DYLAN: MARCH 2010
The month of March will offer a daily dose of live Dylan and covers of his tunes selected for their rarity and/or excellence. Whenever possible, we’ll try to post live covers. There’s really no rhyme or reason for the order of songs. Whatever strikes our fancy. Each sequence of two days will begin with the Dylan version and be followed by one of those imitators stealing him blind. As if he should talk!
March 1: Dylan’s I Want You from The Supper Club and Unplugged outtakes. Feel free to share your thoughts on the radically different feel between these two versions. On March 2, we’ll post a guest artist’s version. J.B.
I Want You (Supper Club N.Y.: 11/17/93)
I Want You (Unplugged) (11/17-18/94)
March 2: Never mind that he muffs some of the words and the playing gets a bit spotty in the middle, Springsteen does what all superior artists do with cover songs–make them their own. With Danny Federici’s impromptu rendition of “The Anniversary Waltz” as a preface, you can almost visualize the “dancing child with his Chinese flute.” Springsteen’s singing is tinged with passion and loss, as if he’s not sure he’ll get what he wants. This version was recorded at the Main Point in Philly on Feb. 5, 1975, before all of Born to Run was recorded. Interestingly, David Brooks cited the show in a recent column as a source of inspiration. Guess Republicans like bootleg recordings too. Incidentally, just as many fans swore Dylan off after he turned to rock, a sizable number did likewise when Springsteen went from jazz-inflected street waif to rock star. To their minds, if you didn’t catch him live by ‘75, you were too late. As to me, I say ‘78. J.B.
01 I Want You (The Main Point: 2-5-75)
March 3: A post the other day said that Dylan’s being wasted produced a great song in “Visions of Johanna.” No argument there! But it also produced great performances now and then. Take a listen to this version of “Mr. Tambourine Man” from 1966. The druggy lyrics mesh beautifully with the equally druggy performance. Pay special attention to the harmonica solos. A friend of mine said he beamed through the entire things. To me these solos are reminiscent of the opening portion of Beethoven’s Andante con moto movement of his “Appassionata” piano sonata in their unpredictably, simplicity, emotional directness, and profundity. The sentiment in the song reminds me of Tennyson’s “The Lotus Eaters.” Below the song is a passage from it. J.B.:
05 Mr. Tambourine Man (Sheffield: 5/16/66)
| How sweet it were, hearing the downward stream, | |
| With half-shut eyes ever to seem | |
| Falling asleep in a half-dream! | |
| To dream and dream, like yonder amber light, | |
| Which will not leave the myrrh-bush on the height; | |
| To hear each other’s whisper’d speech; | |
| Eating the Lotos day by day, | |
| To watch the crisping ripples on the beach, | |
| And tender curving lines of creamy spray; | |
| To lend our hearts and spirits wholly | |
| To the influence of mild-minded melancholy; | |
| To muse and brood and live again in memory, | |
| With those old faces of our infancy | |
| Heap’d over with a mound of grass, | |
| Two handfuls of white dust, shut in an urn of brass! |
March 4: The Byrds’ rendition of “Mr. Tambourine Man” easily meets the standard of making the song stand out from the original. With a switch of the time signature to 4/4 and the addition of a band featuring the twangy twelve-string electric guitar sound inspired when McGuinn saw and heard Harrison’s, folk rock had a top forty hit, and Dylan’s ascent began in earnest. This spirited performance comes from McGuinn’s appearance at Dylan’s 30th Anniversary concert at Madison Square Garden. In the last few years, McGuinn has returned to his folk roots and regularly posts his performances of traditional songs at his Folk Den site. They’re often quite stellar, though the audio quality varies. Meanwhile, the rock critic Bill Flanagan has published a rock novel titled Evening’s Empire. Anyone familiar with that line from “Mr. Tambourine Man” and with the line that follows, “has returned into sand,” would have a good idea of the book’s theme. J.B.
