A Dylan Cover a Day: When the ship comes in

By Tony Attwood

This is probably the most frustrating of all the episodes of Dylan Cover a Day, that I can remember, because I think this is a superb song, and thus it ought to be possible to generate a few brilliant cover versions of it.

But in the end after listening to 20+ covers I found myself playing a few bars of each version and then giving up, because once again the performers had not found something quite different to do with the song. (Although please keep going because it did come right in the end).

And maybe it is not the artists’ fault. After all they are performing the song as they hear it, and as they feel it can be developed – not for the sole purpose of doing something quite different with the song.

To try and understand a little more as to why this is the case with this particular song I’ve just spent an hour at the piano trying to write my own variant version and yes I came up with something, but not something I particularly want to foist upon you at this time! So yes indeed it is harder that it might at first appear.

For this is a song in which the nature of the song itself determines how it should be sung. And Dylan himself must have realised the problems there are with doing something with this song in public, for in fact he has only performed it himself three times between 1963 and 1985!

So what we have is a small collection of performances from other people, and just three from Dylan – none of which I have a copy of. That surely tells us something – most likely that it is a song that has to be sung as Dylan sang it. There is not much else one can do.

Except, not, please don’t stop, because there is something else one can do. It just took me a while to find it.

But to start at the start as it were.

Gene Cotton takes a brave approach and varies the rhythm, and to a fair extent this does work. But the urgency of the song is now lost – the great celebration of the Second Coming, or whatever the occasion is that causes the ship to arrive now seems awfully relaxed, which isn’t the idea at all.

Heron gives us seagulls, and I almost stopped at that point. I mean, if that is the best the producer or musical arranger can do he/she surely now give up and stand before the firing squad (not literally!). Along with quite a few other versions this one just loses me after a few moments. It is all too ploddy.

Now The Chieftains know a thing or three about working with this type of song, and yes I do get a feeling that they appreciate what this is all about. And they do make this grow without destroying the essence of the songs. The addition of the violin and the percussion are there supporting the singer, and the build-up seems to work well. But…. oh that instrumental break has nothing much to do with the essence of the song. It’s just the Chieftains throwing in their own format into a Dylan song. Worse they change key for no reason other than it is because what the Chieftains do.

Annie Patterson gets into my little selection because the harmonies work without destroying the song. But between verses there is a twinkly twinkly bit which also creeps into the verses.

And this is a problem I think a lot of performers and their musical directors have. Recognising the strophic nature of the song they feel that changing lyrics are not enough to carry the performance so they throw in some extras. The twinkly bits here end my interest.

So, pretty hopeless from my point of view having reviewed covers of around 170 or so Dylan songs (see the list below) but then Grace Notes grabbed my attention with a completely different approach. And surely the point of cover versions of songs we all know is to give us something new. And yes this is it. The harmonies are unexpected but exquisite. The piano is delicately played, and from the very start I have the clear understanding that the arranger and performers actually listened to and thought about the lyrics they are singing.

This comes from the album Northern Tide and it is the only moment in this review where I wanted to hear more. Indeed I hope you too not only enjoy this but also want to learn more. Take a look at their website.

At this stage I can’t write more about them since I’ve only just discovered them, but having listened to “Just the way you look tonight” I’m taken. It was worth the journey.

Previously in the series

Leave a Reply