A Dylan cover a day: Silvio

By Tony Attwood

“Silvio” is one of those songs that sounds to me as if it ought to make a great cover version, and yet, somehow no one has managed to break away from the boundary that Dylan himself placed around the song.

That boundary is the constantly repeated chord sequence with its inherent rhythm. For what we get are the chords, G F C G, G F C G, over and over and over again. It is in effect a straight jacket from which no one has truly managed to break free.

But perhaps the best attempt is from Grayson Capps who manages to replace the dominance of that chord sequence by giving the percussion a major part to play. Indeed most of the time the sequence is no more than hinted at – and so we really do get a new version, rather than just a re-run of the original.

For me this really works, and truly did deserve its place on the Dylan in the 80s collection. I do hope you have time to play it through to the end – the last 20 seconds are unexpected and a nice bit of fun.

Shane Howard however takes us back to that dominant bass and the chords that it demands. The harmonica helps, but so determined is the bass that there can be no escape from the song’s origins. It’s a nice listen, but as much as the band works, and as much as a bass player adds in some decent improvisations, and again as much as the harmonica player works, it is still that same chord sequence, over and over.

Suicide Seven however let their bass player go for a meander and add a whole raft of effects and variations. As a result I guess this is very much a matter of taste. Although they do have some fun, as suddenly the guitarist stops half way through a verse and then comes back again – all for reasons I can’t really discern. And maybe that’s the point: there doesn’t have to be a reason.

But I’m not really sure I can understand where all this is going, or come to that where it has come from, as the Dylan original gets more and more lost inside the variations, sudden changes, variations on the variations, and well, just about anything. It’s one of those versions that I am glad I have listened to, for the experience, but I really have no desire to listen to again,

And just in case you are wondering, yes, it does finish just after three minutes, as far as I know. After that it is another song.

Pasaria Colibri is the name of the band, “Oameni buni” is Romanian for “folks” (according to the online dictionary). According to Wiki Pasărea Colibri means “The Humingbird”. And they are a Romanian folk supergroup. “Aside from typical Romanian folk instruments and acoustic/electric guitars, the band also made use of digital and analogue synthesizers, pedal steel guitars, and fretless bass.”

I don’t really know, but it’s a bit of fun, and quite likable as least for one play through. Not sure I would want to go back. But then I’m not Romanian, so that’s probably very unfair.

The Dylan Cover a Day series

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