Dylan Covers: Rock Me Mama becomes Wagon Wheel

Old Crow Medicine Show - Wagon Wheel

[purchase]

Bob Dylan - Rock Me Mama

[from Genuine Bootleg Series Vol. 1...out of print?]

Today I am gonna mix it up a little. I originally posted the below back in May of 2007 on ninebullets.net. I got so many emails about it that I reposted it in October of last year. It has easily been the most popular post on the site so I decided to post it over here. I hope y'all enjoy it even though it's on the fringes of this weeks theme.

Here you go:

This morning I was sitting here listening to the new cd, Two Bottles Of Wine by Jason Webley and Reverend Peyton. At the end of the cd is a cover song that I instantly recognized as Old Crow Medicine Show’s, Wagon Wheel. Only, it’s labeled as Rock Me Mama (Bob Dylan Cover).

huh?

I am no Dylan expert but I thought if Wagon Wheel was actually a Dylan cover I would have known by now. This seemed like a job for Google. After a little looking I found this explination from OCMS’s Keith Secor:

“It’d be my pleasure to dispel the myth and rumor about the song Wagon Wheel, or “Rock Me Mama” as Bob Dylan himself called the song when he recorded it down in Mexico in 1972 for the soundtrack of Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. This song was not released, and it was not finished either, this is a demo of a practice session of him, Rob Stoner, and a couple of gals doing the chorus over and over again while the bass player learns the bass line. That’s what I heard on a German bootleg about nine years ago in high school. And I wrote the lyrics to the song because I loved the chorus so much and I sung it in my head for maybe a year straight, and then just penned what I penned, which is something of an autobiographical story about just wanting to get outta town, gettin outta school, and just wanting to go play music. It’s sort of autobiographical like that. But yeah, it’s sort of a Bob Dylan co-write with about 25 years inbetween.”

Well there you go. As the late great Chris Thomas used to say, “That’s why you get up in the mornings. You never know what you might learn.”

Jason Webley and The Reverend Peyton - Rock Me Mama

[Out of Print]

Dylan Covers: Going, Going, Gone

Son Volt: Going, Going, Gone [purchase downloadable EP]

The original "Going, Going, Gone" comes from the surprisingly lackluster Dylan/Band reunion album, Planet Waves (1974). Son Volt's cover was included on their promotional Switchback EP, which was released to radio simultaneous with their second album, Straightaways (1997). However, prior to this recording "Going, Going, Gone" was a staple on the band's first tour, way back when Jay Farrar was still tearing up his Gibson SG, Mike Heidorn was drumming, and Uncle Tupelo songs were a regular part of Son Volt's setlists. When I saw them play The Backstage in Seattle (12/11/95) they encored with this obscure Dylan number , The Stanley Brothers' harmony-riffic "She's More To Be Pitied," and Merle Haggard's prison anthem, "Sing Me Back Home." If you can find a better trifecta of roots music consciousness, I'd like to hear it.

Dylan Covers: Like A Rolling Stone

Mystery Tramps: Like A Rolling Stone

[purchase]

A whole book on one song sounds a bit rich, even if the song in question is Like A Rolling Stone. But in Like A Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan At The Crossroads, author Greil Marcus showed it could be done. Easily. Anyway, this post is not about that book, it´s about a ´93 cover version of Dylan´s masterpiece that Marcus mentions quite enthousiastically. About an outfit called the Mystery Tramps and their hiphop-stylee cover version of Like A Rolling Stone. Since I´m both a Bobcat and a sucker for curios, I just had to check it out. And yo, it´s not bad at all. 

Funny enough it starts with a sample of the original intro: that masterly organ riff by Al Kooper. The - white - rapper is hamming it up just a bit too much for my liking, but the talking girl ("spare change, anybody?" and "hey! where´s my stuff") cracks me up every time. Plus it´s rather alienating to hear such a familiar song in such a completely different musical setting. "This is a story about a girl who goes from riches to rags, and it´s a drag, so check it ouuuut."

