Sebastian Cabot, actor; Bob Dylan, poet ‘A Dramatic Reading with Music’

 

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#959 in the Series) is Sebastian Cabot, actor; Bob Dylan, poet. A Dramatic Reading with Music. 

..Like one of our favorite comedy troupes once proclaimed…”And Now For Something Completely Different.”

You’d be hard pressed to find something as different as this. What I like about this album is the fact that it’s of course a novelty album, a “what the heck, why not album” yet it has a redeeming quality that makes me actually like it on a non-novelty level.

It is just what the title says it is. It’s the late actor Sebastian Cabot giving a dramatic reading to Bob Dylan’s lyrics. Mr Cabot is probably best known at least here in the States for playing the roll of butler Mr. French on the television series Family Affair, but I’ll always remember him for the ever-questioning scientist Dr. Philip Hillyer in the H.G. Wells classic “The Time Machine.”

The reason that this makes sense to me is quite simple. It brings the songs to life on a different level. It allows you to concentrate on the lyrics and follow them for the poetic brilliance in which they are.  There is a musical background, some nice clarinet but it’s not the story.  I think it’s just fun to listen to. You put all that together and I believe you have a cool album.

This was originally recorded in 1967 and was actually remastered in 2007! How cool is that?

Yes, there are other recordings of well-known actors giving spoken word readings of musical classics but I most of those were for “camp” effect only. We’re looking at you Captain Kirk. I believe that wasn’t the emphasis for this project. Like I mentioned earlier, I believe that the British character actor set off on this to give new life to the words that Mr. Dylan would write.

I’ve been looking and looking for videos to give you as many examples of the music that I could but as of this writing I’ve only found two pieces. At least they’re good ones however. The first is “It Ain’t Me Babe” and that’s followed by “Like a Rolling Stone.”  Other highlights on the album included “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right,” “All I Really Want To Do,” “The Times They Are A-Changin’,” and “Blowin’ in the Wind.”  That’s not saying that the others aren’t keepers as well, they are after all Dylan tunes.

This is a cult-classic that we all should know about. Listen to either way you’d like…for the silly fun or for a new look at some classic lyrics. Either way for at least a little while you ain’t goin’ nowhere.

— Larry Carta 

Track Listing

Side One

1. Who Killed Davy Moore
2. It Ain’t Me Babe
3. Boots Of Spanish Leather
4. Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right
5. Tomorrow’s A Long Time
6. Blowin’ In The Wind

Side Two

1.  Seven Curses
2. All I Really Want To Do
3. The Times They Are A-Changin’
4. Quit Your Lowdown Ways
5. Like A Rolling Stone
6. And Mostly They Sing