By Tony Attwood
This, I suspect, is going to be one of the articles in this series that is skipped by quite a few readers who so kindly generally follow me on this daily meander through Dylan’s catalogue in alphabetical order via the covers. Cover version of “Dirge”? Let that one go.
Dylan himself has never performed “Dirge” in concert and perhaps for that reason the number of covers is tiny and do take a little bit of finding.
But I certainly don’t want to repeat my whole argument about the importance of “Dirge” and “Wedding Song” – my thoughts are still online as part of All Directions. But if I may quote myself briefly, I said, “those final songs took us to a new high point from which Dylan was completely ready and free to launch himself forward with not only works of genius, but works of genius the fans and the self-appointed critics would like.”
Thus these are the two compositions that preceded “Blood on the Tracks” and my suggestion has been that next time you play that album you might care to precede it with these two extraordinary songs and hear them as “Blood on the Tracks: the Prelude”.
Anyway, because of their low ranking among the self-anointed experts, we don’t hear too much of them in the world of covers, but there are two that I really enjoy and a third which is, well…. interesting.
And indeed when we published a list of covers suggested by readers Dirge came up twice – and those two suggested covers make up the two main entries today.
Michael Moravek
This artist (of whom I know nothing) gives me a feeling that he has contemplated every word he is singing and worked with the musicians around him to produce this beautiful arrangement of such a difficult song. Even the repeated bars at the end are carefully crafted – and one can’t always say that.
Please do stay with this version rather than moving on after a few seconds… it really is worth it. Sophie Hunger is another artist I am not familiar with – very much my loss – and Wiki tells me she is a Swiss singer-songwriter, film composer, multi-instrumentalist (guitar, blues harp, piano) and bandleader, currently living in Berlin.
And a remarkable interpreter of Dylan it seems. I really do think this is a fantastic interpretation of a totally remarkable and ludicrously ignored Dylan masterwork.
Erik Truffaz.
And finally…
Diva de Lai
This is not a recording I’m going to play over and over again – it is the previous two covers that have been and will be heard in the Attwood household. But this version does show just how much there is in this often ignored song.
Dirge really is an amazing composition. It does deserve more recognition. Just because Bob doesn’t want to perform it, don’t mean it ain’t great.
The 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
- Dylan Cover of the Day 14: Black Crow Blues (more fun than you might recall)
- Dylan Cover of the Day 15: An unexpected cover of “Black Diamond Bay”
- Dylan Cover of the Day 16: Blowin in the wind as never before
- Dylan Cover of the Day 17: Bob Dylan’s Dream
- Dylan Cover of the Day 18: You will not believe this… 115th Dream revisited
- Dylan cover of the day 19: Boots of Spanish leather
- Dylan cover of the day 20: Born in Time
- Dylan cover of the day 21: Buckets of Rain
- Dylan cover of the day: 22 Can you please crawl out your window
- Dylan cover of the day 23: Can’t wait
- Dylan Cover of the Day 24: Changing of the Guard
- Dylan Cover of the Day 25: Chimes of Freedom
- Dylan Cover of the Day 26: Dear Landlord
- Dylan cover of the Day 27: Desolation Row as never ever before (twice)
- Dylan cover of the Day 28: Dignity.
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Untold Dylan was created in 2008 and is published daily – currently twice a day, sometimes more, sometimes less. Details of some of our series are given at the top of the page and in the Recent Posts list, which appears both on the right side of the page and at the very foot of the page (helpful if you are reading on a phone). Some of our past articles which form part of a series are also included on the home page.
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