PS: This post appeared in a slightly different form on my own blog when I was just starting out. The possibility to repost it here seemed too good to be true as 1. it´s a Dylan cover you don´t hear everyday and 2. it gives me the opportunity to tell you that - after a long summer break -  For The Sake Of The Song is back. 

Dylan Covers: Man Gave Names to All the Animals

So far this week, we have already seen some of Bob Dylan’s remarkable range as a songwriter. He is equally adept at love songs, political songs that become generational anthems, and who-knows-whats that nevertheless resonate with people. But something interesting happens with “Man Gave Names to All the Animals”. The song was originally included on Slow Train Coming, Dylan’s somewhat notorious album where he embraced born-again Christianity; as such, the song is part of a suite of songs which function as an eloquent expression of faith. Dylan’s arrangement of the song was a rock-reggae hybrid.

But the covers of “Man Gave Names to All the Animals” are mostly by folk artists. Taken out of its original context, and given a softer arrangement, the truth is revealed: “Man Gave Names to All the Animals” is a great kid’s song. Not what you usually think of from Dylan.

Townes Van Zandt: Man Gave Names to All the Animals

[purchase]

Townes Van Zandt is one of those tragic figures who litter the pop music landscape. Mostly known during his lifetime to other musicians, it was only after his death at age 52 that his music began to reach a wider audience. “Pancho and Lefty” is probably his best known song. As can be heard here, he was also a fine singer and guitar player.

Tim O‘Brien: Man Gave Names to All the Animals

[purchase]

Tim O’Brien first gained attention as the leader of the bluegrass band Hot Rize in the 1980s. (If you like bluegrass, and have never heard them, do seek them out.) As a solo artist, and in a duo with his sister Mollie, O’Brien has expanded his sound. His version of ”Man Gave...” is from an album of Dylan covers called Red on Blond.

Dylan Covers: Tomorrow Is A Long Time

Nickel Creek: Tomorrow Is A Long Time

[purchase]

Tomorrow is a Long Time was first recorded for the famous (and permanently bootlegged) Witmark Demos in 1963, but the only officially released version is a live recording on Dylan's 1971 Greatest Hits Vol II collection; by then, thanks to early distribution of the Witmark Demos, the song had already been turned from its original delicate campfire ballad to something with a little too much saccharine by such mid-sixties unlikelies as Odetta, Elvis, and Ian and Sylvia. As such there is no real definitive version, and -- since by definition originals are usually considered to be the first official recording -- some confusion in my mind over whether or not this is a cover at all.

Happily, not all "covers" of this song misunderstand its intent so badly. Something about the odd extra-measured trope and rhythm of this older Dylan song has attracted some of my favorite folk artists at their best, from Nick Drake to Sandy Denny to Rosalie Sorrels. And, as with so many Dylan covers, there's still more to discover -- for example, I've recently encountered the below version by the Greek folk-pop singer Nana Mouskouri, and think the light freakfolk touch and etherial, high-vibrato vocals are worth passing along, especially for those who have yet to encounter her work.

But going back through the forty-odd years of this song's existence, none of the covers i have heard hold a candle to the delicate newgrass ballad that Nickel Creek makes of it.

Cover or not, this may be one of my favorite Nickel Creek songs ever. It demonstrates effortlessly just how mature and tightly delivered their sound became in the end, before they decided they were ready to move on. Sara Watkins' fragile, breathy voice on lead is perfect for the sentiment; the mandolin and guitar mix is ringing and airy; make sure you stick around for the lovely fiddle and mando duet.

More, however, I think the song actually speaks to the kind of regret and readiness that the band members, who formed their band in their teens, must have been feeling as they saw the horizon of solo projects and self-reliance approaching. Placed at the very heart of Why Should The Fire Die, their final album before breaking up to pursue solo projects, the song is a perfect bittersweet harbinger of their impending dissipation, and an equally powerful reminder of why their star shot so high, and so quickly, before choosing to go out in that blaze of glory.

