2008 Woodie Awards
Dylan covers: hit or miss
By: Cy Wood
Issue date: 2/8/08 Section: Features
The soundtrack to the biopic of Bob Dylan's life, I'm Not There, features an impressive array of artists in the underground and the mainstream, in genre-spanning folk to rock to country. The album consists entirely of covered Dylan songs. However, unlike the disaster that was the I Am Sam soundtrack, which featured a number of well-known artists butchering Beatles' songs, I'm Not There is somewhat more approachable. No one can do a Beatles song justice but the Beatles. In the past, however, a number of artists have successfully made Dylan's songs into larger hits for themselves than Dylan could have ever hoped to. Jimi Hendrix covered "All Along the Watchtower," and Eric Clapton and Guns 'N Roses both covered "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" with good fortune.
As far as the album is concerned, it is fairly hit and miss. Some songs have been done justice, whereas others seem rushed or forced, and don't deserve to be associated with Bob Dylan. The opening track, and what may be the best song on the double-disc album, is "All Along the Watchtower," performed by Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam and a mysterious back-up band known as the Million Dollar Bashers. The Bashers, as it turns out, are a super-group of sorts, featuring members from Wilco, Sonic Youth, Medeski Martin and Wood, and a former guitarist for Beck. The song is more faithful to Hendrix than to Dylan, but even Dylan himself has begun singing "Watchtower" in the same fashion as Hendrix during his live shows. Vedder's quivering voice does justice to Dylan's own singing style, but the band as a whole puts a new spin on the song.
Stephen Malkmus, without his Jicks, but instead with the Bashers, does justice to "Ballad of a Thin Man." Malkmus' voice is slightly raspy, making him sound enough like Dylan for the picky elitist, but different enough to satisfy those looking for a solid cover. Malkmus also showcases "Can't Leave Her Behind," and "Maggie's Farm," but "Thin Man" is, by far, his best performance. In "Maggie's Farm" particularly, he almost always seems just off-key enough to annoy the careful listener.
On the other side of the tracks, Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs does her own song with the Bashers: "Highway 61 Revisited." While the Bashers do an honest job at keeping the music as good as possible, Karen O ruins this with strange dips in her voice that make her sound as if she's on the verge of throwing up. She straightens out near the end of the song, but not in time to save it.
Tom Verlaine, probably best known from the band Television, does unspeakable cruelty to "Cold Irons Bound." Dylan's original is not upbeat by any means, but Verlaine slows the song down even more, and makes it very new wave. There are very few, if any, Bob Dylan songs that could possibly be produced this way successfully. It sounds much more like something one would hear in a beatnik coffee shop with people snapping their fingers.
I'm Not There definitely fulfills some desires for good Dylan cover songs, and even many of the bad ones are forgivable. After all, there are 34 songs to choose from. Fittingly, after so many covers, Bob Dylan and The Band, his touring band, play the album and movie's namesake, "I'm Not There." Dylan, so long out of the 1960s, is still a great performer and an amazing poet. Society can only hope for another poet the caliber of Dylan to come along and give us chills with his words.
As far as the album is concerned, it is fairly hit and miss. Some songs have been done justice, whereas others seem rushed or forced, and don't deserve to be associated with Bob Dylan. The opening track, and what may be the best song on the double-disc album, is "All Along the Watchtower," performed by Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam and a mysterious back-up band known as the Million Dollar Bashers. The Bashers, as it turns out, are a super-group of sorts, featuring members from Wilco, Sonic Youth, Medeski Martin and Wood, and a former guitarist for Beck. The song is more faithful to Hendrix than to Dylan, but even Dylan himself has begun singing "Watchtower" in the same fashion as Hendrix during his live shows. Vedder's quivering voice does justice to Dylan's own singing style, but the band as a whole puts a new spin on the song.
Stephen Malkmus, without his Jicks, but instead with the Bashers, does justice to "Ballad of a Thin Man." Malkmus' voice is slightly raspy, making him sound enough like Dylan for the picky elitist, but different enough to satisfy those looking for a solid cover. Malkmus also showcases "Can't Leave Her Behind," and "Maggie's Farm," but "Thin Man" is, by far, his best performance. In "Maggie's Farm" particularly, he almost always seems just off-key enough to annoy the careful listener.
On the other side of the tracks, Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs does her own song with the Bashers: "Highway 61 Revisited." While the Bashers do an honest job at keeping the music as good as possible, Karen O ruins this with strange dips in her voice that make her sound as if she's on the verge of throwing up. She straightens out near the end of the song, but not in time to save it.
Tom Verlaine, probably best known from the band Television, does unspeakable cruelty to "Cold Irons Bound." Dylan's original is not upbeat by any means, but Verlaine slows the song down even more, and makes it very new wave. There are very few, if any, Bob Dylan songs that could possibly be produced this way successfully. It sounds much more like something one would hear in a beatnik coffee shop with people snapping their fingers.
I'm Not There definitely fulfills some desires for good Dylan cover songs, and even many of the bad ones are forgivable. After all, there are 34 songs to choose from. Fittingly, after so many covers, Bob Dylan and The Band, his touring band, play the album and movie's namesake, "I'm Not There." Dylan, so long out of the 1960s, is still a great performer and an amazing poet. Society can only hope for another poet the caliber of Dylan to come along and give us chills with his words.
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