A Mighty Wind (2003) Movie Script
In the news tonight...
...the music world mourns the death
of folk music icon Irving Steinbloom...
...an instrumental figure
in guiding folk music...
...from its humble beginnings in the 1950s
to its zenith in popularity in the 1960s.
Steinbloom managed the careers
of such million-selling folk groups as...
...The Main Street Singers,
The Folksmen...
...and the sweethearts
of the folk music scene, Mitch and Mickey.
Their music was the voice of a generation.
It carried a message of peace and freedom...
...and young people got behind
the message in a big way.
Steinbloom is survived
by his wife and three children.
What do you say, Mitch? It's up to you.
Are you going to be with us?
Yes, we do. We have all three Folksmen.
Of course, Alan, of course.
He was the first to--
We can't imagine doing this without you.
It's as simple as that.
We cannot conceive of doing this--
It seemed that the only fitting tribute
to this fantastic human being--
And I have to tell you,
my dad was really an amazing character.
And the only fitting tribute we could
come up with was a memorial to my dad...
...that would be a concert
that would be performed...
...by all of the fabulous groups
and people that he used to represent.
It's gonna be very fast. It's gonna be in
two weeks. And it had to be in Town Hall...
...because where else could we have
such an event? It had to be Town Hall.
And they had a hole in the schedule.
But it's a very sudden hole...
...and we've got two weeks
to put together this very complicated event.
But I'm pretty organized myself.
I've always been a very organized person.
When I was 12, I formed the J.C.P.L.,
the Jewish Children's Polo League.
We rode Shetland ponies instead of horses.
It was funny, my mom used to say:
"Well, if he has to fall,
he shouldn't fall from so very high."
She was very protective.
You could say overly protective.
I just like to think she cared about me.
Which she did, a lot.
And I was a member of the chess team.
And whenever we had chess tournaments,
I had to wear a protective helmet.
I had to wear a football helmet.
Now, who knows what she was thinking?
Maybe she thought
we might have fallen...
...and impaled our heads on a pointy
bishop or something, I don't know.
Now they don't allow no frowns inside
Leave them by the door
-There's apple brandy by the keg
-And sawdust on the floor
So if you've got a hankering
I'll tell you where to go
Just look for the busted neon sign
That flashes
Ea-a-oe's
Well, there's a puppy in the parlor
And a skillet on the stove
Hello, Mr. Stranger Man
-Who is that?
-Who are any of us?
No!
I'll take some of that.
-Mr. Palter has an altar, I see.
-Yeah. The Palter Porch.
-I knew you looked familiar.
-Just a little.
I think I used to work with your kids.
A couple of young guys...
Mark and I met at
the University of Vermont in about '61?
Late '61.
We were both interested in folk music,
and there was a big folk music scene...
...as there were on many colleges.
We formed The Twobadours.
-Two. T-W-O.
-Badours.
Because there were two of us.
That was the reasoning behind the name.
-Mark was a bass, really, a bass singer.
-I sang way down here.
And I was a tenor singer up there.
And so we had no lead...
No glue. No middle, no...
Vocalist. We went to New York
to see what was happening in the biz.
-We were playing at a place...
-The Folk Place.
At The Folk Place, which was a wonderful
club at the time and we ran into--
It was the flash point.
It really was.
Everyone-- It was like a big magnet,
everyone went there.
-He was singing, he was backing people up--
-I thought I was a guitar player at the time.
If you have enough vibrato on those blue
Fender guitars, you sound like a surf king.
I was drawn to the folk music as well
and I wound up down at The Folk Place...
...and met these two guys.
I could play the guitar. I could sing right
in the middle there, mostly sang for myself.
-Not a bad-looking gent, to boot.
-No, that's true. That didn't hurt.
We ended up getting together
and it just kind of...
-It clicked.
-It clicked.
And Mr. Irving Steinbloom came down
and he signed us to Folk Town...
-...which was the label to be on.
-Terrific label.
Later on we were
kind of moved down the food chain...
...to the Folk Tone label
which was a subsidiary.
It was a decent label,
they just didn't have the distribution.
-They didn't have any distribution.
-No distribution at all.
And the covers were printed
in two colors instead of four...
...which I noticed was a problem.
And they had no hole
in the center of the record--
No, you had to provide it yourself.
So the people complained
that you'd get this vinyl, in those days...
-...and it's up to you to center it.
-It would teeter crazily on the spindle.
And that was, of course, we had
no control over that aspect of it.
They were still good records.
Good product.
If you punched a hole in them,
you'd have a good time.
It's scary but it's true
So do what the Good Book tells you to
I guess it was in about 1958
in Greenwich Village.
My partner Chuck Wiseman
and myself had gotten together...
...with Fred Knox and Bill Weyburn.
We were lucky to be joined by one
of the greatest talents of our generation...
...any generation, as a matter of fact,
Ramblin' Sandy Pitnik.
And we became the Village Folk Ensemble.
And we were a great group. Great.
We had a good sound...
...but I always thought we should have
something bigger, a fuller sound.
And one night in 1960,
I'll never forget this...
...we were at a hootenanny and we
were jamming with the Klapper Family.
And all of a sudden, I heard it.
The sound that I'd been thinking about.
The harmonics were amazing.
I thought, "Well, there's five of us,
there's four of them. It's a neuf-tet."
And it was there, just in a moment,
it was all there.
The neuf-tet sound.
This thing clicked with The Klappers
too, so we joined forces...
...and became The Main Street Singers.
Well, 10 years and 30 albums later,
we disbanded, but we'd had a good run.
My partner Chuck Wiseman and myself,
we called it quits too.
I went my way and Chuck went his.
In 1971, after the breakup
of The Main Street Singers...
...Chuck Wiseman moved to San Francisco
where he started a business...
...with his two brothers.
The Three Wiseman's Sex Emporium.
It was very successful for a year...
...until they were sued over something
having to do with a box of benwa balls.
No, I need you, Mitch.
I need Mitch and Mickey. Mitch and Mickey.
That's the thing. You go together.
I love Mickey, but without you
it's not the same. You got to think--
I'm gonna tell you something, Mitch,
and I've never told anybody this before.
You were Dad's favorite. Okay.
Just deal with it. You were Dad's favorite.
I've never said this to a single soul.
Two weeks before he died
he took me aside and he said to me:
"Of all those ferkakte people,
I love Mitch, he's my favorite.
He's like a relative,
he's like my nephew to me."
I'm saying this because I think you'd want
to know before you make your mind up.
Would you just think about it?
Sounds cliche, but it's kind of a blur,
you know? They loved us.
I guess we were, in a way, maybe easy
to love because we represented...
...true love and romance
and sweetness, and...
To be quite honest, I bought
the image as much as anyone else.
Maybe that's why I sold it so well.
Because it was sweet and happy...
...and everybody, everybody
loved to hang around Mitch.
They tried to get close to him,
but I was close to him.
He was very smart, very intense...
...and distant, you know?
You'd get close to him and he'd inch back
that much further, you know.
And you'd move in,
you know, to get inside Mitch...
...and he'd just back off a little more.
Just always kept you wanting to get there,
to understand him.
Which was impossible.
Oh, when the veil of dreams has lifted
And the fairy tales have all been told
There's a kiss at the end of the rainbow
More precious than a pot of gold
The phenomenon of that kiss was...
It can't be overstated.
It was...
...a superb moment
in the history of folk music.
And maybe...
...maybe a great moment
in the history of humans.
I'd like to think that Mitch
would agree to do this with me.
Because I already said yes.
And I can't do it alone, so...
No, I didn't think this through.
Should've talked to him beforehand,
but I haven't talked to him in so long.
It wasn't...
We weren't talking.
You know, those last few years...
Okay, I'm remembering some things now,
yeah. There was lots of fighting going on.
And I think for a while we were able...
...to keep it on a professional level.
But really, we were getting
some personal things out.
I was just out of high school,
I had just started here.
And I must say I was in awe of Mitch
and Mickey. I mean, who wasn't?
They were here working on
When You're Next To Me...
...which was their last album together.
Mickey started shouting at Mitch.
She just went off.
She started throwing anything she could
get her hands on at Mitch. Anything.
Music stands, microphone stands,
mikes, guitars.
And Mitch...
He just...
He just snapped.
It's time to kick on back
Toss your cares away
Cartwheels and piggybacks
It's just that kind of day
I'm sitting on a hill
Watching clouds at play
Well, I've been playing
the music of The Main Street Singers...
...my whole life, I mean,
from way back in Tampa.
I've come to understand as an adult,
with the help of Laurie, my beautiful wife...
...that there had been abuse in my family,
but it was mostly musical in nature.
My father used to
lock me away in a room...
...with nothing but the Percy Faith
recording of "Bim Bam Boom"...
...and then send me to bed
with nothing but dessert.
One of the records he put me
in there with was Sunny Side Up.
The Main Street Singers, 1968.
I tell you, my head opened up,
my heart opened up.
I listened to that record
over and over and over.
I knew it right and left
and every way to Sunday.
I feel like I knew those people.
I wanted to be in that group so badly...
...that at the age of 8 years old,
I went down into the basement...
...and I made cardboard cutouts of
everybody in the group to sing with them.
These were my friends,
and they were made out of gin boxes.
It's odd that Laurie
came from such a different--
Right. A completely different path.
I was brought up in a very small town,
south of the Chicago city limits.
Just far enough away to have been peopled
with pure, unadulterated white trash.
And because I was one of so many children,
I don't believe that anyone noticed...
...when I blew town at 15
and ended up in San Francisco, California.
And it's at this point in my story
that the dark clouds part...
...because I met a certain Mr. Wiseman,
who gave me a job in his shop.
And before long, he tapped me
to do some small roles...
...in some of his short films
for more mature audiences.
And before long, I had landed,
if you will, some leads...
...and then I started to do some cameos.
Well, I was known for
doing a certain thing...
...that many of the other girls
wouldn't do.
Of course, I loved to sing,
ever since I was a little girl.
And I learned to play the ukulele
in one of my last films, Not So Tiny Tim.
And based on that, my world opened up...
...because I was invited to join the
re-formed New Main Street Singers.
And that's where I met my man,
and before long I was the new Mrs. Bohner.
Ain't that something?
-A beautiful story.
-I tell you.
Last week you were
going to come in at 5...
...and you never showed up.
It's okay, it's just that--
-He's in. Mitch is in.
-Really?
-It's unbelievable.
-Congratulations!
-Thank you. Thank you.
-He said he would be a part of this?
-Yes.
-He said that just now on the phone?
-Yeah, I think he did.
-Did he put it in writing?
I'm sorr--
I'm just looking out for you.
Let's not rain on the parade, okay?
He's in.
In 1974, after the breakup,
Mitch was extremely angry.
His first solo album...
...a Cry For Help, contained
numbers like "If I Had A Gun"...
..."Anyone But You," "May She Rot in Hell."
And this just spiraled down...
...to the next album, Calling It Quits.
And at that point he was in a very bad way.
There was a lot of anger in Mitch...
...for reasons, you know, that he had.
I think he went too soon.
He should have stayed longer,
because we really didn't get a grip on him.
And his anger was unhealthy...
...for all of us.
-Hello, Mickey.
-Mitch.
-How are you?
-Great.
-It's good to see you.
-You too. So...
-Mitch Cohen, this is my husband.
-Leonard Crabbe, very nice to meet you.
-It's nice to meet you.
-Welcome to the house of Crabbe.
Thank you very much.
I just checked into the hotel.
Left my things there.
-Good.
-Which hotel was that, then?
I don't know the name.
I can't remember the name,
but it's very nice.
Are you hungry?
-Yes.
-Good. Lunch is not quite ready.
Maybe you'd like to
take Mitch to see your trains?
Oh, yes. Do you like trains?
I took a bus.
No. Model trains.
Do you like model trains?
-Sure.
-It's a bit of a passion for me.
I'll show you around.
It's right down here.
-It was a 16-hour trip.
-This will be quicker than that.
This whole area here is called Crabbe Town.
We've got a brothel
down there above the saloon.
And right down there, further along,
I'm thinking of building a French Quarter.
-I've actually got a bit of French blood.
-I'd love to see this town in the autumn.
I think Crabbeville in autumn
would look quite magnificent.
I would have made tiny little leaves...
...oak, poplar, maple, chestnut...
...and spread them
across the town of Crabbeville.
Magnificent.
It's Crabbe Town, not Crabbeville.
What is it you do, Leonard?
For work?
Oh, work.
I'm in the bladder management industry.
I sell catheters.
I have my own distribution company.
Sure-Flo Medical Appliances.
May have heard of it.
It's actually named in tribute after
my mother. Her name was Florence.
It's a growth industry, really,
because one in three people over 60...
...either have a flaccid
or a spastic bladder...
...so, in a sense, every 13.5 seconds,
a new incontinent is born, as it were.
People like you and I have
what they call "leakage problems."
They can be running, playing tennis,
laughing, sneezing, anything.
The good old constipation, you know?
You have impacted fecal mass
in your rectum pushing on your bladder.
This might make good dessert talk.
I started playing folk clubs
in New York City...
...and walked into one such
coffeehouse one night and there--
-Half Moon Cafe.
-The Half Moon Cafe and--
I was playing with my sisters,
Jocelyn, Claire, Estelle.