Bonus:

Nana Mouskouri: Tomorrow Is A Long Time

[purchase]

Dylan Covers: Rainy Day Women #12 & 35

Cross Canadian Ragweed: Rainy Day Women #12 & 35

[purchase]

Admittedly, this song is nowhere near one of Dylan’s best. But it is undeniably one of the most fun. The lead-off track from the seminal Blonde On Blonde is a raucous barroom ballad full of jangly instruments, huge sing along lines, and off-stage banter. What makes Rainy Day Women so intriguing, however, is the mystique behind it. The song’s meaning has been examined and scrutinized for years. On the surface, the casual listener will undoubtedly hear the persuasion to partake in illegal activity. Upon further review, one may realize that Dylan means “stoned” in the proverbial sense. But to take the song into any further consideration will only confuse the listener more. Dylan, in one of many slaps-in-the-face to interviewers, once described the song like this:

“Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 happens to deal with a minority of, you know, cripples and Orientals and, uh, you know, and the world in which they live,.... It’s another sort of a North Mexican kind of a thing, uh, very protesty. Very, very protesty. And, uh, one of the protestiest of all things I ever protested against in my protest years.”

Cross Canadian Ragweed covered the song on their 2001 release Live and Loud at the Wormy Dog. The Wormy Dog Saloon in Stillwater was the home venue for the Oklahoma band (among many others) in their early years. Because of the song’s live setting in a small bar, this cut contains many similarities to Dylan’s version – and it is just as fun.

As far as the meaning behind the song – I believe Dylan achieved his goal – to create a tune that people would be talking about for years, with no answer as to the writer’s intentions. Why is this the only song on the album to feature a full horn section? Why did he choose to lead off album with it? And what’s with the numbers 12 and 35? I have no answers for you, but just for fun, multiply them together…..

Dylan Covers: You Ain't Goin' Nowhere

Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova: You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere

[purchase]

I know it’s way too easy to pick a song off the I’m Not There Soundtrack – but this one is worth the simplicity. You all know Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova, their love affair, their movie, and their various awards. But if for some reason you don’t, I’ll enlighten you.

Glen Hansard is an Irish singer/songwriter and frontman of the Irish rock group The Frames. In 2006, he teamed up with a classically-trained, Czech multi-instrumentalist Marketa Irglova to make the music-inspired indie film Once. It follows the paths of two struggling musicians that fall in love while making music together in Dublin. The film – which is a must-see for any fan of good music – won the World Cinema Audience Award at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. The duo’s song Falling Slowly won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 2007. As fate would have it, the two began dating while filming the movie. Together, they are known as The Swell Season and put out a self-titled album following the release of the movie.

You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere appeared first on Dylan's Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 in 1971. For some reason this song always inspires visions of folks sittin’ around in a picking circle playing the most appropriate tune to fit the mood – one of pure jubilation. No matter who’s doing the song, that feeling emanates through thanks to the power of Dylan's words.

"Whoo-ee, ride me high
Tomorrow's the day
My bride's gonna come
Oh, ho, are we gonna fly
Down in the easy chair."

Dylan Covers: Absolutely Sweet Marie

Jason & The Scorchers: Absolutely Sweet Marie

[purchase]

"Well I don’t know how it happened, but the river boat captain, he knows my fate...”

This is not a well-known Dylan cover, but I think it's one of the greats. Jason & The Scorchers take the song in the same direction Dylan was going, but a step farther.

Because of exciting songs like this, Jason and Scorchers embodied 1980's cowpunk. (Now that's sayin' something!) If you're the slightest bit intrigued, the two-fer CD featuring the Fervor EP and Lost & Found LP is a must own document.

Miscellaneous Info/Personal Touch: This song provided the inspiration for my daughter's middle name. (My son is Hank. Are you surprised?)

Dylan Covers: Highway '61 Revisited

PJ Harvey: Highway '61 Revisited

[purchase]

Highway 61 was famous for being the highway of the blues, as it led to New Orleans. Many blues songs mention it, and Dylan's song certainly is a homage to those roots.

