Barking Dog: May 23, 2024
This Week’s Theme: The Songs of Bob Dylan
We’ve got a special show today in honour of Bob Dylan’s 83rd birthday tomorrow. I got into folk music after a high school English teacher introduced us to Bob Dylan’s music and to the 60s folk revival in a class about contemporary song lyrics. We’ll hear a bunch of different versions of Dylan’s songs recorded by a wide range of great artists. In fact, we’ll hardly hear from Bob Dylan himself, so if you’re the kind of person who prefers his songwriting over his voice, have no fear.
Eric Bibb, Habib Koité - Blowin’ in the Wind
Bibb is an American musician who grew up around well-known musicians like Pete Seeger, Paul Robeson, and Bob Dylan, because his father was part of the 1960s New York folk scene
Habib Koité is a Malian musician who comes from a line of traditional troubadours who provide entertainment and wisdom at gatherings and events
He’s been performing since 1988, and met Bibb in 1997 while recording an album called Mali to Memphis
They stayed in touch and decided to record together again, which resulted in the 2012 album Brothers in Bamako
This song is from that album
Dylan wrote the song in 1962, and it first appeared on his second album, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, in 1963
He’s performed it over 1500 times since 1962
Jason Mraz - A Hard Rain’s A Gonna Fall
He’s a musician from Virginia who’s been playing since 1999
This is off the 2005 compilation album Listen to Bob Dylan: A Tribute
The song is also from The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan
Neil Young - Girl from the North Country
This is from his 2014 album A Letter Home, produced by Jack White and released for Record Store Day
Young recorded it in a refurbished 1947 recording booth at Third Man Records’ studio
Bob Dylan wrote the song in late 1962
Tracy Chapman - The Times They Are a-Changin’
Chapman is a well-known musician from Ohio who’s been writing music since she was around 8 years old
This was recorded live at Madison Square Garden in New York City on October 16, 1992, during a celebration of the 30th anniversary of Bob Dylan’s career as a recording artist
This is the title track from his 1964 album
Anohni, Bryce Dessner - I Was Young When I Left Home
Dessner is an American composer and musician known as a member of The National
Anohni is an English musician and visual artist now based in the US
This is from the 2009 AIDS benefit album Dark Was the Night, produced by the Red Hot Organization
Bob Dylan wrote this in 1961
Pete Seeger - Masters of War
Seeger was a folk singer and an activist from New York who advocated for countless social causes through his music for 75 years
This is off his 1965 album Strangers and Cousins, a collection of recordings from his world tour
It’s another one off of Freewheelin’
Peter, Paul & Mary - When the Ship Comes In
One of the most famous groups to come out of the 60s folk revival
This is a live version, recorded in Japan in 1967
Dylan released the song in 1964 on his album The Times They Are a-Changin’
Patti Smith - One Too Many Mornings
She’s an American musician, writer, and artist known for her involvement in the 70s New York punk scene
This is off the 2021 EP Live at Electric Lady
Dylan wrote it in 1963 and included it on The Times They Are A-Changin’
Ramblin’ Jack Elliott - Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right
Elliott is a folk singer from New York City who was a protege of Woody Guthrie, a collaborator with Derroll Adams, and a major influence for Bob Dylan
This is from the 1990 album Legends of Folk, which Elliott recorded live with Spider John Koerner and Utah Phillips
This song was originally released on Freewheelin’
George Harrison - Mama, You’ve Been On My Mind
This is from the 2012 compilation album Early Takes: Volume 1
This song was recorded in the 1980s at his home studio
This song was written by Dylan in 1964
Ian & Sylvia - Tomorrow Is a Long Time
Ian & Sylvia performed together from 1959 until their divorce in 1975
Known for performing a number of songs including “Someday Soon,” “Early Morning Rain,” and “Four Strong Winds”
This is a widely covered Bob Dylan song, written in 1962
Ian & Sylvia recorded it in 1963
Robbie O’Connell - The Restless Farewell
O’Connell is the Clancy Brothers’ nephew, and a musician in his own right
He began playing in the 1970s, and joined the Clancy Brothers when Liam Clancy left to perform as a duo with Tommy Makem
Bob Dylan included the song on his 3rd album, The Times They Are A-Changin’, from 1964
It’s based on the Scottish folk song “The Parting Glass,” which was the most popular parting song in the country prior to Robbie Burns writing “Auld Lang Syne"
This is off the 1997 album Clancy, O’Connell & Clancy, which O’Connell recorded with Liam and Dónal Clancy
Tim O’Brien - Subterranean Homesick Blues
O’Brien is a Grammy-winning musician from West Virginia who’s been playing professionally for almost 50 years, and has performed both as a solo act and with his band Hot Rize
This is from his 1996 album Red on Blonde, a collection of Bob Dylan covers
Dylan released the song on his 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home, and it was his first Top 40 hit in the US
The song was promoted with a film clip shot by the filmmaker DA Pennebaker, which is considered a forerunner to the modern music video
Judy Collins - Mr. Tambourine Man
American artist who has recorded music in a number of different genres
