All language subtitles for Karen Dalton - In My Own Time (2020)

[people chattering]

[guitar strumming]

♪ Some like white or yellow

♪ Some crave black or brown

♪ The man I'm craving

♪ Won't never turn me down

♪ Won't never turn me

♪ When the blues jumped
up a rabbit ♪

♪ Rabbit he'll run a mile

♪ Little rabbit

♪ Crying like a newborn child

[birds chirping]

- With Karen Dalton,
there's a demand

made upon the listener.

It's not background music.

Whether you like it or not,
you have to enter her world

and it's a despairing world.

It's a dark world

and some people are happy to go
to places like that

and other people aren't.

[gentle music]

- [Woman] Part of her was
the sweetest, most nurturing,

loving person.

The other side, was an entirely
different person altogether.

She didn't like that dark side,

but she knew that kind
of existed.

- [Bob] My favorite singer in
the place was Karen Dalton.

She was a tall white blues
singer and a guitar player,

Funky, lanky, sultry.

Karen had a voice like
Billy Holiday

and played the guitar like
Jimmy Reed

and went all the way with it.

- [Man] Some people were
deliberately trying to be stars.

I would say that Karen Dalton
was a person,

that was deliberately
avoiding having to

deal with the popular
music industry.

- [Man] Karen doesn't have
a complete body of work.

There's not that many
photographs.

There's not that many videos of
her performing.

Some of the incompleteness
and the gaps

in Karen's output,
may have been decisive

and part of who she was and how
she expressed herself.

The thing I don't want to do,
is excessively imagine

that you can interpret the
fragments.

I want to be with the songs that
are actually there

and to try to delight in
the legacy

of what's actually there.

It's emotional and that's what
makes the songs lasting.

[gentle music]

[birds chirping]

- [Angel] The changes come
too fast to grasp and master,

but too slow to satisfy
the hunger.

I long to prove, I long to show,
I long to give,

but all within these great hopes
lays a trembling body,

a sleep that reveals
buried dreams

and a mind that is only human.

There's a picture
of that beautiful pony

my mother bought me.

It was an absolutely
gorgeous dark

butter-scotchy Palomino color,
but it was incredibly mean.

My mother used to call it
the evil dwarf

and here in these pictures,

you can see in the background
that lean to barn,

my mom built out of the old
carpets and pine poles.

It was pretty cool,
'cause that lasted for years.

My mom was always the wild
one out there,

riding the horses

and hanging out at the rodeo
grounds with the guys.

She was raised in a strict
Southern Baptist home.

She knew how people
should behave

and she really enjoyed not doing
it on occasion.

Curse words and things.

She was more than a
little arrogant

and pretty sure that she knew
what she was doing.

[laughing]

My grandmother was a nurse and
my grandfather

John, was a welder.

[gentle dramatic music]

When they moved to Oklahoma,
she was a baby.

It was The Depression in
the dust bowl.

People were looking for work

and Oklahoma had a lot of
opportunity.

[revving motor]

- [Man] She was raised in Enid,
Oklahoma

during World War II as a child.

She remembers her father walking
down the sidewalk

and having to get off the
sidewalk for the white women,

'cause her great-grandmother
who's part Cherokee.

So that prejudice,
she experienced as a kid,

really informed her.

She knew the world where there
are some that have,

and there are some that
don't have.

♪ It's a mighty hard row that my
poor hands have hoed ♪

♪ My poor feet have traveled
this hot dusty road ♪

♪ On the edge of your city
you'll see us hanging ♪

♪ We come with the dust and
we're gone with the wind ♪

She was raised in a pretty
extended family

and sort of typical of the
folk tradition,

as in everybody played music.

[banjo gently strumming]

- [Abbe] My grandmother was
very musical.

She loves singing hymns.

She played the violin
and the piano.

- She definitely was
interested in folk music

from the time she was a child.

She gravitated towards it

and she picked up every
instrument

that she got a hold of.

Karen possessed,
a unique and special talent

and that was always obvious
from the get-go.

[banjo gently strumming]

- [Abbe] My mom did
not finish high school.

She left home at a very early
age, when she was 15.

That's when she married her
first husband.

[gentle music]

- [Woman] She married very,
very young and then had Johnny

and it didn't work out

and then married Don Dalton,
had Abby.

- My mother and dad got
married when she was 17,

but as she got older,
she just rejected that whole,

staying home,
being in a housewife thing,

Propping your husband up

and she didn't spend time
looking at herself

in the mirror anymore.

No bra, no makeup.

She gave that up.

She certainly didn't fit
into the mold

of women in Enid, Oklahoma.

It was a time of change.

It was just like the start of
modern feminism.

There were a lot of people right
then, starting to rebel.

They wanted to be painters
and activists

and that's where she gravitated
to, was the artists.

- The passion for her
music got ignited

and she said,
"This is what I wanna do"

And the flame was lit and
once it was lit,

Karen made a transition from
the straight life,

to being involved in this
other world

and being this charismatic
person.

[gentle music]

- [Angel] I don't wanna
judge myself

through what my mother puts
herself through,

giving me the responsibility
and guilt.

I want to accept responsibility
for my life.

I'm working on my own direction
and destiny,

not my mother's.

- [Man] Karen realized that if
she wanted

to make a career in music

would be to come to New York.

- [Abbe] My mom left me
with my dad in Oklahoma.

She wanted to sing folk tunes

and she wanted to do gigs.

Be a bohemian.

♪ Surely we can learn the truth
about ourselves ♪

♪ While each page you turn makes
you someone else ♪

♪ No matter how I might
have hoped for ♪

♪ the small things in lie

♪ Like the things made
the reason ♪

♪ for chasing what's right

When she got to New York,

the folk music scene was just
getting underway.

We were headed out of Elvis
into something

a little bit more serious
in music.

These are the people who are
breaking free of that era.

- Well you're in
Greenwich Village now

where people come to get away
from America.