I can't say it's her best work, or even that she should be covering the song at all, despite being a big fan of her work, the angry prototypical early PJ Harvey style seems to be an odd fit. The toe-tapping bluesy quality Dylan gives the song seems to fit, and her more angry, though unique, version is an odd take on the classic. But it's worth a listen all the same as it gives it a whole new flavor.

Dylan Covers: Lord Protect My Child

Susan Tedeschi: Lord Protect My Child

[purchase]

As a coverblogger specializing in folk music, I've posted dozens of Dylan covers in my day, and though there's sure to be some songs too good to pass up, my personal goal not to bring too many repeat tracks to the table this week isn't likely to be much of a challenge: even if I stick to the folkworld, I'm sure to find dozens more tracks as-yet unposted, ripe for the sharing. But sifting through the collection this afternoon, looking for Susan Tedeschi's wonderful blues cover of Don't Think Twice, It's Alright (which I've included as a bonus track below), I finally took a shine to Tedeschi's other Dylan cover, a surprise after months of false starts and half-hearted dismissal. Since I can only assume others are likely to experience their first listen as I have, I'm asking you to trust me today, folks: there's something about this cover that merits listening enough times to appreciate it.

New England blues phenomenon Susan Tedeschi is an acceptable vocalist, but she's really most notable for her blazing blues guitarwork; as such, though this is ultimately a relatively faithful rendition of Dylan's mid-eighties melody, those who listen for the vocals to match the yearning keen of Dylan's original father's prayer, originally released on The Bootleg Series Vol. 1-3, may miss the point. And this track is also an anomaly for Tedeschi, one much slower and production-heavy, easily dismissed as one of very few weak cuts on her otherwise-stellar, unusually broad-ranging 2005 covers album Hope and Desire.

But listen again, with an open mind, and remember that Hope and Desire is predominantly a turning point for Tedeschi, one which attempts to redefine her as a frontwoman as much as her previous work defined her as a soulful guitar virtuoso. Instead of her usual raw vocals and loud blues jam guitar mastery, it is the retro gospel blues arrangement (complete with piano and choir), and the subtle touch on the slide which emerges slowly from the stew of sound after the halfway mark of the track, building to a stunningly subtle yet powerfully emotive instrumental solo, which stand out here. The subtlety is not Tedeschi's strong point -- she really shines better on blazing bluesfunk -- but that just makes the song's success all that more effective, when it comes down to it.

It helps, of course, that I consider this to be one of Dylan's most powerful songs. Maybe you have to be a father to understand, but the sentiment -- that your child could be an object of such wonderment, it makes you consider your own mortality with new stakes; that you might thus fear and pray for his safety, should you suddenly not be around -- cuts right to the heart. Turning Dylan's vocal wail into a guitar cry makes it no less powerful; indeed, splitting off the lyric from the instrument of its sentiment creates a mature tension and depth in what was once a much simpler emotional approach. For that, Tedeschi deserves her second listen, and then some.

Of course, subtlety isn't the only form of power Tedeschi has at her disposal when it comes to interpreting Dylan. As promised, here's her earlier take on another of his tunes.

Susan Tedeschi: Don't Think Twice, It's Alright

[purchase]

Dylan covers: Si Tu Dois Partir

Fairport Convention : Si Tu Dois Partir

[purchase]

Or: If You Gotta Go, Go Now.

The story goes that British folkers Fairport Convention were playing a gig at the Middle Earth club and thought it would be amusing to do Dylan's song in French cajun style, so the band called for volunteers from the audience to help with the translation. Said Fairport guitarist Richard Thompson: ´About three people turned up, so it was really written by committee, and consequently ended up not very cajun, French or Dylan.´ 

It sure is a fun version though. Sandy Denny´s accent is really endearing, but Dave Swarbrick´s fiddle steals the show. ´Mais si tu dois partir, va-t'en, si non, tu dois rester la nuit...´ And by the way: the short percussion break towards the end of the song is the sound of a pile of chairs falling over, with a bottle breaking in the process.

