Customer Reviews

Kerouac's Last Dream

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Recorded in 1980 in Germany, this CD saw its first American release 17 years later. It's a good introduction to Ramblin' Jack Elliott's work (he's been recording since the 1950s), with a nice mix of the folk and country songs (including, of course, Woody Guthrie covers) for which he's long been known. Even by 1980 Elliott had been doing nearly all of these songs for so long that he could have performed them in his sleep, but that familiarity gives them a cozily lived-in feeling. It's hard to beat Willie Nelson's version of "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain," but Elliott's distinctive, raggedly eccentric one (incorrectly attributed to Roy Acuff) gives Nelson's a good run for its money. Nobody, including Dylan, has a better reading of Dylan's "Don't Think Twice," and Elliott provides, yet again, a grand version of the bloody, authentic Western ballad "Buffalo Skinners." As the saying goes, if you like this sort of thing, you'll like this sort of thing.

I have never been quite so astounded as when this record began. As someone who has heard several old-time versions of 'Pretty Boy Floyd', I couldn't quite comprehend how Elliott had re-styled and stripped down the song until it was totally him and his. Of course, in hindsight, I should have known what to expect from Elliott.
I was given no time to recover from this masterpiece as the opening chords of Roy Acuff's 'Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain' sounded. Hold up. Two slices of perfection? I wasn't ten minutes into the album and it was already the best I'd ever heard. By anybody.
As the album progressed, I began to realise that every one of the 17 tracks was a gem, superbly crafted, faultlessly delivered, and impossibly polished.
The highlights are extensive. An incredible turn on 'Roving Gambler' is followed by the excellent 'Cuckoo', made to Elliott's specfications by including several maverick stanzas to keep you guessing. In 'Don't Think Twice' and 'I Threw It All Away', Elliott tips his hat to his former student, Bob Dylan, and slyly outdoes him to boot.
Best-ever versions of '1913 Massacre' and 'The Buffalo Skinners' will set the heart and mind racing, and there is a trademark comical turn in 'Mean Mamma Blues'.
But just as you think Elliott may be easing off to wind down the collection with a soulful 'Riding Down Canyon', he brings out two self-penned classics.
'Cup Of Coffee' is a wonderfully vivid and mischievous illustration of Elliott undertaking one of his many pastimes, driving trucks. To many RJE fans, this song is at best a one-trick pony and at worst a self-indulgent gabble. I say its some of the most entertaining talking blues you'll hear.
But, try as it might, nothing on this record can prepare you for its ten-minute finale. Elliott brings out the song Jackson Browne described as "a time travelling, spoken-word masterpiece", in '912 Greens'. Elliott teases the distinctive, haunting backing for the song with such care and power that by the time he eventually, almost alarmingly speaks you are ready to break down and cry.
I have never been one for lengthy albums or indeed lengthy songs, but this record is the best I've heard in any genre, and its length and content is nothing short of perfect.

"...Here come this little blue car..."

This album is a unique Ramblin Jack album from many vantage points, one being the era (1980) in which Jack recorded it over in Germany... Jack was in the midst of a 25 year hiatus from studio's, in that (between 1970 and 1995's South Coast), Jack toured relentlessly, worked on sailboats, rambled, toured, toured and toured but did not record an album)... this was recorded in Germany and released in America 17 years later... it captures the Jack in between the young Jack that lived/travelled with Woody Guthrie, was friends with Kerouak, tutored a young Dylan, played all over Europe alone and with Derroll Adams on banjo, introduced Kris to Janis, toured w/ the Rolling Thunder review ---- with the Jack we know today that has re-emmerged with several great albums over the late 90's and tours around the west coast today hanging with the likes of former Beachboys and Deadheads and Cowboys and poets.... think Jack in a dungeon with his guitar and just singin' a lot of the songs we all know him to sing.... plus a great version of Jacks own '912 Greens' ("...here come this.. blue car.. i think it was a plymouth--") and Cup've Coffee, and an excellent version of Cuckoo and a touching Soldiers Last Letter and, really, just outstanding versions of all these tunes.... i could write a review on all Ramblin Jack's albums, but i'll choose this one for several reasons as noted mostly above.. it's a great album, i've been looking for the original, vinyl version in Europe for some years now, and i'll find it some day....

The two proceeding reviews cover this subject well, but I thought I'd throw my two cents down for the album that introduced me to Ramblin' Jack. We've seen the greatest musical minds of all our generations wasted on overproduction, which can crush spontaneity (and soul) into a fine powder that falls right through the porch planks. Jack avoids that trap and it's magical: he just sings and stretches his fingers over the instrument and the stories fall right on your head.

You're transported into that little German room in much the same way the Cowboy Junkies invite you into that ol' church with them in Trinity Sessions. You can just lean back with a piece of straw between your teeth and listen. (The engineers have gotta be in there somewhere, but you can't see them to save your life.) So the music's authentic and traditional, but simultaneously present and real. True.

The album seems immune to overplaying. People come over to visit, hear the album, fall into a trance, go away with "Ramblin' Jack" written on their hands, and don't fall asleep until they've bought themselves a copy. Check out Cuckoo and Don't Think Twice - you'll fall right off your horse.

