HISTORY OF THE BEEDLE UM BUM SHOW The first Beedle Um Bum show was broadcast on KPFA-FM in the wee hours of the morning of Monday, 18 October 1976. The show has been broadcast weekly since then, making it the oldest of the "overnight" shows on KPFA. Before Beedle Um Bum, there was only one overnight show--a blues show called "Blues in the Night" on Saturday night/Sunday morning. Otherwise the station went off the air at 3 a.m. and resumed broadcasting between 6 and 7 a.m.-- whenever Kris Welch arrived to crank up the transmitter for the Morning Show (then called "AM/FM"). Larry and Jane wanted to use some of that "down time" for a show featuring 1920s and 30s blues and country recordings, with corresponding music from the 1960s and contemporary folk revival. The general manager, the program director, the operations manager, and the music director each said that this would be fine with him/her, but that he/she could not authorize it. Finally, on that October morning, Larry and Jane simply came in and did the program. When no one objected after a couple of months, they began turning in program listings for the Folio, and it became an official program. Around that same time, a couple from the Third World Department "appropriated" the other night slots of the week, and KPFA became a 24-hour station. Thus is history made. Jane had previously done programming at Pacifica's WBAI in New York. Larry had edited and published a folk magazine in Cambridge MA in the mid-60s. He loved to play records for friends, stringing together "sets" of songs on related themes. One day Jane suggested that he should try being a deejay, and suggested checking out KPFA. They began doing daytime shows as part of the "Traditional American Music Collective" in the summer of 1976. The name "Beedle Um Bum" comes from the title of a raunchy blues song by Thomas A. "Georgia Tom" Dorsey: Down in Memphis, Tennessee, there lives a girl named Cindy She's got a meat [an ease? a neat?] shop on the block She's always got the gimme She serves a meal called Southern eel You can't resist from tryin' And every time you pass Miss Cindy's door You can always hear her cryin' CHO: Oh, my Beedle Um Bum Come see me if you ain't had none Make a dumb man speak, a lame man run You sure miss plenty if you ain't had none Of my Beedle Um Bum, my Beedle Um Bum The best Beedle Bum down in Tennessee The song was appropriate for the content of the original show, but it was deliberately chosen to provide a "nonsense" title that could continue to be used if the nature of the show changed--as it did over the years. The words of the chorus seemed appropriate as a themesong, even if the verses were a bit off-color. For obvious reasons, in these more-PC times, we don't play the song much anymore. Sure wish somebody would write some nice new words! The earliest version I have found of the song was recorded by McKinney's Cotton Pickers in 1929 for RCA Victor. "Blind" Willie McTell recorded it in 1956, a version that appears on his album called LAST SESSION (now a CD on the Original Blues Classics label), and that version was used for some years as a themesong for the program. Jim Kweskin and the Jug Band recorded it on their first album in the mid-60s, and that version is now available on the Kweskin/Jug Band GREATEST HITS CD on Vanguard. Jane soon left the show to concentrate on raising children and her job. (She now lives in the Central Valley and edits a journal on Israeli foreign policy.) Larry kept the show going, and was joined over the years by a succession of different co-hosts: Susan Kernes, Mark Miller, and Rana Lee. Larry and Lynn have been the hosts of Beedle Um Bum since 1986. At various times, the show has expanded and contracted as KPFA changes its overall scheduling pattern. For one summer, the show ran from midnight to 7 a.m., but it has generally been shorter. The present hours of 1:30 a.m. to 5 a.m. have been consistent since the "First Light" program was created around 1989. The move from Monday morning to Thursday morning happened many years ago in some upheaval of KPFA scheduling. After Jane left, the show drifted away from the early recordings and focused more on contemporary folk recordings. For a time in the late 1970s, it had a strong emphasis on strange and humorous recordings--sort of a Dr. Demento show for aging hippies. During the Reagan and Bush years, however, the show became more and more focused on topical music as listeners kept requesting those songs. By the early 90s, it was the only show on KPFA that regularly and reliably featured the songs of topical commentary by contemporary folk singer/songwriters. It also during the 80s became a regular showcase for music from the women's movement and the struggle for gay and lesbian rights. Music from the singer/songwriters of Australia and Canada was also featured. Since Clinton's election, Larry and Lynn have tried to edge a little away from the focus on political/topical commentary to explore other musical interests. Lynn often features jazz, and Larry (since becoming the computer archivist for the KPFA nonclassical CD library) has been moving more into world music. In many ways, this is an attempt to move the show back a bit toward an earlier eclectic, free-form format. However, the news and listener requests (as well as our interests) seem to keep requiring us to return to the topical songs. The show has always been improvised as it is broadcast rather than preplanned. This freedom to respond to listener requests and to respond to the news and moods of the moment seems to be a large part of what gives Beedle Um Bum its unusual flavor. You can call in requests on the studio line, (510)848-4425, but please realize that we can't always locate the recording you want or find a way to fit it into the flow of what we are doing. We are also happy to give you information about a recording over the telephone, but again we must give first priority to listening to what we are doing and looking for the next selection to keep the flow going. The best way to get information about a selection is to jot down the date and time, and then check the playlist later for complete artist/song/album information. Your comments are always welcome. Like most KPFA programmers, we often get too busy to find time to write letters in reply, but we do read your letters. Your input almost always affects the future content of the show. If you enjoy the music, go out and make some of your own! --Beedle Um Bum Larry, Oakland CA, 16 July 1994 .