Dylan Covers: Love Is Just A Four-Letter Word

Joan Baez: Love Is Just A Four-Letter Word

[purchase]

I'm not sure if this counts as a cover. It was written by Bob Dylan but never recorded by him. Joan's is the first version, but you can hear Bob's style in the song's structure and lyrics. In any event, it's a fabulous song and Joan Baez's rendition is quite beautiful. Listen a few times and you'll be hooked.

Here's an interesting story about the song:

"In the 2005 PBS American Masters documentary on Dylan, No Direction Home, Baez told an amusing story of how she was with Dylan, when he first heard her recording of 'Love is Just a Four-Letter Word' on the radio. He commented on it, 'Hey, that's a great song!,' apparently having forgotten that it was he who'd written it."

(Source: Wikipedia).

Dylan Covers: Sweetheart of the Rodeo

The Byrds: You Ain't Going Nowhere

The Byrds: Nothing Was Delivered

[purchase]

I'll leave it to someone else to do the comprehensive The Byrds and Bob Dylan post. But I did want to jump in early with a quick post about two songs from one particular Byrds album that I have once again been listening to quite a bit lately.

1968's Sweetheart of the Rodeo featured a new line up for the band and marked a dynamic shift in The Byrds' sound. The one constant that remained was Bob Dylan.

Of course, The Byrds had tackled many Dylan songs before the release of Sweetheart of the Rodeo. They had not, however, done so under the guidance of the Cosmic American blueprint laid out by Gram Parsons. Parsons helped The Byrds bring a loving country touch to Dylan's "You Ain't Going Nowhere" and "Nothing Was Delivered." It was a bit of a departure from their previous sound.

As part of the marketing plan for this album, Columbia Records had to convince people that... despite the new sound... they were still listening to The Byrds. How could they do that? Listen to this radio spot that promoted the album.

Radio Spot: Sweetheart of the Rodeo

See? That has to be The Byrds. They're singing a Bob Dylan song.

Dylan Covers: Blowin' In The Wind

Sam Cooke: Blowin' In The Wind [purchase]

When (Sam Cooke) first heard "Blowin' In The Wind" on the new Freewheelin' Bob Dylan album J.W. (Alexander) had just given him, he was so carried away with the message, and the fact that a white boy had written it, that he was almost ashamed not to have written something like that himself. It wasn't the way Dylan sang, he told Bobby Womack. It was what he had to say. "I'm going to write something," Sam told J.W. But he didn't know what it was.
--Peter Guralnick, Dream Boogie: The Triumph Of Sam Cooke, pages 512-13

That "something" turned out to be Sam Cooke's finest moment as a songwriter and one of the artistic high points of the 1960s, "A Change Is Gonna Come." But, before writing "Change," Sam took Dylan's civil rights anthem uptown, during his July 1964 gig at the Copacabana in New York City.

As a bonus, here's a video of Sam singing "Blowin' In The Wind" on the premiere episode of Shindig in September 1964. Keep in mind that this was probably one of the first televised instances of a black man being surrounded by dancing white chicks. No doubt tears of rage were shed all over the country that night.

Dylan Covers: Like A Rolling Stone

Jimi Hendrix: Like A Rolling Stone

[purchase]

Sebastian Cabot: Like A Rolling Stone

[purchase]

Here are two takes on Bob Dylan’s most famous song. One sublime; the other ridiculous.

While the most acclaimed Dylan cover of all time is probably Jimi’s version of All Along The Watchtower, which took a great song and made it even better, my favorite Dylan cover has always been Jimi’s live take on Like A Rolling Stone. It’s the antithesis of Cabot’s overwrought take. Hendrix's laid-back, slightly-funky version is pure magic. It takes a great song and makes it even more groovy.

Case in point: My favorite part is how Hendrix changes the lyric “the language that he used” to “the sweet talk that he used.”

Yes I know this is the second Jimi post today. Don’t worry.