Mr. Tambourine Man (N.Y.:8/24/93)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/books/review/Sisario-t.html/partner/rssnyt (Review ofEvening’s Empire)
March 5: In his book, The Death and Resurrection Show, first published in 1985, Rogan Taylor argues that “Mr. Tambourine Man” is more than the “eulogy of a drug pusher . . . . The primary visual image of a man-with-tambourine is distinctly shamanistic. The tambourine itself is a scaled down version of the shaman’s drum, known in some Siberian traditions as the ‘horse’ upon which the shaman rides to the other worlds. Dylan’s Tambourine Man is also a psychedelic “psychopomp’- he who leads you over into magic realms. He can ‘take you on a trip upon a magic swirling ship’. He can strip you of your (Middleworld) senses by playing his song, so that your toes can no longer feel to grip upon ordinary reality, and you ‘vanish through the smoke rings of your mind.’ The Tambourine Man is a reborn shaman of old, whose lyric magic can transport any listener who is “ready to go anywhere.” Seems like a plausible interpretation to me. But in the preface to the section he cites the following verse of today’s song, implying that it too has a shamanistic edge. Methinks this one is taken out of context, and you’d have to have smoke rings in your mind to believe it. The song is a great rendition of youthful longing, though, even if the singer has aged quite a bit since the first time he performed it. J.B.
Tomorrow Is A Long Time [Live] (NYC Town Hall: 4/12/63)
Tomorrow Is Such A Long Time (New York: 1/17/1998)
Tomorrow Is Such a Long Time (studio blues version)
March 6: Many music fans seem to have forgotten that before Rod Stewart decided to go the way of “Hot Legs,” “Tonight’s the Night,” “D’ya Think I’m Sexy?” among other schlocky tunes too numerous and vapid to list on a serious-minded site, he was an engaging Dylan interpreter who produced three strong folk-rock albums and one certified masterpiece, Every Picture Tells a Story. For many, his interpretation of “Tomorrow’s Such a Long Time” off of that album was their first exposure to the song, and a fine exposure it was. Pity that Rod went down to the crossroads and gave up his folk-rock soul to croon at the moon. J.B.
March 7: I thought for a change of pace I’d post a Dylan cover of a song off of his first album. On the next post, I’ll give a take-off of this, which in turn probably inspired a Dylan take-off. J.B.
March 8: The Animals heard Dylan’s version of “Baby, Let Me Follow You Down” and “The House of the Rising Sun, ” and their first album, released in October of 1964, featured electric versions of both as they joined the emerging folk-rock craze. Their keyboardist, Alan Price, was a Dylan enthusiast and can be seen hanging with him in Don’t Look Back. Meanwhile, their bassist, Chas Chandler, introduced the psychedelic incarnation of Jimi Hendrix to the world–and is worthy of praise on that basis alone. The Animals produced some excellent singles, including a couple blue-collar anthems that Bruce Springsteen took up in his live shows, “We Gotta Get Out of This Place” and “It’s My Life.” Bruce turned the latter into an epic and transcendent song in ‘76 and ‘77 with a prefatory monologue about his titanic battles with his old man spoken to dark and brooding music in the background. I don’t think anyone who ever saw it would forget it. Next month when Bruce will be our rock laureate, we’ll make his version available. In any event, “The House of the Rising Sun” with Eric Burdon’s gritty and soulful vocals catapulted the Animals into prominence, and Dylan has said he could see the future when he heard their version of “House of the Rising Sun.” On his ‘66 tour, Dylan played an electric version of “Baby, Let Me Follow You Down.” What goes around comes around.