It's not jazz around
here anymore,

it's folk music.

Guitar playing and
banjo picking.

- Karen was the only
folk singer I ever met

with an authentic folk
background.

By 1960, there were a number of
young folk singers,

who had listened to folk music
all their lives,

but this was because of
their parents,

academic, bohemian, professional
or political orientation.

Karen and I were both exceptions
class-wise,

to the folky scene.

Karen actually was one,

she were a folk.

- The music scene in New York
was just the coffee houses,

different ones, some places
there was a signup sheet

and then you just kind of
wandered around the village,

all night,
waiting for your turn.

They didn't have money to pay
the performers.

So they pass the hat.

♪ Them that's got shall have

♪ Them that's not shall lose

♪ So the Bible says and it
still is news ♪

♪ Mama may have

♪ Papa may have

♪ But God bless the child that's
got his own ♪

♪ Empty pockets don't ever
make the grade ♪

- Miss Dalton's voice
seemed to break crazily

from her throat,
like an old radio

that suddenly snaps on from
dead silence.

Eerie, baleful, barren.

Beautiful.

Karen was one of the most
emotionally

vulnerable performers that
I'd ever seen.

She was literally transparent.

- She hit the scene harder
than Dylan,

in terms of talent and impacts.

She was living in a good life
situation at the time,

but when you give up the
role as a parent

to be an artist,
you feel guilty.

- We met in 1960,
the summer of 1960.

After a couple of months,

she had started to talk
about Abby.

She never mentioned her
son to me ever.

So I was not aware that
he existed.

- My mother and daddy,
they were only together

for two years at the most.

I was probably about four and my
father had custody of me.

- Karen's daughter was
living in Enid, Oklahoma.

She announced that she was
going to go back,

pretend to reconcile with Don
and kidnap Abby.

I was not the most rational
person at the time,

but I thought this was
pretty insane.

- My mother showed up and said,

she was ready to get
back together.

She put me in a old car
that she had

and left for New York City.

I was very little, it just
wasn't a kidnapping to me.

♪ See that bird in the sky

♪ He don't walk 'cause
he can't fly ♪

♪ He don't walk and he
don't run ♪

♪ He just flies into the sun

♪ Green green rocky road

♪ Promenade in green

♪ Tell me who do you love

♪ Tell me who do you love

♪ Who do you love

- They were driving to New York
and she looked down at Abby

and saw that, oh my God,
what am I doing?

And she's too little to even
look out the window.

Karen said "Abby I'm so sorry
that you can't see

"over the window".

Abby said, "That's all right
mommy, I can see the sky".

And then she knew that she'd
done the right thing.

[siren wailing faintly]

- I can remember getting
to New York

and my mother, I don't know
where she'd gotten the old car,

but she just left it on the
street when we got there.

She had friends and we slept
on their floor

and it was a terrible old
apartment building.

There was a bathtub in
the kitchen,

and then there was a communal
toilet at the end of the hall,

that didn't work.

You had to go down the street to
the Phillips 66

and sneak into their bathroom.

[gentle music]

- [Angel] I have sometimes
been between walls

of unfamiliar windows,

or seen the edges of
strange cities.

With tired night, open eyes.

I have walked on many rain,
running sidewalks,

fumbling my fragile dreams,
among reflected neon rainbows.

Hope, there will not come a time

when I lie wakeful on
some huge bed.

Naked.

By myself, getting old.

[gentle melancholic music]

- There was never any money.

She wore hand me downs.

She would buy me people's old
prom dresses,

to play dress up in.

For $2 you could get some old
bouffant prom dress

and I'd dress up in that.

I went along with my mother
everywhere she went.

She didn't have a babysitter on
a regular basis,

or any money you pay for
one, so yeah

I just went along and
sleep in a booth.

- Abby had these face
paintings and during the music,

Abby was,
would crawl up in people's laps

and paint all their faces

and then go on to the next one
and paint their face.

It was a really great
integration of,

a mother child set.

[flickering radio]

- [Bob] If you were gonna
describe your repertoire,

how would you describe it?

It's blues, sure,

but it's like even a special
place in blues.

- [Karen] Sounds gloomy.

- [Bob] Well.

- [Karen] You're all red
that's for sure.

- [Bob] I'm all red.

- [Karen] Are you blushing?

- [Bob] I thought it
started a new category

for heart singers?

- [Karen] I have a lot
of relatives,

their last name's Love.

I always thought that'd be a
nice name you know?

If I was gonna change my name,

I think I'd call myself that.

Wait til I get my gold tooth.

- I'm not sure Karen
really was comfortable

with having people really love
her and come up to her,

"You're the greatest thing since
sliced bread".

And she liked hanging out with
weird people,

not with, not with star makers
and stuff like that.

She seemed there, but not there,

separate from all these people
that are trying to be stars.

♪ Run Maggie run run
Maggie run ♪

♪ Wander through the meadows and
chase the rising sun ♪

♪ Chase the rising sun

♪ Chase the rising sun

I had met John Phillips
during this period

and he asked me if I wanted to
form a band.

I initially tried to involve
Karen in that.

So we had a couple of rehearsals
which were a joke,

because pretty much all the
rehearsals are spent

with Karen and John arguing
about vocal parts.

Karen liked to control things

and John had to control things.

And also John had much more of a
pop sensibility.

I think for Karen, some level of
authenticity about music

was important and she felt that
the whole thing

was being manipulated into more
of a pop world

than she was comfortable with.

You know, it's obviously not
gonna work with the four of us.

Eventually John brought in
Denny Doherty

and then gradually
through Denny,

the Mamas and the Papas
things started

with Michelle and John and
eventually Cass.

♪ Same old man sitting
at the mill ♪

♪ The mill turns around of its
own free will ♪

♪ I'm certainly glad to be
at home ♪

♪ New York City continues
all alone ♪

- [Host] Genius makes its own
rules and Dylan is a genius,

a singing conscience and
moral referee,

as well as a preacher.

