Nov 202015
 

Five Good Covers presents five cross-genre reinterpretations of an oft-covered song.

bob ramona

Bob Dylan scholars have determined that “To Ramona” is a song about Joan Baez; Dylan’s warning her that the folk protest movement will draw her in deep, but he recognizes that she doesn’t necessarily have a problem with that, and much as he loves and wants her, he has to let her think for herself, both for her sake and for his. That’s a pretty specific interpretation, yet the song resounds in the hearts of thousands, millions, as a love song they can relate to their own lives, in their own ways. It speaks to Dylan’s genius that he can draw the universal from the singular instead of the other way around.
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Jun 282012
 

Although the term “perfection” is often thrown around without reserve or actual thought, First Aid Kit may have reached it with its latest cover. The folk duo, known for their angelic harmonizing voices and beyond-their-age depth, recently covered Joan Baez‘s “Diamonds & Rust,” and to say it is haunting is something of an understatement. Continue reading »

Mar 302012
 

Full Albums features covers of every track off a classic album. Got an idea for a future pick? Leave a note in the comments!

Millions of words, if not tens of millions, have been written about Bob Dylan‘s Blonde on Blonde since its 1966 release – how “the quintessential New York hipster” (as Al Kooper called him) met the cream of the Nashville session musician crop and the alchemy that resulted; how the album, Dylan’s third in fourteen months, saw him at the pinnacle of his songwriting powers, marrying surreal imagery to wrenching emotion with lyrics that can truly be called poetry; how critics from that day to this recognize it as less an album than a great artistic achievement of the 20th century; how it inspired so many who heard it (to name just one, Robyn Hitchcock called “Visions of Johanna” “the reason I started writing songs” on his all-Dylan cover album Robyn Sings). So, rather than dwell on all the stories surrounding the songs, let’s move right on to hearing those songs again for the first time, thanks to the (re)creative abilities of the following fourteen performers. (Thanks as well to reader JoeLer for suggesting that Blonde on Blonde receive the Cover Me Full Album treatment.) Continue reading »

Jan 242012
 

Though Bob Dylan moved away from his role as a ‘protest singer’ long ago — we saw Another Side by his fourth album — his name will forever be associated with social activism. The international human rights organization Amnesty International rose out of the same turbulent era as Dylan, forming in 1961, the year Dylan recorded his first album. Fitting, then, that in celebration of their 50th birthday, Amnesty would call on artists to contribute their Dylan covers to the massive four disc set Chimes of Freedom: The Songs of Bob Dylan Honoring 50 Years of Amnesty International. Continue reading »

Dec 082011
 

Jodie Marie has a more interesting origin story than most. A few years ago, the father of Transgressive Records head Tony L. (who discovered Two Door Cinema Club, the Noisettes and more) was staying in a small Welsh bed and breakfast. A landlady overheard him talking about his music-biz son and said he had to hear the 16-year daughter of a local plumber. The landlady badgered him into passing a demo along to his son and now that plumber’s daughter has a label deal and quickly-growing following. Continue reading »

Oct 072011
 

This Week on Bandcamp rounds up our favorite covers to hit the site in the past seven days.

An all-new set of artists gets the Bandcamp spotlight today. From old-school blues to new-school Disney, from bleep-bloop chiptune to traditional folk balladry, we expect you’ll find something here to take you through the weekend. Continue reading »