{"id":1824,"date":"2016-07-25T07:00:48","date_gmt":"2016-07-25T11:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/?p=1824"},"modified":"2024-03-02T14:05:31","modified_gmt":"2024-03-02T19:05:31","slug":"bad-dream-blues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/bad-dream-blues\/","title":{"rendered":"Bad Dream Blues (Dave Van Ronk)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bMVcLTrK7oA\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Though Dave Van Ronk was not principally known as a songwriter, he wrote some damn good songs. But before he got into songwriting in more ambitious ways, he recorded a handful of blues songs for which he took author credit. He didn&#8217;t consider these fully original compositions, since they had a mix of old and new verses, some adapted, some borrowed, set to guitar parts and melodies that were likewise a mix of traditional influences and personal quirks. They were original (or unoriginal) the way a lot of blues songs are original: as he liked to put it, &#8220;Blues is like a kielbasa &#8212; you don&#8217;t sing a whole one, you just cut off a section.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-1826 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/blues-project.jpg?resize=300%2C300&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"blues project\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/blues-project.jpg?resize=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/blues-project.jpg?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/blues-project.jpg?w=400&amp;ssl=1 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>This was one of those original blues, which he recorded a couple of times in the mid-1960s, on his <em>Just Dave Van Ronk<\/em> album and more powerfully on an Elektra sampler of the current blues scene titled <em>The Blues Project.<\/em> (One of the featured artists was Danny Kalb, who shortly copped the album&#8217;s name for his blues-rock band.)<\/p>\n<p>Like &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/keep-it-clean\/\">Keep It Clean<\/a>,&#8221; this was one of the arrangements Dave did during his transitory love affair with open tunings, and was likewise dropped from his repertoire when he decided re-tuning was too much trouble. The odd thing about both pieces is that the tuning gave them a distinctive flavor, but the basic arrangements were clearly based on standard-tuning models, and he could easily have come up with something suitable in standard had he cared to. This one is reminiscent of some of Mississippi John Hurt&#8217;s charts in E, and I just took that route.<\/p>\n<p>As I recall, I didn&#8217;t actually learn this one. I just happened to think of it one day during that winter in Spain, and started fooling around with it, and found that I knew most of the verses. I&#8217;ve always thought that was the mark of a particularly well-written song: it sticks in your head, because the pieces fit together so neatly that one reminds you of the next. When I heard Dave do this I don&#8217;t remember noticing that it was more than a loose assemblage of generic verses, but when I started singing it, they all fell into place in a particular order, and if I&#8217;ve sometimes left one or two out and needed to jog my memory, they&#8217;ve mostly stuck.<\/p>\n<p>As for Dave&#8217;s more ambitious compositions, I&#8217;ve posted a bunch of them: &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/sunday-street\/\">Sunday Street<\/a>,&#8221; &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/another-time-place\/\">Another Time and Place<\/a>,&#8221; &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/losers\/\">Losers<\/a>,&#8221; &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/gaslight-rag\/\">Gaslight Rag<\/a>,&#8221; &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/blood-red-moon\/\">Blood Red Moon<\/a>,&#8221; and the instrumental &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/antelope-rag\/\">Antelope Rag<\/a>.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Though Dave Van Ronk was not principally known as a songwriter, he wrote some damn good songs. But before he got into songwriting in more ambitious ways, he recorded a handful of blues songs for which he took author credit. He didn&#8217;t consider these fully original compositions, since they had a mix of old and &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/bad-dream-blues\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Bad Dream Blues (Dave Van Ronk)<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Bad Dream Blues (Dave Van Ronk) - Old Friends: A Songobiography<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A beautiful blues; one of Dave Van Ronk&#039;s early compositions, or compilations, reflecting his deep love of that tradition.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/bad-dream-blues\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bad Dream Blues (Dave Van Ronk) - Old Friends: A Songobiography\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A beautiful blues; one of Dave Van Ronk&#039;s early compositions, or compilations, reflecting his deep love of that tradition.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/bad-dream-blues\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Old Friends: A Songobiography\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-07-25T11:00:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-03-02T19:05:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/blues-project-300x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Elijah Wald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ElijahWald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ElijahWald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Elijah Wald\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/bad-dream-blues\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/bad-dream-blues\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Elijah Wald\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9\"},\"headline\":\"Bad Dream Blues (Dave Van Ronk)\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-07-25T11:00:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-03-02T19:05:31+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/bad-dream-blues\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":439,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/bad-dream-blues\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/07\\\/blues-project-300x300.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/bad-dream-blues\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/bad-dream-blues\\\/\",\"name\":\"Bad Dream Blues (Dave Van Ronk) - Old Friends: A Songobiography\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/bad-dream-blues\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/bad-dream-blues\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/07\\\/blues-project-300x300.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-07-25T11:00:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-03-02T19:05:31+00:00\",\"description\":\"A beautiful blues; 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Dave had learned it from Bessie Smith's recording, and had the bright idea of combining her\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"Scrapper_Blackwell and Bessie Smith","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Scrapper_Blackwell-and-Bessie-Smith-197x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":911,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/cocaine-blues\/","url_meta":{"origin":1824,"position":1},"title":"Cocaine Blues (Dave Van Ronk)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"April 17, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"First of all, I must state with pride and pleasure that the first time I ever tried cocaine was courtesy of Dave Van Ronk. It was in my parents' living room, late at night, after a fair amount of whiskey had been drunk, and he had it in a twist\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/van-ronk-folksinger-e1491663832129.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1347,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/friend-of-mine\/","url_meta":{"origin":1824,"position":2},"title":"He Was a Friend of Mine (Dave Van Ronk &#038;co)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"June 9, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"This was one of the first songs I ever heard from Dave Van Ronk, and remained a staple of his repertoire throughout his career. When he recorded it in 1963 he credited it to Bob Dylan, but in later years would say, \"I learned this from Bob Dylan, who learned\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"von schmidt - cahn","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/von-schmidt-cahn.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1176,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/good-old-wagon\/","url_meta":{"origin":1824,"position":3},"title":"You&#8217;ve Been a Good Old Wagon (Bessie Smith\/Van Ronk)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"May 25, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Another of my favorite Dave Van Ronk guitar arrangements, and a perfect example of how he would edit an accompaniment down to its absolute essentials. His model was one of Bessie Smith's greatest records, featuring Louis Armstrong on cornet and Fred Longshaw playing unobtrusive piano. Other guitarists faced with Smith's\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"dave van ronk5","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/dave-van-ronk5.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1182,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/kansas-city-blues\/","url_meta":{"origin":1824,"position":4},"title":"Kansas City Blues (I&#8217;m Going to Move to Kansas City)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"May 24, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the defining blues hits of the late 1920s for Jim Jackson, and the Apollonian ideal of a Dave Van Ronk guitar accompaniment.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"Van Ronk in the tradition","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Van-Ronk-in-the-tradition.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1220,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/bout-a-spoonful\/","url_meta":{"origin":1824,"position":5},"title":"Bout a Spoonful (Davis\/Lipscomb\/Van Ronk)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"June 1, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Judging by surviving evidence, \"Bout a Spoonful\" was a very popular song throughout the black South in the early twentieth century. In\u00a0Sweet Man, a racial protest novel from 1930, Gilmore Millen named it along with \"Pallet on the Floor,\" \"Stavin' Chain,\" and \"The Dozens\" as \u201cforerunners of the blues, at\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"sweet man","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/sweet-man-194x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1824"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1824\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5020,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1824\/revisions\/5020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}