He's also a very embarrassed
young man now.

[audience laughing]

- I do remember my mom
meeting Bob Dylan.

Somebody told my mother,
"I've met this young man,

"I'd like you to meet him too,
he's asked me too".

I remember him, getting out his
guitar and playing,

talking to my mom about,

he was really getting into roots

and he thought that she was
somebody who had root music,

you know,
the female Woody Guthrie.

And she just kind of looked at
him a couple of times

and commented on the fact that
that's not how you play

that chord and stuff like that.

For a while, she was bitter that
his root music

got successful.

I think people appreciated the
fact that he was

his own song writer and she
wasn't doing her own music.

She was just doing a take on
other people's music.

[phone ringing]

- [Bob] Hello you're on the
radio now, do you wanna be?

- [Man] I wanted to hear Ballad
of a Thin Man sung by Karen.

- [Karen] Who?

- [Bob] Bob Dylan,
Ballad of a Thin Man.

- [Karen] Never heard of that.

- [Man] Karen can sing
along to it

and I bet you-

- [Karen] Tells us about it
little bit, what is it?

- [Man] You're kidding me?

[phone banged down]

[gentle music]

- I was mystified by what
Karen wanted.

Karen was a somewhat
depressive individual

and could be very sullen,

but I was not particularly
patient

and I was sorta like,
well what do you want me to do,

kind of thing.

On the other hand,

I don't think there's anything
that I could have done

that would have solved
the situation.

- Some people have part
of their personality

that might sabotage them.

There was something deep within
her that definitely

stopped her from being
successful in that way.

- [Angel] I see beauty
that is not touched.

I see love that is not felt.

I see truth that is not spoken.

Someday it all shall return.

Right now I just can't bear it.

- I don't know that she
ever had a great deal

of comfort performing.

So she was never an entertainer
in that way.

You know where there's an
awareness of the audience

and trying to relate to the
audience, no way.

She was who she was.

Her music was so much a
part of herself.

- I can remember being
a kid in the coffee shop

and somebody would started
heckling her.

She'd stop and shot right
back at him,

she'd had a temper and the
sound wasn't right.

The audience wasn't right.

Something was a little off.

She could blow up.

- She knew how good she was.

She knew how amazing she was

and she thought that her
goodness

and amazingness was so obvious,
vast and apparent

that anyone with a brain
in their head

could not possibly do anything
but being enthralled to it.

I mean, okay, if the world
actually worked that way,

but you know,
unfortunately it doesn't.

♪ And baby put your
hand in mine ♪

♪ I got something to tell
you darlin' ♪

♪ I wanna change your mind

♪ If things are going
wrong for you ♪

♪ You know it hurts me too

♪ One thing darling I need you
to understand ♪

♪ I don't wanna boss you baby

♪ I want you to be a man

♪ And if things are going
wrong for you ♪

♪ You know it hurts me too

♪ You go home and you
can't along ♪

♪ Come back to me darlin' where
I live at your home ♪

♪ And if things are going
wrong for you ♪

♪ You know it hurts me too

♪ I love you baby

♪ Ain't got a mind without you

♪ Darling I can't be satisfied

♪ And if things are going
wrong for you ♪

♪ You know it hurts me too

- [Abbe] When the tooth got
knocked out,

that was the boyfriend that
caught my mom

and Richard fooling
around on him.

And yeah, a fight ensued and she
got punched in the face.

- I don't wanna make a
graphic story out of that.

It was an ugly scene and
then we left

and she left him and went with
me and we went away.

Terrible memory.

- [Abbe] And things in New
York City weren't working.

- She was just doing the
wrong thing to make it.

She was very frustrated with
the mechanism

of getting known

and we were poor and starving,

not making any money.

And she said, "Joe Loop got
this coffeehouse in Boulder".

So moved up to Colorado.

- [Angel] Take advantage
of the opportunity

to spend time in the country.

Away from distractions caused by
diverse needs.

Use the time to create a
new mythology,

grab your possibilities and make
them realities.

♪ Are you leaving for
the country ♪

♪ You say the city brings
you down ♪

♪ Leave the iron cloud behind

♪ And feel the circus
moving on ♪

♪ Are you leaving for
the country ♪

♪ I know a little country town

♪ Where dogs are sleeping
in the cold ♪

♪ And flagpoles fallen down

♪ High and fine

♪ Sold the wheel and time

♪ Spread their weight and let
the planet spin ♪

♪ Do you feel like something's
not real ♪

♪ Let the spirit move
you again ♪

♪ Are you leaving for
the country ♪

- New York was something
she would tolerate.

She goes,
"You could take Manhattan

"and lose it in the Rocky
mountains

"and not even know it's there".

She could make a home
for herself

and that was her lifelong dream.

- [Abbe] It was great
living in the mountains

and just had everywhere to
roam around

and horses to ride.

- I mean it was idealistic.

It was just the most
peaceful thing.

That was an amazing
time in my life.

[gentle upbeat music]

- [Abbe] He had the new
group of young friends

who came in and played
music with her.

- There was a group of people
who were musicians in Boulder,

and we would play at each
other's houses.

There would be usually a
gathering of some sort,

like a barbecue or like
a potluck.

Go from cabin to cabin in the
mountains, play music.

- People would play music
and drink beer

and she would cook a big meal.

Like maybe something like beans
and corn bread.

- And Karen made the best
beans in the whole world.

I don't know what in the world
she put in those beans,

but she made Oklahoma beans like
I'd never had in my life.

She had a nice homey touch.

It was like counterculture
in a way,

I mean, most people didn't
know that existed.

- [Peter] Karen did other
people's songs

and she always felt free to have
her way with it.

She could see things that were
not always obvious

to other people.

- [Man] Some of the
selections of her songs,

they're pretty eclectic where
they might come from.

