I’ve always been dismissive of people who say things like “I like Bob Dylan’s music, I just wish I could hear it sung by somebody else.”
For me, Dylan’s voice is as much a part of his music as the chords, lyrics and instrumentation. While an occasional cover can be interesting, I no more want to hear Dylan’s catalog sung by others than I want to watch a foreign film dubbed into English.
Today’s Random Weekends selection is a track from Volume 3 of Bob Dylan’s Bootleg Series.
Before the Dylan-philes jump down my throat about the incorrect lyrics I’ve included below, understand that I have just included the “official” lyrics to this song posted on Dylan’s own website. He obviously changed them quite a bit when recording the track, but I like to offer both in order to explore the contrast.
The Random iTunes Fairy must have read the blog this week and developed a hankering for some Fountains of Wayne.
This track is from Disc Two of the band’s 2005 collection of rarities and B-sides, Out-of-State Plates. Like most albums of its sort, this one is padded with non-essential tracks. It has a few memorable moments, such as new single ‘Maureen‘ and a deadpan cover of Britney Spears’ ‘…Baby One More Time.’
When I first started the Random Weekend series, I had visions of my kids’ music showing up week after week. Not just the songs they listen to these days (which are mostly by artists I listen to as well) but the artists they’ve listened to over the years.
Laurie Berkner, Raffi, The Wiggles… that sort of thing. Now, you may ask why I still have those albums in my iTunes library now that my daughters have moved on to other things, and that would be a very good question for which I don’t have a very good answer.
Josh Rouse has a way with closing tracks. He’s aware that an album should ebb and flow, and that you shouldn’t be able to confuse the first song with the last.
He tends to favor a quick start and a slow finish, with emotional peaks and valleys in between. This is one of just many ways to sequence an album, but it’s an effective one, and one he has returned to again ad again.
Meet Me In Montauk 