Bob Dylan Archives

John Mellencamp, Bob Dylan Both Play “Watchtower”—at Same Gig

Posted by Luke Poling at 1:17 pm No Responses »

Sep 252024

It’s a great song, so why not play it twice? That’s what happened when John Mellencamp and Bob Dylan both appeared at the Outlaw Music Festival. The song was “All Along the Watchtower” and the date was September 12th in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.

Mellencamp played before Dylan and played it as the song third in his set. And when Dylan took the stage immediately after Mellencamp, he opened with his 1967 song. This was Dylan’s first performance of “Watchtower” since November 2018. Clearly there was no animosity between either performer since both played the song again on September 14th, 15th and 17th.

Mellencamp also performed “Watchtower” on his 2000 Good Samaritan Tour, where he performed for free on street corners and public parks. His version also appeared on a live album documenting the tour.

With the Outlaw Music Festival wrapped up, Mellencamp has no future dates scheduled, while Dylan kicks off the next leg of his Rough and Rowdy Ways tour on October 4th in the Czech Republic.

Cover Classics: Robyn Hitchcock’s ‘Robyn Sings’

Posted by Patrick Robbins at 1:00 pm No Responses »

Sep 062024

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

[W]hen I sing other people’s songs… I’ve known them so long that they feel like they’re my songs, you know? Obviously, I don’t get the publishing for them, but I feel like they’re part of me, because they also formed the way I write songs. Those songs are like my parents or my elder brother, you know? [Laughs.] I may not possess them, but they’re certainly family. I don’t know if family is something you possess or something that possesses you. – Robyn Hitchcock

If Robyn Hitchcock sees Bob Dylan’s songs as family, then 2002’s Robyn Sings was him organizing a great family reunion. It was a two-CD collection of live Dylan covers; the second CD recreated the famed “Royal Albert Hall” concert. It’s got a bootleg sound and one clown who thinks it’s funny to yell “Judas!” after every song, but it gets the job done. The real treasure, though, is on the first disc, which is what we’ll focus on here today.

Bryan Ferry Releases His Latest Bob Dylan Cover, “She Belongs to Me”

Posted by Riley Haas at 8:00 am No Responses »

Aug 082024

Former Roxy Music singer Bryan Ferry covers Dylan a lot. His first ever solo single was a Bob Dylan cover. Nearly 35 years later, he released an album of just Dylan covers. Now he’s releasing a 50 year retrospective box-set of his solo career and, fittingly, he’s included a new cover of an old Bob Dylan song.
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Review: Adam Holmes’ ‘Songs For My Father’

Posted by Seuras Og at 3:30 pm No Responses »

Jun 252024

Sometimes it is the lower key and lesser heard that most catches the ear, and Adam Holmes a prime example. If you follow the contemporary Scottish folk (and beyond) scene, you may well know Holmes already, for having one of the more soulful instruments in the country, a warm burr with a distant flavor of John Martyn. Starting off as a member of neo-trad outfit Rura, Holmes’ singing and songs were a tidy contrast to their instrumental elemental fare of fiddle, flute and pipes. With time, the mix became perhaps too schizophrenic, he needing a platform to stay on stage the whole set. This he found, forming a band, the Embers, lasting for a well-received year or three.

Since then he has been on his own, give or take a duo, with Heidi Talbot, and a brief membership of Anglo-Scots folk-rock supergroup, The Magpie Arc. A veritable one man industry, he releases his own albums and sorts out his own gigs and shows, no middlemen to sour the pitch. As such, the gap between he and his audience is thin; if you fancy him writing a song for you, or for him to play in your own home, he will; contact him, via his website.

Songs for My Father, the second of two recent releases, each dedicated to cover versions, is in his father’s memory, the songs of his childhood and his father’s record collection. (The earlier one, last year’s The Voice of Scotland, covered more the traditional songs he grew up with, together with a couple that have near earnt that same soubriquet: we included “You Are My Sunshine” from that set recently.) Holmes’ father, dying of throat cancer, made a last request his son record his favorite songs; it was a task that took Holmes ten years to work up the initiative to address.
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Review: Dana Gillespie’s ‘First Love’

Posted by Seuras Og at 8:30 am No Responses »

Jun 182024

Dana Gillespie… Now, where do I know that name from…

If you cast your mind back (or possibly your father’s), you’ll remember the name, possibly even the album cover, with which Gillespie is arguably best known. That 1974 album, Weren’t Born A Man, which given her Bowie association, immediately had folk wondering whether she were, despite her pneumatic sleeve appearance. Remember, this was around the same time Amanda Lear was allowing the myth around she being born male to permeate, let alone all the claims Bowie fostered around his sexuality. Well, Gillespie wasn’t born a man, and her relationship with Bowie was understandably under wraps: they were teens at its inception, and remained friends and lovers for the next decade. Bowie’s song “Andy Warhol” was written for her, she including it on that album, it produced by Bowie and Mick Ronson. She also sang backing vocals on The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust. However, this was insufficient to have her then gain much personal chart traction.

In the intervening decades, blues has been Gillespie’s musical vehicle of choice. She’s recorded a huge stash of albums on a plethora of labels, with greater appeal to audiences of mainland Europe. She has also set up a still-running Blues Festival on the exclusive Caribbean island of Mustique, now nearing its 30th birthday. Her latest album First Love is, in part, a deliberate trip back in time, and reflects her own personal tastes, as well as those of her production team, two old friends, Tris Penna, the Abbey Road studios production and A&R man, and Marc Almond, of “Tainted Love” fame. All but one of the songs are covers, the artists as varied as Bob Dylan, Morrissey and Lana Del Rey.
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The Best Cover Songs of May 2024

Posted by Ray Padgett at 9:00 am No Responses »

May 312024

Bambie Thug – Zombie (The Cranberries cover)

This month, Bambie Thug represented Ireland in Eurovision, coming in sixth (the country’s highest placement since 2000). Shortly before the finals, they released this cover of The Cranberries’ “Zombie”amidst criticism of their outspokenness about the devastation in Gaza. The top YouTube comment puts it well: “The significance of Bambie choosing to cover this song will not be lost on anyone in Ireland or the UK, or many places outside them. It’s just about the most impactful call for peace an Irish person can give, and they’ve done it as well as anyone ever has.” Continue reading »