Cover version of the day: As I went out one morning

By Tony Attwood

• 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
• Dylan cover of the day No4: Angelina
• Dylan covers of the day No 5. Apple Suckling and Are you Ready.

The whole point of this is not to offer any old cover version of a Dylan song, as I work through his compositions in alphabetical order, but a cover version that discovers and offers something new in the music, or reveals to the willing listener an insight previously unrealised.

And that is most certainly what happens here with Jef Lee Johnson’s free jazz inspired instrumental version of “As I Went Out One Morning.”  Of course not everyone’s cup of tea, but for those who have ears to hear…

Jef Lee Johnson started out playing garage bands and later moved on to play on albums with multiple pop and rock stars (Aretha Franklin and Billy Joel are the most quoted).  He was also in a lot of experimental music moving easily into free jazz, as you can hear on the track below.

He sadly passed away from complications following a bout of pneumonia in January 2013.