Monday, February 05, 2007

Dylanesque - new Bryan Ferry album of Bob covers

Thanks to Martin Cowan for his note about media coverage of Dylanesque, the Ferry covers album, due 5 March (UK):

“Shortish interview with Bryan Ferry in the latest UNCUT, talking about his forthcoming Dylan covers album.”



Earlier Dylan Daily articles about Dylanesque:


* Dylan and Bryan Ferry: encore

Thanks to Tricia, in Australia:

“With regard to links between Ferry and Dylan, and previous Ferry cover versions of Dylan songs, don't forget the Polar Prize ceremony.

“When Dylan was awarded the Polar Prize in Sweden on 15 May 2000, Brian Ferry performed 'A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall' - with Dylan in the audience almost directly in front of him!

“How scary would that be? Although, if I remember correctly, there were some attractive back-up singers onstage, so he may have been safe.

“Some video (not sure if it includes Ferry) and pictures at:

www.polarmusicprize.com/newSite/cerm2000.shtml



* Bryan Ferry and Dylan songs

Thanks to Bernard McGuinn:

“Bryan Ferry did It ain’t me babe, on Another Time Another Place, the follow up to These Foolish Things. His next album after that was Let's Stick Together, which, of course, is a song Bob covered on the largely forgettable Down in the Groove. Ferry’s next album, In Your Mind, carries a version of Rock of Ages, a song Bob's been known to sing on occasion.”



* 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 recently 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