Last night on “Late Show with David Letterman” Lenny Kravitz fronted a band that did pretty much a note-for-note cover of The Beatles “Get Back.”
Not so cool as Broken Bells revamp of “And I Love Her.”
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Last night on “Late Show With David Letterman” Broken Bells delivered a cool version of The Beatles “And I Love Her” complete with samples of Ringo’s drums from “I Am the Walrus” and video of Ringo and the other Beatles on an old TV.
Plus Paul Shaffer interviews the guys:
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Fifty years ago, on February 5, 1964, “Baby, Let Me Follow You Down” was copyrighted as a Bob Dylan composition, by Whitmark & Sons, Dylan’s song publisher at the time.
But as Tim Dunn details in his book, “The Bob Dylan Copyright Files: 1962 – 2007,” Bob Dylan didn’t write “Baby, Let Me Follow You Down.”
What’s odd about it is that at the beginning of Dylan’s recording of the song for his 1962 Columbia Records debut, Dylan credits Eric Von Schmidt as teaching the song to him.
“I first heard this from Ric Von Schmidt,” Dylan says before starting to sing the song. “He lives in Cambridge. Ric’s a blues guitar player. I met him one day in the green pastures of Harvard University.”
So Whitmark & Sons certainly should have known by February of 1964, more than two years after Dylan recorded the song, that it was not a Dylan original.
Dunn writes that the song can be traced to a 1930 recording by Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe McCoy: “Can I Do It For You.”
Eventually Blind Boy Fuller recorded a version of “Mama Let Me Lay It On You” in 1938 that, in turn, was adapted by Eric Von Schmidt. Reverend Gary Davis claimed that he taught the song to Fuller, and in 1978 the song was copyrighted as a composition by Davis. (Davis passed away in 1972.)
When Dylan was hanging around Greenwich Village in 1961, he also heard Dave Van Ronk perform a version of “Baby, Let Me Follow You Down.”
In an article Von Schmidt wrote that was published posthumously in the Winter 2008 issue of Sing Out! magazine, he said that Dylan’s version of “Baby, Let Me Follow You Down” was “…a hybrid… probably closer to Dave’s version.” (Von Schmidt passed away in 2007; Van Ronk passed away in 2002.)
When the remastered version of Bob Dylan was released in 2005, the revised credits read: “Rev. G. Davis; add. contributions E. von Schmidt, D. Van Ronk.”
Bob Dylan, “Baby, Let me Follow You Down” off Dylan’s debut album, Bob Dylan:
Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe McCoy, 1930:
Blind Boy Fuller, “Mama Let Me Lay It On You,” April 1938:
Rev. Gary Davis, “Baby Let Me Lay It On You”:
Bob Dylan and the Hawks, “Baby, Let Me Follow you Down,” Manchester Free Trade Hall, May 17, 1966:
Check out this version by Carly Simon with members of the Hawks backing her in 1966 — it’s not complete. The songs starts in at about 50 seconds into the clip:
Plus more versions from the 1966 World Tour:
Bob Dylan and the Hawks, “Baby, Let Me Follow You Down,” April 13, 1966, Sydney, Australia:
Bob Dylan and the Hawks, “Baby, Let Me Follow You Down,” April 20, 1966, Melbourne, Australia:
Bob Dylan and the Hawks, “Baby, Let Me Follow You Down,” May 14, 1966, Liverpool:
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Check out this glittery version of Bob Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff” by Karen O, Sam Spiegel, and his production duo N.A.S.A.
Thanks Brooklyn Vegan!
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The next Neil Young album, A Letter Home, will feature “rediscovered songs from the past recorded on ancient electro mechanical technology,” according to posts that appeared today on both the “Coming Soon From Third Man Records” area of Jack White’s Third Man Records website and the Neil Young website.
Here’s the text from both sites:
A LETTER HOME
January 22, 2014
Third Man Records unearths Neil Young’s “A Letter Home.”
An unheard collection of rediscovered songs from the past recorded on ancient electro mechanical technology captures and unleashes the essence of something that could have been gone forever…… Homer Grosvenor
Young spoke briefly to Rolling Stone last night about recording the album, saying, “it’s one of the lowest-tech experiences I’ve ever had.”
When Young spoke at the 56th GRAMMY Awards Producers & Engineers Wing the night of January 21, 2014, he said something that would appear to relate to A Letter Home: “There’s something that happens with one mic. When everyone sings into one mic, when everybody plays into the same mic: I’ve just never been able to do that, with some rare instances like when I record in a recording booth from a 1940s state fair. I got that sound by closing myself into a telephone booth. And I notice, it sounds just like an old record. And I like the sound of old records! I’ve always loved that.”
The album is set for a March release according to Rolling Stone.
This info now officially confirms the news I broke about the album last week.
–– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
I previously posted about this cover, but now we get to hear Phosphorescent do Bob Dylan’s “Tomorrow Is A Long Time.”
The track will appear on the Starbucks Valentine’s Day comp Sweethearts 2014 due February 4, 2014.
Here’s one of Dylan’s versions of the song:
Thanks Consequence of Sound!
