Bob on the Tracks, for His Birthday

The surprising song that most inspired Dylan, plus fifteen covers of his tunes--from David Bowie to William Shatner--and the usual cartoons.

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Before we get started, if you missed this grim note yesterday:

Billy Joel Announces Brain Disorder and Cancels All Concerts

Joel said he had normal pressure hydrocephalus, which has led to “problems with hearing, vision and balance.”

Then there’s this, since we covered awhile back the new PBS doc about Art ”Maus” Spiegelman: PBS has now removed 90 seconds of Trump material. Under pressure? Here is link if you are interested, and of course we post the offending cartoon below.

For the Bobster’s birthday—answering the question, will we still need him when he’s 84?— a selection of favorite covers of his songs. Let me start, however, with what Dylan apparently considers the “turning point” song in his life. And it wasn’t one of his, nor one by Woody. I have been reading his excellent “Chronicles” memoir from years back and he claims he only got a handle on how to write powerful songs after catching a performance of Brecht-Weill’s “Threepenny Opera” at a theater in the Village, only at the behest of then gal-friend Suze Rotolo. The song was their famous “Pirate Jenny.” So here is one version, from just a couple of years later (1964) by the great Nina Simone, then on to a few covers of songs he came to write, then our usual cartoons. Nina:

Fairly eclectic group of covers, but here goes:

Sure, you’ve heard Jimi’s “Along the Watchtower,” but what about his obscure pre-stardom version of an equally great one from Bob: “Tears of Rage”?

There have been dozens of fine covers of “Visions of Johanna” but have any topped Marianne Faithfull’s?

With Jimi gone, Neil Young has done the best “Watchtower” for several decades now, here at Farm Aid with Crazy Horse and Willie.

A highlight of the Dylan “30 years with Columbia” tribute at MSG in the early 1990s was his longtime buddy George Harrison, in a suit that conjured Barney the Dinosaur, having a blast with one of my faves, “Absolutely Sweet Marie.” More famously he earlier covered on record “If Not for You.”

Have loved this on Joan Osborne’s first album, “Man in the Long Black Coat.” She did a full album of Bob a few years back, and we caught her live and “Tangled Up in Blue.”

One of the most wild, and highly mocked, covers ever was 1968’s “Mr. Tambourine Man” from…..William Shatner, then riding Star Trek fame. What was Bill smoking?

Willie Nelson’s “What Was It You Wanted” from one of Bob’s many comeback albums, Oh Mercy.

Bonnie Raitt with a great rocking version of Dylan rarity “Let’s Keep It Between Us” for an album 40 years ago.

Van Morrison still with Them with “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue.”

The man who produced two of Dylan’s greatest albums, Daniel Lanois, did the same for one of the best of the 1990s, Emmylou Harris’s Wrecking Ball. No surprise, she created this stirring rendition of one of Bob’s most brilliant lyrics, “Grain of Sand.”

Chrissie Hynde and James Walbourne posted a dozen Dylan covers during peak Covid, calling it the “Dylan Lockdown Series.” One of best below: the song he felt was not right for an album, now considered one of his greatest, “Blind Willie McTell.”

Unreleased for 20 years, until after his death, Bowie was “Tryin’ to Get to Heaven.”

At the aforementioned Dylan tribute at MSG, Sinead O’Connor was set to perform Bob’s hymn “I Believe in You” but, shockingly, she was booed off the stage in the aftermath of the night she tore up the Pope’s picture on SNL. A low point in the history of Bob’s fans. But Bob later made sure she recorded it for the album that came out of that event.

It is far from the finest version of the hundreds of “I Shall Be Released” (hello, Richard and the Band), but it was the first and maybe only one to crack the Billboard hot 100 and I didn’t even know it existed until last night: Alex Chilton and the Box Tops with their 1969 single.

And finally, who else but Joan Baez, from her entire 1960s album of Bob covers, with the then little-known “Love Is Just a Four-Letter Word.”

From Tunes to Toons

Barry Blitt: