Dylan Cover of the Day 14: Black Crow Blues (more fun than you might recall)

By Tony Attwood

The list of previous episodes is to be found at the end of the article.

Of course that comment in the title that “it’s more fun than you might recall” is just my opinion, but it is a fact that I never really thought much of “Black Crow Blues” when first released on “Another Side”.  It sounded to me like a quickly written filler for the album.

But obviously, what do I know?  That comment is probably more a reflection on what I would have done, and besides maybe it is an important art work and the piano has to sound like that.   Anyway, it’s not an issue that has bothered me that much and I’m not sure too many other people have written in pointing out the artistic merits of the piece.

If you haven’t got a copy of Another Side, and you want to remind yourself of just what the original was like, it is of course on Spotify, but beware, the other songs of the same title on Spotify are not Dylan’s Black Crows.

But if you ain’t got Spotify or can’t be arsed to search,  you could go to this link and scroll down to the word “Description” and there it is – you can play it to your heart’s content.

And there is a second Dylan version here… and I much prefer this….

So, now we are all up to speed, what about the covers? I hear you demand.

There are actually very few (in fact just one that is playable) which is why I have been taking up your time with Dylanistic versions.  But now we have been through it all, here’s the only cover version I know.

Now that performance really can get me listening to the old 12 bar blues again.

Per Frost don’t seem to have a website per se (at least the old one that I know about appears to have vanished into the stratosphere) but they do have a Facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/perchrfrost/

And I’m going to point out one other performance of their’s which I really do like.  It is gentle, simple, and it really does work.

It’s from the album “Per Frost” made in 1990 and you can read about it here.

So there we are, another Dylan Cover of the Day.  The series really does seem to have legs!  If you have been, thank you for reading.  And listening.

Previously in this series…

• 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.
• Cover version of the day No 6: As I went out one morning
• Dylan cover of the day No 7: Ballad for a Friend
• Dylan Cover of the Day No 8: Ballad in Plain D
• Dylan Cover of the Day No 9: Ballad of a thin man
• Dylan cover No. 10: The stunning reworking of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest
• Dylan cover of the day No 11: The ballad of Hollis Brown
• A Dylan cover a day No 12: Beyond here lies nothing
• Dylan cover of the day No 13: Blind Willie McTell