Dylanesque

by

Bryan Ferry

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First a confession--I'm a big Roxy Music/Bryan Ferry fan. I'm also a big fan of Bob Dylan. There have been many albums by Ferry I didn't really care for ("Taxi" except for one or two tracks rarely gets played and Mamouna is my least favorite Ferry solo album. While "Flesh & Blood" is, with the exception of two tracks, a complete waste of time as far as I'm concerned). I say all of that so you know where my bias is when it comes to Ferry's material. Ferry's weathered vocals actually compliment many of the songs here and even though he isn't the singer he once was (who is?), he makes up for some of his loss of range with his interpretative skills.

Bryan Ferry has tackeld Dylan before. His first time was with his art rock approach to "A Hard Rain's a-gonna Fall" and then the tracks on his last solo album. This time around he tackles an entire album full of Dylan songs and while the result isn't perfect, the bulk of these songs and their arrangements are inspired. Ferry works out arrangements that are both surprising and, at times, dazzling just don't go into this album expecting arrangements of the same songs cut from the same cloth as Dylan's--Ferry alters the arrangements to fit his vocal and arranging style much as he did with his album of standards from a couple of years ago.

The opener "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" is inspired with a nice groove, nice harmonica fills from Ferry. His voice is a bit ragged but, heck, it adds character to his trilling crooner's voice. "Simple Twist of Fate" is up next and, again, Ferry does a nice job here although it isn't as radically rearranged as "Tom" it's still quite good with nice guitar playing by Chris Spedding. "Make You Feel My Love" opens with stately piano playing by Colin Good that would have made this song fit in well with the material on "Stranded". "The Times Are a'Changing" has a bold, rocking groove and makes it sound signficantly different from previous covers of the song. "All I Really Want To Do" is nice but doesn't quite fit in within the other songs here with a more conventional arrangement.

Doing "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" is a pretty bold move for Ferry. Dylan's original is pretty definitive and Warren Zevon's cover reinvented it with a sense of desperation missing from the original. Ferry's version is solid but doesn't break any new ground. "Positively 4th Street" recasts Dylan's song with piano and a string background. Ferry's weary sounding vocals compliments the arrangement perfectly and the minimal use of percussion & guitar adds nice highlights to the song.

I have always thought of George Harrison's cover of "If Not For You" as the definitive cover but Ferry adds a syncopated beat and the moody, rolling guitar lines that Roxy were well known. The use of strings add a bit of punch when they kick in as well with just the right country flavor.

"Baby Let Me Follow You Down" features plenty of Ferry's harmonica playing and the use of organ gives this a feeling closer to what Dylan might do...well except for the funky rhythm guitar. "Gates of Eden" is a favorite of mine and Ferry recasts it in such a way that it would have fit in nicely right next to "Hiroshima" on his last solo album. "All Along the Watch Tower" closes out the album with an arrangement both familiar (because it touches on Hendrix's cover version)and original with some nice biting guitar work from Spedding. It's not a definitive version but it's a strong closer for the album.

Although it isn't quite as strong as Ferry's last solo album which mixed originals with a couple of Dylan covers, "Dylanesque" suggests that Ferry continues to be a terrific interpretor of other people's material. Although none of his regular Roxy Music cohorts appear on the album, his usual solo backing band (some of whom were added to Roxy for touring purposes)do a terrific job of reshaping Dylan's material.

Other Ferry solo albums where he covers every one from Dylan to Lesley Gore-

These Foolish Things

Let's Stick Together

Another Time, Another Place

I had high hopes for this CD when I bought it. I like Dylan, I like Ferry, and music magazine reviews were generally positive. But my rule for cover versions is not to do them unless you do them better than the originals or that you must add something interesting to them. And though Dylanesque is listenable, I find that Bryan Ferry has failed both of my criteria for recording a cover version of a song.

There are a couple of them I really like. Just Like Tom Thumb Blues features a strong driving beat and some ooga-booga background vocals. Simple Twist of Fate comes on strong as well. But most of the rest of the rather short CD is tepid and uninspired. A strong closing with All Along the Watchtower, which features the great Robin Trower on acoustic guitar, prevents the listener from going away completely disappointed.

There is nothing at all wrong with reinterpretation of a song as long as you make it interesting. Dylan does it to his own songs all the time, and in another genre, Astor Piazzolla played his songs in a new way every time he hit the stage or the recording studio. But Ferry does not make it interesting and gives the listener little real reason to buy Dylanesque unless that listener just happens to prefer the voice of Bryan Ferry to that of Bob Dylan. The most that can be said for this is that Ferry makes Dylan danceable.