A Dylan cover a day: Lily, Rosemary, the Jack, and some new versions

A list of previous articles in this series is given at the end.

By Tony Attwood

Next up in this series is Like a Rolling Stone, except that Aaron and I covered that song in depth in the “Beautiful Obscurity” series.

We’ve also covered Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts, but I’d like to pull the various references made in different places together, because some of these covers are so wonderful and I want to put them together.  And I’ve got a couple of versions that we haven’t mentioned before but really ought to be included.

I won’t go through the whole thing again, but if you want to venture into my commentary from last year it is still on the site.   But really, all you need to do is watch and listen.  This is just such enormous fun, and excellent music too.

Jochen’s full review is here .     He chose the version by Joan Baez.

And Tom Russell was also included by Jochen… it is restrained and calm, but keeps all the enthusiasm and drive inherent in the song.

If you are a regular here you’ll know the affection in which I hold Mary Lee’s Corvette.  Sadly there is no video with this video (if you see what I mean) but their version is delivered with their usual enthusiasm and drive and is well worth listening to.

And one that we haven’t touched on before, as far as I know.  The Minchmins

https://theminchmins.bandcamp.com/track/lily-rosemary-and-the-jack-of-hearts

The point of all this is that the music is fast and furious, and to slow it down is really not practical because there is so much in the song it could be in danger of becoming tedious.  But on the other hand because it is fast and furious there is not that much the musicians can do with it.

At least that is what I thought until I heard the Minchmins version.  They go at speed but the accompaniment is inventive, novel, enthusiastic and indeed perfect.   And against this the vocalist adds some nuances without any sense of trying to outdo the musicians.   Indeed this version gives me, once again, new enthusiasm for this song.  And after having lived with the track for so many years, I find that quite a clever thing to do.

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Here’s a list of most of the articles from this series…

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