-1975) was born in North Carolina. As one of the premier stars of the black vaudeville stage (the Chitlin’ Circuit) she was among the highest paid entertainers in America, earning $10,000 a week at the Apollo.

In 1931 she collaborated with Zora Neale Hurston on a play —Fast and Furious: A Colored Revue in 37 Scenes— in which Ms. Mabley co-starred.

In 1939 she played the part of Peter Quince in a jazz version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (called Swingin’ the Dream) that was sponsored by the New York World’s Fair. Gilbert Seldes wrote the adaptation and set it in a voodoo-haunted New Orleans in the 1890s. The cast also included Louis Armstrong as Bottom, Butterfly McQueen as Puck, jazz singer Maxine Sullivan as Tatiana, and the young Dandridge sisters (including Dorothy) as attendant fairies.  

As Ms. Mabley aged she developed a cranky bag lady character —frequently performing without her dentures—- that enabled her to say increasingly provocative things about race and sex. Her bawdy search for a young man, although it’s pretty tame by today’s standards (but then, what isn’t by today’s standards), pushed the envelope in the 1950s and early ’60s, by which time she had earned the soubriquet of “the Funniest Woman in the World.”

She was a frequent go-to guest on all the major talk and variety shows — Johnny Carson, Mike Douglas, Pearl Bailey, Merv Griffin, the Smothers Brothers, Ed Sullivan, and Playboy After Dark.

In 1974, the year before her death, she was paired with Kris Kristofferson as a presenter at the Grammys. The clip is embed-disabled, but I promise you that it’s worth your while to check it out here.

She was never a crusader — her style has been called “agitation in moderation”— but her material became increasingly pointed and edgy regarding inequalities of race and gender. One of her popular routines was an absurdist account of spending an afternoon on the White House lawn with the Eisenhowers, flamboyant Harlem Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, guitarist Bo Didley, and R&B legend Big Maybelle. “I said, ‘Listen, Mamie,’” Moms claimed, “and she said, ‘Yes, Mrs. Mabley?’”

 

 

MARVIN GAYE ALSO HAD A 1970 HIT WITH “ABRAHAM, MARTIN & JOHN.”  HIS version is kinder, gentler, and more melodic than Dion’s original. Today, I find it anodyne; but, aside from simply reflecting the sweeter and purer quality of his amazing voice, it undoubtedly also reflected the already changing temper of the times and what was now being looked for from the song.

I’m particularly partial to Ray Charles’ 1972 hit which takes an almost introspective and conversational approach to the song.  I find listening to it like eavesdropping on someone talking to himself.  Even his piano seems to have a tentative, ruminative quality.  He transposes the “John” verse to after the bridge, which makes, perhaps, a more logical Abraham-Martin-John-Bobby order.

The song was a track on his 1972 album A Message from the People that also featured his memorable version of “America The Beautiful.”   (Listen to rather than watch the video and you will be able to ignore the increasingly crazy quilt of pictures that eventually includes Socrates, Joan of Arc, Sir Thomas More, Diana Princess of Wales, and Tupac Shakur.)

Some years later, during his “Musical Retrospective” tour tour in 1980, Bob Dylan included the song in his play list. He accompanied himself on the piano and was backed up by the gospel trio –Clydie King, Carolyn Dennis, and Regina Havis– that had opened the show.

There is an urban legend that the song was included in the program because of John Lennon’s recent murder — and that is the “John” to whom Mr. Dylan is referring.  In fact, the tour began in November and Mr. Lennon was shot on December 8th.  (The recording was bootleg and you may have to adjust your volume upward.)

There have been many other covers of the song, ranging from the sublime (Mahalia Jackson) to the ludicrous (

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IN 1971, TOM CLAY, A LOS ANGELES RADIO DJ, CREATED AN UNEXPECTED HIT
(#8)  by combining “Abraham, Martin & John” with Jackie DeShannon’s record of Burt Bacharach’s “What the World Needs Now.” (See last week’s Burt Bacharach Soundtrack.)  

Both songs were played beneath an audio track interspersing Mr. Clay’s questionning a child with archival material.  A Marine DI’s haranging and counting cadence is followed by a radio report of trouble in President Kennedy’s Dallas motorcade; David Brinkley’s network news bulletin announcing JFK’s death; excerpts from Dr. King’s last speech; Robert Kennedy’s victory speech at the Ambassador hotel; an LA radio report of RFK’s shooting; and Senator Edward Kennedy’s eulogy. (A rough transcription of the recording identifies the different elements.)

Tom Clay had a checkered career.  He had to give up his DJ job in Detroit after he admitted taking considerable sums of money from record companies —known as payola— for playing their songs.  He moved to Los Angeles and worked for KRLA.  He had a relationship with the young Marilyn Monroe.

Wikipedia describes the colorful way his LA gig came a cropper:

Riding the wave of early Beatlemania he again rose in popularity, met and interviewed The Beatles, but was once again the victim of his own avarice. This time, he was fired over a scheme in which he invited listeners to send in one dollar for membership in a “Beatles Booster Club”, an essentially non-existent organization which had no benefits beyond a promised membership card or decal.

According to fellow CKLW DJ Dave Shafer (also now deceased), Clay also promised each listener who sent in a dollar a personal item used by one of the Beatles; these “personal items” turned out to be disgusting items like cigarette butts and used tissues, and other listeners claimed to have received nothing. However, since over 80,000 fans responded, Clay was able to live comfortably for a time on the cash that appeared in his personal post office box, the equivalent of almost half a million dollars today.

Dave Shafer told David Carson in Rockin’ Down the Dial that Clay skipped town in the wake of the Beatles Booster fiasco, leading to Shafer’s being briefly jailed on charges of international fraud. Clay eventually returned to work at other Detroit area radio stations, including WWWW-FM, and also worked at WCBS-FM in New York.   

 

“ABRAHAM, MARTIN & JOHN” WAS WRITTEN BY DICK HOLLER, A JOURNEYMAN songwriter whose previous hit (co-written with Phil Gernhard) was the novelty “Snoopy vs. the Red Baron.”  Performed by the Florida-based band The Royal Guardsman, it reached Number Two on the Top 40 in December 1966.

The song was nothing if not topical. It followed by only a few weeks the first appearance of Charles Schulz’ Peanuts beagle Snoopy’s fantasy incarnation as a World War One flying ace. After fighting aerial duels in his Sopwith Camel with his nemesis —Baron Manfred von Richtofen— Snoopy would go into the village with the hope of sharing a sarsaparilla with a mademoiselle.

The real Red Baron —known for the color his plane was painted— had downed 80 enemy aircraft; he was finally brought down either by ground fire or a British pilot in April 1918.

As it turned out, “Snoopy vs. the Red Baron” may have been a tad too topical. It had been recorded and released without having obtained any permissions. A law suit ensued and the verdict required all profits from the song to be paid to Mr. Schulz and his distribution syndicate King Features.

In their spirited performance of the song The Royal Guardsman engaged in some non-pc —not to mention anachronistic— stereotyping:

 

 

WHEN DION RECORDED “ABRAHAM, MARTIN & JOHN,” HE HAD ALREADY HAD two careers and both of them had been sabotaged by drugs.

Music historian Greg Shaw , writing in Rolling Stone assessed Dion’s role in the development of rock and roll:

Dion was the original punk. Stand him up next to his contemporary male teen idols—Frankie Avalon, Fabian, Bobby Vee, Brian Hyland, Bobby Rydell, Adam Wade, Paul Anka, Neil Sedaka, Mark Valentino, etc.—and the difference is obvious. They were all simpering, heartstruck, crybabies, with the possible exception of Fabian, and the best he could come up with was “yay yay yay I’m like a tiger” which, needless to say, was somewhat less than convincing. But when Dion sang “I love ‘em and I leave ‘em, they don’t even know my name!” there was no doubting him. He was tough, arrogant, not really dangerous like Elvis, but unquestionably mean. A punk.

