Bob Dylan: Never-Ending Covers (Cover By Cover)

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by RayS, Jun 3, 2016.

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  1. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower Thread Starter

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    "Hallelujah"
    NET Premiere 7-8-88 @Montreal



    Words don't describe. If Dylan gave a half-assed remembers-half-the-words-performance this still would have been monumental. But he absolutely nails the song. One of my favorite NET moments.
     
  2. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower Thread Starter

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    Leonard live - from vaguely the same time period (1985)

     
  3. HominyRhodes

    HominyRhodes Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago
    Ray tantalized us awhile back when he mentioned that he had an unpublished(!) collection of NET concert reviews, and I'm ecstatic that some of the material from that legendary Lost Manuscript is finally coming to light.

    Time has been tight over the past week, but today I've put the entire compound on lockdown, silenced the phones, and posted armed sentries at the door. This is one of those threads that I've been waiting for, and I want to go through the first several pages very carefully, with no distractions, and figure out if there's anything that I might be able to add. Truly, I come with hat in hand, since my knowledge of Dylan's '80s-90s NET era live recordings and repertoire is actually quite limited, so I'm counting on the rest of you to fill me in. (IIRC, I went to three Dylan shows in 1988-89, and saw him once more in 1994, so I do have some idea of what he was doing back then, but I know there's a lot more for me to discover.)

    Yes -- or, as Little Milton Campbell put it, in a more succinct manner: "Let's get into it!"
     
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  4. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower Thread Starter

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    Please contribute anything that even vaguely crosses your mind. It's been a lot quieter here than I anticipated it would be - I'd love to have more input.
     
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  5. HominyRhodes

    HominyRhodes Forum Resident

    Location:
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    Sorry to backtrack so far upthread!

    Such a great performance by Bob & G.E. in that clip. I've heard it before, but never listened to it very intently. Certain passages remind me of Bob's own piece, Dark Eyes (from three years earlier).

    When I first became aware that Dylan was doing that song live, I assumed, without actually hearing it, that it was the Hank Williams song, On the Banks of the Old Ponchartrain, which must have been derived from "Lakes," but has no mention of any Creole gal.

    "On The Banks Of The Old Pontchartrain"
    I traveled from Texas to old Louisanne
    Through valleys, o'er mountains and plains
    Both footsore and weary I rested awhile
    On the banks of the old Pontchartrain.

    The fairest young maiden that I ever saw
    Passed by as it started to rain
    We both found a shelter beneath the same tree
    On the banks of the old Pontchartrain.

    We hid from the shower an hour or so
    She asked me how long I'd remain
    I told her that I'd spend the rest of my days
    On the banks of the old Pontchartrain.

    I just couldn't tell her that I ran away
    From jail on a West Texas plain
    I prayed in my heart I would never be found
    On the banks of the old Pontchartrain.

    Then one day a man put his hand on my arm
    And said I must go west again
    I left her alone without saying goodbye
    On the banks of the old Pontchartrain.

    Tonight as I sit here alone in my cell
    I know that she's waiting in vain
    I'm hoping and praying someday to return
    On the banks of the old Pontchartrain
     
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  6. HominyRhodes

    HominyRhodes Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago
    I love this post, thank you.
     
  7. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower Thread Starter

    Location:
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    Cool. I was unaware of Hank's version. Considering Dylan's familiarity with Hank's catalog, it seems likely that he had heard it. Lots of Hank Williams to come later in this thread.
     
  8. HominyRhodes

    HominyRhodes Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago
    A few more scattered thoughts on some of the other songs covered earlier in the thread, before I get all caught up:

    re: San Francisco Bay Blues
    I think I heard one of Jesse Fuller's own recordings of this song before hearing any of Dylan's versions. It was included on this LP: https://www.discogs.com/Jesse-Fuller-San-Francisco-Bay-Blues/release/3486638 which I bought years ago because it had Fuller's You're No Good, the opening track on Dylan's first album.

    As mentioned, Clapton and McCartney both did nice Unplugged versions of SFBB (by way of Lonnie Donegan?), and I heard another great live version by Arlo Guthrie, at a show with Pete Seeger in Milwaukee back in the '80s. A great little piece of classic ragtime/hokum/blues.

    This is one of those rare moments when I get to say "I was there." The Alpine Valley show was the first time that I ever saw Dylan play outdoors, and it was a gorgeous summer evening in one of the best live venues anywhere, the perfect setting. When he started singing Barbara Allen, it bowled me over. Hard to describe the feeling as the sound of it filled the air, but him singing that song on that night helped to tie together so much of his own musical history and his influences for me.

    Lover's knot of rose and briar...Dylan, Playboy interview, 1965: "As far as folk and folk-rock are concerned, it doesn't matter what kind of nasty names people invent for the music. It could be called arsenic music, or perhaps Phaedra music. I don't think that such a word as folk-rock has anything to do with it. And folk music is a word I can't use. Folk music is a bunch of fat people. I have to think of all this as traditional music. Traditional music is based on hexagrams. It comes about from legends, Bibles, plagues, and it revolves around vegetables and death. There's nobody that's going to kill traditional music. All these songs about roses growing out of people's brains and lovers who are really geese and swans that turn into angels - they're not going to die."

    BTW: At a big record convention a few months later, one of the dealers had a table of live Dylan VHS tapes, and I scored a copy of the Alpine Valley show -- sadly, the quality is about on par with the clip you posted, although it's a cool memento to have.

    One more Barbara Allen tie-in, with an additional tie-in to Mr. D's current chart-busting LP (I recently bought a copy of this old album, and I love it):
     
  9. revolution_vanderbilt

    revolution_vanderbilt Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York


    This is the first version I heard, as used in the Shrek movie.

    Dylan's version is pretty much exactly what I expected it to sound like, but that's to say that he gave it a good reading. Some of my favorite covers from the NET are ones where Dylan tackles the works of his contemporaries. His songs are so often covered, especially by folks who fall in any sort of singer-songwriter class. My friend and I went to see a girl singing at the Music Inn, and I joked to him that I would bet anything that she'd do a Dylan cover. Sure enough, her last number as A Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall. All this to say that it is such a treat to hear Dylan singing cover songs that came after him. This performance in particular has a ragged (but not sloppy) edge to it, but he never stumbles, and it's a strong rendition.
     
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  10. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower Thread Starter

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    McCartney plays a sort-of version of "San Francisco Bay Blues" on piano during the "Get Back" sessions (one of his early morning sessions, before the other guys are there) - he clearly loved the song.

    Alpine Valley is one of my many favorites from 1988 (it got 3.5 stars out of 5 in the manuscript, for what that's worth - I would never go near "stars" if I were reviewing concerts today). You not only got an electric "Gates of Eden", you got the NET premiere of "Frankie Lee", and a Mama-Hollis-Boots-Barbara acoustic set is nothing to sneeze at either! I was never much of an audience video collector, but I made an exception in the case of '88, and I had probably the same VHS of this show as you.

    Thanks for the quote! "Vegetables and Death" may be the title of my "How I Spent My Summer Holiday" essay in the fall, as I'm coming up on 2 years vegan (and 12 years vegetarian) and for "fun" this summer I am auditing a Yale philosophy course simply entitled "Death". Vegetables and death, man, Bob knew where it was at.

    Bob's beautiful renditions aside, "Barbara Allen" romanticizes death to the point that the song could have banned in high schools in the 1980s (a la "Don't Fear the Reaper"). Does Barbara do herself in "off stage"?
     
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  11. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower Thread Starter

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    Dylan covering Cohen is just a great moment to me. Although I believe I already owned Leonard's early "Best Of" collection by Summer 1988, I had never heard "Hallelujah" before Bob's cover (and a kind trader tacked on Leonard's version as filler on the cassette so I got to hear both on the same day).
     
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  12. HominyRhodes

    HominyRhodes Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago
    - re: Eileen Aroon: Through BD, I became a true devotee of the Clancy's and Tommy Makem, and built a complete collection of their original Columbia LPs, as well as their earlier Tradition label recordings, which also included a version of Eileen Aroon. In Dylan's live version of the song (posted upthread), he seems to be really trying to get to the heart of it, but I have to say that the two guitars seem too busy and intrusive for the lovely old Irish tune, which the Clancys did in near a cappella fashion. After taking a spin through Yoo-tube for versions by other artists, though, it seems that few have managed to do the song justice, although many have tried.

