music Archives - Page 253 of 264 - Ramblin' with Roger

D is for Dylan covers

There was a quite peculiar version of Simon & Garfunkel’s The Boxer; I remain convinced to this day that was done in retaliation for a snarky S&G song.

Let’s face it: Bob Dylan didn’t/doesn’t have the prettiest voice in pop music. But his strength as a songwriter, especially early on, allowed listeners to become familiar with his songs through the performances of others.

Joan Baez, as noted previously, was an early advocate and performer of Dylan’s music, as were Peter, Paul, and Mary, who had two Top 10 songs written by Dylan way back in 1963, Blowin’ in the Wind which hit the charts in June and got to #2; and Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right, charting in September, and ending up at #9.

But it was 1965 that Dylan really broke through, both as a performer and an artist being covered. The Byrds’ Mr. Tambourine Man hit the charts in June 1965, reaching #1. Cher’s All I Really Want to Do started its climb to #15 in July, and It Ain’t Me Babe by the Turtles charted in August, eventually getting to #8. Meanwhile, Dylan had his first hit with Like a Rolling Stone, which started its ascent in July, eventually getting to #2 in September, blocked from the top of the charts by the Beatles’ Help!

Mojo magazine compiled a list of top 10 Dylan covers, while Paste magazine has listed what it considers the 50 Best Bob Dylan Covers of All Time. Meanwhile, Dylan Cover Albums.com boasts 30,000 covers. The podcast Coverville recently offered its fifth Bob Dylan Cover Story in seven years.

Of course, this cover thing can go both ways. Here’s a list of songs covered BY Bob Dylan. While quite a few were from his early career, there were also a bunch from the 1970 double album, Self Portrait. I know this very well because I bought that LP for my high school girlfriend; then we listened to it, not quite as impressed as we had hoped we might be. In particular, there was a quite peculiar version of Simon & Garfunkel’s The Boxer; I remain convinced to this day that was done in retaliation for a snarky S&G song called A Simple Desultory Philippic (Or How I Was Robert McNamara’d into Submission), in which Simon parodies Dylan; “Albert” in the song is almost certainly Dylan’s manager at the time, Albert Grossman.

Bob Dylan Covers Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” (but doesn’t almost everyone?)

ABC Wednesday – Round 8

C is for Circle Songs

The Cyrkle was a Pennsylvania band, managed by Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein, and named by John Lennon.

The circle is considered the perfect symbol, something with no beginning and no ending. So I decided that all I want to post today are songs, specifically circle songs.

LISTEN TO The Circle Game by Joni Mitchell

Joni Mitchell, a Canadian singer-songwriter, ended her 1970 Ladies of the Canyon album with this oft-covered tune. In fact, Tom Rush had already put it on his 1968 album named after this song. Here’s a 1967 version from Joni. Buffy Sainte-Marie had a minor hit with the song as well.

LISTEN TO Happiness Runs by Donovan

Donovan was one of those 1960s singers that some critics pegged as “the next Bob Dylan”, which is always an unfair comparison. Here’s the Scottish singer on the Smothers Brothers singing Lalena, then Happiness Runs (at 3:50) in 1968. I remember watching it at the time and loving it. The song at the end is, according to one source, Unknown Song, featuring Jennifer Warnes.
Happiness runs in a circular motion
Thought is like a little boat upon the sea.
Everybody is a part of everything anyway,
You can have everything if you let yourself be.

LISTEN TO Windmills of Your Mind by Alison Moyet

English pop singer Alison Moyet is one of several artists to perform this song by Michel Legrand and Alan and Marilyn Bergman, “from the 1968 film The Thomas Crown Affair. Noel Harrison performed the song for the film score. It won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1969.” The most famous version was by the late English pop/soul crooner Dusty Springfield, but there have been many others, including Petula Clark, Vanilla Fudge (!), Neil Diamond and Sting.
Like a circle in a spiral
Like a wheel within a wheel
Never ending or beginning
On an ever-spinning reel.

LISTEN TO Will It Go Round In Circles by Billy Preston

American soul singer and keyboardist Billy Preston was a child prodigy and played with musicians such as Ray Charles and Sam Cooke. He befriended the Beatles and later became the first person to get a credit on a Beatles single. He was signed to the Beatles’ Apple Records, but his real success came when he moved to A&M Records and had four Top 10 hits, including this #1. Unfortunately, Billy died in 2006, at the age of 59.

LISTEN TO Will the Circle Be Unbroken by Michelle Wright, Iris DeMent, and Mairead Ni Mhaonaight

Will the Circle Be Unbroken is a 100+ year old song, which I most associate with legendary country music artists the Carter Family. It has been often covered, notably by Johnny Cash, who married into the Carter family when he wed June; and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, whose album of the same name “brings the longhaired West Coast band together with some of Nashville’s greatest artists.”

LISTEN TO Red Rubber Ball by The Cyrkle

Finally, a bit of a cheat. The Cyrkle was a Pennsylvania band, managed by Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein, and named by John Lennon. This was their biggest hit, as it went to #2 in 1966, written by Paul Simon.

ABC Wednesday – Round 8

Beatles Island Songs, 103-94

OK, a schmaltzy song from Lennon, sung by Starkey, but for over a year, I sang it to my daughter to get her to sleep.

JEOPARDY! answers. Questions at the end.

