Tag Archives: birth

Bob Dylan, Bonnie Raitt, Cover versions

November 8: Bonnie Raitt sings Bob Dylan – happy birthday Bonnie Raitt!

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bonnieRaitt is a very good Dylan interpreter! She has recorded some of his songs and do some in concerts.

Bonnie Raitt returned to the studio in 2012 with producer Joe Henry, a singer-songwriter known for his earthy stamp on albums by veterans such as Solomon Burke and Bettye LaVette. Four songs from those sessions, elegiac ballads that include two Bob Dylan covers, landed on Raitt’s album, Slipstream.

Enjoy!

Bonnie Raitt sings Million Miles, from her album Slipstream, here in a fine live version:

Standing in the Doorway my favourite of her Dylan covers:

 

Spotify:

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Bob Dylan, Cover versions, Ian Hunter

Ian Hunter – Is Your Love In Vain (Dylan), Happy Birthday Ian Hunter!

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Do you love me, or are you just extending goodwill?
Do you need me half as bad as you say, or are you just feeling guilt?
I’ve been burned before and I know the score
So you won’t hear me complain
Will I be able to count on you
Or is your love in vain?

Is your love in vain? is a song from Dylan’s Street Legal album, but my favourite version (official, that is…) is from Live at Budokan. It’s a heart achingly honest love song, he really bares his heart, and I feel for the man. The song is profoundly touching, and in my book, one of Bob Dylan’s best love songs. It received a fair amount of negative response when it was released, some critics meant it was degrading women. I think that is harsh, I simply cannot see it.

Ian Hunter performed the song for a TV-show in 1981 (aired 1982?) and has been released on a bootleg/semi-official compilation album, Bald At The Station (2012).

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“The CD ends with one song from a 1982 Don Kirshner performance and finds Hunter diving back to his roots, dirging up Dylan’s “Love in Vain” and making it his own. If a better-quality recording exists, let’s hope it turns up somewhere soon. In the meantime, it’s a marvelous end to a surprisingly useful odds ‘n’ oddities collection, and proof that we were all severely shortchanged when the Ian Hunter anthology turned out to be a mere two discs. He deserved at least four.”
– Dave Thompson (allmusic.com)

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Bob Dylan, Richard Thompson

April 3: Richard Thompson was born in 1949 – here playing Dylan songs

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Richard Thompson covers Bob Dylan

Richard Thompson has done a lot of other people’s songs, often with great result. Today we see/listen to how he copes with Dylan’s songs. First solo then with Fairport Convention.

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Girl from the North Country, very good version, the guitar playing is sublime! It is taken from a concert at the  City Winery, New York, 15th Feb 2012:

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Bob Dylan, Leon Russell

April 2: The late great Leon Russell was born in 1942 – here singing Dylan songs

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Leon Russell (born Claude Russell Bridges April 2, 1942) was an American musician and songwriter, who recorded as a session musician, sideman, and maintained a solo career in music.

Born in Lawton, Oklahoma, he began playing piano at the age of four. Russell attended Will Rogers High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma. At this time he was already performing at Tulsa nightclubs. After moving to Los Angeles, he became a session musician, working as a pianist on the recordings of many notable musical artists from the 1960s. By the late 1960s, Russell diversified, becoming successful as an arranger and wrote and co-wrote songs. As a musician, he worked his way up from gigs as a sideman to well known performers. By 1970 he had graduated to solo recording artist, although he never ended all his previous roles within the music industry.

Russell was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on Monday, March 14, 2011

Sadly, we lost Leon Russell last november (Nov 13, 2016).

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Leon Russell – A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall:

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Bob Dylan, Cover versions, Emmylou Harris

April 2: Emmylou Harris was born in 1947 – here singing Dylan songs

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Emmylou Harris sings Bob Dylan

“…to work with people who inspired me early on like Bob Dylan and Neil Young, they are so dear to me as musicians and as people. To be able to call them friends and be a part of so many projects of theirs as well as bringing them on mine. And then to just hang out and write and be a part of that extraordinary world that is theirs.”
– Emmylou Harris (2010)

Emmylou Harris was born on April 2, 1947, in Birmingham, Alabama.  The legendary country singer, songwriter, and guitarist is most closely associated with Gram Parsons. However, Bob Dylan played an important role early in her solo career. And she has sung his songs with him and as a solo act.

Harris started her singing career in 1968, in Greenwich Village, and recorded an album, Gliding Bird, soon after, which featured a cover of Dylan’s “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight”. She has since been recording with Dylan on Desire. Bob and Emmylou reunited to sing “My Blue-Eyed Jane” for Dylan’s project, The Songs Of Jimmie Rodgers – A Tribute.

Enjoy these cover versions, written by Bob Dylan sung by Emmylou Harris.

Emmylou Harris with Rodney Crowell – Shelter From The Storm (late night show, 2006):

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