Baby, Let Me Take You Home (The Animals) Baby, Let Me Follow You Down (Sydney: 4/66)
March 9: For reasons Dylan enthusiasts are still scratching their heads over, “Blind Willie McTell,” one of Dylan’s masterpieces that bemoans the lack of a blues singer of the caliber of McTell even as it embodies great blues lamentation itself, was left off ofInfidels, an omission perhaps rivaled only by that of “Series of Dreams” from Oh, Mercy. There’s a particular verse that seems to have been inspired by a verse of “The Trumpet Player,” a literary jazz poem set in a bar and consisting of five eight-line stanzas and a four-line coda. It was written by Langston Hughes, a prolific writer of prose and verse who was part of the Harlem Renaissance in the twenties and who continued to work right up to his death in 1967. J.B. Here’s the verse:
The Negro
With the trumpet at his lips
Has dark moons of weariness
Beneath his eyes
where the smoldering memory
of slave ships
Blazed to the crack of whips
about thighs 1947
Blind Willie McTell (Live: 1996)
March 10: Let’s face it, the band is not The Band without Robbie Robertson on guitar and Richard Manuel on piano, both of whom were missing in action when Jericho was released in 1993 under that legendary moniker. But who better to evoke the plaintive wail of Dylan’s lament than Rick Danko, or the twangy blues than Levon Helm, he with the grit and smoke of hard times in the backwoods in his voice? And since electric guitar plays no role, who needs Robbie to reprise the riffs he did on Dylan’s version? Since the time of this recording, Danko has gone on to his due reward and Levon Helm has assumed a sort of iconic country hick stature in Woodstock, where he hosts Midnight Rambles in a barn, earning two consecutive Grammies withDirt Farmer (2007) and Electric Dirt (2009) in his spare time. Somehow, Barn Tapes doesn’t have the same ring to it as Basement Tapes, but if he ever managed to corral Dylan and maybe Robbie . . . . Well, it’s pretty to think so, anyway. Robbie meanwhile is still out there in some synth-laden studio trying to prove he’s not just a phenomenal guitarist and talented songwriter. Frankly, I’m with Daniel Lanois in wishing Robbie would quit with the artsy crap and just play the damn guitar. Jericho also features a superior version of Springsteen’s Atlantic City. The Band is no more, though, except as an ideal. As to the subject of the song, you can read all about him on Wikipedia, but here’s a pair of 12-string tunes that will speak louder than those words. J.B.
Blind Willie McTell (The Band)
Delia (Blind Willie McTell) I Got To Cross De River O’Jordan (Blind Willie McTell)
March 11: Dylan released “All Along the Watchtower” on John Wesley Harding (1967) in a sparse, lean arrangement. Critics have commented on the reverse nature of time in the song, pointing out that the action really begins as the song ends. The songs on JWH are thought to be biblical analogies with AATW tipping its hat to the Book of Isiah. Musically the song is elastic and can be readily re-interpreted with chord inversions and changes in rhythm and melody. Its simplicity (three chords and a {hidden} truth) as well as the ambiguous and evocative nature of the lyrics probably contribute to its longevity as a popular cover. It’s been played by everyone– from garage bands to artists as diverse as XTC, Dave Mathews, Hendrix, Neil Young, U2, the Dead, Pearl Jam, Bryan Ferry and many more. And for years, its closed most every show Dylan has performed!
Though it’s the Hendrix version that’s the recognizible classic, here is a recent version by Bob (Chicago, October 2009) that changes the emphasis of the beat that throws it refreshingly off-kilter. This version features the return of Charlie Sexton to the line- up on lead guitar! R.O.
All Along the Watchtower (Chicago: 10/29/09)
March 12: Years ago, during the Vietnam War era, an older brother of mine in the 101st Airborne who was a Dylan fanatic and even today cites him the way others cite Biblical verses was stationed in Germany with a buddy who was a big Hendrix fan. The two would argue frequently over who was a better songwriter, Dylan or Hendrix. Finally, my brother put it to him to name Hendrix’s best song so it could be compared with one of Dylan’s better ones. The Hendrix fan’s choice? ”All Along the Watchtower.” Case closed. Well, Hendrix’s interpretation was inspired and even inspired some imitation from Dylan himself, especially when the Doberman duo of Charlie Sexton and Larry Campbell would play it in the late nineties. But here’s an incendiary cover version, too. Would still love to hear Dylan do it just on guitar. J.B.
