A Dylan cover a day: One too many mornings

By Tony Attwood

Looking at just a handful of the many many cover versions of “One too many mornings” I am struck by the fact that I have inside me a notion of how this song should be performed. As a plaintive, calm, gentle piece – nothing more. And so attempts to add more to the song than this calm gentleness always leave me reaching for the off button. The song is about loss and sadness, and if the music doesn’t reflect that, then it takes the song to another place which really has nothing much to do with the lyrics.

After all the lines

When ev'rything I'm a-sayin'
You can say it just as good

are a stunningly overwhelming statement from the man who became the Nobel Prize winner as a result of this type of writing.

And of course my answer is “No Bob we can’t say it just as good, but I know what you mean”. And that response doesn’t leave much musical room for reinterpretation. It has to be calm, it has to be simple, it has to be reflective. It is just some people never quite got the message.

This first version I have chosen is not one that I like – but I have chosen it to try and show why. The arranger has changed the words, the chord sequence and the rhythm, to turn it into a bouncy country-ish song which takes away all the power from the original. This is only the same song in the sense that the lyrics are the same and so is some of the melody. As a result the power and force of Dylan’s original work has vanished. It has become trivia. And whatever the original is, it most certainly is not trivia.

And here again with Steve Howe we have another attempt to re-write the piece. Just listen to the descending four chords played in close proximity at the end of the verse, or the addition of the banjo part. These again have nothing to with the power and emotion portrayed by the simplicity of Dylan’s lyrics and the music in the original version of the song. As for the “woo woo” during the end of the instrumental, had this been a record I was playing rather than a recording from the internet, the disc would have gone out of the window, and the cracked remains left on the patio a floor below, as a testimony to what one should never do with a perfect song.

I could go on – including perhaps Abijah doing a reggae version but no, I have tormented my brain, and possibly yours, enough. Let us travel in a different direction.

This is what one should do if one wants to do a cover of this song – or at least it is one of many possibilities – in this case Siobhan Miller. The melody is changed slightly and of course so has the accompaniment. And yes there is an extra line added occasionally. Plus there are also additional instruments – but it all keeps the essence of the song. The reflection, the calmness, the sadness are still there. You’re alright on your side and I’m all right on mine, now once again means something. I love this.

Aaron wrote a really interesting review of the song and nominated a couple of performances to include. David Gray knows a lot about what songs actually mean and say, and this is no exception. He adds extras, but they are appropriate extras. OK I am not sure about the “Everybody knows” addition, but I’ll forgive him this as the rest really works because everything is kept under control.

But I want to finish with Stephen Inglis, and if all he had on offer was the introduction of this song, then that would be enough for me to include this version. Musically the opening minute is a complete calming statement which cools me down, and takes me back to the original lyrics, hearing them not as lyrics I know by heart but something I am listening to for the first time.

When ev'rything I'm a-sayin'
You can say it just as good

Well Bob, no that’s not quite true, as you well know. But thanks for the thought. On a bad day it is quite cheering to pretend it is 10% true.

The Dylan Cover a Day series

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