Author: Hallgeir Olsen

The Long Ryders – Masters of War – The Best Dylan Covers

Posted on by Hallgeir Olsen

The Long Ryders – Masters of War – The Best Dylan Covers

Masters of War is a song by Bob Dylan, written over the winter of 1962–63 and released on the album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan.

Bob Dylan first recorded Masters of War in January 1963 for Broadside magazine, which published the lyrics and music on the cover of its February issue. The song was also taped in the basement of Gerde’s Folk City in February and for Dylan’s music publisher, M. Witmark & Sons, in March. The Witmark version was included on The Bootleg Series Vol. 9 – The Witmark Demos: 1962–1964 in October 2010. The Freewheelin’ version was recorded on April 24, 1963, by Columbia Records; in addition to that album, it has also appeared on compilation albums such as Masterpieces in 1978 and Biograph in 1985.

The Long Ryders – Masters Of War:

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Full Dylan album covered – Oh Mercy

Posted on by Hallgeir Olsen

“Oh Mercy (1989) is a collection of 10 songs, best listened to at night, if you’re inclined to take that gypsy caravan down into a mythic Louisiana bayou, a world conjured up by Bob Dylan and producer Daniel Lanois. Virtually every song is a highlight, from “Political World” (which sounds just as immediate today) to the bittersweet “Shooting Star.” It’s quite an ethereal voyage from beginning to end and should withstand the test of time.”
– Josh Downham (user review, Amazon)

It is a great collection of songs and there are many artists that have tried their luck in singing them, none as good as Dylan’s original versions (as usual) but there are some good ones out there. I have tried to collect some of the best.

My favourites are Ron Sexsmith, Gordon Lightfoot, Tom Jones and Willie Nelson.

Check Out more Full Dylan albums covered:

 

Nashville Skyline

Street Legal

Modern Times

Slow Train Coming

Infidels

and now Oh Mercy:

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Full Dylan album covered – Infidels

Posted on by Hallgeir Olsen

Full Dylan album covered – Infidels

Infidels is the twenty-second studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on October 27, 1983 by Columbia Records.

Produced by Mark Knopfler and Dylan himself, Infidels is seen as his return to secular music, following a conversion to Christianity, threeevangelical, gospel records and a subsequent return to a secular, culturally Jewish lifestyle. Though he has never abandoned religious imagery, Infidels gained much attention for its focus on more personal themes of love and loss, in addition to commentary on theenvironment and geopolitics. Christopher Connelly of Rolling Stone called those Gospel albums just prior to Infidels “lifeless”, and sawInfidels as making Bob Dylan’s career viable again. According to Connelly and others Infidels is Dylan’s best poetic and melodic work since Blood on the Tracks. It has been reported that reviews like these of Dylan’s religious works depressed the musician profoundly, inspiring Dylan’s comment at one concert that he was only referred to as a “prophet” when he was a secular “prophet” (paraphrased). Continue reading “Full Dylan album covered – Infidels” →

January 2: Elvis Presley released Elvis Country in 1971

Posted on by Hallgeir Olsen

“Elvis has come out with a record which gives us some of the very finest and most affecting music since he first recorded for Sun almost 17 years ago”- Peter Guralnick (Rolling Stone Magazine 1971)

“…Elvis was at his peak when he cut Elvis Country. Actually, Elvis Presley was positively on a roll at the time. A decade after the end of what were thought to be his prime years, he was singing an ever-widening repertory of songs with more passion and involvement than he’d shown since the end of the 1950s…”
~Bruce Eder (allmusic.com)

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Full Dylan album covered – Slow Train Coming

Posted on by Hallgeir Olsen

Slow Train Coming is the nineteenth studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on August 20, 1979 by Columbia Records. It was the artist’s first effort since becoming a born-again Christian, and all of the songs either express his strong personal faith, or stress the importance of Christian teachings and philosophy. The evangelical nature of the record alienated many of Dylan’s existing fans; at the same time, many Christians were drawn into his fan base. Slow Train Coming was listed at #16 in the 2001 book CCM Presents: The 100 Greatest Albums in Christian Music.

The album was generally well-reviewed in the secular press, and the single “Gotta Serve Somebody” became his first hit in three years, winning Dylan the Grammy for best rock vocal performance by a male in 1980. The album peaked at #2 on the charts in the UK and went platinum in the US, where it reached #3.

Great album, let’s see what other artists can do with the material.

This is a post where I have dug out some cover versions of the songs on the record, none of them are as good as the originals, but some are really good and some are just interesting. Let us do it the old fashion vinyl  way.

This is side one: Continue reading “Full Dylan album covered – Slow Train Coming” →

Full Dylan album covered – Modern Times

Posted on by Hallgeir Olsen

I like the “Bob Dylan period” of Modern Times a lot,  I play it often. I love it, one of the great albums from the first ten years of the 2000s.

This is a post where I have “dug” out some cover versions of the songs on the record, I would say that none of them are as good as the originals, but they’re good and they are interesting. Many of the album’s songs have roots in well-known older compositions, though in all cases, Dylan has given the songs new lyrics. Some of the “cover versions” I have found are interpretations of the old traditional songs, it wasn’t easy to compile this cover selection…

“Modern Times is the thirty-second studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on August 29, 2006 by Columbia Records. The album was Dylan’s third straight (following Time Out of Mind and Love and Theft) to be met with nearly universal praise from fans and critics. It continued its predecessors’ tendencies toward blues,rockabilly and pre-rock balladry, and was self-produced by Dylan under the pseudonym “Jack Frost”. Along with the acclaim, the album sparked some debate over its uncredited use of choruses and arrangements from older songs, as well as many lyrical lines taken from the work of 19th-century poet Henry Timrod.

Modern Times became the singer-songwriter’s first #1 album in the US since 1976’s Desire.”
– Wikipedia

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