All Along the Watchtower- Neil Young w/ Bruce Springsteen (Voters For Choice, St. Paul, October 2004)
March 13: Like Watchtower, “Drifter’Escape” is another allegory from John Wesley Harding (1967) with the Drifter telling the tale of how a bolt of lightening striking during a court of law allows him to escape (via a deux ex machina)! The Drifter represents the downtrodden, the outlaw, the outcast, perhaps Dylan himself who cries for salvation and is answered by an act of God. This version from Bob is featured in Masked and Anonymous (2003) and features our favorite band line-up with Tony Garnier, George Receli, Charlie Sexton and Larry Campbell.
Drifter’s (Masked and Anonymous)
March 14: Jimi Hendrix was a huge fan of Dylan and cited him as a significant lyric influence. While “All Along the Watchtower” remains his most recognizable cover of a Dylan tune, Jimi actually recorded a few more Dylan compositions including “Like a Rolling Stone,” “Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window” and “Drifter’s Escape.” Did you know Dylan covered Jimi as well? We have a version of Bob and band doing “Dolly Dagger” that we will post later this month.
March 15 (Beware the Ides of March): ”Abandoned Love” was written between 1975 and 76 and stayed unreleased until its inclusion on the Biograph complication ten years latter. We have the only live recording from ‘The Other End’ (not ‘The Bitter End’) on July 3, 1976. Given its time, it could easily be thought of as another song to Sarah as it was most likley recorded for and left off Desire. R.O.
I march in the parade of liberty
But as long as I love you I’m not free
How long must I suffer such abuse
Won’t you let me see you smile one time before I turn you loose
March 16 : In the mid-eighties, George Harrison recorded the song and it too remains unofficially released though it was reportedly considered for the Porky’s Revenge Soundtrack (It can be found on Artifacts I – The Definitive Collection of Beatles Rarities 1969-1994 (1995) (along with Dylan’s ” Don’t Want To Do It”) and 12 Arnold Grove in demo form. Has anyone heard the Everly Bros. version?
Then one more time at midnight, near the wall
Take off your heavy make up and your shawl
Won’t you descend from the throne, from where you sit?
Let me feel your love one more time before I abandon it
March17: Live version of SAD-EYED LADY OF THE LOWLANDS?? We got possibly the only one — from a hotel room in Denver, reportedly March 13, 1966. At 11 minutes and 23 seconds, this song took up all of side four of Blonde on Blonde (released in 1966). Dylan aficionados point out the similarity between Lowlands and Lownds, Sara’s maiden name. Any doubt as to identity of the sad-eyed lady was laid to rest in 1976 when Dylan released “Sara” on Desire.
Sad-Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands-Dylan Live
March 18: Who would dare cover this classic? Alternative French band Phoenix recorded this live acoustic version for the German magazine Musikexpress in January of 2010. There is one other version of the song that I know of that was released on a disc of all Dylan songs by Steve Howe, guitarist for the “Progressive Rock Band” Yes (and sung by Yes vocalist Jon Anderson). R.O.
Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands -Phoenix
March 19: Anyone familiar with Dylan’s live performances knows they can be erratic. Sometimes he has it, sometimes not. He’s had it many times for “Girl from the North Country,” one of the many fine songs on his second album, Freewheelin’, especially from around the mid- to late 90s, but of all the excellent versions I’ve heard, this one is my favorite, if only by a hair. For some reason, it seems to capture the forlorn melancholy of being distant in time and place from a former love in a way that makes you almost feel the storming snowflakes, the howling wind, and the freezing river all set against the singer’s warm regard and memories of the lover forever lost to the north country. Note the sensitive and extensive harmonica solos, a telltale sign that he was feeling it that night.
