Tag: echo and the bunnymen

Various Artists – Nobody Sings Dylan Like Dylan, Vols. 1-2

Various Artists
Nobody Sings Dylan Like Dylan – Varied Artists Vol. 01-02

Nobody Sings Dylan Like Dylan
The Dylan Covers, Vol. 1
Various Artists

As Columbia Records once advertised, “Nobody Sings Dylan Like Dylan.” Still, I always love to hear Dylan covers. Whenever one pops up, at a show or online, I listen attentively for something new the singer might bring to the song. For the last few years, I’ve been collecting them via bit torrent with an eye toward making a compilation. Here is the first volume of what may be many, if there is interest, and if I can find the time and energy. For now, I’ve avoided the Dead, the Byrds and some other usual suspects, but they may appear later. I have sequenced this for flow; total running time is 78:00. I’ve put the two longest tracks at the end, so those of you who don’t like jams or have short attention spans can avoid them. I haven’t done any artwork, but if there are any frustrated album cover designers out there, I would love to have some.

Due to the many different sources, I am not including lineages; soundboards and FMs have an asterisk, the rest are very good to excellent audience recordings. I have done nothing to the original files but normalize the levels and fade in and out on each track (using Cool Edit). Thanks, of course, to the tapers, and to the original uploaders. Enjoy! JS

  1. Everything is Broken – Neil Young (10-28-89, Shoreline Amp., Mtn View, CA)
  2. Dark Eyes – Alejandro Escovedo (10-1-04, Texas Union Hall, Austin, TX)*
  3. When the Ship Comes In – Billy Bragg (9-26-05, Talking Bob Dylan Blues The Barbican Theatre, London)*
  4. Hard Rain – Big Country w/Eddi Reader (5-31-99, Glasgow SECC, Glasgow, Scotland)*
  5. Ring them Bells – Warren Zevon (10-13-96, The Bluebird, Denver, CO)
  6. The Groom’s Still Waiting at the Alter – Steve Wynn (7-27-05, Molly Malone’s Irish Pub, Los Angeles)*
  7. When I Paint My Masterpiece – Elvis Costello, Emmylou Harris, and Gillian Welch (10-6-06, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, Golden Gate Gate Park, San Francisco, CA)
  8. Girl From the North Country – The Eels (5-9-05, Morning Becomes Eclectic, KCRW – Santa Monica, CA)*
  9. Love Minus Zero – Ron Sexsmith (10-24-97, The Milky Way, Amsterdam)*
  10. Highway 61 Revisted – World Party (7-12-93, Summer Stage, Central Park, New York)
  11. Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again – Soft Boys (October 27, 2002 ,The Mercury Lounge, NYC)
  12. Fourth Time Around – Calexico (7-9-03 Zeltival am Tollhaus, Karlsruhe, Germany)*
  13. Positively Fourth Street – X (8-2-86, The Ritz, New York City)*
  14. Queen Jane Approximately – Mojave 3 (4-17-96, Morning Becomes Eclectic, KCRW – Santa Monica, CA)*
  15. Hurricane – Phish (8-16-97, Loring Air Force Base, Limestone, ME)*
  16. Blind Willie McTell – Mick Taylor (9-16-00, Jack Legg’s, Nashville, TN)*

Nobody Sings Dylan Like Dylan
The Dylan Covers, Vol. 2
Various Artists (Audience Recordings)

As Columbia Records once advertised, “Nobody Sings Dylan Like Dylan.” Still, I always love to hear Dylan covers. Whenever one pops up, at a show or online, I listen attentively for something new the singer might bring to the song. For the last few years, I’ve been collecting them via bit torrent with an eye toward making a compilation. Here is the second volume of what may be many, if there is continued interest, and if I can find the time and energy.

This time out, I have taken the advice of CHerrmann57, who suggested I segregate audience from soundboard recordings on separate volumes. Quality is generally VG to Exc, though not as good as the audience recordings on the previous volume. (Next up will be a ’70s volume, which will probably be all soundboard or FM recordings.) I have again sequenced this for flow rather than any sort of chronology; total running time is about 78 minutes. I’ve again put the long tracks at the end, so those of you who don’t like jams or have short attention spans can avoid them. I haven’t done any artwork, but again humbly request that if there are any frustrated album cover designers out there, have at it; pdiamond did a nice job last time!

Due to the many different sources, I am not including lineages. I have done nothing to the original files but normalize the levels and fade in and out on each track (using Cool Edit). Thanks, of course, to the tapers, and to the original uploaders. Enjoy! JS

  1. Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You – Gillian Welch and David Rawlings (7-29-04, Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London, England)
  2. One Too Many Mornings – David Gray (3-13-06, Colorado Convention Center, Denver, CO)
  3. Girl From the North Country – Robert Plant (10-24-02, Octagon Centre, Sheffield, England)
  4. Tomorrow is a Long Time – Ben Harper (2-9-01, Jorgenson Auditorium, Storrs, CT)
  5. Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right – Matt Nathanson (2-22-05, Chris Knutzen Hall, University Center, Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma WA)
  6. I Thew it All Away – Lloyd Cole (12-27-01, Joe’s Pub, New York City)
  7. Buckets of Rain – Beth Orton and M Ward (9-30-03, Cafe Largo, Los Angeles)
  8. I’ll Keep it With Mine – Yo La Tengo w/ David Mansfield (12-30-05, Maxwell’s, Hoboken NJ
  9. Gates of Eden – Robyn Hitchcock (3-26-05, Maxwell’s, Hoboken, NJ)
  10. License to Kill – Cowboy Junkies (8-16-05, Mountain Winery, Saratoga, CA)
  11. It’s All Right Ma (I’m Only Bleeding) – Roger McGuinn (10-05-06, S¯nderborghus, S¯nderborg, Denmark)
  12. Isis – The White Stripes (6-27-03, Coca-Cola Bricktown Event Center, Oklahoma City, OK)
  13. It Takes a Lot to Laugh – Joe Ely (12-31-05, La Zona Rosa, Austin, TX)
  14. Knockin on Heaven’s Door – Tom Petty (8-27-05, Greek Theater, Berkeley, CA)
  15. Like a Rolling Stone – Phil and Trey (10-29-06, Vegoose, Las Vegas, NV)
  16. It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue – Echo and the Bunnymen (12-5-85, SFX Hall, Dublin, Ireland)
  17. Farewell Angelina – Jeff Buckley (4-5-92, Roulette Club, New York City)

