Customer Reviews

Dylanesque

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

First a confession--I'm a big Roxy Music/Bryan Ferry fan. I'm also a big fan of Bob Dylan. There have been many albums by Ferry I didn't really care for ("Taxi" except for one or two tracks rarely gets played and Mamouna is my least favorite Ferry solo album. While "Flesh & Blood" is, with the exception of two tracks, a complete waste of time as far as I'm concerned). I say all of that so you know where my bias is when it comes to Ferry's material. Ferry's weathered vocals actually compliment many of the songs here and even though he isn't the singer he once was (who is?), he makes up for some of his loss of range with his interpretative skills.

Bryan Ferry has tackeld Dylan before. His first time was with his art rock approach to "A Hard Rain's a-gonna Fall" and then the tracks on his last solo album. This time around he tackles an entire album full of Dylan songs and while the result isn't perfect, the bulk of these songs and their arrangements are inspired. Ferry works out arrangements that are both surprising and, at times, dazzling just don't go into this album expecting arrangements of the same songs cut from the same cloth as Dylan's--Ferry alters the arrangements to fit his vocal and arranging style much as he did with his album of standards from a couple of years ago.

The opener "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" is inspired with a nice groove, nice harmonica fills from Ferry. His voice is a bit ragged but, heck, it adds character to his trilling crooner's voice. "Simple Twist of Fate" is up next and, again, Ferry does a nice job here although it isn't as radically rearranged as "Tom" it's still quite good with nice guitar playing by Chris Spedding. "Make You Feel My Love" opens with stately piano playing by Colin Good that would have made this song fit in well with the material on "Stranded". "The Times Are a'Changing" has a bold, rocking groove and makes it sound signficantly different from previous covers of the song. "All I Really Want To Do" is nice but doesn't quite fit in within the other songs here with a more conventional arrangement.

Doing "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" is a pretty bold move for Ferry. Dylan's original is pretty definitive and Warren Zevon's cover reinvented it with a sense of desperation missing from the original. Ferry's version is solid but doesn't break any new ground. "Positively 4th Street" recasts Dylan's song with piano and a string background. Ferry's weary sounding vocals compliments the arrangement perfectly and the minimal use of percussion & guitar adds nice highlights to the song.

I have always thought of George Harrison's cover of "If Not For You" as the definitive cover but Ferry adds a syncopated beat and the moody, rolling guitar lines that Roxy were well known. The use of strings add a bit of punch when they kick in as well with just the right country flavor.

"Baby Let Me Follow You Down" features plenty of Ferry's harmonica playing and the use of organ gives this a feeling closer to what Dylan might do...well except for the funky rhythm guitar. "Gates of Eden" is a favorite of mine and Ferry recasts it in such a way that it would have fit in nicely right next to "Hiroshima" on his last solo album. "All Along the Watch Tower" closes out the album with an arrangement both familiar (because it touches on Hendrix's cover version)and original with some nice biting guitar work from Spedding. It's not a definitive version but it's a strong closer for the album.

Although it isn't quite as strong as Ferry's last solo album which mixed originals with a couple of Dylan covers, "Dylanesque" suggests that Ferry continues to be a terrific interpretor of other people's material. Although none of his regular Roxy Music cohorts appear on the album, his usual solo backing band (some of whom were added to Roxy for touring purposes)do a terrific job of reshaping Dylan's material.

Other Ferry solo albums where he covers every one from Dylan to Lesley Gore-

These Foolish Things

Let's Stick Together

Another Time, Another Place

I find the vitriol hurled at this CD to be especially appalling. This is a fine work. I've shared it with many friends, Dylan fans, and they all love it. Anyone who knows anything about Dylan knows that he constantly reinterprets his songs live, so what's the beef that Ferry follows Dylan's lead? Here, Ferry teases out the melodies that Dylan often only implies--which is Dylan's way, and that's totally cool, not meant as a criticism at all. The playing is subtle and informed. Ferry's harmonica is especially interesting, since it owes more, I think, to his keyboard articulation than to the traditional player's guitar in terms of phrasing.

There is not a duff track on this CD. You all know the songs and the arrangements already from previous reviews. The hostile criticism brings to mind a Dylan concert long ago, when he appeared with the Band and was booed for going electric. Some people need to grow up. Ferry is moving atmospherics and subtlety into arrangements in new ways, interesting ways. And guys, there is no connection whatsoever to Manilow. Clearly, this fine CD is not intended for the tone deaf. The rest of us will have it in their players for months and years to come. It's superb.

