Thursday September 8, 2022 “It Aint Me Babe” The Turtles
Our zoo creatures of the day and I didn’t know turtles could sing, in fact I don’t know exactly what it is that turtles do other than occasionally race rabbits. This was the first hit for The Turtles, who had several more hits in the '60s, including the number one "Happy Together."
The Turtles, originally The Crossfires, signed their very first recording agreement with the tiny label that would become White Whale, but because they were all under eighteen at the time they had to appear with their parents before a judge to review the paper work. The judge said, "If you let your sons sign these papers, the court won't be responsible for the outcome. These are the worst contracts that I have ever seen."
They signed anyway and spent years and tens of thousands of dollars to win back the monies that the contract cheated them out of.
“It Aint Me Babe” was written and originally recorded by Bob Dylan, who released the song on his 1964 album Another Side Of Bob Dylan. It was The Turtles version however that became a top ten hit and they would chart several other top 40 hits, including "You Baby" (1966), "She'd Rather Be With Me" (1967), "Elenore" (1968) and "You Showed Me" (1969).
Turtle band members would include John Barbata (Crosby Still and Nash, Jefferson Airplane), Joel Larson (Grassroots), Jim Seiter (Spanky & Our Gang) and Chip Douglas who would go on to produce many of the Monkees early hits.
Stay safe and well…and Dylan has suggested that today’s song is about his fans rather than about a woman meaning it may just be another one of those damn parables like Animal Farm, “At the Zoo”, “The Snake” and “When Doves Cry”.