A Dylan Cover a Day: the Quinn the Eskimo as it should be performed.

By Tony Attwood

“I don’t know what it’s about,” said Bob, and that’s good enough for me.  I like poems and songs and abstract works of art that are not about anything.   After all why does art have to be about something?

In terms of Bob Dylan there are hundreds of thousands of commentators out there who believe that Bob’s work must be about something – and wow! this particular writer has an insight that is real and true and well, insightful.   Except it probably isn’t.

My view (oft-expressed on these pages) is that Dylan, like many other poets before and since, like the sounds of words and phrases, and has always done so.  And indeed this is how much of the world is.  I look out from where I write each day in rural England, across the grass, beyond the small windmill to four trees at the end of my garden stretching up to the sky.   Does that mean anything?  Not especially, but I have chosen this room and this house, because I love this view, and it helps me write on the various subjects I’m paid to write about or want to write about.   That’s it.  I watch the seasons pass, I write stuff, people pay, I go dancing.

And that’s not to compare myself in any way at all with the genius that is Bob, or any genius, as obviously I’m not in that league, but rather to say, from a lifetime of being involved with the arts, in the theatre, in music and in writing, I’m utterly sure art does not have to be about anything.   And certainly, for me, that is the case with Quinn the Eskimo.   So the question for me with this song is, how do different performers deal with a song that means nothing?

Adding harmonies at the start and then keeping the rest of the song as it always has been, is a good way of handling a piece that we all have heard many times before.    Indeed the song is so well known, it is hard to do much with the music without destroying the essence of the song, so harmonies are great.

And then they add an interesting backing.  The harmonica, what sounds to me like a violin being plucked at one point, the jaunty bowed violin in the background elsewhere before it gets its jolly solo near the end…  It’s all fun.  What’s not to like?

Lots of heavy metal (and similar) bands have had a bash at the song, and then have found they have to compromise a bit to make the chorus work.   I’m not a heavy metal fan at all, but I can appreciate the short instrumental break… but beyond this I think it is a case of liking the genre or not.   Mind you I do like the subheading “Executing the classics”.   Yes indeed. I wish I’d thought of that.

Oh yes and that break around 1 minute 45 – it gets carried away with itself in my view, but I do like the way it starts.

The opening of Joan Osborne’s version doesn’t really give much hope for something different, but she does deliver fine harmonies, and someone on the team has decided to change the chord structure at the start of “Come on without” with the bass holding its note, to imply something quite different from the norm for the words “Come on within”.

As a result, for me, suddenly “come on within” is no longer a fairly meaningless reply to “come on without”.  With that held bass note it takes on a totally different concept.  It gives a notion of slow-growing progress that is not part of the song otherwise.

This Manfred Mann realisation of the song is the version that Jochen chose for his article: Quinn the Eskimo: one semitone is all it takes, which of course I do recommend if you want to know about the song itself.  It (this version) mixes genres although I am not sure that now, all these years on, it still gives me much to think about.   Although the change at around 2.20 really is unexpected and most certainly musically very interesting.

Trouble is, “interesting” doesn’t mean that one necessarily wants to go back and listen to it again and again.   Yes, being able to play fast and do the unexpected is good, and entertaining – and I most certainly was not expecting what happens at 3.30.   It is fun thereafter, but on my “do I want to play this again?” chart it doesn’t score.  They do get back to the song in the end, however – and there’s a lovely fun effect at the end which is worth waiting for.

I suppose I have included London Pops as an antidote to Manfred Mann, and although it is fun, it is clear that at moments they struggled to think of enough variations to keep going, so not one of my favourites.  But it leads me to….

This takes me back to the origins, and I love it.  The song is a bit of nonsense.  It is fun, and somehow listening to all the takes above I get to feel that some of these performers are taking themselves awfully seriously with a song that was never meant to be taken that way in the slightest.   These guys are just doing their thing and enjoying themselves, and enjoying the nonsense that the song is.

