Tag Archives: Dream Syndicate

Blind-Willie-McTell cover versions

Well, God is in heaven And we all want what’s his
But power and greed and corruptible seed Seem to be all that there is

Blind Willie McTell was voted the best 80s song in our little poll, deservedly so.

“Blind Willie McTell” is a song by Bob Dylan, titled after the blues singer Blind Willie McTell. It was recorded in 1983 but left off Dylan’s album Infidels and officially released in 1991 on the The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991. The melody has a resemblance to “St. James Infirmary Blues”. For the song, Dylan, seated at the piano and accompanied by Mark Knopfler on the twelve-string acoustic guitar, sings a series of plaintive verses depicting allegorical scenes which reflect on the history of American music and slavery. Each verse ends with the same refrain: “Nobody can sing the blues like Blind Willie McTell”.

Following three albums with overt Christian themes, Infidels struck most major rock critics as dealing largely with secular concerns, and they hailed it as a comeback. The mysterious exclusion of “Blind Willie McTell” complicates the story. When bootleggers released the outtakes from Infidels, the song was recognized as a composition approaching the quality of such classics as “Tangled Up In Blue”, “Like a Rolling Stone” and “All Along the Watchtower”.

Bob Dylan – Blind Willie McTell (audio, Bootleg series 1-3):

This is the spookiest important record since Heartbreak Hotel, and is built upon the perfect interweaving of guitar, piano, voice and silence – an interweaving that has the space for the lovely clarity of single notes – a guitar string stroking the air here, a piano note pushing back the distance there. And if anything, the still-unreleased performance is even better, for its more original melody (less dependent upon the conventional St. James Infirmary structure) and its incandescent vocal, which soars to possess the heights of reverie and inspiration. No one can sing the blues like Blind Willie McTell, but no one can write or sing a blues like Blind Willie McTell like Bob Dylan.
– Michael Gray

Bob Dylan – Blind Willie McTell (audio, electric version):

“One of Bob Dylan’s absolute masterpieces, “Blind Willie McTell” is the jewel of The Bootleg Series and arguably one of the finest songs ever written. Recorded in 1983 for the album Infidels, it was deemed superfluous to requirements, and all that remains is one take of the song with a full band (yet to be officially released) and this haunting demo, with Dylan playing piano with accompaniment from Mark Knopfler.”
– Thomas Ward (allmusic)

The best!

Now let’s listen to 10 very good takes on Blind Willie McTell!

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Music Calendar, Soul

Today: Stevie Wonder released “Talking Book” in 1972 – 41 years ago

October 28, 2013 Egil

The artist breaks through and takes control, though not in that order. Suddenly he’s writing better ballads than he used to choose, and not at any sacrifice of his endearing natural bathos (if you have doubts about “Sunshine of My Life,” try “Blame It on the Sun”). “Maybe Your Baby” and “Big Brother” continue his wild multi-voice experiments but come in out of left field. And “Superstition” translates his way of knowledge into hard-headed, hard-rocking political analysis.
~Robert Christgau

From Wikipedia:

Released	October 28, 1972
Recorded	1972
Genre	Soul, funk
Length	43:31
Label	Tamla
Producer	Stevie Wonder, Robert Margouleff,Malcolm Cecil

Talking Book is the fifteenth album by Stevie Wonder, released on October 28, 1972. A signal recording of his “classic period”, in this one he “hit his stride.” The album’s first track, “You Are the Sunshine of My Life”, earned Wonder his first Grammy Award, for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.

Superstition live on Sesame Street:

Sandwiched between the release of Music of My Mind and Innervisions, Talking Book saw Wonder enjoying more artistic freedom from Motown. Guest appearances include Jeff Beck, Ray Parker, Jr., David Sanborn, and Buzz Feiten. The sound of the album is sharply defined by Wonder’s keyboard work, especially with the synthesizers he incorporated, giving a funky edge to tracks like “Maybe Your Baby”. His use of the Hohner clavinet model C on “Superstition” is widely regarded as one of the definitive tracks featuring the instrument. His swinging clavinet and harmonica embellishments on “Big Brother”, though, defy categorization.

Reception:

Released after Wonder toured with the Rolling Stones in 1972, Talking Book became an immediate hit. The popular appeal of the recording helped destroy the myth that R&B artists were incapable of creating music that could be appreciated by rock audiences, and marked a unique period for R&B artists (especially Motown artists).

