As 2013 has come to an end, we are taking a look back at some of our favorite posts of the year by our guest editors.
To call Superchunk drummer Jon Wurster “Superchunk drummer Jon Wurster,” while true, is a bit limiting. He also keeps time full-time (and tours constantly) with Bob Mould and the Mountain Goats, contributes hilarity to The Best Show On WFMU With Tom Scharpling and maintains one of the most reliably funny Twitter feeds. Superchunk is on the road supporting its 10th LP, I Hate Music (Merge); while traveling from gigs to home and to more gigs, Wurster filled some rare empty space in his hectic schedule by guest editing magnetmagazine.com this week. Read our brand-new Q&A with him.
Wurster: Some folks have asked what album I’m holding in the Phil Morrison-directed video for Superchunk’s “Me & You & Jackie Mittoo.” The album in question is Sebastian Cabot, Actor: Bob Dylan, Poet.
I first became aware of English actor Sebastian Cabot (best known as “Mr. French” on the late-’60 TV show “Family Affair”) and his unique take on the music of Bob Dylan when I worked at a record store in the late ’80. One of our favorite albums to play in the store was Golden Throats: The Great Celebrity Sing Off, a Rhino Records compilation featuring actors not known for their musical abilities performing and often mangling pop songs. Though William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and Jack Webb all turned in well-intentioned but cringe-worthy performances, it was Cabot’s star that shone brightest. His two cuts on the album were slightly haughty, very dramatic readings of two of Dylan’s most-beloved ’60s songs: “Like A Rolling Stone” and “It Ain’t Me Babe.”
When I realized these two tracks were taken from an entire album Cabot cut in 1967, I made it my mission to find a copy. In the first few years after joining Superchunk in September 1991, I looked for the album in every used record store we visited, but I always came up empty-handed. Eventually, I gave up entirely on my fantasy of owning this elusive item.
But on Halloween 1995 (my 29th birthday), the novelty record gods smiled on me. After soundchecking at the Paradise Rock Club in the Allston section of Boston, I made my traditional pilgrimage to nearby In Your Ear Records. There were (and still are) so many records, videos and books crowding up the basement store that I suddenly felt overwhelmed. I decided to make the briefest of laps around the store and then go get dinner. I took four steps, looked to my right, and there hanging on the wall was … the grail.
I couldn’t believe my eyes. Not only was it in near-mint condition, it was only $15. When I returned to the club clutching the album I tried, unsuccessfully, to convey the momentousness of the occasion to my bandmates. I soon realized this was something I had to celebrate by myself. For the rest of that tour, I guarded that album like a mother ostrich guards her cubs. Oh, come on, you know what I mean.
I don’t think I’ve actually ever played the album. I can’t risk it. What if it fell from my hands on its way from LP jacket to turntable? Though the album now exists on CD, I can’t bring myself to purchase it in that format. So I’ve never actually heard any of Cabot’s other unique takes on Dylan’s songs. Between you and me, sometimes late at night I stare at the cover and imagine what those other songs might sound like. In my fantasy, you can hear the rustle of Cabot’s cummerbund as he dramatically pauses between “don’t think twice” and “it’s all right.”
