Tim Edgeworth, Author at Cover Me

Tim Edgeworth

Tim Edgeworth likes many different types of music, but has a special place in his heart for jazz, blues and all things Americana. His dream is to travel back in time to attend a B.B. King concert. Tim has written about the work of Bob Dylan on his blog, Talkin' Bob Dylan, and can currently be found writing about all kinds of things (including music) in his Substack newsletter Tell Us All About It

Cover Classics: Bob Dylan’s ‘Good As I Been To You’

Posted by Tim Edgeworth at 2:00 pm No Responses »

May 122020

Cover Classics takes a closer look at all-cover albums of the past, their genesis, and their legacy.

Similar to Superman’s periodic retreats to his Fortress of Solitude, Bob Dylan occasionally turns to the music of the past to gather strength for challenges ahead. Most of the great comebacks of Bob’s career – including the one we’re seeing right now – have been proceeded by intense periods of covering old songs. In 1992, after a decade of butting heads with producers and wrestling with 1980s recording technology, Dylan decided to strip things back – all the way back. No producer, no band; just Bob Dylan, his guitar, and a bucketload of folk and blues songs.

The idea had probably been taking shape in Dylan’s mind since the summer of 1988, when he began what would soon become known as the Never Ending Tour (or NET to its friends). While the earliest NET shows were largely devoted to Bob and his band tearing through his back catalogue punk rock-style, the highlight for many fans were the mid-show acoustic sets, where Bob often unearthed traditional songs from the western world’s distant past. “Trail of the Buffalo,” “The Lakes of Pontchartrain,” “Barbara Allen,” “The Wagoner’s Lad,” and many others made regular appearances. Bob didn’t just perform these songs: he inhabited them.
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In The Spotlight: B.B. King

Posted by Tim Edgeworth at 10:30 am No Responses »

May 042020

B.B. King may have played more live gigs than anyone, ever. The precise numbers are hard to pin down, but the few figures that are available are staggering: in his prime, King was playing over 300 shows a year, and in even in his final years was performing close to 100 shows annually. B.B. was no slouch as a songsmith – the 1968 album Blues On Top Of Blues, for example, is penned entirely by King – but such a heavy touring schedule left little time for songwriting. As such, King often covered other people’s songs, spending hours aboard his tour bus listening to albums, searching for songs that could be given the B.B. King treatment.
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Cover Classics: Merle Haggard’s ‘Same Train, A Different Time’

Posted by Tim Edgeworth at 1:00 pm No Responses »

Apr 232020

Cover Classics takes a closer look at all-cover albums of the past, their genesis, and their legacy.

On the surface, Same Train, A Different Time is a tribute album recorded by Merle Haggard in honour of “The Father of Country Music” Jimmie Rodgers. Nothing unusual about that; the tribute album is a tried and tested way for one artist to tip their hat to another, and Merle himself would go on to record tributes to the likes of Bob Wills and Elvis. What sets this record apart, however, is that it’s more than just a tribute album. It’s a concept album disguised as a tribute album.

It’s true that each track was either written or recorded by Jimmie Rodgers. But there’s something else going on here. These songs have been carefully chosen and sequenced to tell a coherent story, in much the same manner favored by Merle’s Capitol Records predecessor Frank Sinatra. The resulting narrative would make good material for a film.
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In Memoriam: Muddy Waters

Posted by Tim Edgeworth at 9:30 am 1 Response »

Apr 042020

In Memoriam pays tribute to those who have left this world, and the songs they left us to remember them by.

On the morning of October 17, 1961, a skinny, scruffy-haired teen was standing on platform 2 of Dartford station, waiting for a train into London. He was holding a guitar case. Slightly further down the platform stood another, less scruffy teen. He clasped two vinyl records under his arms, held at just the right angle that the titles were visible. The scruffy-haired teen tilted his head to get a better look, his eyes widening as he read the large print emblazoned across the record covers. Chuck Berry Rockin’ At the Hops and – could it be? Yes! – The Best of Muddy Waters. Trying to act naturally, the scruffy teen took a step closer to to the young man with the records. Then another step. And another. Before long they were right next to each other. The scruffy teen cleared his throat. “Hello,” he said. “My name’s Keith.”

So there you have it: Muddy Waters was partially responsible for the first meeting of Keith Richards and Mick Jagger since primary school. It would not be his last contribution to their history. A few months later, Brian Jones was on the phone attempting to secure a booking for the newly formed group. The promoter asked for the band’s name. They didn’t have one. Jones’ eyes darted around the room and fell upon that same fateful album, The Best of Muddy Waters – specifically, side one track 5: “Rollin’ Stone.” The Rolling Stones were now christened. Continue reading »

They Say It’s Your Birthday: Angus Young of AC/DC

Posted by Tim Edgeworth at 10:00 am 1 Response »

Mar 312020

They Say It’s Your Birthday celebrates an artist’s special day with covers of his or her songs. Let someone else do the work for a while. Happy birthday!

Everyone loves AC/DC. You love AC/DC. Maybe you haven’t yet realized that you love AC/DC, but don’t worry. It’s only a matter of time.

However you feel about the band, you’re probably at least partially familiar with Angus Young, the school uniform-clad lead guitarist who can generally be found soloing wildly while sprinting from one end of the stage to the other. Today is Angus’ 65th birthday, and we’re celebrating by gathering some of the finest AC/DC covers the internet has to offer.
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In Defense: Bob Dylan’s ‘Dylan’

Posted by Tim Edgeworth at 1:30 pm 2 Responses »

Mar 232020

In Defense takes a second look at a much maligned cover artist or album and asks, “Was it really as bad as all that?”

Dylan is Bob Dylan‘s first break-up album. Out of print for decades before eventually being issued on CD in 2013, the LP was a result of Bob’s defection from Columbia Records to the fledgling Asylum Records in early 1973. While the split ultimately proved to be a temporary separation, it appeared at the time to be a permanent divorce.

The resulting album is often framed as an act of revenge on Columbia’s part, a collection of poor-quality outtakes specifically designed to reduce Dylan’s stock with record buyers. However, this theory doesn’t add up. Columbia still owned Bob’s valuable back catalogue, which they presumably intended to continue profiting from, and releasing an intentionally substandard Dylan album would have been counterproductive. What was probably going on, as Jon Landau suggested in his review for Rolling Stone, was that Dylan would have been the first in a series of “new” Bob Dylan albums comprised of outtakes from previous Columbia sessions. Decca Records was concurrently doing the same thing with their trove of unreleased recordings by The Rolling Stones.

But why these recordings? The track selection on Dylan is perplexing, especially since Columbia already possessed much of the material that would later surface on the successful Bootleg Series. A likely explanation is that whoever compiled the album (possibly Mark Spector, who assembled an abandoned early version) was under pressure to get the record out before Dylan’s first release for Asylum – which was being recorded at that very moment – and therefore had no choice but to simply grab some of the most recent tapes off the top of the pile. The tapes in question, as it happened, were from the sessions for Dylan’s 1970 albums Self Portrait and New Morning.

Columbia’s ploy worked. Dylan reached No.17 on the Billboard chart and was certified gold, despite overwhelmingly negative reviews. Were the critics right? Let’s take another look.
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