I don’t know what it means either: an index to the current series appearing on this website.
For more details on this series on cover versions of Dylan songs that were not considered in the last series, please see the intro to the first article in this series. An index to this series is at the end of the article. A list of all the cover reviews from the previous series can be found at the end of the final article in that series.
Black Crow BLues
By Jürg Lehmann
It is hard to see quite what Dylan was doing here, other than finding another song to fill up the album that had to be recorded fairly quickly…This view that it is a fill-in song is supported by the view of the accompaniment which sounds honky-tonk, on a slightly out of tune piano, with some fairly messy (but as a result interesting) playing, but with some wrong notes and unexpected (but again interesting) variations on the classic blues approach using B instead of B flat on occasion for example.
Like Tony Attwood, Jochen Markhorst also considers Black Crow Blues to be a minor song in Dylan’s catalogue: Dylan did not put a lot of love into this anyway. Around those blues clichés he adds a few technical tricks – here a lazy internal rhyme…, there some alliteration, but compared to the poetic brio of a “To Ramona” or a “Spanish Harlem Incident” it is rather limited, if not trivial. The song has probably been dashed off and selected for Another Side Of for its exceptional nature, for its non-conformism – which seems to be a selection criterion for this multi-coloured album anyway.
Dylan recorded the song in two versions, one with guitar accompaniment, the other with piano (he plays piano for the first time on an official recording). He never plays the song again after those takes. Nor did anyone else for a very long time – except The Silkie, who rushed to cover the song for their album The Silkie Sing the Songs of Bob Dylan in 1965. Unlike the other tracks on the album, Black Crow Blues is not available today – which is a shame, because you’d love to hear The Silkie sing the blues.
In 1992 Peter Case finally recorded a cover for 2 Meter Sessie, an independent Dutch music platform that started in 1987 and recorded over 1,800 sessions for radio, television, Youtube and streaming platforms – including a few Dylan covers, such as a great version of Dignity by Low Anthem. Case released another almost identical Black Crow cover in 2011 and he still performs the song live today. The cult artist of Beatlesque power-pop of the ’90s who became a sort of a folk hero has covered several Dylan songs – Black Crow Blues is not his best, this medal goes to Long Time Gone and even more to This Wheel’s on Fire.
Danish guitarist Per Christian Frost is probably the most famous Danish guitar player. He has been on the field since 1968, best known as a member of the band Gnags, but he has also released 5 solo albums and participated in countless Danish productions. Frost’s last album entitled “The Calling” has received numerous excellent reviews.
Per Christian Frost is particularly known for his massive diversity of genres, he moves elegantly in the intersection between R’n’B, rock, funk, reggae, blues and jazz and The Calling also has an extremely wide musical range and is rich in unrivalled technique. Black Crow Blues is the album opener. Dylan’s original is bearly recognisable with Frost twisting the classic blues into a groovy slice of music with cool rolling rhythms. It is completely unexpected, but what a great surprise!
Per Christian Frost passed away in March 2023. He was 68 years old.
Editor’s footnote: The Silkie’s version does seem to be available on Amazon, but only if you are a subscriber.
Previously in the “Covers we missed” series…
- 2×2; Saturday Night Fry
- Abandoned Love
- Ain’t Talkin
- All along the Watchtower
- All I really want to do
- All the Tired Horses
- As I went out one morning
- Baby Stop Crying
- Ballad of a Thin Man
- Beyond here lies nothing
- Beyond the horizon
- Hollis Brown