- Dylan cover of the day: Number 1. The song with numbers in the title.
- Dylan cover of the day. No 2: Ain’t Talkin
- Bob Dylan cover of the day No3: All I really want to do
OK what have I learned so far?
First, to my total surprise, there are vast numbers of Dylan songs that no one has covered and put on the internet. Naively I expected that someone somewhere (leaving aside the usual suspects with their home recordings which really don’t offer us too much insight, since they are just cases of getting through the song and out the other side) a band or really talented solo artist would have ventured into every Dylan song. Why wouldn’t you?
But no, that’s not the case. So if you are in a band, and you want to gain a bit of exposure, here’s something to do. Find one of the more obscure Dylan pieces listed in Dylan Songs of the 1950s and 1960s and the pages covering subsequent decades, and find yourself an obscure song, get a recording and re-arrange it. And if you feel like it, re-arrange the lyrics while you are at it.
This is certainly what Ashley Hutchings did – mind you Dylan did call him something akin to the most important man in British folk music, so he had quite a start.
And yes, I know I have highlighted this recording a million times before, but I still play this recording it all the time and for me its glory never fades. No one will ever ask me onto the long-running BBC radio show “Desert Island Discs” but I’d take this as one of my eight songs.
“Do I have your permission to turn the other cheek?” What an incredible line that is.
“Trying to heaven by force.” Absolutely.
Retreating up the spiral staircases – story of my life.
An excellent version of a fine – and underrated – song.
But I don’t think Ashley Hutchings needs to go out seeking “a bit of exposure”. I’d have thought pretty much anyone with an interest in British folk music in the past half century knows his name!