Positively 4th Street - The Inevitable Dylan Cover - May 15, 2012

Here's the inevitable Bob Dylan cover.  Going to high school in rural Alberta there may have been some people listening to Dylan, but it was no one I knew.  The soundtrack to drunken teen-age parties was comprised of Led Zeppelin 4, Nazareth's Greatest Hits, Frampton Comes Alive, Styx - The Grand Illusion......well you get the drift.  My first exposure to Dylan was when I left home and went to university.  I promptly became obsessed, borrowed a copy of the first Greatest Hits record and playing it incessantly.  I have a memory, I'm not sure I would classify as fond or not, of leaning inebriated out my dorm window screaming the chorus of Like A Rolling Stone at befuddled passers-bys.  No one can match the almost joyful exuberance of Dylan's self-righteous venom.  And one of the most venomous is Positively 4th Street.  My version has some tempo and melody variations to the original....here it is:

Positively 4th Street - Bob Dylan

You got a lotta nerve

To say you are my friend

When I was down

You just stood there grinning

You got a lotta nerve

To say you got a helping hand to lend

You just want to be on

The side that’s winning

You say I let you down

You know it’s not like that

If you’re so hurt

Why then don’t you show it

You say you lost your faith

But that’s not where it’s at

You had no faith to lose

And you know it

I know the reason

That you talk behind my back

I used to be among the crowd

You’re in with

Do you take me for such a fool

To think I’d make contact

With the one who tries to hide

What he don’t know to begin with

You see me on the street

You always act surprised

You say, “How are you?” “Good luck”

But you don’t mean it

When you know as well as me

You’d rather see me paralyzed

Why don’t you just come out once

And scream it

No, I do not feel that good

When I see the heartbreaks you embrace

If I was a master thief

Perhaps I’d rob them

And now I know you’re dissatisfied

With your position and your place

Don’t you understand

It’s not my problem

I wish that for just one time

You could stand inside my shoes

And just for that one moment

I could be you

Yes, I wish that for just one time

You could stand inside my shoes

You’d know what a drag it is

To see you

There's a lot of not that awesome covers of this song out there.  Dylan's versions are so idiosyncratic and definitive, it can be hard to pull off.  I liked this one by Jerry Garcia with Merl Saunders.  

New Blues #2 - March 5, 2012

Saturday night I went to see Black Valley Gospel, David Chenery's most recent music project.  It was their cd release show and their shit is the good shit, so check it out  http://blackvalleygospel.bandcamp.com/album/black-valley-gospel

At the show Scott Dunlop asked me what song I was going to do for my blog this week and well to be honest, I had no idea, and told him so.  "When are you gonna cover a Dylan song?" he said and seeing as I had spontaneously played I Threw It All Away earlier that day  I told him that I might just take him up on it.  Well I tried. A few times, a few songs.  Wasn't happening, hungover (damn you Chenery and your devil music), wasn't feeling it.  Dylan's like that.  Sometimes you play it and it gets inside you and you're inside it and away you go - other times you feel like some lamely inadequate douchebag at a coffee shop open mike.  

So what's the next best thing?  How about a song I wrote last year during a heavy Basement Tapes listening phase.....New Blues #2. Influenced by, derivative of....somewhere in there.  It's a basic blues form with a yodel turnaround.  Ran the accordion and my vox through a big-ass guitar amp. 

Here it is

New Blues #2

I was waitin' for the rapture watchin' the big game

but Jesus went to Luxton so the rapture never came

Rapture dude said "did I say May, I meant October"

now the whole town is suffering from revelation phobia

The wise man built his house upon a rock

the foolish man built his house inside a clock

The hideous man gazes upon his reflection

I can smell his filthy haunches I can smell his dejection

he's been carvin' up the TV eatin' it for dinner

he should be gettin' fatter but his head is getting thinner

He got a time machine keeps track of the latest trends

he's got a rocket ship to visit his so called friends

I can't get no sleep, it's rainin in my bed

I need an umbrella to keep the dreams off my head

Thing I like about night is it ain't light

thing I like about day is it ain't night

Best things about trees is they don't walk

thing I like about stones is they don't talk

Structurally this song is also very similar (okay, virtually identical) to another song I wrote and recorded many years ago, Grey Yodel #3, found on the Hurtin' Dance Party cd.  This song also felt Dylan-ey to me and the Highway 61 aesthetic was on our minds when we recorded it.    You can listen to that song (and the rest of Hurtin Dance Party) here.  

 HURTIN' DANCE PARTY - Bandcamp

The musicians who play on it were taught the song that night, I think we did three takes.  They did a stellar job, and I believe the spontaneous nature of the session brought a great energy to the recording.  Tolan McNeil's guitar line is pure genius and Clay George lays down a rockin harp solo through an overdriven amp.  Also featured are Calvin Dick on drums and Clark Brendan on bass.  Scott Henderson was the recording engineer.

*****Star Date January 12, 2016
Somewhere along the way in a couple of years of rehearsing and recording the composition order of this New Blues series - there's eight of these nasty fuckers - got tangled.  This one, Yodel Blues, changed from #2 to #3.  So it goes.  I also recorded a version of it incorporating all the lyrics from the song Grey Yodel #3.  I'll post that soon....stay tuned!