- She had that great
repertoire of little known

country songs that I've never
heard before, or since.

But then I remember listening to
Billy Holiday all the time.

♪ But God bless the child

♪ That's got his own

- I think she's always had
her ear open

for things that appealed to her.

- She sang my song, Are you
Leaving for the Country.

I sang her that song and
she liked it.

I don't remember sitting down

and teaching it to her
or anything.

I was a little
disappointed because

she changed the chords in the
bridge and...

- She always has an
original stamp.

It's never like some other
version, you know,

vocally instrumentally, always.

- Part of her interpretive
skill is finding

these nuanced silences in her
performances.

She never over sings.

Her resistance to writing songs,

I would rather see it as a
really decisive,

artistic interpretation.

I interpret these songs.

I make something out of them,
I inhabit them.

It has to do with her living the
songs a little bit.

- She wrote poems that
people made into songs.

I don't know why she never
wrote a song

and the music and the cords and
the whole thing.

She could have done some of
those poems as songs.

She would have been
amazing doing that.

I think she believed in
her talent,

but she was fragile in
other ways.

- It was an odd blend of
self-confidence

and a lack of confidence and
Karen wasn't a person I think,

that wanted people to know
all the cards

that were in her deck.

♪ If I should leave you

♪ Try to remember all the
good times ♪

♪ Long days filled with
sunshine ♪

♪ And just a little of
bit of rain ♪

♪ If I should look back

♪ I'll remember all the
good times ♪

♪ Long days filled with
sunshine ♪

♪ And just a little bit
of rain ♪

♪ Just a little bit of rain

- In terms of money,

she could have used some
more money yeah.

People have priorities.

So her priority was to live
the lifestyle

that was enabling her to create.

Poverty was difficult,

but she was so honestly,
totally devoted

to the creation process.

- It wasn't this thing
that was motivated by

desire to succeed.

It's what she did.

And she played all the
time in these

social family-like situations.

That was my favorite way of
listening to her,

doing those arrangements.

They were so strong.

- Karen could hit the ball
right out of the park,

on a regular basis in her own
environment,

when she was ready.

- She once said that her
ideal performing situation

would be,
she'd been in her living room,

with friends and playing music

and then somehow the living
room would be

put on a huge stage,

which would be surrounded by

a massive audience who
would be watching

in wrapped attention,
while she ignored them totally

and just did whatever she
wanted to do.

- [Angel] To say I thrived
on attention.

Being the hub with a
group of people,

the magnet,
the connecting fiber,

is accurate.

[gentle haunting music]

[Tim singing]

- Her soulmate,
musically was Tim Harden.

♪ If I listened long
enough to you ♪

♪ I'd find a way to leave but
it's all true ♪

♪ Knowing that you lied straight
faced while I cried ♪

- [Man] Tim Harden,

an immensely talented singer,
songwriter.

Some of his songs were
covered later on by

important artists,
famous artists,

Reason to Believe in particular,

If I Were a Carpenter,
these songs became hits,

performed by other artists.

Tim had the house in Jamestown,
about 15 minutes away.

He came out to see us
and hang out.

- [Man] They spent a lot of
time together.

They did drawings together.

They did songs together.

She was closer to Tim than
anyone else.

- [Abbe] I think he
learned a lot from her too.

They had a kind of a back
and forth there.

♪ If I take away my dream would
you still find me ♪

I think at one time they were
thinking together

they would make an album.

They never did.

- [Man] Be hard to imagine
them together

for any prolonged
period of time,

because they were both
so intense.

- [Angel] We used to
play a lot in Colorado.

When he left my house, I was
never sure I'd seen him again.

He's such a terrible driver.

He had an accident about
once a week.

♪ If I listened long
enough to you ♪

♪ I'd find a way to believe that
it's all true ♪

♪ Knowing that you lied
straight-faced while I cried ♪

♪ Still I look to find a reason
to believe ♪

- Karen always liked her beer

and she always liked to
smoke a little pot.

And that was her basic
drug diet.

But I think,
there were hard drugs going on.

[gentle music]

- [Abbe] I think it may have
been started

when she was spending
so much time

with Tim harden and he was
on methadone.

I'm sure she got him to share.

- If there was speed around,

they would do speed
including me,

but that's a needle drug
you know?

- She was unable to get
away from those addictions

because of this incredible angst
that she had.

She believed the world was a
hopeless place

and in some ways I can totally
understand that.

I mean, this world is not an
easy place

and for some sensitive people,
it can be unbearable.

- We were separated.

She was up in Summerville
with Abby.

She came to the door one
night drunk

and was beating on the door and
I wouldn't open it.

And the police came and took
her to the jail.

She was furious with
me after that,

because Abby was alone up
in the cabin.

- I don't know whether it was
an argument with somebody,

or a DUI, but she got picked
up by the cops.

So I got to stay a couple of
nights with some stranger,

who was watching kids
for the cops

and then they let her loose
and I was back.

But I had such a bizarre
childhood,

cops waking me up and taking me
to some strange lady's home,

wasn't all that strange.

[gentle melancholic music]

- [Angel] My heart is
a jack hammer drilling,

tearing up the pavement,

the pavement of people's lives,

muscles contract trying to
contain the pieces.

Behind my eyes the
throbbing warns.

[melancholic music]

- The years I was with her,

really had highs and lows.

We used to argue, but I don't
know what it was about.

I literally can't remember a
single argument,

except we were apart
and together.

Oh gosh, three or four times
easily over the years.

It was kind of like taking
almost a lifetime

and pushing it into about
five years.

Being poor had a lot to do
with it probably,

if I had real money,

we could have had a
different life.

I don't know how we
even survived.

We were driving through Denver,
fighting about something.

So when we stopped at a stop
light or something,

I got out of the car and
walked away

and never saw her again.

We had it pretty good up in the
mountains and all,

but I don't think she
was content.

