The Ballad of Rambling Jack

Jack Elliott was the folksinger’s folksinger, a true legend. As Arlo Guthrie says in the film, “Others talked about it. He lived it.” And it’s true.

Very near the beginning of The Ballad of Ramblin’ Jack, there is footage of him performing on The Johnny Cash TV show in 1969, singing Jimmie Rodgers’ Muleskinner Blues. In those brief moments, Jack Elliott’s greatness shines through in a way that is both amazing and then sad, in the context of the movie. He was 38 at the time, but looks much younger, is astoundingly handsome and in complete command of his performance. This may have been his first, perhaps only, national TV appearance, and he rose to the occasion and delivered. And that is the sad part because as this movie consistently points out, Jack Elliott has made a career of doing just about everything you can do not to have a career. Much later the movie goes back to that performance in the middle of yodel and Elliott holds this one falsetto note, and keeps holding it, until you think he can’t hold it anymore, yet he does until the audience starts cheering wildly and then he finally breaks into the rest of the yodel.

Jack…