January 10: Rod Stewart was born in 1945 – here singing Bob Dylan songs

Redirecting to a newer version of this post….

Roderick David “Rod” Stewart, CBE (born 10 January 1945) is born and raised in London, he is of English and Scottish ancestry. Stewart is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, having sold over 100 million records worldwide.

With his distinctive raspy singing voice, Stewart came to prominence in the late 1960s and early 1970s with The Jeff Beck Group and then with Faces, though his music career had begun in 1962 when he took up busking with a harmonica. In October 1963 he joined the Dimensions as a harmonica player and part-time vocalist, then in 1964 he joined Long John Baldry and the All Stars. Later, in August 1964, he also signed a solo contract, releasing his first solo single, “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl”, in October of the same year. He maintained a solo career alongside a group career, releasing his debut solo album An Old Raincoat Won’t Ever Let You Down (US: The Rod Stewart Album), in 1969. His early albums were a fusion of rock, folk music, soul music and R&B. His aggressive blues work with The Jeff Beck Group and the Faces influenced heavy metal genres. From the late 1970s through the 1990s, Stewart’s music often took on a new wave or soft rock/middle-of-the-road quality, and in the early 2000s he released a series of successful albums interpreting the Great American Songbook.

We have written many posts on the subject of other artists covering Bob Dylan’s songs. Today we present Rod Stewart’s takes on Dylan songs. We must remember that Mr. Stewart is a very good vocalist, yes, he has done some “strange” projects lately, but he can still muster a great rock’n roll vocal when he choose to.

Rod Stewart – Love minus zero/No Limit (audio):

Continue reading January 10: Rod Stewart was born in 1945 – here singing Bob Dylan songs

Bob Dylan: Nat Hentoff (The unpublished Playboy) Interview, Autum 1965 (audio)





BD: Well, I don’t like to listen to too much country and western people. I like to listen to some of their songs…
NH: Yeah.
BD: …that they sing. But I get, oh, monotonized by listening to too many. I like Buck Owens’ songs, he’s alright. And Hank Williams and Joe Williams. There all the time, easily, you can make some sort of sound.
NH: Mm.
BD: But the other people are just the songs they sing. I think.
NH: How about in the rhythm and blues and rock n’ roll fields? Who do you especially, you know… who strikes you especially?
BD: Oh, you mean just name a name?
NH: Sure, just, you know, if you’re… almost like free association… if you’re thinking in terms of just pleasure in listening, who would you think of?
BD: I’d listen to all the Motown records. I listen to Wilson Pickett. Otis Redding, I guess. Charlie Rich.

Autumn 1965
Nat Hentoff (The Playboy) Interview
The Original Unpublished Version, New York City, New York

There are two versions of this interview, the original version which you’ll find on tape and the
published version which appeared in Playboy in March 1966. To call them versions ignores the
fact that they are totally different interviews.
~Every Mind Polluting Word

Continue reading Bob Dylan: Nat Hentoff (The unpublished Playboy) Interview, Autum 1965 (audio)

Bob Dylan & George Harrison: Peggy Sue (video)




bob dylan george harrison 1987

If you knew Peggy Sue
Then you’d know why I feel blue
About Peggy, ’bout Peggy Sue
Oh well, I love you, gal
Yes, I love you Peggy Sue

At the Palamino Club in North Hollywood, Dylan, George Harrison, and John Fogerty join the Grafitti Band, which features Jesse Ed Davis and Taj Mahal, for a 90-minure onstage jam session. Dylan is not tempted to sing lead vocals but is happy to play guitar throughout.
~Clinton Heylin (Bob Dylan: A Life in Stolen Moments Day by Day 1941-1995)

Palomino
Hollywood
Los Angeles, California
19 February 1987
Guest Appearance at a Taj Mahal concert

Continue reading Bob Dylan & George Harrison: Peggy Sue (video)

January 9: Joan Baez was born in 1941 – here singing Bob Dylan songs




dylan-and-baez

Joan Baez has recorded many Dylan songs. Her unique and beautiful voice carries some of them to different places. For many Dylan enthusiasts, Joan Baez’s interpretations are the only tolerable ones, besides Dylan’s own 🙂

Baez first met Dylan in 1961 at Gerde’s Folk City in New York City’s Greenwich Village.

Here are my chosen 5:

Farewell Angelina:

Check out this full post about the song.

Continue reading January 9: Joan Baez was born in 1941 – here singing Bob Dylan songs

January 8: The late great David Bowie was born 70 years ago – here singing Bob Dylan songs




dylanbowie

David Bowie sings Bob Dylan

“His albums have a great class to them, even those albums where he is actually playing songs of long-dead blues singers. His writing, his song texts, leave me speechless. “
– David Bowie (about Bob Dylan, 1997)

David Bowie always talked about Dylan with great respect. Bob Dylan was maybe not the biggest influence on his music, but he did sing some of his songs both live and in studio. I found some fine versions of, Like a Rolling Stone, Maggie’s Farm and Trying to get to heaven. Mick Ronson a long-time Bowie friend and collaborator was also a part of Dylan’s Rolling Thunder tour.

Bowie also played Don’t think twice it’s all right and She belongs to me (I’ve read somewhere) but I could not find an upload of them anywhere.

Trying to get to heaven
Recorded during the mixing sessions for Earthling in 1998.

Bowie’s version of “Tryin’ to Get to Heaven” (which, at least in its circulating edit, cuts Dylan’s second verse and squeezes the fourth and fifth into one incoherent lump) is, essentially, a first draft of what would become Hours. The take begins somber and ashen enough. Yet the circularity of Dylan’s singing on “Tryin’”, conveying a journey undertaken but never in danger of ending, seemed to frustrate Bowie: he needed a narrative.

So in the “people on platforms” verse, Bowie builds to a manic desperation, as if he has to make an eleventh-hour sale or he’ll be sacked by his proprietor. We get a rattled “cha-hay-hay-hain,” a squeaked-out “looose,” the creaking onomatopoeia of “cloowwoose the door,” and a gargle. Having made a hash of Dylan’s last verses, Bowie latches onto a line as if he’d drawn it by lot to torture: “I’ve beeen! to Sugar Town-I shook! the su!gar down!” Dylan sang those words with an earned swagger, like a spendthrift man recalling a spent-out life. Bowie sang them as if he was just passingly familiar with the English language.
– Pushing ahead of the Dame

Continue reading January 8: The late great David Bowie was born 70 years ago – here singing Bob Dylan songs