Letters...We Get Letters...

Okay -- the backstory.

In 2014, when the world and this blog were young, I did a post with the original instrumental backing track for Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" and prefaced it with this throwaway comment.

In case you've forgotten, the personnel on this is Bob (rhythm guitar and harmonica), Mike Bloomfield (lead guitar), Paul Griffin (piano), Al Kooper (Hammond B-3), Joe Macho Jr. (bass guitar) and Bobby Gregg (drums). Tom Wilson was the producer...Two things come immediately to mind at this point. First of all -- who the fuck was Joe Macho Jr.?

And, given that I have no work ethic, I never bothered to research the aforementioned Joe Macho Jr. and basically forgot about the post entirely.

Until the other day, when I received the following quite wonderful e-mail.

Hi, I just read something you wrote two years ago about the Dylan Like A Rolling Stone sessions and regarding Joseph Macho, Jr. - he was more commonly known by his professional name, Joe Mack. Macho, pronounced "Mah-koe" is actually a Hungarian name. He was my father and was a very busy studio bassist from the early 60's through the 70's and played on numerous hit records including "Sounds Of Silence," "Bad Bad Leroy Brown," "Walk Away Renee," "Abraham, Martin And John," "Sugar, Sugar," "Let's Twist Again" and many more. There is a brief biography about him on the All Music website. His work for Dylan includes all the electric tracks on "Bringing It All Back Home" and the single, "Like A Rolling Stone." Greil Marcus in his book, "Like A Rolling Stone: Dylan At The Crossroads," presents a detailed account of these seminal sessions. My dad died in 1977 at the age of 56. So without trying to be overly snarky, that's who the fuck Joe Macho is. -- Stephanie Mack

To which I can only reply -- a) Mea culpa and b) your dad played bass on "Walk Away Renee?" I'm completely not worthy; you have every right to be super proud of his accomplishments.

You can find out more about Stephanie's dad -- who clearly deserves to be way better known -- over at the aforementioned All-Music Guide entry HERE.

And because I love you all more than food, I'm re-posting the original backing track that set all of the above in motion.

And in conclusion, let me simply add -- Joe Macho Lives!!!