(four times, if you are new to Bob Dylan’s not-altogether-original “original”)
Look out your window and I’ll be gone
Some folks profess deep admiration for his songs, but cannot abide listening to Bob Dylan’s own versions.
Others – with equal fervour – maintain that only “the man himself” really does justice to Dylan’s songs.
I have never maintained either position; both, I think, are silly assertions that – if adhered to – will needlessly deny you a great deal of musical pleasure/treasure.
As “the man himself” freely acknowledged, Jimi Hendrix brought wonderful new things to All Along the Watchtower – so much so, that Dylan was moved to reconsider his own approach to the song.
On the other hand, every “cover” I’ve heard of Buckets of Rain sounds much duller than its author’s wonderfully sly and altogether more erotic original.
In not a few other instances, very different versions of a particular Bob Dylan song – both as reconsidered by himself, and as covered by others – can prove equally rewarding.
Bob Dylan wrote Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right in 1962.
I still love his original recording, issued in 1963 on his second LP The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan.
That Dylan stole/borrowed its melody – and also some of its lyric – does not alter the singularity of his song and performance.
(Click here for the song’s story. It crucially involves the traditional folk song Who’s Gonna Buy Your Chickens When I Am Gone?)
Thirty years later, someone often described as an “English folksinger” reinvented the song, in a manner not-remotely “English-folkish”, nor “Dylanesque”.
June Tabor’s version was issued only on a 1993 Cooking Vinyl Records label sampler, so few people have ever heard it.
That said, I know I am not alone in thinking that this is perhaps the song’s most acute recorded version. June Tabor’s accompanist is Huw Warren.
(An almost as good June Tabor/Huw Warren take on the song is on this readily-available 2017 album)
Since 2011, so-called “jazz” pianist Brad Mehldau and so-called “newgrass” mandolinist and songster Chris Thile have been an occasional duo.
Brad is indeed one of the greats among jazz pianists, and Chris did first attract notice as a kid prodigy in “bluegrass”/“newgrass” circles, but both have long since escaped any particular genre’s “box”.
As I have previously opined, Chris is probably his primary instrument’s greatest exponent, ever. (he is a very capable player of many other instruments)
He is also an utterly distinctive singer.
Chris and Brad’s eponymous duo album, issued in 2017, contains a memorable version of Don’t Think Twice...
The duo has tackled the song many times, usually in an improvisatory frame of mind.
I particularly like their April 14, 2013 version. The video is “amateur”, with the lens fixed only on Brad, but that limitation somehow emphasises how extraordinary is Chris’s contribution:
In March this year Chris delivered what may well be the most astonishing solo performance this song has ever had.
The videographer switched on a tad late, and took a wee while to “frame properly and then leave camera alone”, but “wobblecam” will be out of your way after the first 21 seconds.
Chris’s musicianship beggars belief, as does the sheer verve of his performance…
Footnotes:
Photo is copyright Doug Spencer, taken on 03 September 2020, overlooking Perth’s Canning River, from Canning Bridge.
The New York Times recently published a really good profile of Chris Thile. If you have NYT access, you can read it here.
Thanks so much Pelidoug. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this past while meandering through the various versions of Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright. Wobblecam aside, it was such a joy to watch Chris Thile perform (and as you say, his musicianship truly does ‘beggar belief’).