She’s also known for bringing attention to lesser-known artists, including Leonard Cohen, Ian Tyson, and Joni Mitchell, who weren’t very well-known when she recorded songs by them
This one’s from her 1965 album simply called Fifth Album
Dylan released it the same year on his own fifth album (Bringing It All Back Home)
Collins has stated that Dylan finished writing the song at her home
Nuuskamuikkunen - Kaikki ohi on (It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue)
From a 1976 album of Finnish translations of Bob Dylan’s songs recorded by the musician Timo Ulkuniemi
Marianne Faithfull - Visions of Johanna
She’s an English singer who’s been performing since the 1960s
This one is from her 1985 album Rich Kid Blues, which was recorded in 1971
Bob Dylan included it on his 1966 album Blonde on Blonde
Gillian Welch, David Rawlings - Abandoned Love
Welch and Rawlings are one of the best-known contemporary American roots duos, and they’ve been nominated for an Oscar and have won a Grammy together
This is from their Grammy-winning 2020 album All the Good Times, which is a collection of cover songs and traditional folk songs
Dylan wrote the song in the mid-1970s, though it was first released in 1985
Emily Lacy - She Belongs to Me
Contemporary artist whose work investigates confrontations between economics, politics, language, and power
This one is from her 2007 album of Bob Dylan covers called Bob Dylan Songs
“She Belongs to Me” was released in 1965
High High Hopes - Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door
A project by the musician Rod Ladgrove, released in 2016
Dylan wrote the song for the soundtrack to the 1973 film Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, which he also acted in
The film is going to be rereleased on Criterion this summer, presented in three separate versions
The director Sam Peckinpah had walked off the film, and a heist was organised to save his final preview print, which ended up requiring a second mission since they only succeeded in rescuing the picture and not the audio the first time
Peckinpah was so paranoid that MGM would come after him that he relabeled the tapes with the title “The Racquet Club,” and the tapes were only located once the story came to light after his death—the rerelease will include a restored version of Peckinpah’s cut
Dylan has acted and appeared in a number of films during his career
If you want to check out any movies specifically about Bob Dylan, I recommend the documentaries Don’t Look Back and No Direction Home
I’m Not There is an interesting fictional film based on the music of Bob Dylan and is, in my opinion, the only way a biopic about Bob Dylan could be successful
He also appears in 1967 documentary Festival, about Newport Folk Festival
Ron Sexsmith - You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go
He’s a musician from St. Catharines, Ontario, who’s been recording since 1985
He recorded this cover in 2014
Dylan included it on his fifteenth album Blood on the Tracks in 1975
Gordon Lightfoot - Ring Them Bells
Off his 1993 album Waiting for You
Bob Dylan released the song four years earlier, on his 1989 album Oh Mercy
Blind Boy Grunt - John Brown
Recorded for Broadside Magazine, an important publication for the Greenwich Village folk scene, in 1963
He seems to have used the alias because he had a recording contract with Columbia Records at the time
He wrote the song in 1962
The description for the song in the liner notes reads, “The original John Brown was sabered down while fighting for the freedom of some 3,000,000 enslaved Americans. His reward was a hangman’s noose. This modern day John Brown fights like hell for nothing at all, except maybe to give his neurotic mother something to brag to the neighbours about. He trades various of his bodily parts for a set of nice, shiny medals. With these medals and his 15¢ his mother can get a ride anytime on a New York subway train.”
Dave Lineberry - George Jackson
This is off the 2006 compilation album Million Dollar Bash: Missouri Salutes Bob Dylan
The song is a tribute to Black Panther leader George Jackson, who was killed by guards at San Quentin Prison in 1971
Dylan recorded the song that same year
Vitamin String Quartet - Hurricane
They’re a string quartet from Los Angeles known for performing classical versions of popular music
This is from their 2003 album VSQ Performs Bob Dylan
It’s a song from 1975 that protests the wrongful imprisonment of the boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter
Uncle Sinner - This World Can’t Stand Long
From Winnipeg
Written by Jim Anglin and first recorded in 1947 by King’s Sacred Quartette
This is off his 2015 album Let the Devil In
Bob Dylan performed the song 38 times between 1999 and 2002, and Uncle Sinner credits his version to both King’s Sacred Quartette and Bob Dylan
Christy Moore - Tribute to Woody
He’s an Irish folk musician who’s known as a founding member of the band Planxty as well as a solo artist
He’s been performing since 1969, and this one is off his second album Prosperous, from 1972
Bob Dylan included the song on his 1962 self-titled debut album, and it uses the tune of Woody Guthrie’s song “1913 Massacre”
Old Man Luedecke - Le Ciel est Noir
From Chester, NS
Off his 2019 album, Easy Money
It’s a French translation of “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall”
Ted Hawkins - Blowin’ in the Wind
He was a musician from Mississippi
1998 compilation album Love You Most Of All: More Songs from Venice Beach
