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Author Topic: Jack O'Diamonds  (Read 6054 times)
Poor Will (Bill)
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« on: May 10, 2011, 05:41:01 PM »

I'd be interested in finding out more about the song "Jack O'Diamonds" from Fairport's first album.
I've always known that the song is credited to Bob Dylan and that there is a poem of the same name in the sleeve notes to "Another Side Of Bob Dylan".
Although some of the lyrics to the song are included in the poem, they differ considerably.
Has Dylan himself ever recorded the song version? I'm pretty well up on Dylan songs both released and unreleased but I am unaware of any Dylan version.

To complicate matters, the Fairport song is credited to Dylan and Ben Carruthers. The only Ben Carruthers I am aware of was an American actor and the only musical connection I can find to him was the fact that his son played drums for Megadeath!

So was there an actual song version prior to the Fairport version, or was it more or less written by them based on the Dylan poem?
Interestingly it is a song which Richard Thompson still sometimes plays live.  
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Mr Cat (Lewis)
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« Reply #1 on: May 10, 2011, 05:53:06 PM »

Interesting question - take a look at this link..

http://www.45cat.com/record/r5295

Plus:


Ben Carruthers was known primarily as an actor, particularly for his role as the moody brother in John Cassavettes' groundbreaking late-'50s independent film Shadows. He appeared in several other movies in the 1960s, including Jonas Mekas' Guns of the Trees and The Dirty Dozen. As a singer, he also made one intriguing single in 1965, credited to Ben Carruthers and the Deep.

Carruthers, an American, was at the time living in London. His single, "Jack o' Diamonds"/"Right Behind You," was produced by the renowned Shel Talmy (at that time also producing the Who and the Kinks) and issued on Parlophone in June 1965. The words from "Jack o' Diamonds" were taken from a Bob Dylan poem on the back of Dylan's fourth album, Another Side of Bob Dylan, and put to music by Carruthers. Although Carruthers had an unremarkable voice, it was a good single, not so much folk-rock as good second-tier British Invasion in arrangement. The flip side, "Right Behind You," was written by Carruthers alone and was in an entirely different vein. Close to straight jazz, it was reminiscent of the jazz–blues-rock crossover of other London acts of the time, such as Georgie Fame.

"Jack o' Diamonds" was not a hit, and in fact, if listeners know it at all, it's probably through the good version that Fairport Convention included on their first album. (In passing, it also serves as evidence of just how fanatical Fairport Convention members must have been as record collectors to even be aware of the original version in the first place.) Both sides of the single were reissued on the British Invasion rarities anthology The R&B Scene (although the Carruthers single wasn't too R&B-influenced). Carruthers, who didn't do other singles, died in 1993

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/ben-carruthers#ixzz1LyAc9cIL
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Poor Will (Bill)
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« Reply #2 on: May 10, 2011, 06:18:42 PM »

Many thanks for that Mr Cat.
I knew somone here would have the answer!
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Jamie73
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« Reply #3 on: May 10, 2011, 07:41:54 PM »

I think I read somewhere that the 1965 single was given to Richard Thompson by Hugh Cornwell.

J
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David VB
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« Reply #4 on: May 11, 2011, 03:46:33 PM »

I have a couple of earlier versions.  Lonnie Donnegan covered it - it is on the Talking Guitar Blues compilation - but far earlier is Odetta on the Harry Smith American Folk Anthology
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Curt
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« Reply #5 on: May 24, 2011, 09:03:00 PM »

Lets not forget Blind Lemon Jefferson's version (is this the original?) from 1926:

http://www.discogs.com/Blind-Lemon-Jefferson-Jack-O-Diamond-Blues-Chock-House-Blues/release/1723333
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjsHzpxT1Qc
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ColinB
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« Reply #6 on: May 24, 2011, 11:05:47 PM »


I think I read somewhere that the 1965 single was given to Richard Thompson by Hugh Cornwell.


that's a good enough reason for me to play it on my radio show this Friday along with Hugh's tribute to Dylan, 24/7.

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