My problems with God on our Side.
By Tony Attwood
You might recall Fred Muller quite correctly took me to task for not mentioning certain cover versions of Bob Dylan songs, and it has made me ponder the whole issue of cover versions.
My opening thought is, we have Dylan’s version, and he wrote the song, so he has produced one (or in some cases several) performance versions of the song. Do we need to go any further into anyone else’s version as well?
The answer obviously is yes, at least for myself, because some of the cover versions do indeed give me extra enjoyment of the song in question, invariably with some extra insight as well into the meanings of the lyrics, and the emotional content offered by the music.
But… and this is where I have a problem… sometimes the cover versions don’t do that. And so I started to ponder as to why some cover versions are recordings I want to play over and over, while others I quickly set aside, and want to recall only Bob’s version – if that.
However I should add that this emotional response only implies that for me not all covers are the same, and indeed anyone recording a cover of a Dylan song doesn’t guarantee the result is going to be satisfying (although obviously in this piece I am only talking about my own response to the recording, not everyone else’s). Just think of the hundreds of versions of “Don’t think twice”; there really aren’t that many that stay in the memory
So there’s the first point: is it always worth recording a cover of a Dylan song because someone might get something out of it? My thought on that one is “no” – there are already too many covers to listen to – we need some way of selecting the best ones.
Now this leads us to a problem: “how do we judge Dylan songs?” – and that is a question that has to arise before we ask, “is this a good cover version?” And immediately there is a problem, because a song that attracts one person doesn’t attract another. Which is then followed by the second layer: you and I might both be attracted to a particular song, but I like the version by Artist A and you like the version by Artist B. It’s hard to have a discussion why one is better than another without getting deep into musical technicalities.
So we play each other our favoured versions, but somehow we stick with our own favourites. And I ask the question is that it? Can our enthusiasm for Dylan and his music take us no further than our established favourites.
It is very likely that as an enthusiast for Dylan’s work you will have among the 550 or so compositions he has released into the world, some you don’t particularly care for, and if so then you may have wondered why Bob actually released them. Indeed if you have been kind enough to browse through my reviews on this site you will find a number of songs where I have been commenting something along the lines: “Why on earth is this song not on a Dylan album?” And of course the opposite – “why did he include this, when there is so little of merit in this song?”
Now of course it is possible that you love every piece of Dylan music – and in that case I hope you realise how lucky you are, because I really do think most of us do have a few Dylan songs that we don’t particularly rate. And therefore from that point it is also likely to be true that even the most devoted Dylan fan has some cover versions of Dylan that he or she really doesn’t like.
So to try and draw this together, I would argue that to be a Dylan fan, and indeed to rank Dylan as one of the greatest songwriters of the last 100 years, if not THE greatest songwriter of all time, one doesn’t have to admire every song. In my view (and of course it is just my view, and he is the great song writer, I’m just a guy who these days edits a blog), there is nothing at all wrong in saying, “That’s a Dylan song that doesn’t work.” Or indeed “that’s a rendition of a Dylan composition that doesn’t work, while others do.”
Now it seems to me we don’t get much of a conversation along these lines, and that is understandable because while in our school and college education we might well be helped to understand that while certain poets or authors work is particularly admired, most people don’t get much help in expressing why this or that songwriter’s work is to be admired. And where they do attempt such a task with Dylan, they normally focus on the lyrics, not the original music, nor the arrangement.
And that to me is a great shame, for listening to other artists perform Dylan can be highly informative. So informative (in my view) that some five years ago I invited readers to supply me with their favourite covers of Dylan songs.
So anyway Fred asked me, with much more politeness than I deserve given the way I have delayed issues over this….”I’d be interested in your opinion of the covers by Jason & The Scorchers, Youssou N’Dour, Mark Lanegan and Buddy Miller’s ‘With God On Our Side’!
Now I have touched on this before, arguing that “With God on Our Side” is a reinvention of “The Patriot Game”
And that is the version I like, perhaps because what I have learned from my Irish friend, but let’s try the others… And here I had problems in finding recordings of the examples mentioned. For example, Jason & The Scorchers – I can’t find, and when I came to Youssou N’Dour my search engine told me he “did not record “With God on Our Side.” But I did find….
And yes, I can appreciate this recording, BUT…. But here is the problem and I guess this is the problem for a few others like me. I know the song, and I know the lyrics and melody, and if you wanted me to I could render a (very) modest version of it on either guitar or piano.
But neither the melody nor the lyrics take me anywhere. I don’t get any messages or images or inspiration from the song. Maybe I did when I first heard it – I am sorry to say I can’t recall – and maybe I would get more if I were not so determined and settled in my view of religion that nothing is going to change my mind now. Maybe it is because I know what my parents did in the second world war, and each served their country in a way I appreciate and applaud and am proud of. Not heroes but they did what was required.
However I have listened to Buddy Miller’s version all the way through, and I really do have a problem with it… songs that musically build up, can work very well indeed, especially if they suddenly drop in power and emotion after the build up. BUT – and this is the problem for me – they are preaching to the converted.
Now that thought gave me a problem. When I heard this upon its release, I took this at first to be an atheist song, and as an atheist I appreciated that point. But when we get to the ending
So now as I'm leavin' I'm weary as hell The confusion I'm feelin ain't no tongue can tell The words fill my head and they fall to the floor If God's on our side He'll stop the next war.
I feel let down by Bob’s lyrics. It is a neat ending, but to me it doesn’t work at any level, because religions as I perceive them from my position as an atheist have always been about fighting wars not stopping them – not for all their talk of peace. And that just is my view – I am not trying to convert anyone to that perspective.
So I do hope if you have battled through to this point you will appreciate that I have not used this blog to propagate my particular views on religion – it is a blog about Bob Dylan, and his music not about me. But I was asked the question so I answer. I am hoping that my exposition here does not start a discussion about how wrong I am in my thinking – I am answering a perfectly legitimate question as honestly as I can. And maybe I am wrong, but that’s just how I feel.
As I understand things Bob wrote “With God on our Side” before he became a Christian. He performed it 29 times between 12 April 1963 and 23 September 1995, but not again in the last 30+ years. In that regard the song is not unusual – it got 29 outings, from a list in which over half the songs Bob composed have never been played in public at all by Bob.
To give some comparison All Along the Watch Tower has been played over 2300 times. “With God on our side” has been played a similar number of times by Bob was “That lucky old sun”, “Unbelievable” and “Political World” which seems to me to place it as “just another song” on the list.
Personally I am glad he doesn’t play it any more. If on the other hand Bob suddenly decided to play “Dark Eyes”, “Only a pawn in the game” or even “Roll on John” that really would make my day.
But of course this is just me.