By Tony Attwood
Bob only gave “What was it you wanted?” 22 outings on the Tour, and yet as the cover versions below show there is a lot in the song that an inventive musician can play with. Is it to be soulful, secretive, accusatory, even a trifle amusing in parts… however you see the song you can make it into something new.
Willie Nelson takes the song with a lot of reverence to Bob’s original as you might expect, not least because from the last news I heard the two old timers are playing together on the Outlaw Music Festival Tour this year.
Thus this version pays total respect to Bob’s original, including even the details of the harmonica part. The vocal is fractionally more delicate and there are a few more twists in the background music, but in essence this is a copy of what Bob laid down. There are some guitar variations at the end, but they almost seem like doing something different just for the sake of it. You’d buy this if you are a Willie Nelson devotee, but if you are a Dylan fan, you’ve pretty much already got it.
Chris Smither however gives us some interesting guitar work at the start and a really offbeat but very light percussion from the beginning, which gives me a greater sense of time passing in its regular manner. As a result this is all about the atmosphere which is in fact the essence of the song. Although I know the song inside out, hearing this did bring back the magic of the lyrics… that puzzlement and uncertainty of the situation.
Indeed it is very easy to lose the thoughts behind these lyrics as the singer loses track not only of what was wanted but who the person is that he is confronting. This version re-finds that spookiness and delivers it as the main part of the message. There is also a gorgeous background to the last few seconds that leaves me with a shiver.
Roli Frei and the Soulful Desert
Here we get a very laid back opening to the point of almost being hidden which looks to take the atmosphere even further. And indeed it really works, while keeping the guitar effects quiet and in the background until the “somebody looking” verse where the singer expresses the anger in the lyrics very successfully, I felt. Indeed this sort of contrast is harder to do than you might imagine.
Same again with the middle 8 – he takes it right up but then successfully brings it back down. It’s a version I will need to play several times to get the full measure of, but on the first run through I have to say I’ve really enjoyed this.
The Lucky Losers
It is a shock to move away from Roli Frei to this version. Yet the harmonies of the vocals really do work for me – I suppose in part because in listening to Roli Frei I felt it wasn’t really possible to take the mystery approach any further. And here are a couple who haven’t tried, but have gone in the opposite direction.
And this is a major part of the joy of Dylan covers… the songs have so much in them they can be re-worked in all sorts of ways. I must admit I would never have thought of an approach like this in a million years, but it is fun.
Now I must admit part of the fun comes from having listened to the cover versions above first, and I really needed to be taken up and out of the gloom. That this version comes next is pure chance – I’ve put them here in the order of finding the recordings, nothing more sophisticated than that. But sometimes serendipity works.
I love the “who are you anyway” in this version. It gives a totally new thought about the whole piece.
Bettye LaVette featuring Trombone Shorty
Bettye Lavette has sung so much Dylan we can always be sure that she knows the song and its context and has given a lot of thought to how approach the piece. Here she uses her voice to give a new extra layer of uncertainty and the anger that uncertainty can bring.
There are some lovely unexpected elements in the accompaniment. Indeed if you can, take your mind away from her voice and listen to exactly what is happening behind her. And even if not, just focus on the fact that we now have a trombone playing a solo. Whoever would have thought of that for this song? Certainly not me. If someone had said that I’d have said “Noooo” in no uncertain terms, but within the context of this total re-write it works.
It’s a version that is full of surprises and no less enjoyable for that. I’m not sure I’m going to come back to it, but I’m glad I found it.
Stef Kamil Carlens and the Gates of Eden
Now we are back to where we started with the mystery, and as can happen with these articles I feel almost overloaded by the song by the time I get to the end. This is a fairly standard interpretation, taking the music and lyrics as they are, and letting the instrumentalists add their bits and pieces behind.
But I think I’m a bit overwhelmed by all that has gone before, and maybe if I came back to this version in a few days without hearing the other editions first, I’d get more out of it. Which is of course the problem with the series and this style of writing while I listen to the music. It helps me to get down my first impressions but maybe loses some perspective.
However, the addition of the chorus in the latter parts of the song really did make me think. It might have been interesting to give the organ a break sometimes, but still, it’s enjoyable and another insight. And do stay with this to take in the instrumental section at the end. It’s worth it.
Previously in the series
- The song with numbers in the title.
- Ain’t Talkin
- All I really want to do
- Angelina
- Apple Suckling and Are you Ready.