    - re: "Trail of the Buffalo" aka "The Hills of Mexico"/"Buffalo Skinners": Clearly, Dylan always liked this song, in many of its various guises. Here's a surprisingly sweet-voiced version by Johnny Cash at Sun Records, which sounds, to my ears, a little like Johnny Horton's North to Alaska:

     
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  13. HominyRhodes

    HominyRhodes Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago
    Found this 1989 rehearsal...I've never heard any of them, but should I assume the live versions were a little more energetic?
     
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  14. HominyRhodes

    HominyRhodes Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago
    Oh lordy, that's something. I've heard the song many times -- it's now considered a modern standard/classic, right? -- by Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley, on the Shrek soundtrack, and even one or two karaoke versions by well-intentioned souls, but it never registered with me in any meaningful way. I couldn't even hum a few bars.

    But now, after hearing this live Dylan recording for the first time -- great performance, total commitment, even a nice audio mix -- I'll have to *change my way of thinkin'* and give it more respect. Thanks for posting that.

    (Sometimes, somehow, they get past me -- I remember over in the John Prine thread, you had to point out to me what a great song Lake Marie was...how the hell did I miss that one, too?)
     
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  15. dylankicks

    dylankicks Forum Resident

    Location:
    Oshkosh, WI
    I feel privileged to see Dylan perform "Little Moses" in Minneapolis back in '92. Here is a nice performance of it from the same time period. It starts at 49:05.
     
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  16. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower Thread Starter

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    Good call between "North to Alaska" and Johnny's version here - the similarity is fairly striking to my ears. The traditional melody seems to be the basis for the former. I didn't know until I was doing some Googling for "Barbara Allen" that Johnny wrote his own lyrics for that one.

     
  17. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower Thread Starter

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    In concert, Dylan seems to routinely respect traditionals and usually respects songs written by people who preceded him. But with contemporary artists it seems more hit or miss (as it is with his own songs - he routinely trashed "Gotta Serve Somebody" in the '88-'91 period, for example). This performance of "Hallelujah" shows, to me, absolute reverence.

    A modern standard/classic? Well, not many songs rate an entire book. :)

    [​IMG]

    Part of the greatness of the song, to me, is that it is like a chameleon - the Leonard Zelig of songs. Believers hear it as a spiritual and even take solace in it ... I've always been drawn to the skeptical side of the song.
     
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  18. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower Thread Starter

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    Thank you for the find.

    Yes, the live performances are better than this rehearsal. The first performance to me is the best - purely acoustic, just Dylan and Smith - it's done slower with a much more committed vocal (better than Cash's original if I may offer that bit of heresy). The two further performances are in the acoustic>electric style Dylan used a lot in this period - the bass and drums coming in mid-way to join the acoustic guitars, with Smith then switching to electric.
     
  19. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower Thread Starter

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    Thank you for participating. We're kind of trying to work in chronological order so as to give every song its due and not skip over any, so you're about 4 years ahead of schedule. :)

    That being said, you got to see a good show (or shows). The second night of the five concert Minneapolis stand (August 30th) was my choice for 1992's concert of the year.

    I'm a big "Little Moses" fan.
     
  20. HominyRhodes

    HominyRhodes Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago
    Better smile when you say that. :D (Wow, it must be good.)
     
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  21. DmitriKaramazov

    DmitriKaramazov Senior Member

    Pretty sure Ry and Flaco play on this version, which was used in the Jack Nicholson film The Border.

     
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  22. george nadara

    george nadara Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    Good wit. :laugh:

    np: "Every Grain of Sand," simply beautiful.
     
  23. dylankicks

    dylankicks Forum Resident

    Location:
    Oshkosh, WI
    Sorry, I was just enjoying the songs and didn't realize it was staying tight chronological. I will continue to follow this excellent thread and will be sure to add a few favorites when the time is right!
     
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  24. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower Thread Starter

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    Thematically "Across the Borderline" brings this earlier cover (of Woody Guthrie) to mind.

     
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  25. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower Thread Starter

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    "I'm in the Mood For Love"
    NET Premiere: 8-3-88 in Hollywood

    Sandwiched between "It Ain't Me Babe" and "All Along the Watchtower" in the encore, Dylan goes back to the 30s for this torch song. It's a bit of harbinger for things to come many years later.

    No luck in finding a link to a Dylan performance online. The influential version? Here's one possibility from 1936 (and surely the first place that I ever heard the song):

     
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