FAMOUS WOMEN $200: After taking up with John Lennon, she became known as “The Woman Who Broke Up the Beatles”
NONFICTION $400: Vincent Bugliosi took the title of this 1974 book about the Manson murders from a Beatles song
INVENTIONS $200: Name shared by a Beatles album title & an 1835 invention of Samuel Colt

The rules of engagement

103 Words of Love from Beatles for Sale (US), Beatles VI (US). My sisters, neighbor, and I used to lipsynch to this album and charge the neighbor kids a nickel each to watch. I was Lennon and sister Leslie was McCartney. Listened to this Buddy Holly cover a lot.
102 She’s a Woman from the B-side to I Feel Fine (UK), Beatles ’65 (US). A jaunty McCartney tune.
101 I Will from the white album. A lovely McCartney tune, but I always thought it needed to be longer than 1:42, as most of the covers (Ben Taylor, Alison Krauss) are.
100 Paperback Writer, A-side of single (UK), Hey Jude album (US). Not sure that I really liked this song all that much on the first listen, but it grew on me, especially the opening riff.
99 Yellow Submarine from Revolver. This, b/w Eleanor Rigby, was possibly the first single I ever purchased. And then the album came out, and I was mystified that the response vocal in the last verse started one line later on the album than the single – no, I’m not crazy – confirmed finally on one of those Anthology singles. I like this McCartney song, performed by Starkey, though I’m not convinced that, tone-wise, it belongs on the album.
98 I Need You from Help! In the 1980s, my favorite local radio station had something called Fourplay, four songs related by a theme. I found four songs called “I Need You” – this Harrison song, an obscure Who tune, the ones by America, and I think, Joan Armatrading. Or maybe it was Paul Carrack. They went together surprisingly well.
97 Please Please Me from Please Please Me (UK), Introducing the Beatles/The Early Beatles. About a perfect early pop tune from Lennon.
96 Good Night from the white album. OK, a schmaltzy song, with sappy strings, from Lennon, sung by Starkey, but for over a year, I sang it to my daughter to get her to sleep.
95 Dear Prudence from the white album. Lennon’s song about Mia Farrow’s sister in India. I like that it’s of a specific time and place.
94 Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite! from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. From circus posters Lennon saw. A fun, psychedelic cut.
***
JEOPARDY! questions:
Who was Yoko Ono? (But I don’t buy the charge.)
What was “Helter Skelter”?
What is Revolver?

30 Day Challenge – Day 30: Whomever You Find Most Attractive In This World

Rebecca and Rico were dubbed “Lightning” and “Thunder”, respectively.

Jeez, Louise. I started this thing on May 6. I posted Day 29 on November 14. 30 days? HA!

This picture of my wife and daughter is from April of 2008 in Virginia, probably Jamestown or Norfolk, someplace near Williamsburg.

Oh, my niece Rebecca, who had one of those Kickstarter things to raise the $3000 to put together a music album reached her goal! It was interesting because, with less than a week to go before the Christmas deadline, she seemed stuck at about $2350. Got $1000 in the last week.

And speaking of my niece Rebecca, did I mention that she and her husband Rico both appeared on a peculiar TV competition program called Wipeout back in September? It’s Season 3, Episode 16: Food Fight. Annoyingly, I cannot find it either on the ABC.com site or on Hulu.com, though other episodes can be found there. Oddly, though, there is a transcript of the show.

The hosts try to create artificial tension between Rebecca and another woman over Rico’s affection. Also, Rebecca and Rico were dubbed “Lightning” and “Thunder”, respectively. Though Rico was the third to cross the Shape Shifter (don’t ask), and the first to cross without riding in a shape, he was eliminated in the first round. Rebecca made it to the finals, where she ultimately came in second.

Beatles Island Songs, 113-104

Paul played the drums.

JEOPARDY! answers-
SONGS OF THE ’60S $400: The Beatles’ 8th No. 1 hit, it begins “I think I’m gonna be sad”
MUSIC $600: 42 members of the London Symphony are heard in “A Day In The Life” on this Beatles album
“LONG” SONGS $100: Phil Spector overdubbed this last number-one Beatles hit

Did the Beatles appear in Albany movie theaters BEFORE “A Hard Day’s Night”? Yes, they did…
And that concert film, also starring the Beach Boys and Lesley Gore, will be shown again in Los Angeles on February 11, 2011.

The rules of engagement

113 Long Tall Sally from EP release (UK), Beatles’ Second Album (US). McCartney doing his best Little Richard impression.
112 Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The trouble with the segued songs is that they don’t feel as complete. I like it well enough.
111 I Call Your Name from EP release (UK), Beatles’ Second Album (US). This was first released, I believe, by Billy J Kramer and the Dakotas, then done pretty much as a throwaway by Lennon, but works for me.
110 Bad Boy from Beatles VI (US). Yet another Larry Williams song, covered by Lennon. How is it that this song was released in the US but not in the UK until a collection of oldies came out after the fact? That’s what ranks this over Dizzy Miss Lizzie.
109 The Ballad of John and Yoko from A-side of the single. The story song by Lennon, banned on some stations for the repeated use of the word “Christ”, and featuring only John and Paul, who played the drums, among other things.
108 Good Day Sunshine from Revolver. The song sounds like a stroll. The daughter has taken to singing the chorus, and I’m not sure she heard the McCartney song from me.
107 Baby, It’s You from Please Please Me (UK), Introducing the Beatles/The Early Beatles (US). The oft-covered Shirelles song by Burt Bacharach, Hal David, and Luther Dixon has a nice Lennon vocal. The BBC version of this song charted in the UK three decades later.
106 All I’ve Got to Do from With the Beatles (UK), Meet the Beatles (US). Like this from the first strummed chord.
105 I’ll Get You from the B-side of She Loves You (UK), The Beatles’ Second Album (US). Nice early Lennon and McCartney.
104 Lovely Rita from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Cheerful McCartney tune which made me rethink meter maids. But my favorite part is the darker outro.

What is “Ticket To Ride”
What is Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
What is “The Long and Winding Road”; re: the latter, the original clue also said, “John and Paul’s original version is not for sale”, but this is no longer true, thanks to the release of Let It Be…Naked.