- As I went out one morning
- Ballad for a Friend
- Ballad in Plain D
- Ballad of a thin man
- Frankie Lee and Judas Priest
- The ballad of Hollis Brown
- Beyond here lies nothing
- Blind Willie McTell
- Black Crow Blues (more fun than you might recall)
- An unexpected cover of “Black Diamond Bay”
- Blowin in the wind as never before
- Bob Dylan’s Dream
- BoB Dylan’s 115th Dream revisited
- Boots of Spanish leather
- Born in Time
- Buckets of Rain
- Can you please crawl out your window
- Can’t wait
- Changing of the Guard
- Chimes of Freedom
- Country Pie
- Crash on the Levee
- Dark Eyes
- Dear Landlord
- Desolation Row as never ever before (twice)
- Dignity.
- Dirge
- Don’t fall apart on me tonight.
- Don’t think twice
- Down along the cove
- Drifter’s Escape
- Duquesne Whistle
- Farewell Angelina
- Foot of Pride and Forever Young
- Fourth Time Around
- From a Buick 6
- Gates of Eden
- Gotta Serve Somebody
- Hard Rain’s a-gonna Fall.
- Heart of Mine
- High Water
- Highway 61
- Hurricane
- I am a lonesome hobo
- I believe in you
- I contain multitudes
- I don’t believe you.
- I love you too much
- I pity the poor immigrant.
- I shall be released
- I threw it all away
- I want you
- I was young when I left home
- I’ll remember you
- Idiot Wind and More idiot wind
- If not for you, and a rant against prosody
- If you Gotta Go, please go and do something different
- If you see her say hello
- Dylan cover a day: I’ll be your baby tonight
- I’m not there.
- In the Summertime, Is your love and an amazing Isis
- It ain’t me babe
- It takes a lot to laugh
- It’s all over now Baby Blue
- It’s all right ma
- Just Like a Woman
- Knocking on Heaven’s Door
- Lay down your weary tune
- Lay Lady Lay
- Lenny Bruce
- That brand new leopard skin pill box hat
- Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts
- License to kill
- Like a Rolling Stone
- Love is just a four letter word
- Love Sick
- Maggies Farm!
- Make you feel my love; a performance that made me cry.
- Mama you’ve been on my mind
- Man in a long black coat.
- Masters of War
- Meet me in the morning
- Million Miles. Listen, and marvel.
- Mississippi. Listen, and marvel (again)
- Most likely you go your way
- Most of the time and a rhythmic thing
- Motorpsycho Nitemare
- Mozambique
- Mr Tambourine Man
- My back pages, with a real treat at the end
- New Morning
- New Pony. Listen where and when appropriate
- Nobody Cept You
- North Country Blues
- No time to think
- Obviously Five Believers
- Oh Sister
- On the road again
- One more cup of coffee
- (Sooner or later) one of us must know
- One too many mornings
- Only a hobo
- Only a pawn in their game
- Outlaw Blues – prepare to be amazed
- Oxford Town
- Peggy Day and Pledging my time
- Please Mrs Henry
- Political world
- Positively 4th Street
- Precious Angel
- Property of Jesus
- Queen Jane Approximately
- Quinn the Eskimo as it should be performed.
- Quit your lowdown ways
- Rainy Day Women as never before
- Restless Farewell. Exquisite arrangements, unbelievable power
- Ring them bells in many different ways
- Romance in Durango, covered and re-written
- Sad Eyed Lady of Lowlands, like you won’t believe
- Sara
- Senor
- A series of Dreams; no one gets it (except Dylan)
- Seven Days
- She Belongs to Me
- Shelter from the Storm
- Sign on the window
- Silvio
- Simple twist of fate
- Slow Train
- Someday Baby
- Spanish Harlem Incident
- Standing in the Doorway
- Stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again
- Subterranean Homesick Blues
- Sweetheart Like You
- Tangled up in Blue
- Tears of Rage
- Temporary Like Achilles. Left in the cold, but there’s still something…
- The Groom’s Still Waiting at the Altar
- The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
- The Man in Me
- Times they are a-changin’
- The Wicked Messenger
- Things have changed
- This Wheel’s on Fire
- Thunder on the mountain
- Till I fell in love with you in the north of Norway
- Time Passes Slowly – just sit down and close your eyes
- To be alone with you
- To Ramona: unexpectedly yes!
- Tombstone Blues
- Tonight I’ll be Staying Here With You
- Too much of nothing
- Trouble as you have never been troubled before
- Tryin’ to get to Heaven
- Unbelievable
- “Up to Me” and a return to earlier days
- Visions of Johanna
- Walking down the line
- Whatcha gonna do
- Well Well Well
- Went to see the Gypsy.
- What good am I