We were the North Four.
We were on-stage
and we had a horrible little heckler.
A little guy, but with
the loudest voice in the world.
And just, you know, "Take off your tops"
and "Get off the stage"...
"You sing like crap! You get off the stage!"
Very inarticulate. Rude.
Mean. Mean little bugger.
All of a sudden, we couldn't see clear,
you got the lights on us...
...but I see this tall, dark figure go over
and there's this intense little...
...something going on,
and all of a sudden, he's pummeled.
-The crap pummeled out of him.
-I don't remember much.
But the next thing I know,
I'm in a hospital, and the first thing I saw...
...was a beautiful rose sitting in a vase
on the night table next to the bed.
And I can't express...
...what was surging through my body.
I was consumed with an emotion...
...that I had never felt before.
We started singing together.
We simply fused together...
...in a very meaningful way.
And before you know it, we were recording.
-I learned to sing with Mitch.
-And--
So scary, so scary. But I just...
Mitch was so strong and so smart
and knew what he wanted...
...and I just focused on Mitch.
You know,
I went along for the ride.
One, two, three, and...
-Wait. I doubled after you?
-No, with me. That's doubling.
-You climb aboard the ferry at the same time.
-Okay, fair enough.
One, two, three, and...
My mama was the cold north wind
My daddy was the son of a railroad man
From west of hell
Where the trains don't even run
Never heard the whistle
Of a southbound freight
Or the humming of its driving wheel
No, I never did no wandering
Never did no wandering
Never did no wandering after all
I just, sorry, I just got a mental picture
in my mind of us on-stage in the show.
And we weren't wearing the old stuff,
the old gear, the old...
We're talking about the dickeys?
I think I'm on record as Mr. Anti-dickey.
You were Mr. Drop-the-dickey.
-It's just a very retro look.
-I'm totally available for the discussion of it.
It sounds like you're thinking
the image that we had...
...was a retro image of something that
wasn't retro because we weren't retro...
-...because we were then.
-It wasn't retro then...
...but now, to try a retro thing,
it might just look kind of sad.
-I mean...
-To do then now would be retro.
To do then then
was very now-tro, if you will.
I know we're getting emotional with things
and I know we want to give this...
...to be a great thing for you know who,
but I'm looking at numbers--
For Dad. Can't you say it? For Dad.
You can't say his name, can you?
You're not the only one
that's thinking about Dad now.
You're not the only person
going through this--
You don't have to take everything personally.
It's not you. It's her. Forgive me.
I'm sorry. Forgive me. Never mind.
This isn't really just
a reunion for the folk groups.
It's also a reunion for the Steinbloom family,
minus Dad, of course.
-Because we never get together.
-Not really.
-We talk. A lot. We talk a lot.
-We talk on the phone a lot.
-We don't really see each other.
-No. We don't need to.
I moved away to North Dakota.
I tried to get far away
to get the singing out of my head.
I didn't care for folk music
and Dad knew that. I just didn't get it.
So I haven't kept up our ties.
That's why this is kind of nice.
Hopefully we can get
through our little things...
...and put on a good show for Dad.
You like to make amends, but you can't,
so we'll try to do it with one good--
Music.
You okay?
Let's just hang on.
Oh, Jesus.
My dad, Fred Knox,
was an original Main Street Singer...
...so I grew up with this kind of music.
So I listened to it when I was little.
But I didn't hear much of it when
I was a teenager because I was--
I was on the streets.
I was really rescued by
The New Main Street Singers...
...and they really
gave me a break from that...
...dark, that darkness.
And...
So I like to give people a break now.
So when I sing, I want
to give out what was given to me.
And I want to be, you know,
a vessel of love...
...and I want to entertain
and make people happy.
So I look for someone out in the audience
and that's what brings me real joy.
So when Mr. Menschell
called me in 1995, my dad died...
...and asked me to be a part
of this band, I said:
"Well, yeah."
Going home
I'm going
Go--
Going
Go
Going home
I'm going home
Home
Home
Go--
Quick plugola, I'm Mike LaFontaine, owner
and founder of Hi-Class Management.
Comic's constant companion.
Let's start right out.
Hey, wha' happened?
As you know, back in 1970...
I starred on a series called, Wha' Happened.
Every time something would go wrong,
I'd look at the camera and say:
"Hey, wha' happened?"
We had fun with that
and other catch phrases.
"I got a real red wagon!"
And, "I can't do my work!"
And I believe I was the first one
to use the phrase, "I don't think so!"
It lasted a year. That's good because
that's how you establish a cult.
I was on-stage doing my shtick, "Hey,
wha' happened?" and "I can't do my work!"
If someone would heckle me, they'd
say, "Will you be on-stage all night?"
I would say, "That's right!"
and that would crack up the audience.
But I noticed a guy sitting down front
with a long face, nothing got to him.
So I said to the lady next to him:
"Hold your mirror up in front
of his nose to see if he's breathing.
To see if there's a reflection."
So he started to smile.
After the show I go down and introduce
myself. His name is George Menschell.
He had been with a group called
The Main Street Singers.
I was never into folk music.
I'd worked some bills with some folkies.
Put him in a cell with a long hose on him
Put him in a cell with a long hose on him
I used to say,
"If he's got a long enough hose...
...he's gonna have friends
in the shower room!"
Folk audiences hated that joke.
But I said to George, I said:
"Seriously, you've put up
some great numbers.
If you re-form your group, I can send
you out on the Starfish Cruise Lines.
Together, we could make a fortune
and you will have a ball."
They used to go out, come back, they had
a great time. Except a couple of cruises...
...dysentery broke out on the ship.
I was not there.
You do not want to be on a cruise ship
when dysentery breaks out...
...and knock on the men's room door,
"Will you be coming out soon?"...
...and hear, "I don't think so!"
I'm so glad to be here.
I love the network.
I love what you do here.
I watch it constantly.
That's what I wanted to start by saying.
I think you're doing a fabulous job.
And I'm very, very happy
to be here talking with you.
It's a perfect fit.
Our demographics are skewing older...
...and that can be a minus
with corporate underwriters.
In this case, it's a plus because
of the built-in fans for The Folksmen...
...all the groups
that your dad represented.
And, you know, I think it's gonna
do very well in the evening hours...
...which is when we'd propose
to do this concert.
If you don't mind me saying, our audience
for some of these groups is getting younger.
Not radically younger.
Which I hope is all right.
If we can get two dozen young people
watching in the evening hours...
...I think people here would be happy
because we don't have much of that now.
This is great and I want to tell you...
...if you're not weary of hearing stories about
your dad, I want to tell you a little story.
A young kid by the name of Lars Olfen,
in 1966, going to a concert.
I'm 16 years old and it was raining.
And I got right up to the box office
and like some kind of practical joke...
...the door slammed shut.
Sold out, right when I got there.
My young tears mixed with the rain,
I'm walking away and I hear a voice.
"Hey, kid, over here."
And I go, "What, a scalper?
Who is this guy? I can't afford
that kind of money for a ticket."
But he looks kind of familiar
and I go over there.
He hands me two tickets,
doesn't want a dollar.
It's your father. Why would he do that?
That was Dad, you know.
He was just out there, with people.
And he was generous, he was kind and
really that's why we're doing this thing...
...to pay back this much back
to his memory.
The naches I'm feeling right now.
Your dad was like mishpoche to me.
When I heard I got these tickets to
The Folksmen, I let out a geshreeyeh...
...and I'm running with
my friend like a vilde chaye...
...right into the theater,
in the front row.
We've got the schpilkes
because we're sitting right there.
It's a mitzvah what your dad did,
and I want to try to give that back to you.
Okeinhoreh, I say, and God bless him.
Where did I go up? I remember hitting a...
We shared a song
I think it might be on "the ravens,"
on "the ravens."
"We shared."
I think you might stay below me on--
Stay on: We shared
Wandered
Wandered through each other's secrets
We traded
We traded
You're right! Mitch, you're right!
Oh, I forgot that.
We traded an honored worth
That's it, nice and crisp!
That's very nice.
Walking down to Main Street
Everybody's gonna sing
There you go.
What are you singing there?
You got the root on "sing"?
You singing the root?
No, I was singing:
Everybody's gonna sing
Didn't I give you a sixth?
-I don't think so.
-Tony, I give him a sixth?
I think you were singing the sixth.
-Can you sing me a sixth?
-Could you sing a sixth?
-Everybody gonna sing
-Everybody gonna sing
-Yeah, I can sing that. Sure.
-Let's try it again. One, two, three.
What? Yeah?
-Go ahead.
-You have a problem in the bridge?
No, I was gonna--
Can I switch?
Can I change out of my costume?
Costume? Are you hot?
Yeah. But also, I mean...
...I've been wearing it for a month.
You know the policy.
We all gotta wear the uniform
until we're ready to take it off.
You're close, I just don't think
you're quite there yet.
You did not sing that sixth,
and I want to see you sing that sixth.
You just wear what you have on.
You sound fine.
Eventually you'll be able to wear
your civvies when you're singing.
Jonathan? Hi.
Well, I got good news and better news.
Good news is, we're still doing the concert.
The better news is, we are going live.
Yeah.
I got a friend, at NO AA, so we're going up
in the Nimbus 7 Oceanographic Satellite.
He's got some bandwidth there,
and it's live!
Yeah, the corporate underwriters
wouldn't go for it, so...
I'm excited too!
Okay. Okay.
Shalom.
Folk music is in my blood.
As a young boy, in Sweden-- I was born
there and came here at an early age...
...but we'd go back to Sweden every
year, my family and I, in the winter...
...which was a flip from the normal thing.
Every Olfen kid, Lars, Sven, Pippi
and Liv, was trained on the dulcimer.
When you could hold a rattle, you'd
hold a dulcimer. And we learned to play.
I had a garage band in Stockholm,
which was a challenge in its own right...
...to keep an instrument tuned
with that temperature swing.
There's a block warmer
for the Volvo in the garage...
...but it's cold in there in the winter.
So we played and I had a hit
that you might have heard of.
Which means, "How's It Hanging, Grandma?"
and it was big on the Swedish charts.
I got in touch with the American music.
I loved that and thrived on that...
...so I came here
and became part of that scene.
I'm so happy to be here and come
full circle, airing this show on PBN.
It's a dream come true.
I worked the fields my father worked
From dawn till setting sun
Then it quiets down.
And the skeletons of Quinto
Call me home
"The silver tentacles of the moon's rays
haunt me... "
That's really getting confusing.
It's really confusing.
It's really confusing. I'm hearing you
the same timbre, and it's cluttered.
Maybe if I did it higher
and he did it lower--
-If you do what you did before.
-I can't get that much higher.
But that's-- Now it sounds
almost more like a ventriloquist.
Can I make the radical suggestion
that maybe this is not the best number...
...to start with?
This is a live television show.
We don't want people
to reach for their remotes here.
It's public television.
I don't think...
-They don't have remotes.
-Yeah.
My God, that's terrible. What do you mean
he won't come out of the room?
Have you talked to him? Has he talked to
a doctor? Have you given him medication?
I know he's anxious.
I'm always anxious. I come out.
You know, I mean,
we gotta do something.
You want me to-- You mean,
I'm supposed to talk to him?
I like him, I don't have that much
to say to him.
I could be empathetic.
I'm not sure what else I could do.
I could sit, I could try.
Anything, we have to do something.
I'll talk to him. I'm happy to.
I gotta get him out of there.
We're not broadcasting from a motel room.
We gotta get him out of there.
What's happening here?
Could you run your hand over that?
-What are you getting?
-Well, I'm getting a bounce.
But there's a lightness within it, as well.
Interesting. You know, honey,
it's a very tricky color.
Terry and I worship
an unconventional deity.
The power of another dimension.
Now, you're not going to read about this
dimension in a book, or in a magazine...
...or in a newspaper...
...because it doesn't exist anywhere...
...except in my own mind.
Through our ceremonies and our rituals...
...we have witnessed firsthand...
...the awesome
and vibratory power of color.
We experience it as alive...
...and constantly shaping
our experience.
And we believe that
this saturated energy...
...is the basis of all creation.
We are WINC. W-I-N-C.
Witches In Nature's Colors. WINC.
The word "witch " may be a problem for
some of you. It has silly connotations.
No, we do not ride around
on broomsticks and wear pointy hat--
Well, we don't ride on broomsticks.
This is not an occult science.
This is not one of those crazy systems...
...of divination and astrology.
That's hooey...
...and you gotta have a screw loose
to go in for it.
Our beliefs are fairly commonplace
and simple to understand.
Humankind is simply materialized color...
...operating on the 49th vibration.
You'd make that conclusion...
...walking down the street
or going to the store.
I know this is a lot of pressure
for you to be under.
And I don't want you to feel you have
to push yourself too far. Okay?
This is a one-day-at-a-time kind of thing.
Don't think you have to achieve anything
right away.
Very important to back off the pressure.
Okay?
There's a deception here.
The audience...
...they're expecting to see a man
who no longer exists.
Well, you know, that may be true.
It might indeed be true.
But I think what you have--
-Oh, baby.
-Oh, baby.
Can I--?
Loco man
Watching all the fish swim away
He no work
He just sleep and play
Sitting here on the sand
Talking about the loco man.
