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November 12: Neil Young is 75 today – Singing 6 Bob Dylan songs

Posted on by Hallgeir Olsen

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_message message_box_color=”mulled_wine” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left”]The only time it bothered me that someone sounded like me was when I was living in Phoenix, Arizona, in about ’72 and the big song at the time was “Heart of Gold.” I used to hate it when it came on the radio. I always liked Neil Young, but it bothered me every time I listened to “Heart of Gold.” I think it was up at number one for a long time, and I’d say, “Shit, that’s me. If it sounds like me, it should as well be me.
-Bob Dylan (to Scott Cohen, September 1985)[/vc_message][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian singer-songwriter. After embarking on a music career in the 1960s, he moved to Los Angeles, where he formed Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Furay and others. Young had released two solo albums and three as a member of Buffalo Springfield by the time he joined Crosby, Stills & Nash in 1969. From his early solo albums and those with his backing band Crazy Horse, Young has recorded a steady stream of studio and live albums, sometimes warring with his recording company along the way.

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Lou Reed – Foot Of Pride – The Best Dylan Covers

Posted on by Hallgeir Olsen

Lou Reed – Foot of Pride – The Best Dylan Covers

“That’s the song I picked to do at Bobfest (in New York in 1992). I’d been listening to it almost every day for two months. It’s so fucking funny: ‘Did he make it to the top? Well, he probably did and dropped.’ There are so many verses, it was impossible to learn. G.E. Smith, who was playing with me, turned the pages. There is a lot of anger here. It’s not the Three Stooges.”
– Lou Reed

Foot of Pride is an outtake from the Infidels sessions. As with most Dylan albums, outtakes and rough mixes from Infidels were bootlegged and these sessions had some very interesting gems. A take of Foot of Pride with Bob Dylan was later released on The Bootleg Series Vol. 1-3.

Bob Dylan has not performed the song live (to my knowledge) but Lou Reed does a great job.

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Patti Smith – Changing Of The Guards – The Best Dylan Covers

Posted on by Hallgeir Olsen
Photo: BornToListen, Bergenfest 2015

 

I stumbled to my feet
I rode past destruction in the ditches
With the stitches still mending beneath a heart-shaped tattoo
Renegade priests and treacherous young witches
Were handing out the flowers that I’d given to you.

 

Patti Smith – Changing Of The Guards – The Best Dylan Covers

“…I had finished Gone Again in memory of Fred [‘Sonic’ Smith, her late husband], and I really didn’t think about touring at all, since my children were in school, but I heard from Dylan in 1995, and he asked whether I wanted to do a series of East coast dates with him.
…
Bob and I spoke privately and I thanked him for giving me the opportunity, and he really encouraged me to come back into the fold. He said the people would be happy to see me. I truthfully wasn’t certain how I would be received, or what I should do, and being encouraged by him was very important to me. I mean, Bob – the man I know – is a man of few words, but the words are always meaningful. And so that was very important. He was very encouraging to me about my place in the community of rock’n’roll.”
– Patti Smith (Kirk Elder, interview 2009, AlternativesToValium)

Changing of the Guards is a song written by Bob Dylan, released in 1978 as a single and as the first track on his album Street-Legal.

Lyrically, this song has provoked much critical insight, both positive and negative. According to Oliver Trager author of Keys to the Rain: The Definitive Bob Dylan Encyclopedia, “Changing of the Guards” has been criticized as a “song in which Dylan unsuccessfully and cynically parodies his anthemic self in haunting fashion…

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Emmylou Harris – Every Grain Of Sand – The Best Dylan Covers

Posted on by Hallgeir Olsen

I hear the ancient footsteps like the motion of the sea
Sometimes I turn, there’s someone there, other times it’s only me
I am hanging in the balance of the reality of man
Like every sparrow falling, like every grain of sand

Emmylou Harris – Every Grain of Sand – The Best Dylan Covers

That was an inspired song that came to me. I felt like I was just putting down words that were coming from somewhere else, and I just stuck it out.
~Bob Dylan (“Biograph” notes)

Every Grain of Sand” is a song written by Bob Dylan, recorded in May 1981 and originally released the following August on Dylan’s album Shot of Love. It was subsequently included on the compilation Biograph. An early version of the song, recorded in September 1980 and featuring Jennifer Warnes on backing vocal, was released in 1991 on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991. To me it sounds like and feels like a hymn. Continue reading “Emmylou Harris – Every Grain Of Sand – The Best Dylan Covers” →

Peter Case – Long Time Gone – The Best Dylan Covers

Posted on by Hallgeir Olsen

Peter Case – Long Time Gone – The Best Dylan Covers

Long Time Gone is a song by Bob Dylan, first officially released at the Bootleg Series Vol. 9: The Witmark Demos: 1962–1964, an album of demo recordings Bob Dylan made for his first two publishing companies, Leeds Music and M. Witmark & Sons, from 1962 to 1964. According to Bobdylan.com he played the song twice, once in 1962 and once in 1963.

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Nina Simone – Ballad of Hollis Brown – The Best Dylan Covers

Posted on by Hallgeir Olsen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The rats have got your flour
Bad blood it got your mare
If there’s anyone that knows
Is there anyone that cares?
– Bob Dylan (Ballad of Hollis Brown)

The Best Dylan Covers: Nina Simone – Ballad of Hollis Brown

Ballad of Hollis Brown is a song written by Bob Dylan, released in 1964 on his third album The Times They Are A-Changin’. The song tells the story of a South Dakota farmer, who overwhelmed by the desperation of poverty, kills his wife, children and then himself.

Lyrically, this song consists of 11 verses which bring the listener to a bleak and destitute South Dakota farm, where a poor farmer (Hollis Brown), his wife and five children, already living in abject poverty, are subjected to even more hardships. In despair, the man kills his wife and children and himself with a shotgun. A murder ballad if there ever was one, I would love to hear Nick Cave tackle this song.

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