The Beat Surrender

Rewind back in time to 1973, Bryan Ferry is releasing his first solo material after his work with Roxy Music and he’s long held a fascination and a hell of a lot of respect for Bob Dylan. He’s not the first and I doubt he’ll be the last but what can he really do about it?

Well as any Ferry fan will know he decided that he’d cover A Hard Rains A-Gonna Fall which made it onto his debut solo album. Even in 1973 the seed was planted “I just thought it would be great to make a whole album of Dylan songs…” The original cover he did seemed like a complete reinvention of the song when sung by him, so how would he fare with a full albums worth? Well skip on twenty four years and we now have the chance to find out as he realises his ambition and releases an entire album of Bob Dylan covers, unsurprisingly the album is called Dylanesque, it’s 11 tracks long and as far as cover albums go it’s actually not a bad effort on the whole.

The problem he faces for me is that the songs he’s chosen are so well known (on the whole) and Bob Dylan is such a legend. So to cover him at all takes a certain degree of balls and self confidence, something Ferry has never lacked in the past. It’s a difficult task as the songs are so engrained in Dylans legend and story that it’s always very difficult to imagine someone else singing these songs. Bob Dylan might not have a voice to everyones liking but is an instantly recognisable voice that is respected all around the world.

Ferry himself is a well respected figure but he isn’t Bob Dylan, he’s a stylish performer with a good voice but it’s not one that can send shivers down your spine as Dylan can when he really hits the note right, combined with his lyrics it’s potent. As I said earlier though he does give it a good go, especially with the harmonica helping out on Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues, Simple Twist of Fate that really suits his style of singing, Knockin’ On Heavens Door which has been covered a lot but this right up there. The best on here is probably my favourite Dylan song Positively 4th Street, which he does real justice to.

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