Sunny land
Coconut coming down all the time
Milk, she sweeter than honey wine
Sitting here on the sand
Sun breaks over the sprits'l yard
Jib sheets hauling to leeward hard
Crosstrees humming a morning hymn
-I'm the cabin boy, call me Jim
-His name's Jim
Fare away, fare away
Under main top sail
To the furbelow of the wily whale
Hold on. One second, please.
I got an idea. Very literate reference.
Are you familiar with a book about
a pirate captain, his name is Moby Dick?
He was chasing some big whale.
He had a catch phrase he'd always
yell out, "There she blows!"
If you could do that, we'd have someone
off-stage drench the group with water.
And you could look at the camera
and say, "Hey, wha' happened?"
And every time,
another thing of water...
And by the end you're all soaked,
even the ladies...
At the end of the song you turn the
guitars over and water splashes out.
Kerplunk!
It's just a thought.
Oh, when the veil of dreams has lifted
And the fairy tales have all been told
There's a kiss at the end of the rainbow
More precious than a pot of gold
My sweet, my dear, my darling
You're so far away from me
Though an ocean of tears divides us
Let the bridge of our love span the sea
There's a kiss at the end of the rainbow
More precious than a pot of gold
We're pleased to have
the folk people here tomorrow.
It's not something we usually do.
This is more of a classical venue.
But it'll be a lot of fun.
It's like having a carnival
come to town.
I'm the events liaison.
People here call me "King Larry"
or "Your Majesty"...
...because I do everything
that needs to be done.
I've been up into the highest catwalk
changing light bulbs.
I've been in the basement
changing the rat traps.
I'm also a singer.
I'm not a professional,
but I do like to sing in church...
...and, you know,
places like juvenile halls.
But this...
This is the best place to sing in
New York and possibly the world.
The acoustics are just perfect.
-Did I miss it?
-No. It's about a mile.
-I'm not sure if I'm going north or south.
-Where is it again?
The guy said Midtown.
He said you can't miss it.
-It has chrome on the front of the hotel.
-You wanna hang a left.
-I'm gonna make a left.
-Try again.
-Do you have a map?
-I have a map, but not in the car.
Were you planning to study it later
academically, or...?
-Is it on the way?
-Look, guys, I'll get us here.
Nobody's busting your chops. Yet.
-It's just a question of time.
-Pull over and let me drive.
I don't want you to.
I don't know where I am.
We're excited to be involved
with this project.
It will be a challenge for me
because I'm not a fan of folk music.
-Me too!
-I could care less about it.
But that doesn't matter
in the business of public relations...
...which is what we do.
It matters what you think. And it
matters what we can make you think.
What we can sell to you.
And a product you'll love to buy.
That's the way we look at this concert.
And if we can't do that, we fake it.
That's also part of public relations.
We're professionals here, you see.
We get ideas that help sell.
We work together very well.
It's almost as like we have one brain...
...that we share between us.
It's like I'll have an idea, it will
just be a teeny, tiny little spark...
...and then it will get to Wally
and he'll make it a fire.
I don't know about you,
but I'm predicting a lot of exciting...
...amazing things
that happen to the groups.
Like big, like, not just big,
but big-time stuff.
Ladies and gentlemen, as deputy mayor,
it gives me no greater pleasure...
...than to officially declare tomorrow...
...Saturday, June 22...
...Folk Music Day in the Big Apple.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Your Honor,
or Your deputy Honor.
I have two questions.
One, is New York City ready to hear...
...a rebirth of some of the finest
folk music ever created in this city?
Yes, I think so!
And my second question is, where's
the real mayor? Wha' happened?
Someone shot the mayor,
they did not shoot the deputy.
The DA's office called. They can't find
any witnesses, so he's in the clear.
Let me say a few words
about The New Main Street Singers.
One of the founding members has passed
away, but he's with us tonight anyway!
George Menschell! Come on up here
and say something, George.
How are you? You wanna say something?
Come on, say something!
Thank you sincerely, Your Honor...
...which reminds me, I was at
a swingers party and a guy said to me:
"I'd like to meet your wife."
I said, "Your honor!"
To paraphrase an old joke:
Knock, knock. Who's there?
It's The New Main Street Singers!
Thank you so much.
-Thank you. You can take this.
-Okay.
-Thank you very much.
-Thank you.
Don't forget to buy the CDs.
Seeing these long lines of fans...
...who want nothing more than
to have you sign an autograph...
...it's like it's 1968...
...or '67, or '66.
The good years.
It's so wonderful to see the people...
...that have enjoyed your music
all these years.
And there's so many of them.
And they just want to shake your hand
and say:
"We dig what you do."
And then there's the kids.
We're hearing, "You rock."
"You rock me."
"You rock my world." What--?
I was flashing back to the rush
of adrenaline we used to get...
...arriving at the concert hall...
...having stagehands saying,
"Good show, Mitch."
"Good luck, Mickey, tonight."
And we'd wait backstage,
hearing the crowd chanting.
"Mickey, Mickey, Mitch, Mitch!"
Walking out into the spot...
...the sound of the crowd cheering...
...the decibel level.
For me it was just watching you.
Because I couldn't think about me
actually being up there. Watching you.
I look forward to that, Mitch.
-I wonder if it'll happen tomorrow night.
-Oh, yeah.
-And I'll be there.
-We'll see.
I'll be there in the best seat in the house.
I guess you can make money
in folk music.
-Yeah, I guess you can.
-Yeah.
It's usually because of acts
like The New Main Street Singers.
That commercial crapola.
I'm a model train enthusiast.
Oh, that's great!
I've got a whole layout in my basement.
It's very much a big passion for me.
Yeah, thank God for model trains.
-Absolutely.
-If they didn't have model trains...
...they wouldn't have
gotten the idea for the big trains.
Excuse me. Hi.
Hi, everybody. Just be a second.
Don't want to interrupt.
We're having a great time.
I'd like to propose a big, big toast...
...in honor of Dad.
He was an amazing
and a wonderful, loving father...
...a fantastic person in general.
And I think anybody who even knew Dad
just for a second...
...knew that he had an amazing hum.
And wherever he went,
he would suddenly break into a hum.
And anybody who heard this hum
would just be happy.
And in honor of Dad,
I'd like to say, let's all pause...
...let's raise our glasses
and let's hum for Dad.
Okay, bring it down. Back up.
Okay, bring it across. Bring it across.
-Right on down here.
-Here, hold it.
-So, what do you got? You got vocal?
-Vocal.
-Some of them are already in there.
-They've been assigned directions?
Yeah. We do this every single day.
This is just like clockwork.
-Those are microphones?
-Microphone stands.
-They don't have tops on them.
-Pardon?
They'll have tops when we're done,
don't worry. We do this every day.
Mike heads.
Would you call them a "mike head,"
or would it be the "mike"?
It's called a microphone,
and you'll get them. Don't worry.
-We really want them.
-You'll have them.
Town hall. Tonight.
Mitch and Mickey at the Town Hall.
Two weeks rehearsal.
That's the way to play Town Hall.
Crazy. New phrasing. Different keys.
But couldn't have happened
any other way.
If we'd stayed together,
we wouldn't be at Town Hall now.
We'd be lucky to be in Branson,
opening for The Main Street Singers.
Nope.
This was our crazy way of getting here.
Well, I'm feeling very relaxed.
Very confident. Very focused.
You know, 35 years ago,
preparing for a concert...
...meant playing "find the cobra"
with a hotel chambermaid.
But tonight, I feel good.
I feel excited.
I feel ready for whatever
the experience is...
...that we will take with us
after the show.
I'm sure it will be an adventure...
...a voyage on this magnificent vessel...
...into uncharted waters.
What if we see sailfish jumping...
...and flying across the magnificent orb
of a setting sun?
I think it's impeccable.
It says happiness, it says opening night.
It says, "I love folk music but I'm not
afraid of classical." It's beautiful.
I'm a little afraid of these
pokey things that are sticking out.
-Apple blossoms.
-Is that what they're called?
They're at eye height. Someone
could come over to sniff, admire...
...and poke an eye out.
I'd love to clip it off.
If we could get a shape to them,
that's my basic creative issues.
I have a health and safety issue.
Those viny things.
They're a disaster.
They're too low, too tangly.
They're just waiting for
an elderly person to wheel by...
...or somebody in a walker,
or with a brace on their leg.
A lot of my family
is beyond old, and--
I've got an idea. Let's get carnations
and a beer stein and put them up here.
I don't see how that would work.
I've adopted the practice...
...of taking care of my skin.
It's something, you know,
sometimes you get razzed a little bit.
I think Jerry was razzing me
the other day at Alan's house about it.
He caught me in the bathroom...
...and I did that thing where
I put my hands down fast...
...and he said, "What are you
doing there?" But really...
...Norwegian fishermen have used
hand cream for centuries.
And with that regimen,
and it's a very simple one...
...I know that when I walk out
on-stage tonight, I will-- My skin...
...will look its best in front
of 2000 people.
That will give me the confidence
that will help me to play my best...
...and sing my best and be my best...
...and you can't put a price on that.
-Tammy, we all set on the pre-record?
-Yeah.
You know, I produced
a reunion show before.
Before I came to PBN
I did the Good Times reunion.
People wanted more close-ups. I want
to make sure we get plenty of close-ups.
We have plenty of close-ups scheduled.
Another great thing would be one
of those shots where you pull back...
...to see the enormity
of the event and the venue.
Would be a crane.
Do we have a crane standing by?
-No, we don't have a crane.
-Wow!
You know those swooping shots
where it goes over the audience...
...and hammers in on a shot
of one of the musicians playing?
-That would be great.
-It would be.
Or when they pull back, kind of
like a California Adventure ride...
...where you see the whole thing,
that would be nice too.
It would be.
I could make some calls, if we could
get one. I don't know if it's too late.
-All right, here's your giant banjo.
-It's very flat.
It doesn't look flat
from in the audience.
It has basically no dimension to it.
It's painted to look three-dimensional.
If you go back there--
But it's not painted on the back.
Will you look with me for a minute?
From the audience it will look fine.
It looks three-dimensional.
Go out there and take a peek.
Is this the real furniture
or the rehearsal furniture?
It's not called "furniture."
It's a set.
It's painted this way. It looks completely
three-dimensional from the audience.
So this is the real furniture,
and this is...
-Is this an actual street lamp?
-I'm sure it was at one time.
Can you have an actual
three-dimensional object...
...that represents the thing
that it actually is, can that be next to...
-...something that it's pretending to be?
-Yes, it's perfectly fine.
I have no time to explain Stagecraft 101.
This show starts in an hour.
-Everything is exactly the way you--
-Those are lights hanging up there?
Those are lights,
and that's a ceiling above us!
-But they look shaky.
-No, they're perfectly--
Is that wire? I see a wire.
I see a--
Fellas, thanks a lot for coming
and doing this for Dad.
Honestly, that's so beautiful.
And thank you for the flowers,
the little banjo.
Did you like that?
We had to get rid of the lavender
because it attacked my eyes.
-Sorry about that.
-Listen, the thought was wonderful.
I remember you guys staying
at the house and...
I remember you were always trying
to get a poker game started.
You were, like, 15 years old
with a deck of cards in your hands.
-Penny stakes.
-Yeah.
You always teased me with those
card games. You taught me cards.
Yeah, we didn't know you were gonna
turn into a monster on us.
Mitch.
You okay?
Yes.
This flame, like all flames,
represents the light and the darkness.
It also represents
the uncertainty of life and its delicacy.
It also represents a penis.
Red, orange, yellow, green, blue
Indigo, violet
-Ten seconds to air.
-Roll pre-record on my count.
Seven...
...six, five, four...
...three, two...
Roll A. Fade up on A.
PBN New York is proud to present:
Live from Town Hall,
Ode to Irving...
...an evening of folk music.
Featuring The New Main Street Singers...
...The Folksmen and Mitch and Mickey.
And now your host,
Mr. Jonathan Steinbloom.
Hello, I'm Jonathan Steinbloom,
and before we begin tonight...
...I would like to make
a brief announcement.
I'd like to warn you that some of the
floral arrangements here tonight...
...have dangerously low-hanging vines...
...and may be poisonous,
so please, don't eat them.
And don't become entangled in them
or trip, please.
On behalf of the entire
Steinbloom family...
...welcome to Ode to Irving.
Thank you. Thank you.
Please join all of us and give a really
warm welcome to our first group...
...about whom Dad used to say...
...they were the kind of infectious
that it was good to spread around.
Ladies and gentlemen,
The New Main Street Singers.
Thank you, New York City,
for that very warm welcome.
Gee, I got a question.
Anybody care to hear some folk music?
Never did no wandering
Never did no wandering
Never did no wandering after all
Never did no wandering
My mother was the cold north wind
My daddy was the son of a railroad man
From west of hell
Where the trains don't even run
Never heard the whistle
Of a lonesome freight
Or the singing of its driving wheel
Oh, I never did no wandering
I didn't say a word.
I don't know.
Never did no wandering after all
They say the highway's just one big road
And it goes from here to there
You swear to God you didn't talk
to Menschell about the set?
You didn't tell him
what we were opening with?
I saw you talking to Terry Bohner.
Him and his blue sweater.
I said, "Isn't it warm?"
Nothing about the set.
Well, it's getting warmer now.