Girl from the North Country (Berlin 4/7/95)
March 20: If Dylan can cover Irish tunes, so too can the Irish cover him. One of the best versions I’ve heard is this one by Liam Clancy, who used to pal around with Dylan in the Village and whom Dylan has called the best ballad singer he ever heard. Not many would argue otherwise when it comes to Irish ballads. Someone who goes by the name of Thumbtack 40 posted a video on March 11, 2008 of this live performance and wrote this: “I RECORDED THIS CLIP IN CLONMEL CO TIPPERARY, NOT FAR FROM LIAM’S HOMETOWN OF CARRICK-ON-SUIR.” Liam’s version manages to rival the forlorn melancholy of Dylan’s, both of them seeming to come from, to borrow from Yeats, “the deep heart’s core,” a place most can reach only by having gone some distance in time and place from where they started and what they left behind. J.B. (Dylan will still pull this out on the Never Ending tour-RO)
Girl from the North Country Liam Clancy (Clonmel Co, Ireland, @ 2008). Note: This is a re-post. The first MP3 had glitches.
According to his daughter, Roseann, who recently released her own version of the song on her album The List, “Girl from the North Country” was also her dad’s favorite Dylan song. Personally, my list of favorite Dylan songs has been winnowed down to about 5oo, maybe 600. Johnny sang a slow-version duet of the song with Dylan on Nashville Skyline with Dylan taking the high notes and Johnny the low. Here’s a truncated version of Cash doing a duet with a true North Country Girl, Joanie Mitchell. It comes from his early 70s television show, on which, if my memory serves me well, Dylan was the first musical guest. Dylan had gone into hiding as a happily married family man and non-smoker at the time, but things had changed by Blood on the Tracks, which was unleashed in 1975 and made many a Dylan fan breathe a sigh of relief. The song would seem to be vivid enough with its abundant imagery, but if you need the video, it’s on YouTube, same as the Liam Clancy and Peter Townsend versions. J.B.
Girl From the North Country Cash and Mitchell @ 1970.
Here’s a version that is a bit of a hybrid of the original Celtic folk song and Dylan’s version from 1963 with a twist from Pete Townshend who released it on All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes (1982). Dylan based “Girl from the North Country” on a traditional English folk ballad, “Scarbourogh Fair.” Townshend’s uses much of the same lyrics and puts his own stamp in the song’s final lyrics. R.O.
Girl from the North Country Peter Townsend Live. Note: This is a re-post. The first MP3 had glitches.
- Girl From the North Country
March 21: The link will take you to a lengthy paragraph of background and review by Richie Unterberger on “Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window,” a single on the heels of “Positively 4th Street.”
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=33:fjftxxu0ldfe
We’re posting three versions of the song. The first was recorded for Dylan’s 1965 album Highway 61 Revisited but didn’t make the cut. The other two versions come from a session for the followup to that masterpiece, Blonde on Blonde. One is a mono take and was released as part of the Biograph retrospective of 1985; the other is a stereo take (complete with crackles). The latter version was recorded with the Band in November of 1965 (aka the Hawks at the time), who’d been with Dylan for only about three weeks prior to the recording session. Because it was betwixt and between albums, not quite fitting on either, and because it didn’t exactly climb the charts, the song hasn’t gotten as much attention as it deserves. I loved the song when it came out, and still do.
Unterberger and others might be right in saying the lyrics are a jumble to make any sense of, but I think they’re missing the sense beyond the sense. This is a song about attitude, with a touch of the surreal. Think of it as an acerbic and ironic Romeo in the alley telling Juliet (Miss Lonely revisited) to come crawl out her window, away from a vengeful tyrannical egomaniac who abuses and uses her and just grows third eyes when he needs them. I think you’ll hear that the Band version has the drive more suitable to the punk tone but that neither version matches the sound of the albums they might have been part of. The Band sessions, as they are known, also produced the stellar “She’s Your Lover, Now,” and “Visions of Johanna,” the working title of which was “Mother Revisited.” J.B.
Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window (Highway 61 version)
Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window Blonde on Blonde (mono)
Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window (Blonde on Blonde Stereo) (complete with snap, crackle, and pop)
March 22: Few would argue that this Hendrix cover of “Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window” rivals his transcendent cover of Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower,” a version which Dylan himself has emulated, along with Neil Young. Still, this recording, which comes from the BBC Sessions (Live) release in 1998, is worth a listen, as is just about everything Hendrix recorded, certainly a guitar genius if ever there was one. What’s interesting is that Hendrix lacked the vitriol Dylan was capable of, so his take on the song doesn’t quite capture the tone of the original. J.B.
- Jimi Crawls Out your Window!
Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window_
March 23: Basically a Blues that resembles Lightnin’ Hopkins ”Automobile Blues,” Leopard Skin Pill-box Hat (Blonde on Blonde) is suspected to be influenced by Edie Sedgwick, who ran with Andy Warhol’s crowd and reportedly is the muse and inspiration in other songs off the seminal Blonde on Blonde. This version is from the 1966 tour of Australia with the Hawks (4/13/66), bootlegged as A Phoenix In April.-RO
Leopard Skin Pill-box Hat- w/the Hawks
March 24: Beck Hansen covered this tune for a charity disc War Child-Heroes Vol. 1.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAGx0Lkq8tM
Here’s a live version with a bit more push from an intimate San Fransisco show in 2008.
- Beck Hansen San Fransisco Aug 31, 2008
Leopard Skin Pill-Box Hat -Beck- Live
Extra: Video of Dylan and Hawks doing “Leopard Skin Pill-Box Hat from Liverpool 1966
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTHrG2xDH1k&feature=related
And try this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpddhgYr_KA&feature=related
From 1991– Note Bob’s intro– a song about fashion! Is this a statement about Warhol’s scene as well?
March 25: Yes it did start out as a waltz, but when it was released in 1965 it broke the mold for pop singles in length, vitriol, and lyrical imagery. This stands as perhaps Dylan’s signature tune and is still a staple of his live performances, though his renditions during his tumultuous tour in 1966 still stand out as the zenith. It transformed his career and took him out of the folk singer mode. and that chorus: “How does it feel?” Over six minutes and rocking, Columbia almost didn’t release it as a single, but it reached #2 in the American charts and has been covered by artists diverse as Bob Marley and the Wailers, Patti Smith, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix. We’ve saved another cover for tomorrow. So come on back! This version is from The October Chicago show, with Charlie Sexton on lead guitar. R.O.
Like a Rolling Stone-Chicago 2009
March 26: Patti Smith-June 16, 2005
Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band- Pittsburgh2009
Like a Rolling Stone- Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band
- March 27: DARK EYES Dark Eyes (Patti Smith and Dylan)
- (Courtesy of Wikipedia) From the Empire Burlesque (1985), “Dark Eyes” was written virtually on demand when (producer) Arthur Baker suggested something simpler for the album’s final track. Dylan liked the idea of closing the album with a stark, acoustic track, particularly when the rest of the album was so heavily produced. However, Dylan didn’t have an appropriate song. He returned to his hotel in Manhattan after midnight, and according to Dylan:
-
“As I stepped out of the elevator, a call girl was coming toward me in the hallway – pale yellow hair wearing a fox coat – high heeled shoes that could pierce your heart. She had blue circles around her eyes, black eyeliner, dark eyes. She looked like she’d been beaten up and was afraid that she’d get beat up again. In her hand, crimson purple wine in a glass. ‘I’m just dying for a drink,’ she said as she passed me in the hall. She had a beautifulness, but not for this kind of world.”