- [Angel] Early one morning,

the blues slipped away

and left me no place to hide
in Colorado.

- [Abbe] She decided she's
going to go back to New York,

try the other side.

So I got in the car and then she
dropped me off in Oklahoma

and went on to New York.

[gentle music]

- [Man] She wanted to go
to New York

and start in the music
scene again.

She wanted to make a record.

[static crackling]

- [Bob] I mean, it's bad
enough if you know that

you can do any job well and you
can't find a place to do it.

- [Karen] I really, I
get thrilled by people

who make their own records.

I just think that's a great
thing to do.

Like some people can't stand to
go to a recording session

and just sit there because
of that,

everybody play over and
over again.

Some little part or something.

I dig it.

- [Bob] Yeah,
must drive you crazy.

- [Karen] We were offered
some free time

at this little studio,
downtown Blue Rock.

We just went in there,
it was spur of the moment.

I really liked it and especially
for playing live,

which we were doing.

- [Bob] Well, I'd like
to hear some more music.

If you wanna play some more.

[Karen laughing]

♪ Making love has been as much
as I could hope it would be ♪

♪ Every night has been like one
night to me ♪

♪ You've got me feeling

♪ The feeling you gave me

- We did two recordings.

The first one we recorded in the
way that she was by far,

the most comfortable,
sitting in a circle,

almost like in a living room,

except this was a big studio.

- But doesn't seem to me
that you hear this music

and you go, oh yeah,
that sounds exactly like

traditional music.

It doesn't, but then,
something about persona

and the kind of conservation
of old tunes

that she was all about.

It's like she embodies this
traditional approach to music.

♪ Just one more night makes
no difference ♪

♪ As long as there's
another night ♪

♪ To make right what you
did wrong ♪

- [Florence] My suggestion
would be,

to go out and buy an
album called

It's so Hard to Tell Who's Going
to Love you the Best.

It's been out a couple of weeks

and I've yet to hear anyone
mention it,

or to hear one cut from it
on the radio.

Karen Dalton has to be
classified as a folk singer,

but her texture is the
antithesis of Joan Bias'

boring clarity.

It is plain, earthy,

insinuating, scarily real.

Sometimes when I'm not at all
in the mood,

the record makes me feel
like crying.

Maybe it's just me,

but a Joan Baez or a
Joni Mitchell

could never do that to me.

- LSD.

Psilocybin.

- She did release her first
album in 1969,

by this point,
trends were changing

and folk music was in fact
declining by 1964, 1965.

- [Woman] I want to see
Mick Jagger, goddamn.

- [Man] So now you have
someone like Karen Dalton,

who is reinterpreting
traditional music

with her blues-weary voice.

Increasingly, she was on the
margins in the terms

of her popularity and her style.

- Certainly wasn't
successful from a financial

point of view.

Those kinds of records don't
make much money.

My guess would be, that she
preferred the first recording

'cause it was much closer to
what she was.

The second record had more
contemporary material

and a lot of them to me, were
songs she hadn't done before.

- [Interviewer] What
does it cost

to put one of these
things together?

- A fortune.

- [Interviewer] A fortune?
- Right.

- And I suppose the
returns a lot too?

- Yeah, we've probably,

I don't know what the returns
will come up to

up to what it's costing us.

- Yeah, well round figures.

- Point is that it's happening.

Couple of million dollars.

In 1971, I received a call from

the head of Paramount Records.

They brought me up and asked me
if I'd be interested in

running Paramount Records.

I had no background in the
record business

and I wasn't really that
interested in taking that on.

So I passed on the opportunity,
but in lieu of that,

I agreed to take a production
deal with them.

That morphed into a
record label.

The first two artists that I
signed were Billy Joel

and a guy named Velvet Turner.

Karen was the third artist.

- I was in high school
and my mom

had some money cause she was
gonna do this record,

with Michael Lang and everybody.

So she wanted Lee and I to
come with her.

We were going to be a family.

She was gonna get a house.

She had a little bit of money

and I could bring my horse.

So she bought this old
pickup truck

and we had this old
horse trailer

and took the horse up there

and she did a pretty good job of
finding a place

for the horse to stay,

not so good for us for awhile.

Rented a house that was kind of
cold and nasty

but then we ended up staying in
Tim Harden's house

for the rest of our stay,
horse and all.

They were just,
they were partying too.

We'll do some coke and cut
some records.

- [Man] Take one, Karen Dalton.

[people chattering]

- The second recording
was quite different.

Mike Lang was a very influential
producer by then,

after Woodstock,
so it was very exciting.

-[Michael] You want me to do
it [indistinct]

-[Karen] Go again.

♪ I'm just telling the truth

♪ I can't show you no
kind of proof ♪

♪ It's got me down

♪ I'm just singing this song

♪ I wouldn't do anything wrong

♪ It's got me down

♪ It's got me down

Well, the sound of the record is
completely different,

just by virtue of it being done
in that kind of studio

and in that way.

It's much more produced,

a lot more impersonal in a way.

I don't think she was super
comfortable.

- Karen's approach to
music was unique I think,

certainly in the folk world

and I always thought that if
that quality that she had

could be captured properly,

that that could really turn into
something mainstream

and be successful for her,
but it never got there.

- [Abbe] When she was
dealing with producers

and record company people,

she just didn't really
understand

where they were coming from

and I don't think they
understood her music.

When she felt she was right,

she was just gonna
stand up for it.

She could blow up real easily I
think at a lot of times.

- There's this rumor that
they called it

In My Own Time because
she rarely

turned up in the studio on time,

but I think that's reductive.

In My Own Time can be a
declaration of her saying,

I resist being corralled into
your studio perfection.

I'm the artist at the center of
this project.

I think there's real potential
for empowerment

to be the sign of that title.

- In My Own Time did not
sell particularly well.

If it had sold well,

we would have been shouting
from the rooftops.

I think it was a cult album.