I don't think finger-pointing
is gonna help us here. I...
-I think it's clear what we do.
-What?
-I'm gonna suggest we be bold.
-Yeah, let's hear it.
We open with "Wandering."
Did you miss the last couple of minutes?
They're butchering--
-Turn it back up.
-We give the audience a choice.
We say you can enjoy a toothpaste
commercial or hear folk music.
They've brushed their teeth
by that time, it's not even germane.
You can't have, especially on a folk bill,
two people doing the same song.
That doesn't work.
They'll just be flat-out confused.
Never did no wandering after all
Easy now!
Never did no wandering
Never did no wandering
Never did no wandering after all
No, I never did no wandering
After all
Oh, boy. Thank you very much!
That song is so fun to sing.
I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.
Before we go a little bit further,
we'd like to introduce ourselves.
Hi there, I'm Terry Bohner.
I'm going out for some air.
Are you sure you're okay?
Yes.
One night Mama went to fetch
Herself a sweet potato
Fell down the cellar stairs
Stork dropped in
While she was on the floor
So my sister was born down there
Daddy said this one will be nothing but a
Misery, never will be worth a damn
But Mama just loved her
Little sweet potato baby
With a face like a parboiled yam
Come on, boys
Potato's in the paddy wagon
I know you don't want to hear this,
but it's a major key, it's up-tempo...
...we open with "Old Joe's Place."
We go out, do the song we're
known for, get it out of the way.
And then, hey, here's the icing
on the cake.
-What's the icing?
-The icing's the rest of the act.
-That's the cake.
-No, that's the dressing.
Mom and Daddy put together
Quite a little posse
Counting me and Jack and Cousin Will
We all hopped into the old Chevy pickup
And we caught them at the top of the hill
Daddy took his Remington
And shot away the lock
For to set his little darling free
But Potato said
Daddy, shut the goldarn door
Sheriff wants to marry me
Let's go, boys
Potato's in the paddy wagon
Guess we better leave her there
Let's go, boys
Potato's in the paddy wagon
Mama says it's more than fair
Mama says it's more than fair
Ladies and gentlemen,
The New Main Street Singers.
I have been watching and observing
as The New Main Street Singers...
Boy, that's fun! That's really fun, man.
How did we sound?
-We weren't really listening.
-We were downstairs.
I couldn't hear so well, but, shoot,
I'm sorry you guys--
And now, please join me in welcoming
our next three talented performers.
Taken alone they are merely
Jerry Palter...
...Alan Barrows and Mark Shubb.
But when you put them all together...
...they spell "absolutely fantastic."
Ladies and gentlemen, The Folksmen!
Thank you. Yeah, it's really us.
-Wow.
-The waiting is over.
Long time no see.
Can't tell you.
Great to be back.
We'd like to do our hit.
You might remember it,
we hope you do.
Whenever I'm out wandering
Chasing a rainbow dream
I often stop and think
About a place I've never seen
Where friendly folks can gather
And raise the rafters high
-Hey.
-Hey, pretty lady!
-You guys were great.
-Wonderful crowd.
-Have you seen Mitch?
-No.
Okay.
Mitch?
Pick it!
That's nice.
Well, there's a puppy in the parlor
And a skillet on the stove
And a smelly old blanket
That a Navajo wove
There's popcorn in the popper
And a porker in the pot
There's pie in the pantry
And the coffee's always hot
Just look for the busted neon sign
That flashes
Ea-a-oe's
Well, there's a puppy in the parlor
And a skillet on the stove
And a smelly old blanket
That a Navajo wove
There's popcorn in the popper
And a porker in the pot
There's pie in the pantry
And the coffee's always hot
There's sausage in the morning
And a party every night
There's a nurse on duty
If you don't feel right
There's chicken on the table
But you gotta say grace
There's always something cooking
At Old Joe's Place
Thank you!
-Thank you so much!
-Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Very nice of you.
What a great crowd.
This crowd might want to join us...
...in a little audience participation.
We're not gonna be
working up here by ourselves!
First time through, relax.
Second time, we'll put you to work.
We'll start off with
Mr. Alan Barrows on the banjo.
What?
Every morning at 5:00
The farmer jumps out of bed
Washes up, he ties his shoes
Puts his hat upon his head
So far, so good.
-Ready, two.
-Two.
-Ready, three, wide.
-Three.
Oh, my God. Mitch is gone.
He's just, he's gone.
Mitch is gone. Oh, my God.
Without Mitch, we got gornisht.
We have nothing.
Well, we're gonna go find him.
We'll need some chickens.
We got any chickens?
How about this aisle?
Beyond this aisle.
Just beyond the man with the big shirt.
I want you to be my chickens.
I want to hear your best chicken sound.
Pretty good. That's the ticket.
You got it.
Now we want to hear from
our horse people. This section.
Not people with a sore throat,
people who can do a believable neigh!
We're gonna put a saddle
on you folks. Not really.
Does he have a cell phone or a pager?
-He's wandering. He likes to wander.
-They go on in a couple of minutes!
-He got a little nervous.
-I don't need this tsuris in my life.
I'm sure it's fine. Let's calm down.
-Is there a cockfight arena near here?
-She's joking, right?
At least he's not lying on the ground
or anything.
-Why didn't someone go out with him?
-What?
-Can she do these songs solo?
-It's not my fault.
And the chickens cluck
The horses neigh
Crickets go fiddle-dee-dee
-Yes, they do.
-And the bullfrogs croak
The pigs oink, oink
It's a barnyard symphony
-Thank you so much.
-Excellent.
-Give yourselves a big hand.
-Give yourselves a big pat on the back.
Thank you very, very much for coming.
Thank you, Irv. Thanks for the good seats.
We are The Folksmen. We hope
you've had a wonderful time tonight.
Thank you. Good night.
We gotta give them more.
We have to give them more.
Thank you for having us back.
We have a song we'd like to do
called "The Skeletons of Quinto."
We don't often do encores,
and this is why.
It has to do with a time
that I often think about...
...when this time of year rolls around.
A time of conflict and bloodshed.
The Spanish Civil War.
But our group historian, Mr. Mark Shubb,
knows more about that than I do.
Thank you very much, Alan.
In the late 1930s of the last century,
Spain was wracked by civil war.
What are you doing? Mitch could be
lying face down in a ditch!
-Would you consider doing both parts?
-No. I'd consider going home...
...bake a nice tray of Nanaimo bars,
lie in bed, watch TV.
That's what I like doing!
Mitch, where the hell were you?
-Are we on?
-You've been on for five minutes.
It's too late. I forgot what a selfish--
It just took me a while
to find a good one.
-That is nice.
-It's nice.
In the late summer, early fall of 1938...
...so the story goes
behind this particular song...
...in the green hills
just outside the city of Bar--
-Good night, everybody!
-Good night. Thank you very much.
They're called The Folksmen,
but after tonight's performance...
...I think we're all going to have to
call them "The Spokesmen"...
...because they sing beautifully
and they tell a fascinating story.
And now, ladies and gentlemen,
I have two words for you:
Mitch and Mickey.
We love you!
Thank you.
Thank you so much
for letting Mitch and I do this again.
It does not seem like just yesterday
that Mitch and I met...
...and started making music together.
I don't know if any of you know
or would even remember...
...that Mitch and I met in the hospital.
Mitch was there
with his jaw wired shut...
...after defending the honor
of a girl he didn't even know.
Me.
And I, of course, was there to visit.
I felt really bad.
And the only way that Mitch could
communicate with me was on paper.
Every word of it poetry.
And if you don't mind, Mitch...
...I have the very first poem...
...that you wrote me.
Parched in exile
Thirsty for your smile
Though silenced behind
This barbed-wire mask
Your spirit burns through
That I might bask
In your cool, misty loveliness
I just wanted a drink of water.
Oh, when the veil of dreams has lifted
And the fairy tales have all been told
There's a kiss at the end of the rainbow
I know this song.
This is that really pretty one.
With the kiss.
Turn it up a little bit.
-Remember?
-Yeah. Where they used to...
Yeah.
Wonder how they're gonna handle that.
-Five dollars says they do it.
-And a kiss is the oath that they swear
And when the veil of dreams has lifted
And the fairy tales have all been told
There's a kiss at the end of the rainbow
More precious than a pot of gold
My sweet, my dear, my darling
You're so far away from me
Though an ocean of tears divides us
-Let the bridge of our love span the sea
-Three. Twenty-two. Two.
Your kiss
There's a kiss at the end of the rainbow
More precious than a pot of
Gold
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Are you okay?
Excuse me, sir. Sorry. Sorry.
Hi, everybody!
-Good to be back!
-Thank you.
Thank you again.
We're back!
-"Mighty Wind."
-"Mighty Wind" in C.
One in C. Here we go.
One, two, three.
As I traveled down the back roads
Of this home I love so much
Every carpenter and cowboy
Every lame man on a crutch
They're all talking about a feeling
About a taste that's in the air
They're all talking about this mighty wind
That's blowing everywhere
Oh, a mighty wind's a-blowing
It's kicking up the sand
It's blowing out a message
To every woman, child and man
Yes, a mighty wind's a-blowing
Cross the land and cross the sea
It's blowing peace and freedom
It's blowing equality
From a lighthouse in Bar Harbor
To a bridge called Golden Gate
From a trawler down in Shreveport
To the shore of one Great Lake
There's a star on the horizon
And it's burning like a flare
It's lighting up this mighty wind
That's blowing everywhere
Oh, a mighty wind's a-blowing
It's kicking up the sand
It's blowing out a message
To every woman, child and man
Yes, a mighty wind's a-blowing
Cross the land and cross the sea
It's blowing peace and freedom
It's blowing equality
When the blind man sees the picture
When the deaf man hears the word
When the fisherman stops fishing
When the hunter spares the herd
We'll still hear the wondrous story
Of a world where people care
The story of this mighty wind
That's blowing everywhere
Oh, a mighty wind's a-blowing
It's kicking up the sand
It's blowing out a message
To every woman, child and man
Yes, a mighty wind's a-blowing
Cross the land and cross the sea
It's blowing peace and freedom
It's blowing equality
Yes, it's blowing peace and freedom
It's blowing you and me
So the morning after the big show
at Town Hall...
...the TV network executives
were crawling out of the woodwork...
...trying to get The New Main Street Singers
into a TV series.
We took some very nice meetings.
I ran over my ideas.
They loved my idea
where the kids played babies.
You know, in diapers. And...
...it always makes me laugh
to see babies talk like adults.
The network execs said, "Look, we're not
sitting in judgment of your ideas.
We love the kids,
we wanna put them on a series."
And the word "judgment,"
a light went on over my head!
I always thought there were
...but now it seems there are only nine.
I don't know if it's a budget thing or not.
But there's also nine
New Main Street Singers.
And I thought, "What if they were
the Supreme Court judges?"
And it was my idea to call them "The
Supreme Folk." Tying in the folk singing.
And here's the idea. During the day...
...they're handling some of the top,
most difficult cases in the land.
There's a lot of tension there. And at night,
and this is what sold the networks...
...they live in one big house and they
take off their robes and sing folk songs.
Now, maybe during the day they hear
death penalty cases, and at night...
...they argue about who cooks dinner
or who does...
...the laundry or, "Say, why don't
the ladies bring the coffee?"
"And that's sexual harassment!
That was decided in case 126,
Johnson vs... "
Oh, I like that.
The women, sexual discrimination.
I'm not doing much writing,
but the ideas keep popping.
Won't make your patients cringe
Sure-Flo, Sure-Flo
Don't leave them cold and damp
Use our buttocks drapes and penis clamp
I'm a musician again.
Being on-stage again with Mitch
was a great thing.
Oh, boy. I never thought it was possible.
And there we were.
Just wish he didn't
take things so seriously.
You know. That damn kiss.
My sister-- Well, they were all at the show,
but my sister Jocelyn said:
"You led him on. You shouldn't have kissed
him if you didn't wanna go all the way."
It was just a kiss. And it's part of--
The audience was there waiting for it.
And I forgot what that feels like...
...where you get caught up
in the heat of the moment...
...and you want to give them...
...anything they want.
I think Mitch...
I didn't lead him on. But he...
...took it the wrong way, I think.
I've never been in better head space.
I'm writing poetry again.
I'm going through a very prolific phase.
Ideas are coming faster
than I can write them.
My one fear in getting together
with Mickey was...
...always that it might rekindle...
...feelings that she used to have for me.
I feel badly that she was misled...
...by the theatrics of the moment.
But I think it was a wonderful time
that we both had together.
I know that I will always think
of her fondly...
...every time I see a rose.
We've got some gigs here working
at the casinos.
It has been a time of changes,
but change is good. Change is life.
It was like a great big door
opening for me, Town Hall.
After that concert I realized...
...I wanna spend as much
of the rest of my life as possible...
-...playing folk music with these gentlemen.
-Right back at you.
And I wanna spend all of it as a woman.
I came to a realization that I was, and am...
...a blond, female folk singer...
...trapped in the body of a bald,
male folk singer...
...and I had to let me out or I would die.
When you put it that way,
it's almost poetry.
Almost.
Now they don't allow no frowns inside
Leave them by the door
-There's apple brandy by the keg
-And sawdust on the floor
So if you've got a hankering
I'll tell you where to go
Just look for the busted neon sign
That flashes
Ea-a-oe's
...the music world mourns the death
of folk music icon Irving Steinbloom...