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Here comes an unusual Bob Dylan tribute album, Bob Dylan In The 80s: Volume One, which will be released March 25, 2014.
Today we get a taste from Built To Spill, who cover “Jokerman.” In exchange for your email (which goes to ATO Records) you get to download the track. I’ve listened to the track and it’s very cool. Sounds nothing like Dylan, which I think Dylan himself would really appreciate.
“Jokerman” appeared on Dylan’s 1983 album Infidels.
Here’s Dylan’s version:
Bob Dylan In The 80s:
1. Langhorne Slim & The Law – “Got My Mind Made Up”
2. Built to Spill – “Jokerman”
3. Reggie Watts – “Brownsville Girl (Reprise)”
4. Craig Finn – “Sweetheart Like You”
5. Ivan & Alyosha – “You Changed My Life”
6. Deer Tick – “Night After Night”
7. Dawn Landes & Bonnie “Prince” Billy – “Dark Eyes”
8. Tea Leaf Green – “Waiting To Get Beat”
9. Aaron Freeman & Slash – “Wiggle Wiggle”
10. Elvis Perkins – “Congratulations”
11. Hannah Cohen – “Covenant Woman”
12. Marco Benevento – “Every Grain Of Sand”
13. Yellowbirds – “Series Of Dreams”
14. Blitzen Trapper – “Unbelievable”
15. Lucius – “When The Night Comes Falling From The Sky”
16. Glen Hansard – “Pressing On”
17. Carl Broemel – “Death Is Not The End
Thanks for hipping me to this Consequence Of Sound!
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In April of last year Neil Young was in Nashville and he recorded Bert Jansch’s “Needle of Death” at the Third Man Recording Booth on Record Store Day.
What I’ve now confirmed is that Young and White have recorded an entire album together, according to a source associated with the project. The album will be released on Third Man Records, and probably Warner Bros, as well.
In December 2013, the Neil Young website Thrasher’s Wheat had these quotes from a source: “It is an album of covers. In it, as anticipated, he pays tribute to other renowned singer-songwriters. There are 12 tracks on it. There are no Neil Young originals…”
It is likely that the album will include “Needle of Death,” as well as Phil Ochs “Changes” Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind,” Gordon Lightfoot’s “Early Morning Rain,” Ivory Joe Hunter’s “Since I Met You Baby” and Tim Hardin’s “Reason To Believe,” songs that Young played at the 2013 Farm Aid concert.
Young Played “Changes” and “Needle Of Death” during his recent Carnegie Hall shows, and at Massey Hall in Toronto on January 12, 2014.
“Blowin’ in the Wind” at Farm Aid:
“Reason To Believe” at Farm Aid:
“Changes” at Carnegie Hall:
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In the fall of 1969, some months after the release of Nashville Skyline, Rolling Stone publisher/Editor in Chief Jann Wenner interviewed Bob Dylan in a New York hotel room.
The interview ended like this:
Jann Wenner: You’ve heard the Joan Baez album of all your songs…
Bob Dylan: Yeah, I did… I generally like everything she does.
Wenner: Are there any particular artists that you like to see do your songs?
Dylan: Yeah, Elvis Presley. I liked Elvis Presley. Elvis Presley recording a song of mine. That’s the one recording I treasure the most… it was called “Tomorrow Is A Long Time.” I wrote it but never recorded it.
Wenner: Which album is that on?
Dylan: Kismet.
Wenner: I’m not familiar with it at all.
[Actually, “Kismet” is a song that appeared on Elvis’ Harum Scarum scoundtrack; “Tomorrow Is A Long Time” isn’t on that album. According to Wikipedia: “Elvis Presley recorded the song (‘Tomorrow Is A Long Time’) on May 26, 1966 during a session for his album How Great Thou Art. The song originally appeared as a bonus track on the Spinout movie soundtrack album… According to Ernst Jorgensen’s’ book, Presley got into the song via Charlie McCoy, who had previously participated in the Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde sessions. McCoy played the 1965 Odetta album Odetta Sings Dylan before an Elvis session and Presley “had become taken with ‘Tomorrow Is A Long Time.'”]
Dylan: He did it with just guitar.
Below is Elvis’ version of “Tomorrow Is A Long Time,” the Odetta version that inspired Elvis to record the song, and then two versions by Bob Dylan plus Joan Baez’s version.
Elvis Presley, “Tomorrow Is A Long Time”:
Bob Dylan,”Tomorrow Is A Long Time” (April 12, 1963, Town Hall, New York City):
Odetta, “Tomorrow Is A Long Time” (1964 recording):
Bob Dylan,”Tomorrow Is A Long Time” with intro (April 12, 1963, Town Hall, New York City):
Bob Dylan,”Tomorrow Is A Long Time” Whitmark Demos, December 1962):
Joan Baez, “Tomorrow Is A Long Time” (early 1963):
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On Saturday night U2 made a surprise appearance at a benefit for Haiti in Beverly Hills.
The band played their own songs plus Bono and The Edge joined Haitian singer Anaelle Jean-Pierre for a version Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”
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