Hermagoras
Posts: 1260 Joined: June 2007
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Quote (J-Dog @ Mar. 25 2009,10:23) | Quote (Richardthughes @ Mar. 25 2009,09:57) | Quote (Arden Chatfield @ Mar. 25 2009,09:56) | Quote (Hermagoras @ Mar. 25 2009,05:17) | Dylan Day today on WUMB, the local folk radio station.
Main observation so far: Dylan does his songs much better than those who cover him. Hendrix excepted. Most Dylan covers remove both the mean and the funny. |
The Byrds also did some Dylan songs better than Dylan. My Back Pages and You Ain't Goin' Nowhere come to mind. |
Hendrix did Dylan songs better tha Dylan.
*okay, everyone tune to E flat* |
and Rod Stewart did Dylan better than Dylan - hell everybody that did Dylan, did it better than Dylan.
Before he wierded himself out by going Christo on us, Dylan was always a writer, but he sings like Joe G does Info Theory. |
Nah. No way. True Dylan's a writer, while Rod Stewart is slowly becoming the lounge singer of his childhood dreams, but Dylan's got a voice that's just right for his songs: he wraps his voice around a lyric. The proper comparison is to Frank Sinatra.
Plus, Dylan's Christian period was only like two albums long (two and a half if you count Shot of Love). And Dylan's renaissance in the last three CD's (starting with Time out of Mind) is astonishing: he's becoming a great old blues singer channeling the whole history of American music.
I'll say Hendrix and the Byrds do great versions. On A Nod to Bob, I like the Eliza Gilkyson version of Love Minus Zero/No Limit, and the Rambling Jack Elliott Don't Think Twice, but Martin Simpson's cover of Boots of Spanish Leather -- my god, how many ways can you ruin a song?
Most of the Dylan covers, especially the folk ones, are too damn reverential. They take the cloying sincerity of a few songs on The Times They are a Changing and make that the dominant tone on every song.
-------------- "I am not currently proving that objective morality is true. I did that a long time ago and you missed it." -- StephenB
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