...an instrumental figure
in guiding folk music...
...from its humble beginnings in the 1950s
to its zenith in popularity in the 1960s.
Steinbloom managed the careers
of such million-selling folk groups as...
...The Main Street Singers,
The Folksmen...
...and the sweethearts
of the folk music scene, Mitch and Mickey.
Their music was the voice of a generation.
It carried a message of peace and freedom...
...and young people got behind
the message in a big way.
Steinbloom is survived
by his wife and three children.
What do you say, Mitch? It's up to you.
Are you going to be with us?
Yes, we do. We have all three Folksmen.
Of course, Alan, of course.
He was the first to--
We can't imagine doing this without you.
It's as simple as that.
We cannot conceive of doing this--
It seemed that the only fitting tribute
to this fantastic human being--
And I have to tell you,
my dad was really an amazing character.
And the only fitting tribute we could
come up with was a memorial to my dad...
...that would be a concert
that would be performed...
...by all of the fabulous groups
and people that he used to represent.
It's gonna be very fast. It's gonna be in
two weeks. And it had to be in Town Hall...
...because where else could we have
such an event? It had to be Town Hall.
And they had a hole in the schedule.
But it's a very sudden hole...
...and we've got two weeks
to put together this very complicated event.
But I'm pretty organized myself.
I've always been a very organized person.
When I was 12, I formed the J.C.P.L.,
the Jewish Children's Polo League.
We rode Shetland ponies instead of horses.
It was funny, my mom used to say:
"Well, if he has to fall,
he shouldn't fall from so very high."
She was very protective.
You could say overly protective.
I just like to think she cared about me.
Which she did, a lot.
And I was a member of the chess team.
And whenever we had chess tournaments,
I had to wear a protective helmet.
I had to wear a football helmet.
Now, who knows what she was thinking?
Maybe she thought
we might have fallen...
...and impaled our heads on a pointy
bishop or something, I don't know.
Now they don't allow no frowns inside
Leave them by the door
-There's apple brandy by the keg
-And sawdust on the floor
So if you've got a hankering
I'll tell you where to go
Just look for the busted neon sign
That flashes
Ea-a-oe's
Well, there's a puppy in the parlor
And a skillet on the stove
Hello, Mr. Stranger Man
-Who is that?
-Who are any of us?
No!
I'll take some of that.
-Mr. Palter has an altar, I see.
-Yeah. The Palter Porch.
-I knew you looked familiar.
-Just a little.
I think I used to work with your kids.
A couple of young guys...
Mark and I met at
the University of Vermont in about '61?
Late '61.
We were both interested in folk music,
and there was a big folk music scene...
...as there were on many colleges.
We formed The Twobadours.
-Two. T-W-O.
-Badours.
Because there were two of us.
That was the reasoning behind the name.
-Mark was a bass, really, a bass singer.
-I sang way down here.
And I was a tenor singer up there.
And so we had no lead...
No glue. No middle, no...
Vocalist. We went to New York
to see what was happening in the biz.
-We were playing at a place...
-The Folk Place.
At The Folk Place, which was a wonderful
club at the time and we ran into--
It was the flash point.
It really was.
Everyone-- It was like a big magnet,
everyone went there.
-He was singing, he was backing people up--
-I thought I was a guitar player at the time.
If you have enough vibrato on those blue
Fender guitars, you sound like a surf king.
I was drawn to the folk music as well
and I wound up down at The Folk Place...
...and met these two guys.
I could play the guitar. I could sing right
in the middle there, mostly sang for myself.
-Not a bad-looking gent, to boot.
-No, that's true. That didn't hurt.
We ended up getting together
and it just kind of...
-It clicked.
-It clicked.
And Mr. Irving Steinbloom came down
and he signed us to Folk Town...
-...which was the label to be on.
-Terrific label.
Later on we were
kind of moved down the food chain...
...to the Folk Tone label
which was a subsidiary.
It was a decent label,
they just didn't have the distribution.
-They didn't have any distribution.
-No distribution at all.
And the covers were printed
in two colors instead of four...
...which I noticed was a problem.
And they had no hole
in the center of the record--
No, you had to provide it yourself.
So the people complained
that you'd get this vinyl, in those days...
-...and it's up to you to center it.
-It would teeter crazily on the spindle.
And that was, of course, we had
no control over that aspect of it.
They were still good records.
Good product.
If you punched a hole in them,
you'd have a good time.
It's scary but it's true
So do what the Good Book tells you to
I guess it was in about 1958
in Greenwich Village.
My partner Chuck Wiseman
and myself had gotten together...
...with Fred Knox and Bill Weyburn.
We were lucky to be joined by one
of the greatest talents of our generation...
...any generation, as a matter of fact,
Ramblin' Sandy Pitnik.
And we became the Village Folk Ensemble.
And we were a great group. Great.
We had a good sound...
...but I always thought we should have
something bigger, a fuller sound.
And one night in 1960,
I'll never forget this...
...we were at a hootenanny and we
were jamming with the Klapper Family.
And all of a sudden, I heard it.
The sound that I'd been thinking about.
The harmonics were amazing.
I thought, "Well, there's five of us,
there's four of them. It's a neuf-tet."
And it was there, just in a moment,
it was all there.
The neuf-tet sound.
This thing clicked with The Klappers
too, so we joined forces...
...and became The Main Street Singers.
Well, 10 years and 30 albums later,
we disbanded, but we'd had a good run.
My partner Chuck Wiseman and myself,
we called it quits too.
I went my way and Chuck went his.
In 1971, after the breakup
of The Main Street Singers...
...Chuck Wiseman moved to San Francisco
where he started a business...
...with his two brothers.
The Three Wiseman's Sex Emporium.
It was very successful for a year...
...until they were sued over something
having to do with a box of benwa balls.
No, I need you, Mitch.
I need Mitch and Mickey. Mitch and Mickey.
That's the thing. You go together.
I love Mickey, but without you
it's not the same. You got to think--
I'm gonna tell you something, Mitch,
and I've never told anybody this before.
You were Dad's favorite. Okay.
Just deal with it. You were Dad's favorite.
I've never said this to a single soul.
Two weeks before he died
he took me aside and he said to me:
"Of all those ferkakte people,
I love Mitch, he's my favorite.
He's like a relative,
he's like my nephew to me."
I'm saying this because I think you'd want
to know before you make your mind up.
Would you just think about it?
Sounds cliche, but it's kind of a blur,
you know? They loved us.
I guess we were, in a way, maybe easy
to love because we represented...
...true love and romance
and sweetness, and...
To be quite honest, I bought
the image as much as anyone else.
Maybe that's why I sold it so well.
Because it was sweet and happy...
...and everybody, everybody
loved to hang around Mitch.
They tried to get close to him,
but I was close to him.
He was very smart, very intense...
...and distant, you know?
You'd get close to him and he'd inch back
that much further, you know.
And you'd move in,
you know, to get inside Mitch...
...and he'd just back off a little more.
Just always kept you wanting to get there,
to understand him.
Which was impossible.
Oh, when the veil of dreams has lifted
And the fairy tales have all been told
There's a kiss at the end of the rainbow
More precious than a pot of gold
The phenomenon of that kiss was...
It can't be overstated.
It was...
...a superb moment
in the history of folk music.
And maybe...
...maybe a great moment
in the history of humans.
I'd like to think that Mitch
would agree to do this with me.
Because I already said yes.
And I can't do it alone, so...
No, I didn't think this through.
Should've talked to him beforehand,
but I haven't talked to him in so long.
It wasn't...
We weren't talking.
You know, those last few years...
Okay, I'm remembering some things now,
yeah. There was lots of fighting going on.
And I think for a while we were able...
...to keep it on a professional level.
But really, we were getting
some personal things out.
I was just out of high school,
I had just started here.
And I must say I was in awe of Mitch
and Mickey. I mean, who wasn't?
They were here working on
When You're Next To Me...
...which was their last album together.
Mickey started shouting at Mitch.
She just went off.
She started throwing anything she could
get her hands on at Mitch. Anything.
Music stands, microphone stands,
mikes, guitars.
And Mitch...
He just...
He just snapped.
It's time to kick on back
Toss your cares away
Cartwheels and piggybacks
It's just that kind of day
I'm sitting on a hill
Watching clouds at play
Well, I've been playing
the music of The Main Street Singers...
...my whole life, I mean,
from way back in Tampa.
I've come to understand as an adult,
with the help of Laurie, my beautiful wife...
...that there had been abuse in my family,
but it was mostly musical in nature.
My father used to
lock me away in a room...
...with nothing but the Percy Faith
recording of "Bim Bam Boom"...
...and then send me to bed
with nothing but dessert.
One of the records he put me
in there with was Sunny Side Up.
The Main Street Singers, 1968.
I tell you, my head opened up,
my heart opened up.
I listened to that record
over and over and over.
I knew it right and left
and every way to Sunday.
I feel like I knew those people.
I wanted to be in that group so badly...
...that at the age of 8 years old,
I went down into the basement...
...and I made cardboard cutouts of
everybody in the group to sing with them.
These were my friends,
and they were made out of gin boxes.
It's odd that Laurie
came from such a different--
Right. A completely different path.
I was brought up in a very small town,
south of the Chicago city limits.
Just far enough away to have been peopled
with pure, unadulterated white trash.
And because I was one of so many children,
I don't believe that anyone noticed...
...when I blew town at 15
and ended up in San Francisco, California.
And it's at this point in my story
that the dark clouds part...
...because I met a certain Mr. Wiseman,
who gave me a job in his shop.
And before long, he tapped me
to do some small roles...
...in some of his short films
for more mature audiences.
And before long, I had landed,
if you will, some leads...
...and then I started to do some cameos.
Well, I was known for
doing a certain thing...
...that many of the other girls
wouldn't do.
Of course, I loved to sing,
ever since I was a little girl.
And I learned to play the ukulele
in one of my last films, Not So Tiny Tim.
And based on that, my world opened up...
...because I was invited to join the
re-formed New Main Street Singers.
And that's where I met my man,
and before long I was the new Mrs. Bohner.
Ain't that something?
-A beautiful story.
-I tell you.
Last week you were
going to come in at 5...
...and you never showed up.
It's okay, it's just that--
-He's in. Mitch is in.
-Really?
-It's unbelievable.
-Congratulations!
-Thank you. Thank you.
-He said he would be a part of this?
-Yes.
-He said that just now on the phone?
-Yeah, I think he did.
-Did he put it in writing?
I'm sorr--
I'm just looking out for you.
Let's not rain on the parade, okay?
He's in.
In 1974, after the breakup,
Mitch was extremely angry.
His first solo album...
...a Cry For Help, contained
numbers like "If I Had A Gun"...
..."Anyone But You," "May She Rot in Hell."
And this just spiraled down...
...to the next album, Calling It Quits.
And at that point he was in a very bad way.
There was a lot of anger in Mitch...
...for reasons, you know, that he had.
I think he went too soon.
He should have stayed longer,
because we really didn't get a grip on him.
And his anger was unhealthy...
...for all of us.
-Hello, Mickey.
-Mitch.
-How are you?
-Great.
-It's good to see you.
-You too. So...
-Mitch Cohen, this is my husband.
-Leonard Crabbe, very nice to meet you.
-It's nice to meet you.
-Welcome to the house of Crabbe.
Thank you very much.
I just checked into the hotel.
Left my things there.
-Good.
-Which hotel was that, then?
I don't know the name.
I can't remember the name,
but it's very nice.
Are you hungry?
-Yes.
-Good. Lunch is not quite ready.
Maybe you'd like to
take Mitch to see your trains?
Oh, yes. Do you like trains?
I took a bus.
No. Model trains.
Do you like model trains?
-Sure.
-It's a bit of a passion for me.
I'll show you around.
It's right down here.
-It was a 16-hour trip.
-This will be quicker than that.
This whole area here is called Crabbe Town.
We've got a brothel
down there above the saloon.
And right down there, further along,
I'm thinking of building a French Quarter.
-I've actually got a bit of French blood.
-I'd love to see this town in the autumn.
I think Crabbeville in autumn
would look quite magnificent.
I would have made tiny little leaves...
...oak, poplar, maple, chestnut...
...and spread them
across the town of Crabbeville.
Magnificent.
It's Crabbe Town, not Crabbeville.
What is it you do, Leonard?
For work?
Oh, work.
I'm in the bladder management industry.
I sell catheters.
I have my own distribution company.
Sure-Flo Medical Appliances.
May have heard of it.
It's actually named in tribute after
my mother. Her name was Florence.
It's a growth industry, really,
because one in three people over 60...
...either have a flaccid
or a spastic bladder...
...so, in a sense, every 13.5 seconds,
a new incontinent is born, as it were.
People like you and I have
what they call "leakage problems."
They can be running, playing tennis,
laughing, sneezing, anything.
The good old constipation, you know?
You have impacted fecal mass
in your rectum pushing on your bladder.
This might make good dessert talk.
I started playing folk clubs
in New York City...
...and walked into one such
coffeehouse one night and there--
-Half Moon Cafe.
-The Half Moon Cafe and--
I was playing with my sisters,
Jocelyn, Claire, Estelle.
We were the North Four.
