A Dylan Cover a Day: No 170 – When I paint my masterpiece

By Tony Attwood

Dylan’s song “When I paint my masterpiece” got 372 outings between 2011 and 2024, but even without going through the recordings from the shows I can guarantee it never sounded liked this first cover version below – nor indeed like any of these covers (which represent around a quarter of those that I found on a quick search through the archives).

And I start here because the fact that “When I Paint My Masterpiece” actually survives the approach taken by Warboys US, tells us a lot about the song. Delicacy and nuance is not actually part of music here. But I also include this recording because the band have answered my plea for artists covering Dylan not to just make a straight recording of the song that we already know.

However it seems that this notion of changing the entire approach style and just about everything was not a one off. Others have followed this course as well. Here is the Dirty Nil…

It is interesting – why would musicians be drawn to treating this song in this way? And come to that I wonder what Bob thinks of it all…. although I rather suspect he stopped listening to other people’s versions of his songs long, long ago.

It was almost in desperation that I went searching for something a little less, ummm… energetic (me being the age I am and all). And actually I quite like Joshua Davis’ cover. I must admit I didn’t know anything about this artist. If you want to know more there is information here.

The main thing here is that it is a bit of a relief from the previous two versions. But nice and bouncy, which seems to me to be much closer to the intention of the lyrics.

So let’s go to some guys who have a real insight into what Dylan is all about: Grateful Dead, and oh what a relief (for me if no one else). Here is a version I can relate to. It is relaxed – and that seems to me to be the point of the whole song. It is a projection into the future, a feeling that if one can just relax a bit and see the world in a different way that artistic work of genius will somehow simply appear. (That of course is a load of nonsense, and I am quite sure Bob had his tongue very very much in his cheek with these lyrics).

But environments can of course stimulate a real genius. I’m not one of them of course, but even so, occasionally works I’ve created and actually looked at, have resulted in me thinking, “blimey that’s quite good.” At which point it is a sense of relaxation like that below which seems in tune with my feelings, even though fewer ever agree with me.

I get similar good feelings about the Charlie Robinson version, at least at the very start, but the emphasis on the drum beat throughout removes that feeling. I don’t think the contemplation of a masterpiece fits in with a simple repetitive beat that we have all heard a million times before.

There are many, many more cover versions of this song which you can find all over the internet if you have a mind to, but I felt the need to finish with something different. So here it is, and even if you don’t normally listen to this type of music do give this a go. It’s just… well, fun.

Previously in the series

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