Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A folk singer and activist who rose to fame in the 1960s, protested the Vietnam War, marched with Martin Luther King, and sang in Sarajevo for peace.
On the island
Eight records
I was brought up hearing his voice in our house. My mother used to stop her cleaning or vacuuming or whatever she was doing, and she wasn't aware of this, and she would stand and she'd look up and she'd go, At a certain point she'd go, Oh, that's so beautiful. So I can't hear this song without hearing my mother's voice.
I was introduced to that when I must have been sixteen or seventeen again by my mother. Any classical music was really my mother's doing. And um I just entered some kind of trance when he played and I was fascinated by his humming, humming all through it, that somebody who was That he must have been in in another state to not even care or notice that he was humming along with this magnificent plane.
O Thou that tellest good tidings to Zion
Kathleen Ferrier again, my mother. Um I would sit with my head in the loudspeakers starting from, I don't know, whenever probably whenever Her material started to be around. Then I would sing along with it. I mean, I can hum along or sing along with anything she's ever sung, and I have no idea what she's singing about, or half the time what the languages are.
Again, my mom. I mean it's something that it it really is because of Heifitz it's and because I heard this I heard this particular piece over and over again, but Heifitz to me is the ultimate violinist.
This is me, yeah. I originally had written down my first album, but that was a totally different voice to me. That was a child's voice. So I ended up choosing Diamonds and Rust as a classic, and I think I would want to hear my own voice if I was stuck on the island for twenty five years and lost my voice. I'd want to hear what it was like once.
I listened to Astral Weeks every single night for I don't know how many months just before I had my son. And um Madame George was the one I think I was addicted to. And it just occurs to me that this is a song that my son knows by heart somewhere in his system, whether he's ever listened to it in his conscious life or not.
I figured I wouldn't be able to survive on a desert island without some dance music. And the dance music I really respond to and should we say resonate with the most is Latin, and the Gypsy Kings are my favorite.
Jackson Brown, Late for the Sky, to me a very beautiful album and one that's that's pretty well lodged in my heart.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:33Are you a completely different person from the earnest, solemn-faced singer of the 1960s?
I'm very different. … I think many people are stuck in some way in the 60s, and when they see me or hear me, they identify immediately with their time in the 60s. I don't think I had that good a time in the 60s. I mean, I was very, very serious about my work, and I was popping in and out of jail and doing demonstrations, and I was stimulated by it all, and I'm glad I did all of it. But I didn't have a great deal of fun. I didn't know what that meant yet.
Presenter asks
2:25Do you think of the person who did all that as another person?
I have tremendous admiration for the person who did all that. I do think of it as another person, yeah.
Presenter asks
3:30How would you like the idea of being cast away on a desert island alone?
Oh, I wouldn't be nuts about it. I've spent a lot of time in my life alone. I'm good at it, but I was rather looking forward to spending less time alone, so maybe it's not the right time in my life to be cast away.
The keepsakes
The book
Anne Frank
I could read anything that really moved my heart. … Um Diary of [Anne] Frank?
The luxury
a pouch containing an amethyst stone, an Apache tear stone, and a silver lion
There's a little amethyst stone from Mexico that reminds me about one part of my life. There was a Apache Tear stone that my son gave me, and I carry them in this little pouch. … And it has a silver lion in it. And the lion will protect me on the beach.
Presenter asks
15:43Why do you think it happened for you? What was right about you and the time that brought it all together?
The first thing that comes to my mind is that I underestimated the gift for many years. The gift is really enormous. … But you are also, if you like, with your voice, the right person in the right decade. Absolutely.
Presenter asks
21:11What were your first impressions of Bob Dylan?
People had told me about this incredible guy writing these incredible songs and uh He was just scruffier than I had pictured. He was very scruffy, but what they said about the songwriting to me was was true. Um I guess I saw him for the first time in Gertie's Folk City, which is where one went in New York to hear local folk music. And he was he sang Blowing in the Wind that night. You know, so history makes itself.
Presenter asks
22:33Were you in love with Bob Dylan?
I don't know that I was capable of that, but it was certainly a happy match for a while.
“I didn't have a great deal of fun. I didn't know what that meant yet.”
“I don't think he has the slightest thing to do with me. All I try to do is maintenance and offer it in the most useful and soulful ways that I can.”
“I would think if I were walking to the guillotine, it this it wouldn't feel any different. I already know what it feels like to walk to the guillotine.”
“I went to Sarajevo because somebody said. The people in Sarajevo have asked you to come and try and lift their spirits after a year of siege. And so there wasn't any question to me at that point that it was the appropriate kind of thing that I do and do well. And so, of course, I went and they lifted my spirits.”
“I think that it would be nice to be able to share my life. That's something I really never thought I'd hear myself say.”