The brief, chance encounter inspired Dylan to write “Dark Eyes,” which was quickly recorded without any studio embellishment. Structured like a children’s song, with very rudimentary guitar work and very simple notes, it’s often quoted for its last chorus: “A million faces at my feet, but all I see are dark eyes.”
This version is rather well-known as it features a duet between Bob and Patti Smith perfromed twice- once in 1995 and again in 2006. You can watch them both here. R.O.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZqwOh5gYTM and here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqteFlYeVa4
March 28: Immortalized in the Crosby Stills and Nash tribute “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,” Judy Collins, an important figure in the folk revival of the sixties, was an early interpreter of Bob Dylan’s work and also introduced to the world Joni Mitchell with her pop version of “Both Sides Now,” Leonard Cohen with her rendition of “Suzanne,” and Randy Newman. Even if she weren’t a fine performer in her own right, the music world owes her just for that. And she is a fine performer, her classic version of Steven Sondheim’s “Send in the Clowns” being a case in point. She is particularly gifted at songs that require an ethereal and mysterious quality, songs like “Dark Eyes.” Part of Judy Sings Dylan: Just Like a Woman (1997), this piano-based version “Dark Eyes” is as haunting as Dylan’s, if that’s possible.
March 29: Tangled Up In Blue
There are more permutations in lyrics and musical approach in this tune than perhaps any in the Dylan canon. While it’s not played often these days, it was a highlight of many shows since its initial appearance on Blood on the Tracks (1974). An epic narrative that, depending on the version, sometimes shift from first to third person (see the version on The Bootleg Series). The version on Real Live, incidentally, has radically re-worked lyrics. While looking up info on the song, I was struck by the irony that although Blood on the Tracks chronicled the break-up of his marriage to Sara, (they were divorced in 1977), as part of the settlement, she got half the royalties from the songs Dylan wrote while they were married, including this. This particular version was one of the highlights of the Street Legal 1978 tour, offering a melancholy not found in any other version plus an entirely different melody line. A year later, the newly divorced superstar was a born-again Christian doing gospel. R.O . (AMF-yoyo)
March 30: Tangled Up In Blue
Admittedly, the Indigo Girls probably aren’t among the first names that spring to mind when you or I think of Dylan interpreters, but in this live version I was given some time ago, they give a creditable and energetic reading to the song, including a violin solo reminiscent of Dylan’s Rolling Thunder appearances, Dylanesque vocalizations at times,and a rhythmic shift in the penultimate verse similar to the way the bard himself ends some songs. Their version will sound familiar to anyone who’s heard the way Dylan’s been doing it for over a decade now. I’m still waiting for some definitive cover of it, but in the meantime, we’ve still got multiple Dylan covers it, as in this one from Stockholm in 2009.
Tangled Up in Blue Indigo Girls (time and place unknown)
Tangled Up In Blue: Stockholm 2009
March 31: Long before “Ring Them Bells,” there was “Chimes of Freedom,” and before that, “The Bells of Rhymney, and long before that, there was Edgar Allen Poe’s, “The Bells” http://www.online-literature.com/poe/575/. On Another Side of Bob Dylan (1964), Dylan began moving away from the finger-pointing songs of The Times They Are a Changin’ and Freewheelin,’ feeling “younger than that now.” But “Chimes” shows that he was not abandoning themes that spoke to universal truths. Though some of the kaleidoscopic lines surpasseth human understanding, it’s abundantly clear whom the bells are tolling for. “Do not ask for whom the bells toll, they toll for thee.” On this our last day of Daily Dylan as we transition to one of his heir apparents, Bruce Springsteen, we thought we’d give you three versions.
Chimes Of Freedom (Dylan @ 2003?)
Chimes of Freedom (Live): Byrds (2/7/69)
Chimes Of Freedom live: Springsteen (@1985)
And, finally, here’s a link to other noteworthy covers of Dylan tunes, courtesy of Used Cars (Brendan Barry).http://homepage.eircom.net/~brendanbarry/dylancovers/index.htm
