Exclusive Dylan Covers Cd

Your track-bytrack guide to our exclusive free CD

“B EING asked to cover a Dylan song is quite difficult,” admits Richard Thompson. “You think, ‘How do you do that?’ After all, his personality is so interwoven into the songs.”

Despite the difficulties in reinterpreting Dylan – and the restrictions of various lockdowns around the globe – Thompson and 13 more of our favourite artists have unpicked some of Dylan’s finest songs to help Uncut celebrate his 80th birthday. There are radical reimaginings from Thurston Moore and Fatoumata Diawara, textured soundscapes from Low and Weyes Blood, epic grandeur from Cowboy Junkies and Frazey Ford, and much more. As if that weren’t enough, we’re also proud to unveil a previously unreleased song performed by Dylan himself.

“Something about the odd mixture of paranoia, fervour, desire, faith and darkness feels strangely relevant to me and relevant to this time,” says The Weather Station’s Tamara Lindeman of her pick, “Precious Angel”. “But that’s the way Dylan songs always are – so timeless.” 

TOM PINNOCK

Dylan, 1983

LYNN GOLDSMITH/CORBIS/VCG VIA GETTY IMAGES; PICTORIAL PRESS LTD/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO; ALEXA VISCIUS; COLIN MEDLEY; COWBOY JUNKIES ARCHIVE; JACQUELINE SCHLOSSMAN

1 BOB DYLAN

Too Late (Acoustic Version)

We lead off with this exclusive and previously unreleased track kindly dug out for Uncut from Dylan’s own archive. Recorded in April 1983 at New York’s Power Station during sessions for Infidels, the song eventually morphed into “Foot Of Pride”, later released on The Bootleg Series Vol 1-3. Raw and urgent, it harks back to Dylan’s earlier work with its rough, jangling guitars and evocative lyrics: “Sing me one more song about your summer romance, or maybe that one about your one-night stand with Errol Flynn…”

2 RICHARD THOMPSON

This Wheel’s On Fire

Engineered and produced by Richard Thompson at Trellis Sound Studio; harmony vocals by Zara Phillips

THOMPSON: “We did ‘This Wheel’s On Fire’ as an encore song with the band a few years ago. I’ve always loved the song but I’ve never liked any of the versions by other people, so I always wanted to do my own. It’s a home recording – it’s me playing everything – but I think it turned out pretty well. I first heard the song as a ‘Basement Tape’ [in the late ’60s] – we knew Dylan’s UK publisher and you could just pop round there and they’d have a pile of acetates to listen to.”

3 COURTNEY MARIE ANDREWS

To Ramona

Engineered, produced, mixed and performed by Courtney Marie Andrews in Bisbee, Arizona; mastered by Ed Brooks 

Back in our March 2021 issue, Andrews flagged Dylan’s Tell Tale Signs: Rare And Unreleased 1989–2006 as one of her most important creative inspirations. Here, though, she heads back to the other end of the songwriter’s career to take on a cut from his fourth album, 1964’s Another Side Of Bob Dylan. With its lilting Mexican-inspired melody, it’s a fine fit for Andrews, who’s long been inspired by the south-of-theborder sounds she heard growing up in Arizona.

4 THE FLAMING LIPS

Lay Lady Lay

Produced by The Flaming Lips and Scott Booker at Pink Floor Studios; engineered by Michael Ivins 

WAYNE COYNE: “I think every songwriter loves this type of ‘romantic’ Bob Dylan song – he really can be very charming. That line ‘Whatever colours you have in your mind/I show them to you and you see them shine…’ It’s the type of wordplay, though it seems kind of like jumbled surrealism, that actually gets to an unspeakable awkward truth.”

5 THE WEATHER STATION

Precious Angel

Recorded by Jeremy Darby; mixed by Tamara Lindeman

TAMARA LINDEMAN: “This song is from Slow Train Coming –I really love this record, and I’ve always wanted to sing this song. But of course I am not Christian nor am Ia man, so as it is for so many songs in the Western canon that address either a woman or a god, I found a way to remove some verses and reorder others to make it a secular song, one I feel I can sing. In my iteration, I see it as an ode to a person who, through sheer strength of vision and wisdom, cuts through the noise and confusion of a tangled time. That’s something I don’t think I’ve ever really heard a song about, and it’s something so beautiful and important, and so worth having a song about.”

Richard Thompson

Courtney Marie Andrews

The Flaming Lips

Cowboy Junkies

Thurston Moore

The Weather Station

Fatoumata Diawara

Brigid Mae Power

Low

Joan Shelley and Nathan Salsburg

Patterson Hood and Jay Gonzalez

Jason Lytle

Weyes Blood

Frazey Ford

6 COWBOY JUNKIES

I’ve Made Up My Mind To Give Myself To You

Produced, recorded and mixed by Michael Timmins at The Hangar, Toronto; performed by Margo Timmins (vocals), Michael Timmins (guitar and ukulele), Peter Timmins (drums), Alan Anton (drums and keyboards)

Toronto’s finest bring us up to date with this stately, lightly psych version of one of the highlights from Rough And Rowdy Ways. Margo Timmins’ yearning voice deepens the sense of longing, while Blake Mills’ sublime guitar parts in the original are here countered by Michael Timmins’ hazy backwards solo.

