A Dylan cover a day: You gonna make me lonesome when you go

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

If by any chance you have been following this series you might be expecting “You angel you” as the next song that we might cover, but in fact Aaron and I did this previously for the “Beautiful Obscurity” series – and although looking at songs for a second time has never been a problem on Untold Dylan, in this case, Aaron’s legwork was so extensive, he managed to find so much on the song, there’s not much more to put into another article. So I refer you back to the earlier article, “Beautiful Obscurity: You Angel You”

Which brings us to “You gonna make me lonesome when you go. Except that when Jochen did his piece on that song he gave us five covers . I’m going to add just three more of which one, by Isballea Lundgren, is a piece that I find utterly remarkable.

First Ryan Adams, not because I am knocked out by the overall effect, but because he does do something which is often overlooked by cover artist – adding a completely new rhythm.

It does give the basis for a version of the song that keeps the melody, chords and lyrics can remain the same, but offers a different sort of accompaniment. It’s a technique that could be used more by cover artists.

This idea goes even further, and with even greater musical effect in a remarkable cover by Isballea Lundgren, the remarkable Swedish jazz vocalist. She has the voice to carry this through, but she also has an arranger who has achieved absolute wonders with the song. Even though I know the song completely because of Dylan’s versions, and of course the covers that Jochen chose, this gives me something quite new. The short instrumental breaks are worthy of a mention on their own – put together with the whole three and three quarter minutes seem like a perfect dream. I play it over and over.

In fact this is just one of those songs that can performed in a myriad of ways – I won’t copy in the bosa nova version simply because I think its a bit cheesy but it is out there if you want to find it. But I will add this country version just to show how much can be done with the song. Here is it a totally different piece of music with a different set of meanings….

In fact in that version above the way the title line is sung makes it sound as if this was the original version – it sounds so natural!

This could go on and on forever, but as we have already had Jochen’s choice, if you like this song and have a mind to discover different approachees, you’ve got enough versions here to drive your partner, your parents or your neighbours completely mad by playing them all.

But my serious point remains: quite often Bob Dylan has that remarkable ability to create a song that can be re-created to infinity. This is Jimmy LaFave.

Previously in the series

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