After 13 years boycotting recording studios, Ramblin' Jack Elliott agreed to face the mikes again in 1980 in a small German studio where monks once had cellared wines in Nordheim, across the Main River from one of Franconia's elite vineyards, the famed Escherndorfer Lump. The setting has considerable ambience, wine on both sides of the river, vineyards climbing upwards from the banks, church steeples, small villages and quiet. The ambience is in the recording too, moreso than in any other of Ramblin' Jack's albums. Every nuance of his voice and every harmonic and subharmonic of his guitars is unobfuscated, clear to the tiniest detail. One understands why RJE said even 17 years later, "I think this album is better than any of my previous albums." It certainly is unique among RJE's CDs. No other offers such an inimate encounter with Ramblin' Jack's music, and at least three of the tracks, "Cuckoo," "Freight Train Blues" and "Riding Down the Canyon," are among his finest recorded works, the latter being pure RJE, as compared to the slick but still superlative retake with Arlo Guthrie in 1996 on "Friends of Mine." Bob Dylan's "Don't Think Twice," Woody Guthrie's "Buffalo Skinners" and RJE's own "912 Greens" also are offered in masterpiece renditions here, although Ramblin' Jack managed to trump all three in 1989 in the World Theater Concert on "Legends of Folk" for Red House. All told, an album no RJE fan can afford to do without. And in the U.S. version 17 tracks are offered, compared to 10 on the original German Wundertüte release.

Which means it is a pretty typical Jack Elliot recording. This one, made in 1980 in Germany but not released in the USA until 1997, lasts 70 minutes, so by my lights, about 46 of those minutes are worth repeated play. What I did not like much is the ten-minute talk/story piece that concludes it, "912 Greens", and his versions of "Night Herding Song" and "Buffalo Skinners" (which I never liked by any artist.) In the "so-so" group are the songs "Cuckoo" and "Soldier's Last Letter" (written by Ernest Tubb, the mid-20th century country star.)

But the good outweighs the not-so-good on this CD: Jack's versions of "Pretty Boy Floyd" and "Freight Train Blues" and "Roving Gambler" and "Don't Think Twice, I'm Alright" and "1913 Massacre" are all near-wonderful, and his rendition of "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain" is perhaps second only to Willie Nelson's, in my experience...and that's a country classic covered by just about everybody since the '50's.

Elliott's 1980's voice is more robust than on his mid-1990's releases on the HighTone label, if a bit more weathered than what you hear on his late '50's and early 60's products. His guitar-picking on this album is a welcome highlight.

Folk fans who don't already know Jack Elliott's work, and his role in the end of Woody Guthrie's career and the start of Bob Dylan's, likely are not reading this review...but if you are new to Jack, this recording is not a bad one to own. If you are already a fan, but haven't heard this disc, you will certainly want it. Jack's voice has never been as good as his friend Cisco Houston's, who remains to me the premier interpreter of Woody's songs (with Arlo coming in third to Jack himself) but lots of people prefer his singing and pickin' to Woody's.

Some of my favorite Jack Elliott recordings.
I have yet to find a version of 912 Greens that is as powerful and delicate of his rendition on this album.
Other highlights include "Blue eyes crying in the rain" and "Buffalo Skinners."

I lost this album, so I bought it twice. Jack passes a lot along in these songs. I just had to learn "Freight Train Blues" from him, I still had Dylan's version but I couldn't play along with it, too hyped up. Jack's (recorded) version is weathered. His version of Cuckoo sticks with me too, and I enjoyed his interpretation of "I Threw It All Away". There wasn't a dull or false moment on this album and that's rare. I only got to hear the thing a few times before I lost it, I'm looking forward to getting to know the rest of it better, and either keeping better track of it or getting a hold of a few more copies. I also have the "Essential" Ramblin' Jack and while I enjoy both of them, I'm glad I started in with this one. He manages to play the song to you, there's a connection, how anyone manages to do that to me through these plastic things is a real mystery but Ramblin Jack knows how.

There certainly is a theme included in this collection by Jack. He played a live show here in Sacramento and I missed it, but this Music set lets you feel his soul as well and I'm happy with it. It is listenable through several "encores" before I put it aside.

It's ashamed that Ramblin' Jack Elliot's music gets marketed exclusively to a traditional folk audience. I'm absolutely convinced that Elliot's music is the equal to that of his former apprentice, Bob Dylan. Jack Elliot is more known to be for the Guthrie/Dylan link, rather than his singular talent as a performer and musician. "Kerouac's Last Dream" is a rare studio album recorded in Europe by Elliot.

On it's own terms, "Kerouac" compares favorably to Dylan's masterpiece, "Blood On the Tracks". Elliot's haunting vocals and his choice of material is exquisite. It became clear why Dylan, after acheiving success, distanced himself from his early guru. Zimmerman wasn't particularly anxious to have his fans and critics saddle him with being "just another Ramblin' Jack Elliot." Elliot has often said his biggest disappointment in life is Dylan's unwillingness to acknowledge him as a mentor. Ironically, with the passage of nearly 40 years, it is Elliot who has stayed in good voice and musical form, while the often erratic Dylan, who has shown long periods of creative dormacy, and abused his singing voice to the point where he's almost unlistenable. There is nothing worse than an uninspired Dyan. I say this as a tremendous Dylan fan who beleives that he still owes a big debt to Ramblin' Jack.

The biggest revelation is "Cuckoo" a haunting intrepetation of an old mountain tune that fits Jack's voice like a glove. There's Dylan and Guthrie tunes as well as a few cowboy songs where we hear Ramblin' Jack's incredible yodeling voice. I've never heard anyone hold a note as long as Elliot was capable of doing. Maybe those yoga breathing exercises he used in the sixties helped him to sustain such long notes. Jack remains a controversial character and his daughter recently filmed a documentry of Elliot's life and strongly suggested that all of that rambling Jack did added up to poor parenting skills and left a broken family in his wake. Elliot has come clean and admitted his past mistakes but it may just be without all the rambling Jack did, we would have never had Ramblin' Jack Elliot, but Jack Elliot, good bread winner and family man.