Episode 5
Dylanisms | Podcast Mixes Showcasing Bob Dylan Cover Versions | ‘Dylanisms’ is my 10-song mix podcast project, building an extensive archive of (mostly) 1960s recordings of Bob Dylan songs as recorded by various solo performers and groups many years ago.
I will zoom in on the well known and the very obscure outfits who covered Dylan’s numbers, in particular those unknown teenage garage bands from USA. There are many but this list on Wikipedia doesn’t even acknowledge them.
My ‘Dylanisms’ project will be regular and will uncover everything worth hearing. It will last for a one-year paid subscription with my hosting platform RSS.com. By then, my mission will have been accomplished and the Gods shall anoint my feet with patchouli oil . . .
Tracks in order of appearance:
01 Ben Carruthers & the Deep – “Jack O’Diamonds”
Ben Carruthers was an American actor who appeared in several movies in the late 50s and 1960s. Living in London, he cut this 1965 single, produced by the renowned Shel Talmy.
The words were taken from a Bob Dylan poem on the back of ‘Another Side Of Bob Dylan’, and put to music by Carruthers, creating this folk rock / garage-tinged rarity. (Carruthers was a friend of Bob’s, who had introduced him to Nico).
Musicians on ‘Jack O’Diamonds’ include future Action / Mighty Baby member Ian Whiteman plus ubiquitous sessioneers Jimmy Page and Nicky Hopkins while the song was later popularized by Fairport Convention on their debut LP.
02 Judy Collins – “Mr Tambourine Man”
taken from the LP ‘Fifth Album’ (Elektra) 1964
The challenge was to mould such an idiosyncratic and personal piece of writing into a vehicle for Judy’s voice.
“Tambourine Man” had more of what you might call a folk-rock sound than the music I’d made before,” she considers today. “My answer to the problem of how to stamp my own sound on Dylan’s work back then was to use a 12-string guitar – that’s what made it different.”
It was probably no coincidence that Collins had recently been working with 12-string folk guitarist Jim (later Roger) McGuinn – nor that a year later, McGuinn would dramatically expand the musical vocabulary of rock ‘n’ roll by using an electric 12-string guitar as the skeleton of the Byrds‘ own rendition of ‘Mr Tambourine Man’.
03 Paul Weller – “All Along The Watchtower”
taken from the album ‘Studio 150’ (V2 Records) 2004
Dylanisms | Podcast Mixes Celebrating Bob Dylan Cover Versions
04 The Rolling Stones – “Like A Rolling Stone”
taken from the album ‘Stripped’ (Virgin) 1995
05 The Band – “I Shall Be Released”
taken from the LP ‘Music From Big Pink’ (Capitol) 1968
‘Music from Big Pink’ is the debut studio album by the Canadian-American rock band the Band.
Released on July 1, 1968, by Capitol Records, it employs a distinctive blend of country, rock, folk, classical, R&B, blues, and soul. The album’s title refers to a house in West Saugerties, New York called “Big Pink”, which was shared by bassist/singer Rick Danko, pianist/singer Richard Manuel and keyboardist Garth Hudson and in which the album’s music was partly composed.
The album itself was recorded at A & R Recording in New York and Capitol Studios in Los Angeles in early 1968, and followed the band’s stint backing Bob Dylan on his 1966 tour (as the Hawks) and time spent together in upstate New York recording material that was officially released in 1975 as ‘The Basement Tapes’, also with Dylan. The cover artwork is a painting by Dylan.
Dylanisms | Podcast Mixes Celebrating Bob Dylan Cover Versions
06 Manfred Mann – “If You’ve Gotta Go, Go Now”
single released on (His Masters Voice) September 1965 b/w “Stay Around”
07 Lulu – “Mighty Quinn”
taken from the LP ‘Lulu’s Album’ (Columbia) 1969
08 The Fairies – “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right”
single released on (Decca) July 1964 b/w “Anytime At All”
The first of three singles by the Colchester R&B group which included John “Twink” Alder on drums, they had changed their name from Dane Stephens & the Deep Beats on signing to Decca.
Their only single for the label coupled the Dylan song with the self-penned ‘Anytime At All’ One of the first British Dylan covers and if not quite folk-rock, it’s definitely an anticipatory raucous brand of folk-beat and the only Fairies single to feature the group’s original singer and wild blues harpist Dane Stephens.
Dylanisms | Podcast Mixes Celebrating Bob Dylan Cover Versions
09 Marianne Faithfull – “Blowin’ In The Wind”
single released on (Decca) October 1964 b/w “House Of The Rising Sun”
Marianne Faithfull never denied her folk background. Before being discovered by Andrew Loog Oldham she had already been playing in folk clubs and pubs in Reading while attending St Joseph’s Convent School, telling Record Mirror in 1965 that she could never sing in the same class as Joan Baez.
“Blowin’ In The Wind” was her second single, released in October 1964, but flopped despite the success of her debut, “As Tears go By”.
10 The Three City Four – “Oxford Town”
The group featured Leon Rosselson and Martin Carthy who had met and befriended Dylan in 1962 during his first visit to Britain. It was Carthy who taught Dylan traditional songs such as “Scarborough Fair” and “Lord Franklin”, key elements of which he adapted for “Girl From The North Country” and “Boots Of Spanish Leather”.
Dylan’s short and bitter story of racial hatred, “Oxford Town”, was recorded for the Three City Four’s self-titled album in 1965.
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