New Bryan Ferry album of Dylan songs

Bryan Ferry - last seen as a model in ads for Marks & Spencer clothing – is set to release Dylanesque, a CD of 11 songs written by Bob Dylan, on the Virgin label in early March.

The tracklist includes Dylan classics like:

All Along The Watchtower
All I Really Want To Do
If Not For You
Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues
Positively 4th Street
Knocking On Heaven's Door
Simple Twist Of Fate

The album will be a must-buy for all fans of Ferry/Roxy Music and many in Dylan’s fanbase (count me in, twice over). Although the cognoscenti regard all the Ferry solo releases as inferior to all the Roxy Music albums, his cover versions - including Dylan’s A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall on his first solo album, in 1973 – generally garner high praise.

Ferry’s 1999 album, As Time Goes By, a collection of standards by the great Broadway writers such as Cole Porter, is a beautiful CD. It’ll be instructive to see how Dylan’s work sounds alongside The Great American Songbook.

The re-invigorated Ferry will also be appearing on the first new Roxy Music studio album for a quarter of a century, due later this year. He’s also touring the UK this spring.



Gerry Smith