7 THURSTON MOORE

Buckets Of Rain

Recorded by Eva Prinz at the  Daydream Library in London 

Locked down in his London home, Moore transforms the closing song from Blood On The Tracks into an acoustic urban blues, highlighting the grounding drone at its heart. This isn’t the first time the guitarist has sung a Dylan song: most notably, Sonic Youth contributed their version of “I’m Not There” to Todd Haynes’ 2007 film of the same title.

8 FATOUMATA DIAWARA

Blowin’ In The Wind

Recorded and mixed at Edac Studio, Como, Italy, by Andrea Fognini and Davide Lasala; performed by Fatoumata Diawara (vocals, electric guitar) and Davide Lasala (drums, bass, guitar)

Diawara joins Stevie Wonder, Marlene Dietrich and Peter, Paul & Mary on the list of those who’ve reinterpreted Dylan’s early anthem – yet few versions are as radical as this reimagining, the Malian musician/ actress turning the song into a rousing electric piece led by her stunning vocal work and blistering lead guitar.

9 BRIGID MAE POWER

One More Cup Of Coffee

Produced and performed by Brigid  Mae Power at home in Galway

POWER: “I’ve always loved Bob Dylan. When I was 18 I was so inspired after reading Chronicles that I packed everything up and moved to New York City. Alas, I did not find 1960s NYC like I thought I would – but to move there was a starting point for me as an artist. I find his work very genuinely spiritual and his writing intuitive, which is always the kind of work that speaks to me the most. I chose ‘One More Cup Of Coffee’ because I’ve always loved it –I love Emmylou Harris’s backing vocals too. The melody has a sort of a cool Eastern feel.”

10 LOW

Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door

Performed by Low; produced by Alan Sparhawk at 20° Below; engineered by Alan Sparhawk and Keenan McIntyre-Talbott

Geographically, at least, Low are the closest here to the roots of Bob Dylan, hailing from his hometown of Duluth, Minnesota, on the western shore of Lake Superior. With its hypnotic chords, choral harmonies and slow, steady pace, “…Heaven’s Door” is a natural choice for the trio.

11 JOAN SHELLEY AND NATHAN SALSBURG

Dark Eyes

Recorded at home; performed by Joan Shelley (vocals) and Nathan Salsburg (guitars)

The forlorn, strippeddown coda to 1985’s Empire Burlesque is here revitalised by Louisville’s Shelley and Salsburg: the latter handles the guitars, on clipped acoustic picking and star-spangled electric, while Shelley interprets Dylan’s words with her usual skill and restraint. Even more than on the original, their version brings out the deep influence that British and American traditional folk music has had on the songwriter over the past eight decades.

12 PATTERSON HOOD & JAY GONZALEZ OF DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS

Blind Willie McTell

Recorded at The Heathen Room in Portland, Oregon, and The Carport in Athens, Georgia; performed, produced and recorded by Hood and Gonzalez; mixed by Gonzalez; mastered by David Barbe HOOD: 

“This is a Dylan song I had long heard of but only recently actually started listening to. It’s become one of my all-time favourite Dylan songs – perhaps an all-time favourite song, period. When all this is over and I’m able to play in person with my band, I hope to work up a full band version of ‘Blind Willie McTell’ to play out live.”

13 FRAZEY FORD

The Times They Are A-Changin’

Recorded at Afterlife Studio, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; produced by Frazey Ford and John Raham; engineered and mixed by John Raham; performed by Frazey Ford (lead vocals, electric guitar, keyboards), Darren Parris (bass), Leon Power (drums) and Phil Cook (keyboards)

FORD: “I believe the lyrics to ‘The Times They Are A-Changin’ are even more applicable today than when they were originally written. I recorded this track just a few days after the insurrection at the US capitol on January 6, 2021, and it’s haunting to me how accurate the images are to our times.”

14 JASON LYTLE

Most Of The Time

Performed, produced and recorded by Jason Lytle at some apartment he can’t wait to move out of

LYTLE: “Earlier in 2020 the streaming service I was halfway listening to played me this song. I knew it was his voice, but the production was dreamier than I was used to hearing in his songs. Then I honed in on the words and was extra perplexed. I became obsessed. The song blew me away; it’s like it came out of nowhere and found me. Learning and playing it was fascinating too, as it revealed itself in stages and only very slowly to me. I’m still very confused and in awe of it.”

15 WEYES BLOOD

Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands

Produced by Natalie Mering at 64 Sound, Los Angeles; engineered by Andrew Sarlo and Kenny Gilmore; performed by Natalie Mering, Josh Adams, Eliana Athayde, Drew Erickson 

AIDA MULUNEH; SHELLEY MOSSMAN; AMBER ESTES THIENEMAN; ELI HOOD; KATHRYN VETTER MILLER

What better way to end than with this epic from the creator of Titanic Rising, Uncut’s album of 2019. In keeping with the vivid soundscapes that envelop her own songs, Natalie Mering’s version starts off understated and quiet, before gradually, effortlessly building into a rich and baroque triumph.