Dylan Covers: In My Time Of Dying

Be Good Tanyas: In My Time Of Dying

[purchase]

Friends of the Stars: In My Time of Dyin'

[live; more FotS]

Led Zeppelin: In My Time Of Dyin'

[purchase]

One of Dylan's greatest contributions to the world of music was his ability to reframe and reclaim folkways as a generative part of the process of popular music; doing so often meant both resetting and rewriting found or scaveged folksong. This organic process is respectable, but it confounds the issue of attribution, leaving us with such highly contested measures of whether a song is actually "by" Dylan as the extent to which the song resembles older versions, whether Dylan lists it as one of "his" songs on his website, and whether or not Dylan owns the copyright.

In the world of cover blogs, the folk process can complicate the question of whether or not a song is a cover, and if so, of whom. My preference, however, is to respect the artist wherever possible, and here, we are talking about Dylan's ownership, I think, not merely origin. Here, then, we are able to consider citation and attribution as a key component of whether a song "counts" for our covers. And as many songs not technically "by" Dylan, in whole or in part, are treated as "Dylan Covers" by the covering artist, we would be remiss in not attending to such covers as we go through the week ahead.

Nowhere is this phenomenon more visible as it is in coverage of Dylan's seminal version of In My Time Of Dying, first released on his self-titled debut album. Though the song has origins as a gospel blues tune, recorded by Blind Willie Johnson in the heart of the Great Depression under the title "Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed", in Dylan's hands, it was reset as a stripped-down, almost appalachian folktune in the familiar style of the earliest field recordings from the Alan Lomax era.

There is no question that Dylan's performance embodied the song in a way that made it his own. The raw power of Dylan's emerging style, coupled with the familiar spiritual themes of dying and afterlife, made for a powerful statement about broken instruments and the body itself -- one as well-suited for the political and social context of the mid sixties as Blind Willie's version was for the dusty depression-era world into which his own recordings had emerged. Over the next few decades, dozens of covers would emerge, most notably a mystical, metallic mid-seventies bluesrock jam from Led Zeppelin. Some, like the Zepplin cover, would show direct evidence of Johnson's blues take, but all would cite Dylan's weary death rattle as both origin and inspiration.

Where Zeppelin seems to speak of rage at the dying of the light, and Dylan's sparse original evokes the solitary death of age and impending death, more recent covers from the indiefolk world seem more tied to the daily drudge and hardship deaths of younger folks in the older mountains and fields. Here, the three ladies of relatively young Canadian americana band The Be Good Tanyas take Dylan's setting of the tune and flesh it out delicately, adding banjo and brush, crisper rhythm and harmonies, giving what is now (thanks to Dylan) popularly thought of as "originally" a solo acoustic folk tune from the post-war era a "modernized" indie-americana instrumentation and trope. You hear the same slightly jangly new-timey rhythm, albeit almost buried under a drone-y, psychedelic approach, and tinged with manic desperation and wailing resistance, in the Peel Sessions recording from UK-based country/folk band Friends of the Stars, too. The result is a full folkspectrum of covers: three very different ways to die, but all times of dying nonetheless.

For comparison's sake, here's neo-folkie and indie fiddler Andrew Bird with a very recent live version of "the" song which, both titularly and lyrically, appears to reach directly back to the Blind Willie Johnson version. Honestly, you can hear the difference -- this is definitively NOT a Dylan cover.

Andrew Bird: Jesus Gonna Make Up My Dyin' Bed

[live; more Bird here]

Dylan Covers: All Along The Watchtower

Dave Mason: All Along The Watchtower

U2: All Along The Watchtower

[purchase]

All Along The Watchtower was written during Dylan's reclusive stay at Woodstock following his motorcycle accident.  Following Blonde On Blonde, and during the Summer of Love while every band on earth was trying to sound as big and important as they possibly could, it must have been a bit of a shock when Dylan released an album with only a bass, drum, and guitar. None of the songs on the album have a chorus, and most of the lyrics had allusions to biblical and religious figures and parables.  Like much of Dylan's work, this is definitely an album out of it's time.

