A Dylan Cover a Day: Where are you tonight?

 

 

I don’t know what it means either: an index to the current series appearing on this website.

A list of the previous  articles in the “Dylan cover a day” series is printed at the end.

by Tony Attwood

There have been a couple of articles on “Where are you tonight” over the years on this site and each time we note the singular lack of cover versions of what, I would suggest, is a very coverable song.

Quite why no one wants to take it on, when some other Dylan songs have got cover after cover after cover I have no idea.  But there it is.

There is a passable home recording available through this link by Dave Tilton and it deserves a mention because where so many others have failed to deliver he has produced a recording.

There is full band version which is certainly a good representation of the song, and worth hearing, although it doesn’t take us any further in our understanding of the piece. This is Winn Dillon.

 

 

Otherwise we mostly have recordings made by solo singers doing their own version.  This is Dewey Paul

Katie Robbins is to my mind the best of the few covers that we have, just because she has a voice that to me seems to particularly suited to the song.   I find her movements irrelevant, but that’s probably just me.

So where does that leave us?   For myself I just feel there must be much more one can do covering this song.  But then maybe everyone thinking of covers does the same as me and takes the songs to be covered in alphabetical order, so gets bored, or dies, before they to to W.

But it is also possible that the problem is the music.  Basically there are six couplets which musically are identical, rotating across two chords.   Then you get the chorus which is a relief.     But then there are six couplets, and a chorus again.   Then there are not six but eight couplets, and then the final chorus.

In case I am not being clear, here are the first two couplets

There's a long distance train rolling through the rain
Tears on the letter I write
There's a woman I long to touch and I missin' her so much
But she's drifting like a satellite

Now Dylan can get away with this because we hang on every word, but a cover artist needs more than this to hold the audience, and there is the problem.  Because the nature of the music is such that it is quite hard to do anything with those couplets.   But short of doing a total rewrite of the accompaniment and thus changing the nature of the song I am not sure what anyone else can do.  In effect Dylan has made the song virtually cover-proof.

It works on the album because it is part of the album.  In the live version the female chorus helps, and Dylan himself varies his way of singing the lines, adding new emphases and well, it’s Bob, and it’s live, so we’ll accept it.

And here’s a thought: after 33 performances even Bob gave up on the song.

Dylan live

Previously in the 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. BoB Dylan’s 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
118. Quinn the Eskimo as it should be performed.
119. Quit your lowdown ways
120. Rainy Day Women as never before
121. Restless Farewell. Exquisite arrangements, unbelievable power
122. Ring them bells in many different ways
123. Romance in Durango, covered and re-written
124. Sad Eyed Lady of Lowlands, like you won’t believe
125. Sara
126. Senor
127. A series of Dreams; no one gets it (except Dylan)
128. Seven Days
129. She Belongs to Me
130. Shelter from the Storm
131. Sign on the window
132. Silvio
133. Simple twist of fate
134. Slow Train
135. Someday Baby
136. Spanish Harlem Incident
137. Standing in the Doorway
138. Stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again
139. Subterranean Homesick Blues
140. Sweetheart Like You
141. Tangled up in Blue
142. Tears of Rage
143.  Temporary Like Achilles. Left in the cold, but there’s still something…
144. The Groom’s Still Waiting at the Altar
145. The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
146. The Man in Me
147. Times they are a-changin’
148. The Wicked Messenger
149. Things have changed
150. This Wheel’s on Fire
151. Thunder on the mountain
152. Till I fell in love with you in the north of Norway
153. Time Passes Slowly – just sit down and close your eyes
154. To be alone with you
155. To Ramona: unexpectedly yes!
156. Tombstone Blues
157. Tonight I’ll be Staying Here With You
158. Too much of nothing
159. Trouble as you have never been troubled before
160. Tryin’ to get to Heaven
161.  Unbelievable
162. “Up to Me” and a return to earlier days
163. Visions of Johanna
164. Walking down the line
165. Whatcha gonna do
166. Well Well Well
167. Went to see the Gypsy.
168. What good am I?
169. What was it you wanted
170. When I paint my masterpiece
171. When the night comes falling from the sky
172. When the ship comes in
173. When He Returns
174. When the deal goes down
175. Where are you tonight