Being gentle with this song is like being gentle with an old friend, unexpectedly met once more – an old friend who perhaps hasn’t had the best of times across the years, but is your old friend and so needs respect and courtesy and maybe some encouragement and help.

Which is why I not only had to include this version, but also include it at the end.  It is, for me, how the song should be played.

Hello old friend.

The Dylan Cover a Day series

1. The song with numbers in the title.
2. Ain’t Talkin
3. All I really want to do
4.  Angelina
5.  Apple Suckling and Are you Ready.
6. As I went out one morning
7.  Ballad for a Friend
8. Ballad in Plain D
9. Ballad of a thin man
10.  Frankie Lee and Judas Priest
11. The ballad of Hollis Brown
12. Beyond here lies nothing
13. Blind Willie McTell
14.  Black Crow Blues (more fun than you might recall)
15. An unexpected cover of “Black Diamond Bay”
16. Blowin in the wind as never before
17. Bob Dylan’s Dream
18. You will not believe this… 115th Dream revisited
19. Boots of Spanish leather
20. Born in Time
21. Buckets of Rain
22. Can you please crawl out your window
23. Can’t wait
24. Changing of the Guard
25. Chimes of Freedom
26. Country Pie
27.  Crash on the Levee
28. Dark Eyes
29. Dear Landlord
30. Desolation Row as never ever before (twice)
31. Dignity.
32. Dirge
33. Don’t fall apart on me tonight.
34. Don’t think twice
35.  Down along the cove
36. Drifter’s Escape
37. Duquesne Whistle
38. Farewell Angelina
39. Foot of Pride and Forever Young
40. Fourth Time Around
41. From a Buick 6
42. Gates of Eden
43. Gotta Serve Somebody
44. Hard Rain’s a-gonna Fall.
45. Heart of Mine
46. High Water
47. Highway 61
48. Hurricane
49. I am a lonesome hobo
50. I believe in you
51. I contain multitudes
52. I don’t believe you.
53. I love you too much
54. I pity the poor immigrant. 
55. I shall be released
56. I threw it all away
57. I want you
58. I was young when I left home
59. I’ll remember you
60. Idiot Wind and  More idiot wind
61. If not for you, and a rant against prosody
62. If you Gotta Go, please go and do something different
63. If you see her say hello
64. Dylan cover a day: I’ll be your baby tonight
65. I’m not there.
66. In the Summertime, Is your love and an amazing Isis
67. It ain’t me babe
68. It takes a lot to laugh
69. It’s all over now Baby Blue
70. It’s all right ma
71. Just Like a Woman
72. Knocking on Heaven’s Door
73. Lay down your weary tune
74. Lay Lady Lay
75. Lenny Bruce
76. That brand new leopard skin pill box hat
77. Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts
78. License to kill
79. Like a Rolling Stone
80. Love is just a four letter word
81. Love Sick
82. Maggies Farm!
83. Make you feel my love; a performance that made me cry.
84. Mama you’ve been on my mind
85. Man in a long black coat.
86. Masters of War
87. Meet me in the morning
88. Million Miles. Listen, and marvel.
89. Mississippi. Listen, and marvel (again)
90. Most likely you go your way
91. Most of the time and a rhythmic thing
92. Motorpsycho Nitemare
93. Mozambique
94. Mr Tambourine Man
95. My back pages, with a real treat at the end
96. New Morning
97. New Pony. Listen where and when appropriate
98. Nobody Cept You
99. North Country Blues
100. No time to think
101. Obviously Five Believers
102. Oh Sister
103. On the road again
104. One more cup of coffee
105. (Sooner or later) one of us must know
106. One too many mornings
107. Only a hobo
108. Only a pawn in their game
109. Outlaw Blues – prepare to be amazed
110. Oxford Town
111. Peggy Day and Pledging my time
112. Please Mrs Henry
113. Political world
114. Positively 4th Street
115. Precious Angel
116. Property of Jesus
117. Queen Jane Approximately