Charlie McCoy, the bass player on the John Wesley Harding album, said, "Kenny and I were amazed at the change from Blonde on Blonde to John Wesley Harding.  The recording was different.  Of course, he sounded different.  He looked different.  We just flew through that stuff."  The three John Wesley Harding sessions totaled nine hours (while it took The Beatles five months to record Sgt. Pepper).

Again from McCoy, "We went in there and knocked 'em out like demos.  It seemed to be the rougher the better.  He would hear a mistake and laugh a little bit to himself as if to say, 'Great, man, that's just great.  Just what I'm looking for.'"

Jimi Hendrix had a huge hit with his cover of All Along The Watchtower only six months after the release of the original, but Jimi has already been featured on this theme, so I'm shying away from him.  Instead, here are covers by one of the founding members of Traffic, Dave Mason, and by U2.  This song has also been covered by at least 10 other artists.

Dylan Covers: Mighty Quinn

Manfred Mann: Mighty Quinn

[purchase]


This is a great Dylan song and one of the better covers of his tunes. First off, it's a goofy, fun, playful number that Bob wrote after watching the 1960 Nicholas Ray movie, The Savage Innocents. It starred Anthony Quinn as Inuk, a guileless Eskimo and I'm not sure how Bob was able to stay awake to write the lyrics, it's some damn turgid viewing. The lyrics are a pretty close recap of the film, over the years it's been hilarious to read some of the wild interpretations from Dylan's more rabid fans, convinced his word play was full of deep philosophical meaning.

"We met in a publisher's house as Bob Dylan was making some new material available to other artists. We heard about 10 songs and I thought 'This Wheel's On Fire' would be the one to do, but Manfred liked The Mighty Quinn, which was called 'Quinn The Eskimo' then. It was sung in a rambling monotone but Manfred had recognized its potential. He sold me on the idea of doing this song, but I had to make up some of the words as I couldn't make out everything he was saying. It was like learning a song phonetically in a foreign language. I have never had the first idea what the song is about except that it seems to be 'Hey, gang, gather round, something exciting is going to happen 'cause the big man's coming.' As to who the big man is and why he is an Eskimo, I don't know." - Mike D'Abo of Manfred Mann

Manfred Mann's version reached #1 in the UK Singles Chart and also charted on the American Billboard chart, peaking at #10.

Dylan Covers: Drifter's Escape

Jimi Hendrix: Drifter's Escape

[purchase]


I loves me some Jimi Hendrix - I always enjoy having a good excuse to post some of his music. Jimi was one of the best interpreters of Dylan's oeuvre, never making secret that he was his favorite songwriter. Here Hendrix covers Drifter's Escape, one of Bob's lesser-known tunes. This was originally released as part of 1972's Loose Ends, it was the victim of a posthumous Alan Douglas remix. Douglas was infamous for his butchery of Jimi's unreleased recordings, often erasing the original accompaniment and replacing it with studio musicians not familiar with his music.

Thankfully, the Hendrix family was able to wrest control over the master tapes and restored the mixes he made before his death. That's where today's selection comes from - 1997's South Saturn Delta compilation. After years of listening to Douglas' slaughtering of the song, this is a real treat.

Dylan Covers: I'm Not There

Sonic Youth: I'm Not There

[purchase]


Is there a better way to start this week's theme than with a song from an album of Bob Dylan covers? Director Todd Haynes put together a diverse collection of bands and musicians for the soundtrack of the 2007 Dylan biopic, I'm Not There, to reinterpret and add a fresh perspective to the Bobster's catalogue. Here's Sonic Youth's gauzy take on I'm Not There, from Bob's 1967 Basement Tapes bootleg. Dylan only recorded the song once and never touched it again. Greil Marcus wrote: "I'm Not There is barely written at all. Words are floated together in a dyslexia that is music itself, a dyslexia that seems meant to prove the claims of music over words, to see just how little words can do."

And I'm also hesitating by temptation lest it runs
Which it don't follow me
But I'm not there, I'm gone