All Along the Watchtower - Eddie Vedder & The Million Dollar Bashers
I'm Not There - Sonic Youth
Goin' To Acapulco - Jim James & Calexico
Tombstone Blues - Richie Havens
Ballad Of a Thin Man - Stephen Malkmus & The Million Dollar Bashers
Stuck Inside Of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again - Cat Power
Pressing On - John Doe
Fourth Time Around - Yo La Tengo
Dark Eyes - Iron & Wine & Calexico
Highway 61 Revisited - Karon O & the Million Dollar Bashers
One More Cup Of Coffee - Roger McGuinn & Calexico
The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll - Mason Jennings
Billy 1 - Los Lobos
Simple Twist Of Fate - Jeff Tweedy
Man In the Long Black Coat - Mark Lanegan
Senor (Tales Of Yankee Power) - Willie Nelson & Calexico
Track Listings (18) - Disc #2
As I Went Out One Morning - Mira Billotte
Can't Leave Her Behind - Stephen Malkmus & The Million Dollar Bashers
Ring Them Bells - Sufjan Stevens
Just Like a Woman - Charlotte Gainsbourg & Calexico
Medley: Mama, You've Been On My Mind/A Fraction Of Last Thoughts On Woody Guthrie - Jack Johnson
I Wanna Be Your Lover - Yo La Tengo
You Ain't Goin' Nowhere - Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova
Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window? - The Hold Steady
Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues - Ramblin' Jack Elliott
The Wicked Messenger - The Black Keys
Cold Irons Bound - Tom Verlaine & the Millions Dollar Bashers
The Times They Are a Changin' - Mason Jennings
Maggie's Farm - Stephen Malkmus & The Million Dollar Bashers
When the Ship Comes In - Marcus Carl Franklin
Moonshiner - Bob Forrest
I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine - John Doe
Knockin' On Heaven's Door - Antony & The Johnsons
I'm Not There - Bob Dylan with The Band
Many people have covered Bob Dylan's songs over the years, but few quite like this. On the double-disc soundtrack that accompanies Todd Haynes' extremely confounding biopic of the already plenty confounding folk icon, we g... more »et the likes of Sonic Youth, Cat Power, Yo La Tengo, the Hold Steady, and Antony & The Johnsons doing their best Dylan impressions and often failing gloriously. Former Pavement frontman Stephen Malkmus does a particularly fine job oozing his way through "Ballad of a Thin Man," while Wilco's Jeff Tweedy draws the moody beauty out of "Simple Twist of Fate," and Sufjan Stevens lends his typically baroque touch to "Ring Them Bells." Special credit has to go to the Million Dollar Bashers, the unofficial house band that includes Steve Shelley on drums, John Medeski on piano, and Tom Verlaine on guitar, along with other notable musicians. The generous track list and dynamic set of contributors promises that this album will provide plenty of awe long after the film itself has been forgotten. --Aidin Vaziri« less
Many people have covered Bob Dylan's songs over the years, but few quite like this. On the double-disc soundtrack that accompanies Todd Haynes' extremely confounding biopic of the already plenty confounding folk icon, we get the likes of Sonic Youth, Cat Power, Yo La Tengo, the Hold Steady, and Antony & The Johnsons doing their best Dylan impressions and often failing gloriously. Former Pavement frontman Stephen Malkmus does a particularly fine job oozing his way through "Ballad of a Thin Man," while Wilco's Jeff Tweedy draws the moody beauty out of "Simple Twist of Fate," and Sufjan Stevens lends his typically baroque touch to "Ring Them Bells." Special credit has to go to the Million Dollar Bashers, the unofficial house band that includes Steve Shelley on drums, John Medeski on piano, and Tom Verlaine on guitar, along with other notable musicians. The generous track list and dynamic set of contributors promises that this album will provide plenty of awe long after the film itself has been forgotten. --Aidin Vaziri
"Bob Dylan is the greatest and most influential songwriter in rock history. Like Shakespeare before him, artists and poets will reinvent and replay his music. Even though Bob is still with us, this is one of the first real examples of the future of Dylan's music. It is strange hearing various artists and bands play music heard hundreds if not thousands of times. Each artist here tweaks and reworks the song in a way to make it their own while keeping the spirit of the song intact. I would recommend this album to hardcore Dylan fans like me and to those who never got into Dylan's music because they didnt care for his voice. This album makes you look at Dylan from a different angle and the result is still absorbing, frustrating but ultimately supremely rewarding."
Best Bob Dylan covers comp that I've heard
The Last Person You'd Expect | Seattle, WA United States | 11/15/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"There are a few multi-artist Dylan comps on the market, notably A Nod to Bob: An Artists' Tribute to Bob Dylan on His Sixtieth Birthday and the decent 30th anniversary concert soundtrack, the latter recorded long before his late 90's artistic revival when his new recordings again became as indispensable as his 60's and 70's output. Then there's compilations by individual artists like the Byrds, the Hollies, Richie Havens, Joan Baez, the Dead, and recently Brian Ferry, which aren't always spectacular either. Joan Baez, in my mind, is the greatest interpreter of Dylan's work; she can make each song her own like no one else.
Baez doesn't appear on this album, and neither do the remaining members of the Band. Perhaps they've developed and have been developed to such an extent by Dylan that an interpretation by either would be almost worthless. It's far more interesting to see an artist with an entirely different style, like Sonic Youth, Steve Malkmus or Cat Power, come along and modernize an old Dylan song.