How could the 2 star reviewer who purports to be a Dylan fan criticize this excellent work as seeming "to have been created for the sake of reinterpreting something that should need no interpretation". DYLAN IS ALL ABOUT REINTERPRETATION. Another artist's interpretations are always welcome. They may or may not be your favorite versions, but some of these are masterpieces of singing in their own right. Try it out. In the online world, collections of reinterpretations of Dylan are very popular, and Bryan Ferry has made an excellent contribution. Dylan himself would never want to be stuck with just the original recordings. They were only "sketches", "blueprints" or "outlines" in his world, a means for new interpretations.

Most of us would not associate Bryan Ferry the art-rock lounge lizard with Bob Dylan, the ragged poet-troubadour.

But Ferry's swaggering 1973 version of Dylan's "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall" left old smoothie chops with a desire to do a whole album of Dylan covers, but it has taken him over 30 years to get round to it.

One of the supremely gifted interpreters of other people's songs, Ferry's take on Dylan's work was always bound to be at the very least interesting.

Twenty songs were rattled off in a week, of which 11 made the final cut, and the spontaneity of the session is obvious.

Ferry's band deftly evoke the sturdy, simplistic country-tinged rock which is Dylan's thing, and the album kicks off convincingly with "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" and "Simple Twist Of Fate".

But some of the mid-tempo material, like "All I Really Wanna Do", is merely so-so, and it's a surprise to hear the protest song "The Times They Are A-Changin'" dashed off at yet another plodder in this vein. Neither is there much that Ferry can do to improve on Hendrix's blistering re-interpretation of "All Along The Watchtowe"r or even Eric Clapton's reggaefication of "Knockin' On Heaven's Door".

Where Ferry scores is in a wistful, airy reading of "Make You Feel My Love", the velvety-yet-venomous "Positively 4th Street" and the Roxy-like "If Not For You", complete with simmering sonic enhancements by old buddy Brian Eno.

I must admit that as a big Dylan fan I was prepared to dislike this disc. I couldn't be more wrong. This is a great CD! Ferry's reinterpretations of these classics is great. So he made some of them sound like pop songs - big deal! Great singing, great musicians , and having Bob Clearmountain as your mixer makes for a winning team. Dylan is not God, and his songs can be reworked as the artist sees fit. Plenty of other great artists have had the same treatment. Check it for yourself before believing the negative reviews from people who hate any kind of change.

For anyone who admires Bob Dylan's songs, Bryan Ferry's singing, or "Flesh and Blood"-era Roxy Music this album has much to offer. I've played it many times since purchasing it shortly after its release and enjoyed it each time. Ferry has always had a knack for taking others' songs and making them his own. Perhaps my favorite cut on "Dylanesque" is the up tempo, New Wave take on "Simple Twist of Fate." My only complaint is that Ferry didn't dig more deeply into Dylan's vast song catalogue to select some less frequently covered tunes. Something from "Street Legal", for example, would have been preferable to yet another version of "Knockin' On Heaven's Door."

Ferry Does Dylan---Well!!!

Brian Eno and the other Bryan: Bryan Ferry, took the avante-rock world by storm in the 70's in the guise of the band: Roxy Music. Ferry's smooth looks and delivery (much like Robert Palmer) seemed in stark contrast to the disjointed Roxy Music tunes themselves. His latest release, "Dylanesque" are all 11 Bob Dylan tunes. This isn't the first time he has covered Dylan songs. In 1973 he released a British single release only of "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall", one of Dylan's most hard rocking songs live.

The thing that first struck me about this new cd were the great guitar and harmonica jams during the middle and ends of the songs. Ferry has always covered everyone's elses songs on his albums. His unique phrasing and semi-quavering voice gave a maturity to some great `shouted' songs. Essentially, there is nothing that is not in his range of emotive ability in song.

In a word, these songs are elegant. They don't have the folk feel of a Dylan album. Instead, they take each song further than the original writer did. The songs flow well one into another. Often cover albums tend to be disjointed and highly uneven. Not this one. The supporting cast : Ex-Squeeze Paul Carrack, Brian Eno, and famed guitarist Robin Trower help add the bottom needed to make the album lush like all Ferry solo albums tend to be. While some of Ferry's solo projects lean at times to easy-listening renditions, `Dylanesque' is anything but that. It has a wistful relaxed air, but it also maintains an indiscriminate edge.