And in 1960-62, he was the best thing we had. Not only did he have the image, he also had a succession of great songs perfectly suited to his style, written by himself and Ernie Maresca; and to top it off he had the very best voice around, kinda rough but capable of all kinds of intonations, and a sure, instinctive sense of style and delivery that elevated his records to a plane far above the ordinary. He never had to reach or strain for a note, never sounded forced or contrived. His records were smooth, natural, honest, earthy, and vastly appealing.

In the mid 1950s, the Bronx-born Dion DiMucci, along with three friends, formed Dion and the Belmonts (named after the local thoroughfare Belmont Avenue). By 1958 they were doing well enough to be invited to join the “Winter Dance Party” tour being headlined by Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper.

Dion’s decision to save $36 by taking the bus to the next gig kept him off the plane that crashed outside Clear Lake, Iowa, on the night of February 2nd 1959. (See “American Pie” Soundtrack.)

The next month —March 1959— Dion and the Belmonts scored an immediate hit with a Doc Pomus-Mort Shuman song “Teenager In Love.”

They followed up with what would be their biggest hit — an a cappella doo-wop version of the 1937 Rodgers and Hart song “Where Or When.” It reached the Number Three spot in November 1959.

Early in 1960 Dion checked into rehab for his heroin addiction, which had been a problem for some years. 

In 1961 he launched a solo career with two major back-to-back hits. Both songs have become emblematic of early ’60s rebel rock: “Runaround Sue” and “The Wanderer.”  Both were written by another Bronxite, Ernie Maresca (Dion shared co-writing credit on “”Sue”) .  Ernie Maresca had his own hit with his infectious song “Shout Shout (Knock Yourself Out)” — which conveys a good sense of how much sheer fun rock and roll was in the early 1960s (including the reference to his own song “Runaround Sue”).

Here’s my story, its sad but true.
It’s about a girl that I once knew.
She took my love then ran around
With every single guy in town.
I should have known it from the very start —
This girl will leave me with a broken heart.
Now listen people what I’m telling you
Keep away from Runaround Sue.
I miss her lips and the smile on her face,
The touch of her hair and this girl’s warm embrace.
So if you don’t wanna cry like I do
Keep away from Runaround Sue.
She likes to travel around.
She’ll love you but she’ll put you down.
Now people let me put you wise —
Sue goes out with other guys.
Here’s the moral and the story from the guy who knows.
I fell in love and my love still grows.
Ask any fool that she ever knew, they’ll say
Keep away from Runaround Sue.

Well I’m the type of guy who will never settle down.
Where pretty girls are, well you know that I’m around.
I kiss ‘em and I love ‘em ’cause to me they’re all the same.
I hug ‘em and I squeeze ‘em and they don’t even know my name.
They call me the wanderer – yeah – the wanderer
I roam around around around around around.

Well there’s Flo on my left and then there’s Mary on my right,
And Janie is the girl well that I’ll be with tonight,
And when she asks me which one I love the best
I tear open my shirt and show her Rosie on my chest,
‘Cause I’m a wanderer – yeah – I’m a wanderer.
I roam around around around around around,

Well I roam from town to town
I go through life without a care
I’m as happy as a clown
With my two fists of iron, but I’m going nowhere

I’m the type of guy that likes to roam around
I’m never in one place, I roam from town to town.
And when I find myself fallin’ for some girl
Yeah, I hop right into that car of mine, I drive around the world
Yeah I’m a wanderer, yeah a wanderer
I roam around around around around around around around.

 

Dion is still writing, recording, touring, and performing today. Amazon lists many collections of his early records. Among them: The Best of Dion and the Belmonts, and The Essential Dion.

Unlike many artists whose creativity ended with their heyday, Dion’s recent work deserves attention and respect. His two most recent albums of original material are 2006’s Bronx In Blue and 2007’scollection of classic covers and original songs Son of Skip James.  In September he released Guitar Hero  — covers of his favorite rock classics including “Summertime Blues,” “I Walk the Line,” Bye Bye Love,” and “Be-Bob-A-Lula.”  And Live in Concert is the DVD of a 2004 performance.

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