Talking Book peaked at #3 on the Pop Albums chart, and became the first album for Wonder to top the Top R&B Albums chart where it remained for three weeks.
Wonder won three awards for Talking Book at the 1974 Grammys: Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for “You Are the Sunshine of My Life”, and both Best Male R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B Song for “Superstition”.
Incidentally, at the same ceremony, Wonder’s next album, Innervisions, won Album of the Year and Talking Book’s producers Malcolm Cecil and Robert Margouleff won the Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical award for their work on that album.
In 2003, the album was ranked number 90 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

You are The Sunshine of My Life – Rainbow Theatre in London. Feb 1974:

Songs

“You Are the Sunshine of My Life” 2:58
“Maybe Your Baby” 6:51
“You and I (We Can Conquer the World)” 4:38
“Tuesday Heartbreak” 3:02
“You’ve Got It Bad Girl” (Wonder, Yvonne Wright) 4:59
“Superstition” 4:26
“Big Brother” 3:34
“Blame It on the Sun” (Wonder, Syreeta Wright) 3:26
“Looking for Another Pure Love” (Wonder, Syreeta Wright) 4:43
“I Believe (When I Fall in Love It Will Be Forever)” (Wonder, Yvonne Wright)

Album of the day – Talking Book (1972):

From allmusic.com – John Bush:
After releasing two “head” records during 1970-71, Stevie Wonder expanded his compositional palate with 1972’s Talking Book to include societal ills as well as tender love songs, and so recorded the first smash album of his career. What had been hinted at on the intriguing project Music of My Mind was here focused into a laser beam of tight songwriting, warm electronic arrangements, and ebullient performances — altogether the most realistic vision of musical personality ever put to wax, beginning with a disarmingly simple love song, “You Are the Sunshine of My Life” (but of course, it’s only the composition that’s simple). Stevie’s not always singing a tender ballad here — in fact, he flits from contentment to mistrust to promise to heartbreak within the course of the first four songs — but he never fails to render each song in the most vivid colors. In stark contrast to his early songs, which were clever but often relied on the Motown template of romantic metaphor, with Talking Book it became clear Stevie Wonder was beginning to speak his mind and use personal history for material (just as Marvin Gaye had with the social protest of 1971’s What’s Going On). … read more over @ allmusic.com

Other October 28:

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Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan other, Cover versions

5 great cover versions of Blind Willie McTell by Bob Dylan

October 23, 2013 Hallgeir 5 Comments

Blind-Willie-McTell cover versions

Seen the arrow on the doorpost
Saying, “This land is condemned
All the way from New Orleans
To Jerusalem”
I traveled through East Texas
Where many martyrs fell
And I know no one can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell

Let’s start this party by reminding ourselves what a fantastic song this is. Here are the official released Bob Dylan version from The Bootleg Series Volume 1-3:

“One of Bob Dylan’s absolute masterpieces, “Blind Willie McTell” is the jewel of The Bootleg Series and arguably one of the finest songs ever written. Recorded in 1983 for the album Infidels, it was deemed superfluous to requirements, and all that remains is one take of the song with a full band (yet to be officially released) and this haunting demo, with Dylan playing piano with accompaniment from Mark Knopfler.”
– Thomas Ward (allmusic)

And the outtake, the electric version from the Infidels sessions (audio), my favorite:

Ok, so here are those wonderful cover versions.

The magnificent Mick Taylor did this great version in Germany in 2009 (Rockpalast):

This cover version by Dream Syndicate from a free single given away with Bucketfull of Brains. No dates of the recording are listed. Apologies as it cuts just before the end of the song (audio):

“I started playing it live because I heard the Band doing it. Most likely it was a demo, probably showing the musicians how it should go. It was never developed fully, I never got around to completing it. There wouldn’t have been any other reason for leaving it off the record. It’s like taking a painting by Monet or Picasso – goin’ to his house and lookin’ at a half-finished painting and grabbing it and selling it to people who are ‘Picasso fans.'”
– Bob Dylan

Levon Helm Band “Blind Willie” Live at Pompano Beach Amphitheater, Pompano Beach, FL 11-4-2010:

I want to include a very fine interpretation in Swedish by Mikael Wiehe (Spotify):

Finally a jazz/blues instrumental, wonderfully done by Jef Lee Johnson (Audio):

– Hallgeir

Other cover versions of Bob Dylan’s songs

Music Calendar, Soul