It was an album for folkies.

It was recognized by
other artists

and I think it's endured as a
very special work of art.

- I was driving around
and I had this cassette on

and Something's on
Your Mind, came on

and through the course
of that song,

I had to stop the car,
drive to the side of the road

and I was in tears.

I really felt a kind of
shift in myself

when I heard this song and it
really changed

a lot of how I looked at music

and I think that The Bad Seeds
have been attempting

to write that song for
years now.

♪ Yesterday any way you made it
was just fine ♪

♪ So you turned your days
into night time ♪

♪ Didn't you know you
can't make it ♪

♪ Without ever even trying

♪ And something's on your
mind isn't it ♪

♪ Let these times show you that
you're breaking up the lines ♪

♪ Leaving all your dreams too
far behind ♪

♪ Didn't you see

♪ You can't make it without ever
even trying ♪

The thing about the song it
wasn't that it was sad

that made me cry.

It was that it was perfect.

There's something about
human achievement

when it reaches so high in such
a casual way,

and could do something that is
so utterly perfect.

[gentle music]

- [Karen] Oh that was
really fun.

- [Bob] That's your song?

- [Karen] I really enjoyed that.

Dino Valente wrote that
song for me.

- [Bob] Oh wow.

- [Karen] And I heard him
sing it once,

I don't think anybody's ever
heard him sing it,

which he did just wonderfully

and he sold it to me right
away, yeah.

- [Bob] Wonderful.

- [Karen] I get stuck on
songs that way.

I always have a current
love that I'm,

that's the only song I
wanna play.

The only one I wanna hear.

- She got it the way
she wanted it

and it came out right and that
was her genius.

That song was a high point in
her musical life.

[upbeat music]

- Mike Lang had chosen
her to open for Santana

on their tour.

Now Santana was hurdling towards
number one or something.

I think she was probably real
pleased and nervous.

So I think there was a
lot of hope

for getting her known and...

♪ Take me to your darkest room

♪ Close every window and lock
every door ♪

♪ The very first moment I
heard your voice ♪

♪ I'd be in darkness no more

♪ Take me to your most
barren desert ♪

♪ A thousand miles from the
nearest sea ♪

♪ The very first minute I saw
your smile ♪

♪ It would be like heaven
to me ♪

Mike put a pretty good group of
a backup musicians

behind Karen,

but the potential of that group
wasn't seen

by the audience at all.

They were invariably very large
concert halls

to accommodate Santana.

It's about as huge a difference

you can imagine from anywhere
that Karen played,

where she was surrounded
by friends.

It was almost like she was
trying to do

what she did in the living room.

It seemed like an awful fit.

With Karen being on such an
impersonal stage,

the quality of the music
didn't project.

I'm sure she must have
taken it hard.

♪ In California

♪ They say you'll be mine

There was one incident
on that tour.

The musicians all got on stage.

Karen was in her dressing room

and we're getting closer
and closer.

"Where's Karen ?"

"She's in her dressing room".

I mean, I can just imagine

that she was in some kind of
uneven state.

[crowd cheering]

They started yelling
for Santana.

Me, I was not a professional
in any way.

I had no idea.

I was just standing there
going what now?

[crowd cheering]

And Karen never came out.

That tour was the beginning
of the end.

[typewriter pinging]

- [Angel] Too much confidence.

Refusal to sacrifice security,

listen to too many people.

All of them are wrong.

Thinking youth will
last forever,

thinking you'll succeed
without effort.

You haven't even tried.

You haven't even tried.

- I come to New York with my
12 string Martin guitar in 71.

I've been in Manhattan
for two days.

I know one person,
Peter Stampfell

and he invited me over and I
brought my guitar

and he gave me that little shot
of Jack Daniels

and then Karen Dalton walks in.

So Karen has her boots.

She pulls out a syringe

and shoots up a bunch of
methamphetamine.

I had seen drugs before and I
had certainly taken drugs,

but she was just so cavalier
about it, I was impressed.

So that was my first meeting
with Karen Dalton.

After that,
then Karen and I started seeing

more of each other.

It was kind of like a slow
moving ship

and then one night we just
held each other

and one thing led to another

and it seemed like it really
meant a lot to each of us.

- Romantic story.

They're both coming down from
speeding, feeling awful

as one does feel after you've
been up for several days

and they both kind of like
collapse into each other's arms

and had simultaneous orgasms.

- That's true.

[people laughing]

How the hell did he know?

I spent seven years with Karen

and I remember playing
music all the time.

We'd play till four in
the morning.

So there'd be all kinds of
musicians gravitating there,

buying some speed.

I mean...

Sometimes it would get
kind of crazy.

[gentle dramatic music]

- The Holy Modal Rounders
were recording,

and she was going to do a
harmony on the song.

And so she went off to shoot up
before the recording

and we're waiting,
everything's set up

and where's Karen,
where's Karen, where's Karen?

And someone goes to see how
Karen's doing

and Karen couldn't find a vein,

that's how Karen was doing.

So, Steve Weber my old partner

had a legendary talent for
finding someone's vein.

So if you needed a Weber,

like I can't find a vein,
call for Weber

he can find a vein blindfolded.

So, Weber was stopping off to
the bathroom

and hit her on the first try.

And then she started convulsing
and grabbed the sink

and pulled it off the wall.

So that was the--

And then came in and did this
beautiful harmony.

- That time she had a contract,

she was supposed to produce
three albums.

The idea was to work and get
material ready for her records.

But Karen would be in a funk,

which I now would say is a
depressive episode

and that was hard.

- I was proud and happy to be
a member of her backup band,

but an unfortunate pattern
emerged,

we'd rehearsed for several weeks

and on that night of the gig,

she'd be too exhausted to
get out of bed

and there she'd stay.

And after that happened for the
third time in a row,

I bailed.

- Karen was trying to see
if she could build on her

two records and maybe do a
third record,

or maybe start getting some gigs
around New York.

She convinced me to go out there
and hang out and practice.

So I did and I must have been
there several weeks.

Nothing was really going on.

You know, some days,
no practice at all.

I felt that what was going on
wasn't worth

just staying indefinitely away.

So I started telling Karen,

"I think I'm gonna go".

She did not like that idea.

We were very,
very close musically

and we were really good
friends too

and I think she pissed that I
abandoned her

and that was the last time I
ever saw her.

- I would go up to the
record company,

Golf and Western building
every week,

Karen would get her check

and then after about two
years of this,

we called her in the
office and said,

"We want you to sign a
statement saying

"that you were not prepared to
record these records".

So, Karen and I talked about it,

I said, "Karen, you and I both
know this is total bullshit.

"Screw them".

She was discouraged and
disappointed.

It was very upsetting to her.

She wasn't a showbiz kind of gal

and I think the joy of it
escaped her.

- On this course of
getting this opportunity

and making the first album

and making the second album and
doing the tour,

something definitely stopped
that curve.

You can't help but think that

as she got involved in
drugs more,

it's not just the music,
it's the whole life.

The energy that's pushing
someone,

can really be diffused.

- When she would get
feeling down,

she would try to self-medicate
definitely.

If Karen drank to numb,

she would drink the
whole bottle.

Somebody brought some speed
over, that would help,

because that would motivate her.

But what I thought is if I loved
her enough,

she would be happy and my love
could lift her up.

- [Angel] I slept till
noon today.

I didn't even make the effort to
get out of bed,

the alarm clock rang.

I shut it off and covered
up my head.

I didn't want to wake up
remembering the things I said,

I am becoming cynic,
spoiled in this wasteland.

- I got to a point
where I wanted a family.

I wanted things that Karen
wasn't in a position to provide

for me personally and so
we broke up

and then you probably know
more about

what she did after me than I do.

- [Angel] You know, in my
heart I'm afraid to think.

But if I went out tomorrow and
landed a contract

for another album,
you would be terribly in love

with me the day after.

However, I'm not in shape to do
that for myself

and it would take a while for me
to get the desire

and confidence to do anything by
myself, musically.

Tonight,
I was crying about the count

in my spoon and how lousy it had
been the day before,

actually crying.

I don't know.

I love you as much as I can.

♪ So goodbye all my sweetheart

♪ I'm going away

♪ I'm may come back to see you

♪ Some old rainy rainy day

♪ Oh in the evening in the
evening darling ♪

♪ When the sun goes down

♪ When the sun goes down

- At some point she
called me and she said,

"I'm on the street and I have
no place to go.

"Can you help me?"

I said, "Well,
let's get you out.

"Well I've got a friend in Texas

"who runs her substance
abuse program".

I was working with one of her
friends in New York City

and we got her cats from
Pennsylvania.

We got her guitars out of Hawk.

We got her on the airplane and
we sent her down to Texas

to this rehab center.

She was there like two days and
she called me up,

she goes "I'm not staying in
this fucking place".

She was kicking and miserable
and she just threw a fit

and I said, "Okay, Karen,
it's your life.

"If this is what you want,
we'll make it happen for you.

"I love you".

And I never spoke with
her again.

- She showed up here
one morning.

I never seen here so drunk.

I mean, she was going to treat
me very loving to me

absolutely terrifying,
this back and forth

and back and forth.

Don't believe I saw her after,

she showed up here that morning.

Yeah, I'd never seen her
that far gone.

- When I was pregnant with
my first child,

I called her up and said, "Mom,
I'm having a baby"

and she says,
"You can't I'm too young.

"You're stupid,
why would you do that?"

She was not ready to be
a grandma.

So that was it.

[melancholic music]

- She wrote out songs, but
here's a song that she wrote.

This is kind of significant.

I'm gonna frame this one,

Poem For Strung-Out Poet.

Not dead yet,
not dead and love not dead.

Fix a tragic mask on
bitter spikes.

Love you are so beautiful.

Sleeping through the first
April storm,

remembering pain,
waking in the cold green wind.

It will be spring now,
soon it will be spring.

I got to spend more
time with her

than many other people ever did.

What was the typical day in the
life of Karen like?

Like get up late, make coffee,

adjust your chemistry so you're
ready for the day.

Do whatever absolute chores
have to be done

and then you're ready to do your
art for the day.

So she would try to get herself
into that mindset

where she could either
write or play,

or create and these moments
were rare for her.

There was a time in 85 or 86.

I had my two kids with me.

She thought she had
some kind of flu.

She didn't know what it was,
but she hollered,

"Get the kids out of here.

"I got some kind of a weird flu
and it might be catching".

And that's shortly after that,

she was diagnosed with the AIDS.

- I was saying that she
at one point

picked up AIDS from
dirty needles.

Why not?

I don't think that she like most
people ever,

believed that she would die.

She never met her grandkids.

She was getting sick
by the time,

they were pretty much old enough
to go anywhere.

- [Man] There was a certain
ostracism which came

with having the disease
at that time.

Everybody was terrified of it.

She felt a lot of her friends
had abandoned her,

or that were afraid to
be near her.

That was a bad moment I
remember,

wiping away a tear and
hugging her then.

- When she was too sick
to do music anymore,

she told her friend that music
had been the only way

she could relate to people

and now she had to find some
other way to do that.

- [Angel] I am unable to
have visitors,

to be sought out,
to be contacted here.

I expect no knock or
ring for me.

It contributes so much to my
feeling of not having a home.

I feel like I did at my surprise
16th birthday,

when nobody showed up.

- She made the very
difficult decision that

I'm going to be selling my
instruments.

She wasn't going to be playing
anymore and she knew it.

She asked me to set up
her estate.

She signed the bill of
sale for all her

intellectual property rights,

so there wouldn't be any
questions about that

after she went and she gave me
these boxes of stuff,

which was her selection of songs
and her poems.

