The Best Dylan Covers: The Ramones – My Back Pages

acid_eaters

No sacred cows in rock ’n’ roll!

My Back Pages” written by Bob Dylan and included on his 1964 album Another Side of Bob Dylan. It is stylistically similar to his earlier folk protest songs and features Dylan’s voice with an acoustic guitar accompaniment. However, its lyrics—in particular the refrain”Ah, but I was so much older then/I’m younger than that now”—have been interpreted as a rejection of Dylan’s earlier personal and political idealism, illustrating his growing disillusionment with the 1960’s folk protest movement with which he was associated, and his desire to move in a new direction. Although Dylan wrote the song in 1964, he did not perform it live until 1978.

“…But this sped-up Ramones cover of one of Dylan’s finest is delivered without a hint of irony. Every bit as simultaneously nostalgic and forward-looking as the original, it does what most punk covers of non-punk songs fail to do—it pays genuine heartfelt tribute to the original.”
– Paste Magazine

The Ramones recorded My Back Pages for the album Acid Eaters:

“Tearing through a bunch of psychedelic and garage rock classics from the 1960s, the Ramones regain much of the fun and abandon of earlier records, making Acid Eaters easily their best record in a decade; the guest appearances of Pete Townshend (“Substitute”) and ex-porn star Traci Lords (“Somebody to Love”) help make the record a blast.”
– Allmusic

Punk and Bob Dylan is a match made in heaven, angry music to angry words!

Album version:

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The Beatles: Revolver covered

The-Beatles-Revolver

 

One of the greatest albums ever…

The Beatles had initiated a second pop revolution – one which while galvanising their existing rivals and inspiring many new ones, left all of them far behind.
~Ian MacDonald (Revolution in the Head: The Beatles’ Records and the Sixties)

Check out:  August 5: The Beatles released “Revolver” in 1966

There are many fine cover versions of the songs from this album.

Here are some of my favorites:

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August 5: The Beatles released “Revolver” in 1966

The-Beatles-Revolver

 

“twice as good and four times as startling as Rubber Soul, with sound effects, Oriental drones, jazz bands, transcendentalist lyrics, all kinds of rhythmic and harmonic surprises, and a filter that made John Lennon sound like God singing through a foghorn.”
~Robert Christgau

The Beatles had initiated a second pop revolution – one which while galvanising their existing rivals and inspiring many new ones, left all of them far behind.
~Ian MacDonald (Revolution in the Head: The Beatles’ Records and the Sixties)

….. Either way, its daring sonic adventures and consistently stunning songcraft set the standard for what pop/rock could achieve. Even after Sgt. Pepper, Revolver stands as the ultimate modern pop album and it’s still as emulated as it was upon its original release.
~Stephen Thomas Erlewine (allmusic.com)

 

Released 5 August 1966
Recorded 6 April – 21 June 1966,
EMI Studios, London
Genre Rock, psychedelic rock
Length 35:01
Label Parlophone (UK), Capitol (US)
Producer George Martin

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February 7: Bob Dylan @ Hammersmith Apollo, London – 1993 (full concert video)





bob dylan london 1993

..introduces a chilling “I and I,” which soon becomes a Winston Watson tour de force (at the expense of the song), and a hilarious “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right,” in which Dylan lets Garnier play a bass solo which he completely fouls up-leading Dylan to insist to the crowd, “This has been rehearsed a hundred times.
~Clinton Heylin (Bob Dylan: A Life in Stolen Moments Day by Day 1941-1995)

Hammersmith Apollo
London, England
7 February 1993

  • Bob Dylan (vocal & guitar)
  • Bucky Baxter (pedal steel guitar & electric slide guitar)
  • John Jackson (guitar)
  • Tony Garnier (bass)
  • Winston Watson (drums & percussion)

Continue reading February 7: Bob Dylan @ Hammersmith Apollo, London – 1993 (full concert video)