(Sony BMG)

More Dylan covers than you can handle

I consider myself a Dylan fan. Not the kind of fan to cry sacrilege at another artist covering Dylan (unlike John Howard, who famously remarked that he liked Dylan, just not his lyrics), but enough to like the idea of the I’m Not There soundtrack – a film where Dylan is played by six different actors, featuring Dylan played by over two dozen different artists and acts. Well, in theory anyway. In practice the album took me more attempts than to get through than Crime & Punishment, because, well, two discs consisting of thirty-four (34) Dylan covers is just way too much Dylan coverage. Not that the songs are at all disappointing – there are moments of brilliance, such as Willie Nelson channelling Johnny Cash on Señor (Tale of Yankee Power) or Mark Lanegan’s apocalyptic The Man In The Long Black Coat – but I guarantee you’ll barely last the first disc before switching back to the original man. And I know it’s unfair to compare a soundtrack to the canon of prior Dylan covers, but Karen O’s cover of Highway 61 Revisited doesn’t quite measure up to PJ Harvey’s version, and I don’t get what Eddie Vedder was thinking when he covered All Along The Watchtower. Although Antony & The Johnsons’ version of Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door deserves special mention as the track that has earned the most repeat plays, Antony’s voice proving to be the very aural manifestation of heartbreak.

***

PAUL RANKIN

Be first to comment on this article

Write Comment
Comments are submitted for possible publication on the condition that they may be edited. Poster's IP addresses are logged.
Name:
Comment:
Code:*