We were on-stage
and we had a horrible little heckler.
A little guy, but with
the loudest voice in the world.
And just, you know, "Take off your tops"
and "Get off the stage"...
"You sing like crap! You get off the stage!"
Very inarticulate. Rude.
Mean. Mean little bugger.
All of a sudden, we couldn't see clear,
you got the lights on us...
...but I see this tall, dark figure go over
and there's this intense little...
...something going on,
and all of a sudden, he's pummeled.
-The crap pummeled out of him.
-I don't remember much.
But the next thing I know,
I'm in a hospital, and the first thing I saw...
...was a beautiful rose sitting in a vase
on the night table next to the bed.
And I can't express...
...what was surging through my body.
I was consumed with an emotion...
...that I had never felt before.
We started singing together.
We simply fused together...
...in a very meaningful way.
And before you know it, we were recording.
-I learned to sing with Mitch.
-And--
So scary, so scary. But I just...
Mitch was so strong and so smart
and knew what he wanted...
...and I just focused on Mitch.
You know,
I went along for the ride.
One, two, three, and...
-Wait. I doubled after you?
-No, with me. That's doubling.
-You climb aboard the ferry at the same time.
-Okay, fair enough.
One, two, three, and...
My mama was the cold north wind
My daddy was the son of a railroad man
From west of hell
Where the trains don't even run
Never heard the whistle
Of a southbound freight
Or the humming of its driving wheel
No, I never did no wandering
Never did no wandering
Never did no wandering after all
I just, sorry, I just got a mental picture
in my mind of us on-stage in the show.
And we weren't wearing the old stuff,
the old gear, the old...
We're talking about the dickeys?
I think I'm on record as Mr. Anti-dickey.
You were Mr. Drop-the-dickey.
-It's just a very retro look.
-I'm totally available for the discussion of it.
It sounds like you're thinking
the image that we had...
...was a retro image of something that
wasn't retro because we weren't retro...
-...because we were then.
-It wasn't retro then...
...but now, to try a retro thing,
it might just look kind of sad.
-I mean...
-To do then now would be retro.
To do then then
was very now-tro, if you will.
I know we're getting emotional with things
and I know we want to give this...
...to be a great thing for you know who,
but I'm looking at numbers--
For Dad. Can't you say it? For Dad.
You can't say his name, can you?
You're not the only one
that's thinking about Dad now.
You're not the only person
going through this--
You don't have to take everything personally.
It's not you. It's her. Forgive me.
I'm sorry. Forgive me. Never mind.
This isn't really just
a reunion for the folk groups.
It's also a reunion for the Steinbloom family,
minus Dad, of course.
-Because we never get together.
-Not really.
-We talk. A lot. We talk a lot.
-We talk on the phone a lot.
-We don't really see each other.
-No. We don't need to.
I moved away to North Dakota.
I tried to get far away
to get the singing out of my head.
I didn't care for folk music
and Dad knew that. I just didn't get it.
So I haven't kept up our ties.
That's why this is kind of nice.
Hopefully we can get
through our little things...
...and put on a good show for Dad.
You like to make amends, but you can't,
so we'll try to do it with one good--
Music.
You okay?
Let's just hang on.
Oh, Jesus.
My dad, Fred Knox,
was an original Main Street Singer...
...so I grew up with this kind of music.
So I listened to it when I was little.
But I didn't hear much of it when
I was a teenager because I was--
I was on the streets.
I was really rescued by
The New Main Street Singers...
...and they really
gave me a break from that...
...dark, that darkness.
And...
So I like to give people a break now.
So when I sing, I want
to give out what was given to me.
And I want to be, you know,
a vessel of love...
...and I want to entertain
and make people happy.
So I look for someone out in the audience
and that's what brings me real joy.
So when Mr. Menschell
called me in 1995, my dad died...
...and asked me to be a part
of this band, I said:
"Well, yeah."
Going home
I'm going
Go--
Going
Go
Going home
I'm going home
Home
Home
Go--
Quick plugola, I'm Mike LaFontaine, owner
and founder of Hi-Class Management.
Comic's constant companion.
Let's start right out.
Hey, wha' happened?
As you know, back in 1970...
I starred on a series called, Wha' Happened.
Every time something would go wrong,
I'd look at the camera and say:
"Hey, wha' happened?"
We had fun with that
and other catch phrases.
"I got a real red wagon!"
And, "I can't do my work!"
And I believe I was the first one
to use the phrase, "I don't think so!"
It lasted a year. That's good because
that's how you establish a cult.
I was on-stage doing my shtick, "Hey,
wha' happened?" and "I can't do my work!"
If someone would heckle me, they'd
say, "Will you be on-stage all night?"
I would say, "That's right!"
and that would crack up the audience.
But I noticed a guy sitting down front
with a long face, nothing got to him.
So I said to the lady next to him:
"Hold your mirror up in front
of his nose to see if he's breathing.
To see if there's a reflection."
So he started to smile.
After the show I go down and introduce
myself. His name is George Menschell.
He had been with a group called
The Main Street Singers.
I was never into folk music.
I'd worked some bills with some folkies.
Put him in a cell with a long hose on him
Put him in a cell with a long hose on him
I used to say,
"If he's got a long enough hose...
...he's gonna have friends
in the shower room!"
Folk audiences hated that joke.
But I said to George, I said:
"Seriously, you've put up
some great numbers.
If you re-form your group, I can send
you out on the Starfish Cruise Lines.
Together, we could make a fortune
and you will have a ball."
They used to go out, come back, they had
a great time. Except a couple of cruises...
...dysentery broke out on the ship.
I was not there.
You do not want to be on a cruise ship
when dysentery breaks out...
...and knock on the men's room door,
"Will you be coming out soon?"...
...and hear, "I don't think so!"
I'm so glad to be here.
I love the network.
I love what you do here.
I watch it constantly.
That's what I wanted to start by saying.
I think you're doing a fabulous job.
And I'm very, very happy
to be here talking with you.
It's a perfect fit.
Our demographics are skewing older...
...and that can be a minus
with corporate underwriters.
In this case, it's a plus because
of the built-in fans for The Folksmen...
...all the groups
that your dad represented.
And, you know, I think it's gonna
do very well in the evening hours...
...which is when we'd propose
to do this concert.
If you don't mind me saying, our audience
for some of these groups is getting younger.
Not radically younger.
Which I hope is all right.
If we can get two dozen young people
watching in the evening hours...
...I think people here would be happy
because we don't have much of that now.
This is great and I want to tell you...
...if you're not weary of hearing stories about
your dad, I want to tell you a little story.
A young kid by the name of Lars Olfen,
in 1966, going to a concert.
I'm 16 years old and it was raining.
And I got right up to the box office
and like some kind of practical joke...
...the door slammed shut.
Sold out, right when I got there.
My young tears mixed with the rain,
I'm walking away and I hear a voice.
"Hey, kid, over here."
And I go, "What, a scalper?
Who is this guy? I can't afford
that kind of money for a ticket."
But he looks kind of familiar
and I go over there.
He hands me two tickets,
doesn't want a dollar.
It's your father. Why would he do that?
That was Dad, you know.
He was just out there, with people.
And he was generous, he was kind and
really that's why we're doing this thing...
...to pay back this much back
to his memory.
The naches I'm feeling right now.
Your dad was like mishpoche to me.
When I heard I got these tickets to
The Folksmen, I let out a geshreeyeh...
...and I'm running with
my friend like a vilde chaye...
...right into the theater,
in the front row.
We've got the schpilkes
because we're sitting right there.
It's a mitzvah what your dad did,
and I want to try to give that back to you.
Okeinhoreh, I say, and God bless him.
Where did I go up? I remember hitting a...
We shared a song
I think it might be on "the ravens,"
on "the ravens."
"We shared."
I think you might stay below me on--
Stay on: We shared
Wandered
Wandered through each other's secrets
We traded
We traded
You're right! Mitch, you're right!
Oh, I forgot that.
We traded an honored worth
That's it, nice and crisp!
That's very nice.
Walking down to Main Street
Everybody's gonna sing
There you go.
What are you singing there?
You got the root on "sing"?
You singing the root?
No, I was singing:
Everybody's gonna sing
Didn't I give you a sixth?
-I don't think so.
-Tony, I give him a sixth?
I think you were singing the sixth.
-Can you sing me a sixth?
-Could you sing a sixth?
-Everybody gonna sing
-Everybody gonna sing
-Yeah, I can sing that. Sure.
-Let's try it again. One, two, three.
What? Yeah?
-Go ahead.
-You have a problem in the bridge?
No, I was gonna--
Can I switch?
Can I change out of my costume?
Costume? Are you hot?
Yeah. But also, I mean...
...I've been wearing it for a month.
You know the policy.
We all gotta wear the uniform
until we're ready to take it off.
You're close, I just don't think
you're quite there yet.
You did not sing that sixth,
and I want to see you sing that sixth.
You just wear what you have on.
You sound fine.
Eventually you'll be able to wear
your civvies when you're singing.
Jonathan? Hi.
Well, I got good news and better news.
Good news is, we're still doing the concert.
The better news is, we are going live.
Yeah.
I got a friend, at NO AA, so we're going up
in the Nimbus 7 Oceanographic Satellite.
He's got some bandwidth there,
and it's live!
Yeah, the corporate underwriters
wouldn't go for it, so...
I'm excited too!
Okay. Okay.
Shalom.
Folk music is in my blood.
As a young boy, in Sweden-- I was born
there and came here at an early age...
...but we'd go back to Sweden every
year, my family and I, in the winter...
...which was a flip from the normal thing.
Every Olfen kid, Lars, Sven, Pippi
and Liv, was trained on the dulcimer.
When you could hold a rattle, you'd
hold a dulcimer. And we learned to play.
I had a garage band in Stockholm,
which was a challenge in its own right...
...to keep an instrument tuned
with that temperature swing.
There's a block warmer
for the Volvo in the garage...
...but it's cold in there in the winter.
So we played and I had a hit
that you might have heard of.
Which means, "How's It Hanging, Grandma?"
and it was big on the Swedish charts.
I got in touch with the American music.
I loved that and thrived on that...
...so I came here
and became part of that scene.
I'm so happy to be here and come
full circle, airing this show on PBN.
It's a dream come true.
I worked the fields my father worked
From dawn till setting sun
Then it quiets down.
And the skeletons of Quinto
Call me home
"The silver tentacles of the moon's rays
haunt me... "
That's really getting confusing.
It's really confusing.
It's really confusing. I'm hearing you
the same timbre, and it's cluttered.
Maybe if I did it higher
and he did it lower--
-If you do what you did before.
-I can't get that much higher.
But that's-- Now it sounds
almost more like a ventriloquist.
Can I make the radical suggestion
that maybe this is not the best number...
...to start with?
This is a live television show.
We don't want people
to reach for their remotes here.
It's public television.
I don't think...
-They don't have remotes.
-Yeah.
My God, that's terrible. What do you mean
he won't come out of the room?
Have you talked to him? Has he talked to
a doctor? Have you given him medication?
I know he's anxious.
I'm always anxious. I come out.
You know, I mean,
we gotta do something.
You want me to-- You mean,
I'm supposed to talk to him?
I like him, I don't have that much
to say to him.
I could be empathetic.
I'm not sure what else I could do.
I could sit, I could try.
Anything, we have to do something.
I'll talk to him. I'm happy to.
I gotta get him out of there.
We're not broadcasting from a motel room.
We gotta get him out of there.
What's happening here?
Could you run your hand over that?
-What are you getting?
-Well, I'm getting a bounce.
But there's a lightness within it, as well.
Interesting. You know, honey,
it's a very tricky color.
Terry and I worship
an unconventional deity.
The power of another dimension.
Now, you're not going to read about this
dimension in a book, or in a magazine...
...or in a newspaper...
...because it doesn't exist anywhere...
...except in my own mind.
Through our ceremonies and our rituals...
...we have witnessed firsthand...
...the awesome
and vibratory power of color.
We experience it as alive...
...and constantly shaping
our experience.
And we believe that
this saturated energy...
...is the basis of all creation.
We are WINC. W-I-N-C.
Witches In Nature's Colors. WINC.
The word "witch " may be a problem for
some of you. It has silly connotations.
No, we do not ride around
on broomsticks and wear pointy hat--
Well, we don't ride on broomsticks.
This is not an occult science.
This is not one of those crazy systems...
...of divination and astrology.
That's hooey...
...and you gotta have a screw loose
to go in for it.
Our beliefs are fairly commonplace
and simple to understand.
Humankind is simply materialized color...
...operating on the 49th vibration.
You'd make that conclusion...
...walking down the street
or going to the store.
I know this is a lot of pressure
for you to be under.
And I don't want you to feel you have
to push yourself too far. Okay?
This is a one-day-at-a-time kind of thing.
Don't think you have to achieve anything
right away.
Very important to back off the pressure.
Okay?
There's a deception here.
The audience...
...they're expecting to see a man
who no longer exists.
Well, you know, that may be true.
It might indeed be true.
But I think what you have--
-Oh, baby.
-Oh, baby.
Can I--?
Loco man
Watching all the fish swim away
He no work
He just sleep and play
Sitting here on the sand
Talking about the loco man.