Cat Power covered Dylan on her first Cover's Album, but her version of 'Stuck Inside a Mobile..' is not only recognizable, but up-tempo and very non-Cat-Power-like (almost happy). Former Pavement front-man Steve Malkmus has three songs on the album, as do Calexico. Both sets of contributions are outstanding; Steve Malkmus channels Dylan's vocals without leaving his own Lou Reed-influenced delivery far behind and Calexico may be an ideal backing band for Dylan himself if he didn't work so much in country and rockabilly; instead they play behind Willie Nelson, Roger McGuinn, Iron & Wine, and Jim James (of My Morning Jacket). Sonic Youth's cover of the title track, an obscure song, presumably off the basement tapes, with the original included at the very end of the second disc, sets the tone of the album along with a pretty good Eddie Vedder take of (the Jimi Hendrix interpretation of) All Along the Watchtower.
Other surprises include Yo La Tengo's profoundly gorgeous take of the early gem, Fourth Time Around, the Hold Steady's cover (not that great, but entertaining) of the early B-side "Can You Please Crawl Out My Window?", Jeff Tweedy's passionate delivery on Simple Twist of Fate, and perhaps the most profoundly moving cover on the album was done by an actor in the movie, a young african-american kid named Marcus Carl Franklin, one of the several actors who portray Dylan.
There aren't any big disappointments. Tom Verlaine's (of Television) cover of Cold Irons Bound comes to mind as one that could have been reworked a little so that it wouldn't drag as much. I skipped past Jack Johnson on my last couple listens, so I can't say much about that. Antony (of Antony & the Johnson's) sing Knockin on Heaven's Door just as you'd expect, but without adding much to note.
After all that, there's still a lot of artist contributions to comment on, but the nicest thing about the collection is that it doesn't sound like a bunch of disparate recordings patched together on one album. The arbitrary differences in production on most movie soundtracks and collections can cause them to fall apart if not well-sequenced. These songs all sound like they were recorded in the same studio under the same conditions, and the result is largely a sense of cohesion and purpose that's lacking on most tribute albums (even including Dylan's own tribute to Jimmy Rogers).
So, if you're going to get one collection of Dylan covers, this would be it. Now I can't wait to see the movie..."
Great covers album
M. McDonnell | 10/30/2007
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Bob Dylan's material has always been popularly when interpreted by other artists. Witness the works of The Byrds, Jimi Hendrix, and Judy Collins among many others. This collection of Dylan covers is stellar. In particular, the Calexico collaborations stand out. "One More Cup of Coffee" featuring Roger McGuinn and Calexico is a real highpoint. These two artists should sit down in a studio and do a full album together - a match made in heaven! Also, the Tom Verlaine interpretation of, "Cold Irons Bound" is brilliant. I highly recommend this collection to all Dylan fans, as well as fans of the many artists featured."
My Favorite Record of the Fall/Winter
John Wraith | Rural Virginia | 12/10/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I just looked over some of the reviews for this album, and I can't believe how many old hippies have posted on here about how "only Bob can do Bob" (one old-timer even insisted that the list of great artists to cover him begins with the horrible, uninspired noodlings of the Grateful Dead!). These songs are reinterpretations of great songs, and yes, many of them are quite different than the originals. One reviewer suggested that these versions are "too modern," which says a great deal about that person's closed-mindedness when it comes to music produced after the 1960s. Most of the other negative reviews are clearly unfamiliar with the bands on this album (most of whom are pretty popular among music fans, by the way). I don't know why anyone would want these songs to sound just like Dylan, or why anyone would say he'd rather hear Dylan do them when all he'd have to do is pop a Dylan album in.
This is an excellent soundtrack full of excellent versions of excellent songs. It's really interesting, too: halfway through my first listen to Ramblin' Jack Elliott's version of "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues," I was about to dismiss it as a cheap Dylan imitation, only to realize that hey, early, acoustic Dylan is really a cheap Ramblin' Jack impression, as he's the first to admit, so it's really almost like hearing 1963-era Dylan covering 1965-era Dylan, if you catch my drift, which is really awesome. Other highlights include Sonic Youth doing a great job with the title song; Jim James and Calexico absolutely killing "Going to Acapulco"; Malkmus's unbelievable "Ballad of a Thin Man, in which his slacker-drawl somehow turns the song into something that I can't help dancing to; Yo La Tengo's "Fourth Time Around" with Georgia on vocals; Malkmus again on "Maggie's Farm"; Mason Jennings's versions of the folkie stuff; and the excellent backing by Calexico and the supergroup Million Dollar Bashers. Even Jack Johnson, whom I normally find too vanilla, does a really good job with "Mama, You've Been on My Mind." Only Sufjan Stevens stinks up the joint, doing a limp-wristed, Lawrence Welk-ified version of "Ring Them Bells" that doesn't fit in at all with the rest of the record (but then again, in my opinion Stevens ruins everything he touches).
This is exactly the right kind of soundtrack for this movie: it's smart, artistic, and challenging, and the kind of people who want to see their hero preserved in a time capsule like some sort of psychedelic Vladimir Lenin will undoubtedly be frightened out of their tie-dye. Plus, the vinyl version is four LPs, which is pretty cool."
Million Dollar Bash
K to the BBC | New York, NY USA | 11/02/2007
(4 out of 5 stars)
"I think the critical review posted on here is a bit over the top. This is a fantastic collection of Dylan songs - both famous and more obscure ones - by some of the most relevant artists working today. It's a loving homage to the master songwriter. Each artist brings his/her/their own interpretation of the song to the table, but they also keep his sensibilities in mind (with a few exceptions). Some of the covers are obvious love letters to their songwriting hero (e.g. those by Cat Power, Jeff Tweedy, Stephen Malkmus), but there are also many artists on this collection that I previously wouldn't have associated with Dylan, but now I'm happy to see the connection. My advice is simple: take a look at the artists who appear on this collection. If you like them, and you love Dylan, I think it's a safe bet you'll enjoy this soundtrack."