So she, in a sense, poured out
the passion into writing

that she would have done
for the music.

[gentle music]

- [Angel] With the passing
of my youth,

I can see now the great mistake
youth almost always makes.

It seemed, felt as though I had
all the time in the world,

I'll kick later, pay later,

learn to make it later

and then,
when later finally came.

[TV audience cheering]

- [Announcer] And now,
television's most excited hour

of fantastic prizes.

The fabulous 60 minute
Price is Right.

- The Price is Right was on
and I'll never forget it.

Bob Barker sold his last
two packages

and the final showcase showdown.

Show's over,
so okay time to wake Karen.

I thought she was sleeping.

I shook her to wake her up and
she didn't wake up.

♪ If I should leave you

♪ Time to remember all the
good times ♪

♪ Long days filled with
sunshine ♪

♪ And just a little bit
of rain ♪

- I was devastated,
not surprised

and it had been a number
of years,

but that was hard,
very hard to hear.

I like to remember,
A Little Bit of Rain.

I think it sums it up.

If I should leave you now try to
remember the good times

warm days filled with sunshine

and just a little bit of rain.

♪ Just a little bit of rain

- I asked her about
having a funeral,

or a memorial service
and she said,

"I won't be here.

"I won't care".

That was her attitude,

she thought that once she was
gone, that was going to be it.

Karen had no idea that anybody
cared about her music,

no idea at all.

♪ When I first came to town they
called me the roving jewel ♪

♪ And now they've changed
their tune ♪

♪ Call me Katie Cruel

- There's something about
her voice that

an immediate connection can
be made to it.

My kid who's 16...

I was playing just a bunch of
stuff in the car

when we're driving around
LA actually,

and Katie Cruel came on
and he's like,

"What's that?"
It was immediate.

I could see this sort of, this
little thing go on with him.

I hear it all the time in my
house now,

he just plays that song over
and over again.

Which felt really nice to sort
of hand it down

to another generation,

but there's something
about her songs

that have that kind of
incredible effect.

- I think what makes Karen
such a standout artist,

is her point of view.

It's not really just the sound
of her voice

and the tone that she
was born with.

It's the choices that she makes.

She's feeling it in a very
pure manner

and she's not singing
it for you,

she's singing it for herself.

- As a singer with a
somewhat unusual voice,

I really gravitate towards
unusual sounding singers

and she may be the very
best of them.

- I think the music itself
really it sounds lame,

but really speaks for itself.

So mournful and her voice just
takes it over the top.

- Around like 2007, 2008
is when I started to see

Karen's music like on
the internet

and I'd be like, you should
check out my grandmother,

she's this really cool
blues singer

and people would be like,
"Oh no I have that.

"Like I listen to that already".

Joanna Newsom,
I remember her listing

as one of her influences,
Karen Dalton

and that was really exciting
for me to hear,

because I like to
Joanna Newsom's music.

My brain basically blew up.

Like it really rocked my gourd.

[laughing]

- I've always enjoyed her music.

I grew up with it.

It just makes me happy.

She taught me to be a very
independent person.

She didn't want to give up her
dream for somebody else's.

Hey women have been fighting the
same fight since then.

♪ When I first came to town they
bought me drinks aplenty ♪

- Karen as a person was
tough as nails.

Karen as a singer and musician
extremely fragile.

- She had a tough life
and not a very happy one.

So there was a sadness to it,

almost like a blues part of her
character and her music,

that I think came out

and maybe that's part of the
fascination.

- If she could feel a
certain way in her music

and play it in such a way that
you feel that way,

then that's really what
the magic,

the most magical thing you
can do in music.

She had a deep and profound
and loving soul

and she was able,
you can see it.

You can hear it in her music.

[haunting violin]

[gentle music]

- The fire was started on
the first floor

and engulfed the whole
building very quickly.

And it was well advanced
by the time

we became aware of it.

[exhaling]

Tried to rescue the dog and were
not successful.

Everything within range of the
building caught on fire.

All of the artifacts of Karen's
that were there, are gone.

Her poems are gone,
the tapes are gone.

But the good thing that
you were there

not many months before and made
a photographic record of it.

So thank God these are not
lost for all time.

- [Man] I find it fascinating
to look through that stuff

and realize that,
this a real treasure.

And the most valuable thing
about the treasure

is her point of view.

And I think when people are
interested in Karen,

they shouldn't be trying to
focus in on things

that might've happened,

whether it was addiction or
just poverty.

What was important about Karen
wasn't any of that.

It was her music,

the magic and the soul that she
brought to all of us.

- [Bob] I don't know
whether I want to ask you

to sing you to sing yet.

I just wanted to let people know
that you really were here.

- [Karen] Yeah, well,
I'll be here for a while.

- [Bob] Karen Dalton,
it is my great honor

and pleasure to present you
this afternoon.

- [Karen] All right.

- [Bob] I know you do
right though.

I don't want to suggest that you
sing one of your songs.

[Karen chuckling]

- I didn't prepare,

I thought I'd do what
comes to mind.

Bear with me here.

♪ Now your time is your own

♪ You be alone

♪ You'll sit in your room
remembering mountains ♪

♪ Do you think the seasons
change ♪

♪ Without your heart

♪ Are you dreaming

♪ Every day and night will come
to your mind ♪

♪ Undeceiving

♪ You will know there is no
parting without sorrow ♪

♪ I'm living in a lonely
paradise ♪

♪ Since you're leaving

♪ Let the lass be beauty

♪ Let the lass be beauty

♪ O by the by

♪ Has anybody seen
my little you-i ♪

♪ Who stood on a green hill

♪ And threw his wish at blue

♪ With a swoop and a dart

♪ Out flew his wish
and it climbed like a dream ♪

♪ Throbbing like a heart

♪ Singing like a flame

♪ Blue took it my

♪ Far beyond far

♪ And high beyond high