Sunny land
Coconut coming down all the time
Milk, she sweeter than honey wine
Sitting here on the sand
Sun breaks over the sprits'l yard
Jib sheets hauling to leeward hard
Crosstrees humming a morning hymn
-I'm the cabin boy, call me Jim
-His name's Jim
Fare away, fare away
Under main top sail
To the furbelow of the wily whale
Hold on. One second, please.
I got an idea. Very literate reference.
Are you familiar with a book about
a pirate captain, his name is Moby Dick?
He was chasing some big whale.
He had a catch phrase he'd always
yell out, "There she blows!"
If you could do that, we'd have someone
off-stage drench the group with water.
And you could look at the camera
and say, "Hey, wha' happened?"
And every time,
another thing of water...
And by the end you're all soaked,
even the ladies...
At the end of the song you turn the
guitars over and water splashes out.
Kerplunk!
It's just a thought.
Oh, when the veil of dreams has lifted
And the fairy tales have all been told
There's a kiss at the end of the rainbow
More precious than a pot of gold
My sweet, my dear, my darling
You're so far away from me
Though an ocean of tears divides us
Let the bridge of our love span the sea
There's a kiss at the end of the rainbow
More precious than a pot of gold
We're pleased to have
the folk people here tomorrow.
It's not something we usually do.
This is more of a classical venue.
But it'll be a lot of fun.
It's like having a carnival
come to town.
I'm the events liaison.
People here call me "King Larry"
or "Your Majesty"...
...because I do everything
that needs to be done.
I've been up into the highest catwalk
changing light bulbs.
I've been in the basement
changing the rat traps.
I'm also a singer.
I'm not a professional,
but I do like to sing in church...
...and, you know,
places like juvenile halls.
But this...
This is the best place to sing in
New York and possibly the world.
The acoustics are just perfect.
-Did I miss it?
-No. It's about a mile.
-I'm not sure if I'm going north or south.
-Where is it again?
The guy said Midtown.
He said you can't miss it.
-It has chrome on the front of the hotel.
-You wanna hang a left.
-I'm gonna make a left.
-Try again.
-Do you have a map?
-I have a map, but not in the car.
Were you planning to study it later
academically, or...?
-Is it on the way?
-Look, guys, I'll get us here.
Nobody's busting your chops. Yet.
-It's just a question of time.
-Pull over and let me drive.
I don't want you to.
I don't know where I am.
We're excited to be involved
with this project.
It will be a challenge for me
because I'm not a fan of folk music.
-Me too!
-I could care less about it.
But that doesn't matter
in the business of public relations...
...which is what we do.
It matters what you think. And it
matters what we can make you think.
What we can sell to you.
And a product you'll love to buy.
That's the way we look at this concert.
And if we can't do that, we fake it.
That's also part of public relations.
We're professionals here, you see.
We get ideas that help sell.
We work together very well.
It's almost as like we have one brain...
...that we share between us.
It's like I'll have an idea, it will
just be a teeny, tiny little spark...
...and then it will get to Wally
and he'll make it a fire.
I don't know about you,
but I'm predicting a lot of exciting...
...amazing things
that happen to the groups.
Like big, like, not just big,
but big-time stuff.
Ladies and gentlemen, as deputy mayor,
it gives me no greater pleasure...
...than to officially declare tomorrow...
...Saturday, June 22...
...Folk Music Day in the Big Apple.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Your Honor,
or Your deputy Honor.
I have two questions.
One, is New York City ready to hear...
...a rebirth of some of the finest
folk music ever created in this city?
Yes, I think so!
And my second question is, where's
the real mayor? Wha' happened?
Someone shot the mayor,
they did not shoot the deputy.
The DA's office called. They can't find
any witnesses, so he's in the clear.
Let me say a few words
about The New Main Street Singers.
One of the founding members has passed
away, but he's with us tonight anyway!
George Menschell! Come on up here
and say something, George.
How are you? You wanna say something?
Come on, say something!
Thank you sincerely, Your Honor...
...which reminds me, I was at
a swingers party and a guy said to me:
"I'd like to meet your wife."
I said, "Your honor!"
To paraphrase an old joke:
Knock, knock. Who's there?
It's The New Main Street Singers!
Thank you so much.
-Thank you. You can take this.
-Okay.
-Thank you very much.
-Thank you.
Don't forget to buy the CDs.
Seeing these long lines of fans...
...who want nothing more than
to have you sign an autograph...
...it's like it's 1968...
...or '67, or '66.
The good years.
It's so wonderful to see the people...
...that have enjoyed your music
all these years.
And there's so many of them.
And they just want to shake your hand
and say:
"We dig what you do."
And then there's the kids.
We're hearing, "You rock."
"You rock me."
"You rock my world." What--?
I was flashing back to the rush
of adrenaline we used to get...
...arriving at the concert hall...
...having stagehands saying,
"Good show, Mitch."
"Good luck, Mickey, tonight."
And we'd wait backstage,
hearing the crowd chanting.
"Mickey, Mickey, Mitch, Mitch!"
Walking out into the spot...
...the sound of the crowd cheering...
...the decibel level.
For me it was just watching you.
Because I couldn't think about me
actually being up there. Watching you.
I look forward to that, Mitch.
-I wonder if it'll happen tomorrow night.
-Oh, yeah.
-And I'll be there.
-We'll see.
I'll be there in the best seat in the house.
I guess you can make money
in folk music.
-Yeah, I guess you can.
-Yeah.
It's usually because of acts
like The New Main Street Singers.
That commercial crapola.
I'm a model train enthusiast.
Oh, that's great!
I've got a whole layout in my basement.
It's very much a big passion for me.
Yeah, thank God for model trains.
-Absolutely.
-If they didn't have model trains...
...they wouldn't have
gotten the idea for the big trains.
Excuse me. Hi.
Hi, everybody. Just be a second.
Don't want to interrupt.
We're having a great time.
I'd like to propose a big, big toast...
...in honor of Dad.
He was an amazing
and a wonderful, loving father...
...a fantastic person in general.
And I think anybody who even knew Dad
just for a second...
...knew that he had an amazing hum.
And wherever he went,
he would suddenly break into a hum.
And anybody who heard this hum
would just be happy.
And in honor of Dad,
I'd like to say, let's all pause...
...let's raise our glasses
and let's hum for Dad.
Okay, bring it down. Back up.
Okay, bring it across. Bring it across.
-Right on down here.
-Here, hold it.
-So, what do you got? You got vocal?
-Vocal.
-Some of them are already in there.
-They've been assigned directions?
Yeah. We do this every single day.
This is just like clockwork.
-Those are microphones?
-Microphone stands.
-They don't have tops on them.
-Pardon?
They'll have tops when we're done,
don't worry. We do this every day.
Mike heads.
Would you call them a "mike head,"
or would it be the "mike"?
It's called a microphone,
and you'll get them. Don't worry.
-We really want them.
-You'll have them.
Town hall. Tonight.
Mitch and Mickey at the Town Hall.
Two weeks rehearsal.
That's the way to play Town Hall.
Crazy. New phrasing. Different keys.
But couldn't have happened
any other way.
If we'd stayed together,
we wouldn't be at Town Hall now.
We'd be lucky to be in Branson,
opening for The Main Street Singers.
Nope.
This was our crazy way of getting here.
Well, I'm feeling very relaxed.
Very confident. Very focused.
You know, 35 years ago,
preparing for a concert...
...meant playing "find the cobra"
with a hotel chambermaid.
But tonight, I feel good.
I feel excited.
I feel ready for whatever
the experience is...
...that we will take with us
after the show.
I'm sure it will be an adventure...
...a voyage on this magnificent vessel...
...into uncharted waters.
What if we see sailfish jumping...
...and flying across the magnificent orb
of a setting sun?
I think it's impeccable.
It says happiness, it says opening night.
It says, "I love folk music but I'm not
afraid of classical." It's beautiful.
I'm a little afraid of these
pokey things that are sticking out.
-Apple blossoms.
-Is that what they're called?
They're at eye height. Someone
could come over to sniff, admire...
...and poke an eye out.
I'd love to clip it off.
If we could get a shape to them,
that's my basic creative issues.
I have a health and safety issue.
Those viny things.
They're a disaster.
They're too low, too tangly.
They're just waiting for
an elderly person to wheel by...
...or somebody in a walker,
or with a brace on their leg.
A lot of my family
is beyond old, and--
I've got an idea. Let's get carnations
and a beer stein and put them up here.
I don't see how that would work.
I've adopted the practice...
...of taking care of my skin.
It's something, you know,
sometimes you get razzed a little bit.
I think Jerry was razzing me
the other day at Alan's house about it.
He caught me in the bathroom...
...and I did that thing where
I put my hands down fast...
...and he said, "What are you
doing there?" But really...
...Norwegian fishermen have used
hand cream for centuries.
And with that regimen,
and it's a very simple one...
...I know that when I walk out
on-stage tonight, I will-- My skin...
...will look its best in front
of 2000 people.
That will give me the confidence
that will help me to play my best...
...and sing my best and be my best...
...and you can't put a price on that.
-Tammy, we all set on the pre-record?
-Yeah.
You know, I produced
a reunion show before.
Before I came to PBN
I did the Good Times reunion.
People wanted more close-ups. I want
to make sure we get plenty of close-ups.
We have plenty of close-ups scheduled.
Another great thing would be one
of those shots where you pull back...
...to see the enormity
of the event and the venue.
Would be a crane.
Do we have a crane standing by?
-No, we don't have a crane.
-Wow!
You know those swooping shots
where it goes over the audience...
...and hammers in on a shot
of one of the musicians playing?
-That would be great.
-It would be.
Or when they pull back, kind of
like a California Adventure ride...
...where you see the whole thing,
that would be nice too.
It would be.
I could make some calls, if we could
get one. I don't know if it's too late.
-All right, here's your giant banjo.
-It's very flat.
It doesn't look flat
from in the audience.
It has basically no dimension to it.
It's painted to look three-dimensional.
If you go back there--
But it's not painted on the back.
Will you look with me for a minute?
From the audience it will look fine.
It looks three-dimensional.
Go out there and take a peek.
Is this the real furniture
or the rehearsal furniture?
It's not called "furniture."
It's a set.
It's painted this way. It looks completely
three-dimensional from the audience.
So this is the real furniture,
and this is...
-Is this an actual street lamp?
-I'm sure it was at one time.
Can you have an actual
three-dimensional object...
...that represents the thing
that it actually is, can that be next to...
-...something that it's pretending to be?
-Yes, it's perfectly fine.
I have no time to explain Stagecraft 101.
This show starts in an hour.
-Everything is exactly the way you--
-Those are lights hanging up there?
Those are lights,
and that's a ceiling above us!
-But they look shaky.
-No, they're perfectly--
Is that wire? I see a wire.
I see a--
Fellas, thanks a lot for coming
and doing this for Dad.
Honestly, that's so beautiful.
And thank you for the flowers,
the little banjo.
Did you like that?
We had to get rid of the lavender
because it attacked my eyes.
-Sorry about that.
-Listen, the thought was wonderful.
I remember you guys staying
at the house and...
I remember you were always trying
to get a poker game started.
You were, like, 15 years old
with a deck of cards in your hands.
-Penny stakes.
-Yeah.
You always teased me with those
card games. You taught me cards.
Yeah, we didn't know you were gonna
turn into a monster on us.
Mitch.
You okay?
Yes.
This flame, like all flames,
represents the light and the darkness.
It also represents
the uncertainty of life and its delicacy.
It also represents a penis.
Red, orange, yellow, green, blue
Indigo, violet
-Ten seconds to air.
-Roll pre-record on my count.
Seven...
...six, five, four...
...three, two...
Roll A. Fade up on A.
PBN New York is proud to present:
Live from Town Hall,
Ode to Irving...
...an evening of folk music.
Featuring The New Main Street Singers...
...The Folksmen and Mitch and Mickey.
And now your host,
Mr. Jonathan Steinbloom.
Hello, I'm Jonathan Steinbloom,
and before we begin tonight...
...I would like to make
a brief announcement.
I'd like to warn you that some of the
floral arrangements here tonight...
...have dangerously low-hanging vines...
...and may be poisonous,
so please, don't eat them.
And don't become entangled in them
or trip, please.
On behalf of the entire
Steinbloom family...
...welcome to Ode to Irving.
Thank you. Thank you.
Please join all of us and give a really
warm welcome to our first group...
...about whom Dad used to say...
...they were the kind of infectious
that it was good to spread around.
Ladies and gentlemen,
The New Main Street Singers.
Thank you, New York City,
for that very warm welcome.
Gee, I got a question.
Anybody care to hear some folk music?
Never did no wandering
Never did no wandering
Never did no wandering after all
Never did no wandering
My mother was the cold north wind
My daddy was the son of a railroad man
From west of hell
Where the trains don't even run
Never heard the whistle
Of a lonesome freight
Or the singing of its driving wheel
Oh, I never did no wandering
I didn't say a word.
I don't know.
Never did no wandering after all
They say the highway's just one big road
And it goes from here to there
You swear to God you didn't talk
to Menschell about the set?
You didn't tell him
what we were opening with?
I saw you talking to Terry Bohner.
Him and his blue sweater.
I said, "Isn't it warm?"
Nothing about the set.
Well, it's getting warmer now.
I don't think finger-pointing
is gonna help us here. I...