For me, the highlights of the cd were: Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues, All Along the Watchtower, Knockin' on Heaven Doors (extended version); and Simple Twist of Fate. If you are a Bryan Ferry fan, this MUST be in your collection. Yes, there are a couple of puzzlers here, but there always are on Ferry's work. He has long regarded Dylan as one of the greatest contributors to both folk and rock. This albums in most every way is a long overdue tribute to Dylan by one of the best song interpreters out today. I was totally pleased with the effort and am a huge Roxy and Ferry fan. I was ready to be mildly disappointed since Dylan's songs are so well-known that additional recordings of them probably wouldn't add much to the huge body of work that Bob has contributed over the years. It turns out, I played the cd three times straight: twice in the car, and once at home. To say the least, I was mesmerized. If you're tired of today's rock music and want something that sounds mature, classic rock, yet isn't grunged out, then you're in the right place with "Dylanesque."

First a confession--I'm a big Roxy Music/Bryan Ferry fan. There have been many albums by Ferry I didn't really care for ("Taxi" except for one or two tracks rarely gets played and Mamouna is my least favorite Ferry solo album. While "Flesh & Blood" is, with the exception of two tracks, a complete waste of time as far as I'm concerned). I say all of that so you know where my bias is when it comes to Ferry's material.

Bryan Ferry has tackeld Dylan before. His first time was with his artrock approach to "A Hard Rain's a-gonna Fall" and then the tracks on his last solo album. This time around he tackles an entire album full of Dylan songs and while the result isn't perfect, the bulk of these songs and their arrangements are inspired.

The opener "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" is inspired with a nice groove, nice harmonica fills from Ferry. His voice is a bit ragged but, heck, it adds character to his trilling crooner's voice. "Simple Twist of Fate" is up next and, again, Ferry does a nice job here although it isn't as radically rearranged as "Tom" it's still quite good with nice guitar playing by Chris Spedding. "Make You Feel My Love" opens with stately piano playing by Colin Good that would have made this song fit in well with the material on "Stranded". "The Times Are a'Changing" has a bold, rocking groove and makes it sound signficantly different from previous covers of the song. "All I Really Want To Do" is nice but doesn't quite fit in within the other songs here with a more conventional arrangement.

Doing "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" is a pretty bold move for Ferry. Dylan's original is pretty definitive and Warren Zevon's cover reinvented it with a sense of desperation missing from the original. Ferry's version is solid but doesn't break any new ground. "Positively 4th Street" recasts Dylan's song with piano and a string background. Ferry's weary sounding vocals compliments the arrangement perfectly and the minimal use of percussion & guitar adds nice highlights to the song.

I have always thought of George Harrison's cover of "If Not For You" as the definitive cover but Ferry adds a syncopated beat and the moody, rolling guitar lines that Roxy were well known. The use of strings add a bit of punch when they kick in as well with just the right country flavor.

"Baby Let Me Follow You Down" features plenty of Ferry's harmonica playing and the use of organ gives this a feeling closer to what Dylan might do...well except for the funky rhythm guitar. "Gates of Eden" is a favorite of mine and Ferry recasts it in such a way that it would have fit in nicely right next to "Hiroshima" on his last solo album. "All Along the Watch Tower" closes out the album with an arrangement both familiar (because it touches on Hendrix's cover version)and original with some nice biting guitar work from Spedding. Robin Trower plays acoustic guitar on this track. Ferry's vocal is the focus here though and he adopts the personna of the "storyteller" of this song very well indeed. It's not a definitive version but it's a strong closer for the album.

Although it isn't quite as strong as Ferry's last solo album which mixed originals with a couple of Dylan covers, "Dylanesque" suggests that Ferry continues to be a terrific interpretor of other people's material. Although none of his regular Roxy Music cohorts appear on the album, his usual solo backing band (some of whom were added to Roxy for touring purposes)do a terrific job of reshaping Dylan's material.

Interesting choices of great songs with terrific arrangements. A must for any Dylan or Roxy Music fan!

What a pleasure it was to hear Bob Dylan's music done in such a way you could hear what the music and words were saying. Ferry's voice is as unique as Dylan's, but much easier to listen to. Where has this guy been?