-I think it's clear what we do.
-What?
-I'm gonna suggest we be bold.
-Yeah, let's hear it.
We open with "Wandering."
Did you miss the last couple of minutes?
They're butchering--
-Turn it back up.
-We give the audience a choice.
We say you can enjoy a toothpaste
commercial or hear folk music.
They've brushed their teeth
by that time, it's not even germane.
You can't have, especially on a folk bill,
two people doing the same song.
That doesn't work.
They'll just be flat-out confused.
Never did no wandering after all
Easy now!
Never did no wandering
Never did no wandering
Never did no wandering after all
No, I never did no wandering
After all
Oh, boy. Thank you very much!
That song is so fun to sing.
I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.
Before we go a little bit further,
we'd like to introduce ourselves.
Hi there, I'm Terry Bohner.
I'm going out for some air.
Are you sure you're okay?
Yes.
One night Mama went to fetch
Herself a sweet potato
Fell down the cellar stairs
Stork dropped in
While she was on the floor
So my sister was born down there
Daddy said this one will be nothing but a
Misery, never will be worth a damn
But Mama just loved her
Little sweet potato baby
With a face like a parboiled yam
Come on, boys
Potato's in the paddy wagon
I know you don't want to hear this,
but it's a major key, it's up-tempo...
...we open with "Old Joe's Place."
We go out, do the song we're
known for, get it out of the way.
And then, hey, here's the icing
on the cake.
-What's the icing?
-The icing's the rest of the act.
-That's the cake.
-No, that's the dressing.
Mom and Daddy put together
Quite a little posse
Counting me and Jack and Cousin Will
We all hopped into the old Chevy pickup
And we caught them at the top of the hill
Daddy took his Remington
And shot away the lock
For to set his little darling free
But Potato said
Daddy, shut the goldarn door
Sheriff wants to marry me
Let's go, boys
Potato's in the paddy wagon
Guess we better leave her there
Let's go, boys
Potato's in the paddy wagon
Mama says it's more than fair
Mama says it's more than fair
Ladies and gentlemen,
The New Main Street Singers.
I have been watching and observing
as The New Main Street Singers...
Boy, that's fun! That's really fun, man.
How did we sound?
-We weren't really listening.
-We were downstairs.
I couldn't hear so well, but, shoot,
I'm sorry you guys--
And now, please join me in welcoming
our next three talented performers.
Taken alone they are merely
Jerry Palter...
...Alan Barrows and Mark Shubb.
But when you put them all together...
...they spell "absolutely fantastic."
Ladies and gentlemen, The Folksmen!
Thank you. Yeah, it's really us.
-Wow.
-The waiting is over.
Long time no see.
Can't tell you.
Great to be back.
We'd like to do our hit.
You might remember it,
we hope you do.
Whenever I'm out wandering
Chasing a rainbow dream
I often stop and think
About a place I've never seen
Where friendly folks can gather
And raise the rafters high
-Hey.
-Hey, pretty lady!
-You guys were great.
-Wonderful crowd.
-Have you seen Mitch?
-No.
Okay.
Mitch?
Pick it!
That's nice.
Well, there's a puppy in the parlor
And a skillet on the stove
And a smelly old blanket
That a Navajo wove
There's popcorn in the popper
And a porker in the pot
There's pie in the pantry
And the coffee's always hot
Just look for the busted neon sign
That flashes
Ea-a-oe's
Well, there's a puppy in the parlor
And a skillet on the stove
And a smelly old blanket
That a Navajo wove
There's popcorn in the popper
And a porker in the pot
There's pie in the pantry
And the coffee's always hot
There's sausage in the morning
And a party every night
There's a nurse on duty
If you don't feel right
There's chicken on the table
But you gotta say grace
There's always something cooking
At Old Joe's Place
Thank you!
-Thank you so much!
-Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Very nice of you.
What a great crowd.
This crowd might want to join us...
...in a little audience participation.
We're not gonna be
working up here by ourselves!
First time through, relax.
Second time, we'll put you to work.
We'll start off with
Mr. Alan Barrows on the banjo.
What?
Every morning at 5:00
The farmer jumps out of bed
Washes up, he ties his shoes
Puts his hat upon his head
So far, so good.
-Ready, two.
-Two.
-Ready, three, wide.
-Three.
Oh, my God. Mitch is gone.
He's just, he's gone.
Mitch is gone. Oh, my God.
Without Mitch, we got gornisht.
We have nothing.
Well, we're gonna go find him.
We'll need some chickens.
We got any chickens?
How about this aisle?
Beyond this aisle.
Just beyond the man with the big shirt.
I want you to be my chickens.
I want to hear your best chicken sound.
Pretty good. That's the ticket.
You got it.
Now we want to hear from
our horse people. This section.
Not people with a sore throat,
people who can do a believable neigh!
We're gonna put a saddle
on you folks. Not really.
Does he have a cell phone or a pager?
-He's wandering. He likes to wander.
-They go on in a couple of minutes!
-He got a little nervous.
-I don't need this tsuris in my life.
I'm sure it's fine. Let's calm down.
-Is there a cockfight arena near here?
-She's joking, right?
At least he's not lying on the ground
or anything.
-Why didn't someone go out with him?
-What?
-Can she do these songs solo?
-It's not my fault.
And the chickens cluck
The horses neigh
Crickets go fiddle-dee-dee
-Yes, they do.
-And the bullfrogs croak
The pigs oink, oink
It's a barnyard symphony
-Thank you so much.
-Excellent.
-Give yourselves a big hand.
-Give yourselves a big pat on the back.
Thank you very, very much for coming.
Thank you, Irv. Thanks for the good seats.
We are The Folksmen. We hope
you've had a wonderful time tonight.
Thank you. Good night.
We gotta give them more.
We have to give them more.
Thank you for having us back.
We have a song we'd like to do
called "The Skeletons of Quinto."
We don't often do encores,
and this is why.
It has to do with a time
that I often think about...
...when this time of year rolls around.
A time of conflict and bloodshed.
The Spanish Civil War.
But our group historian, Mr. Mark Shubb,
knows more about that than I do.
Thank you very much, Alan.
In the late 1930s of the last century,
Spain was wracked by civil war.
What are you doing? Mitch could be
lying face down in a ditch!
-Would you consider doing both parts?
-No. I'd consider going home...
...bake a nice tray of Nanaimo bars,
lie in bed, watch TV.
That's what I like doing!
Mitch, where the hell were you?
-Are we on?
-You've been on for five minutes.
It's too late. I forgot what a selfish--
It just took me a while
to find a good one.
-That is nice.
-It's nice.
In the late summer, early fall of 1938...
...so the story goes
behind this particular song...
...in the green hills
just outside the city of Bar--
-Good night, everybody!
-Good night. Thank you very much.
They're called The Folksmen,
but after tonight's performance...
...I think we're all going to have to
call them "The Spokesmen"...
...because they sing beautifully
and they tell a fascinating story.
And now, ladies and gentlemen,
I have two words for you:
Mitch and Mickey.
We love you!
Thank you.
Thank you so much
for letting Mitch and I do this again.
It does not seem like just yesterday
that Mitch and I met...
...and started making music together.
I don't know if any of you know
or would even remember...
...that Mitch and I met in the hospital.
Mitch was there
with his jaw wired shut...
...after defending the honor
of a girl he didn't even know.
Me.
And I, of course, was there to visit.
I felt really bad.
And the only way that Mitch could
communicate with me was on paper.
Every word of it poetry.
And if you don't mind, Mitch...
...I have the very first poem...
...that you wrote me.
Parched in exile
Thirsty for your smile
Though silenced behind
This barbed-wire mask
Your spirit burns through
That I might bask
In your cool, misty loveliness
I just wanted a drink of water.
Oh, when the veil of dreams has lifted
And the fairy tales have all been told
There's a kiss at the end of the rainbow
I know this song.
This is that really pretty one.
With the kiss.
Turn it up a little bit.
-Remember?
-Yeah. Where they used to...
Yeah.
Wonder how they're gonna handle that.
-Five dollars says they do it.
-And a kiss is the oath that they swear
And when the veil of dreams has lifted
And the fairy tales have all been told
There's a kiss at the end of the rainbow
More precious than a pot of gold
My sweet, my dear, my darling
You're so far away from me
Though an ocean of tears divides us
-Let the bridge of our love span the sea
-Three. Twenty-two. Two.
Your kiss
There's a kiss at the end of the rainbow
More precious than a pot of
Gold
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Are you okay?
Excuse me, sir. Sorry. Sorry.
Hi, everybody!
-Good to be back!
-Thank you.
Thank you again.
We're back!
-"Mighty Wind."
-"Mighty Wind" in C.
One in C. Here we go.
One, two, three.
As I traveled down the back roads
Of this home I love so much
Every carpenter and cowboy
Every lame man on a crutch
They're all talking about a feeling
About a taste that's in the air
They're all talking about this mighty wind
That's blowing everywhere
Oh, a mighty wind's a-blowing
It's kicking up the sand
It's blowing out a message
To every woman, child and man
Yes, a mighty wind's a-blowing
Cross the land and cross the sea
It's blowing peace and freedom
It's blowing equality
From a lighthouse in Bar Harbor
To a bridge called Golden Gate
From a trawler down in Shreveport
To the shore of one Great Lake
There's a star on the horizon
And it's burning like a flare
It's lighting up this mighty wind
That's blowing everywhere
Oh, a mighty wind's a-blowing
It's kicking up the sand
It's blowing out a message
To every woman, child and man
Yes, a mighty wind's a-blowing
Cross the land and cross the sea
It's blowing peace and freedom
It's blowing equality
When the blind man sees the picture
When the deaf man hears the word
When the fisherman stops fishing
When the hunter spares the herd
We'll still hear the wondrous story
Of a world where people care
The story of this mighty wind
That's blowing everywhere
Oh, a mighty wind's a-blowing
It's kicking up the sand
It's blowing out a message
To every woman, child and man
Yes, a mighty wind's a-blowing
Cross the land and cross the sea
It's blowing peace and freedom
It's blowing equality
Yes, it's blowing peace and freedom
It's blowing you and me
So the morning after the big show
at Town Hall...
...the TV network executives
were crawling out of the woodwork...
...trying to get The New Main Street Singers
into a TV series.
We took some very nice meetings.
I ran over my ideas.
They loved my idea
where the kids played babies.
You know, in diapers. And...
...it always makes me laugh
to see babies talk like adults.
The network execs said, "Look, we're not
sitting in judgment of your ideas.
We love the kids,
we wanna put them on a series."
And the word "judgment,"
a light went on over my head!
I always thought there were
...but now it seems there are only nine.
I don't know if it's a budget thing or not.
But there's also nine
New Main Street Singers.
And I thought, "What if they were
the Supreme Court judges?"
And it was my idea to call them "The
Supreme Folk." Tying in the folk singing.
And here's the idea. During the day...
...they're handling some of the top,
most difficult cases in the land.
There's a lot of tension there. And at night,
and this is what sold the networks...
...they live in one big house and they
take off their robes and sing folk songs.
Now, maybe during the day they hear
death penalty cases, and at night...
...they argue about who cooks dinner
or who does...
...the laundry or, "Say, why don't
the ladies bring the coffee?"
"And that's sexual harassment!
That was decided in case 126,
Johnson vs... "
Oh, I like that.
The women, sexual discrimination.
I'm not doing much writing,
but the ideas keep popping.
Won't make your patients cringe
Sure-Flo, Sure-Flo
Don't leave them cold and damp
Use our buttocks drapes and penis clamp
I'm a musician again.
Being on-stage again with Mitch
was a great thing.
Oh, boy. I never thought it was possible.
And there we were.
Just wish he didn't
take things so seriously.
You know. That damn kiss.
My sister-- Well, they were all at the show,
but my sister Jocelyn said:
"You led him on. You shouldn't have kissed
him if you didn't wanna go all the way."
It was just a kiss. And it's part of--
The audience was there waiting for it.
And I forgot what that feels like...
...where you get caught up
in the heat of the moment...
...and you want to give them...
...anything they want.
I think Mitch...
I didn't lead him on. But he...
...took it the wrong way, I think.
I've never been in better head space.
I'm writing poetry again.
I'm going through a very prolific phase.
Ideas are coming faster
than I can write them.
My one fear in getting together
with Mickey was...
...always that it might rekindle...
...feelings that she used to have for me.
I feel badly that she was misled...
...by the theatrics of the moment.
But I think it was a wonderful time
that we both had together.
I know that I will always think
of her fondly...
...every time I see a rose.
We've got some gigs here working
at the casinos.
It has been a time of changes,
but change is good. Change is life.
It was like a great big door
opening for me, Town Hall.
After that concert I realized...
...I wanna spend as much
of the rest of my life as possible...
-...playing folk music with these gentlemen.
-Right back at you.
And I wanna spend all of it as a woman.
I came to a realization that I was, and am...
...a blond, female folk singer...
...trapped in the body of a bald,
male folk singer...
...and I had to let me out or I would die.
When you put it that way,
it's almost poetry.
Almost.
Now they don't allow no frowns inside
Leave them by the door
-There's apple brandy by the keg
-And sawdust on the floor
So if you've got a hankering
I'll tell you where to go
Just look for the busted neon sign
That flashes
Ea-a-oe's