Random Shuffle (11/20/06) – Liz Phair, Martha Wainwright, Depeche Mode, Van Morrison, & Echo & the Bunnymen

“Never Said” – Liz Phair
From Exile in Guyville

In the mid-1990s I was on a plane flying from Birmingham Alabama to Tulsa Oklahoma. This was a trip I normally made by automobile, but I had recently fallen inexplicably ill. Being a freshman in college I was not accustomed to being inexplicably ill while all alone, hence the trip home via airplane.

On the plane, I was actually feeling pretty healthy and virile thanks to the lovely lady who took her seat next to mine. Perhaps seeing my Walkman or my copy of Spin magazine (in the days when having a copy of Spin magazine exuded a cool hipness) she struck up a conversation about music. The topics ranged from Fugazi and Dinosaur Jr to inevitably Nirvana. She asked me if I liked Liz Phair, and I had to admit that though I had heard good things, I had not actually listened to her. She raved about how amazing and beautiful Phair was and highly recommended I listen to her soon.

As these things do, the conversation waned and we went about reading our magazines and carried through the annoyance that is flying. A few bits of conversation were had here and there and then the plane landed and we departed. I made a mental checklist to listen to Liz Phair as soon as I could and went along my sickly way.

As it turns out I didn’t promptly listen to Ms. Phair and it was in fact this last year that I ever managed to get a copy of Exile in Guyville for a listen. What I was waiting for, I don’t know, but I wish I had paid more attention to that vixen. It is a beautiful and beautiful album full of angst, poetry, and raw emotion.

“Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole” – Martha Wainwright
From Martha Wainwright

Speaking of angst, poetry, and raw emotion, Martha Wainwright has plenty of each flowing from her mouth like blood from a lanced tongue. This song just slays. Her voice is tortured and strangled and pulls it all out of me until I lie flat and still gasping for life.

I can’t say I’m much of a fan of any of the Wainwrights, either Loudon or Rufus. I’m not overly familiar with their music, but what I have heard hasn’t made me seek them out either. They get praised well enough that I continue to think I should dig into their well farther, but well, so it goes. When the Duke lauded Martha with praise and sent a few tunes to the mp3 project I anxiously checked them out.

Sweet chimichanga that girl has got something. Her voice isn’t what you would exactly call beautiful, but there is a certain poetry to her words and such effectiveness in the way she sings that it doesn’t matter.

I honestly don’t really know what she’s singing about here, but whatever it is it breaks your heart. She projects such gut-wrenching emotion

“Just Can’t Get Enough” – Depeche Mode
From Speak and Spell

In my junior high to be hip you had to love U2 and you had to adore Depeche Mode. This was pre-Joshua Tree and Violator so neither of those bands had reached worldwide superstardom yet, though they weren’t exactly unknown indie bands either (this was Oologah Oklahoma, we didn’t know what the heck an indie band was, so just not being on the national charts was obscure enough.) Frankly, I never was all that hip in high school, but my brother was and he used to play the heck out of both bands.

This is the only Depeche Mode song that stuck and has lasted in my head all these years later.

It’s some darn fine synth pop too.

I still have vague memories of the cool kids mimicking the synch beats while goofing in drama class.

“Bucket’s Got a Hole in It” – Van Morrison
From Pay the Devil

From the moment I heard “Tupelo Honey” I knew I’d be a Van Morrison fan forever. I was actually a casual fan before that moment, but that song sealed the deal. I know how people hate to hear about me discovering an artist through their greatest hits packages, but I went through a short period where all I was doing was picking up Best Ofs. I didn’t have the cash to shell out for entire record collections, and this was before I had an internet connection, or even knew of such a place where you could go and get suggestions of which album to start with, so a greatest hits deal seemed like the best way to get a good foundation on who an artist was. I’ll still stand by that idea, for that time at least. I now can download a few songs, listen to snippets at Amazon, or search out my knowledge basis for the best places to start with, but then it made your purchase and pray it comes out all right. And for my money, a hits package was the best bet.

So anyway, I had the first volume of Van’s greatest hits and loved it. It’s filled with such classics as “Domino,” “Wild Nights,” and “Brown Eyed Girl.” It’s great music and worth every penny. I decided I could be a fan, but instead of searching out a single album, perhaps something with a few songs I now knew I loved, I went for the volume two greatest hits. I should have known better. Few artists have that many greatest hits, and Van’s was filled with maudlin, sappy religious numbers. Gone were the two-stepping beats and killer horn section. Instead, it was slow melodies and sad strings. (Editor’s Note: I obviously love the songs on Volume 2 now.)

Van laid low in my collection for a long time after that. Eventually, I was trolling Napster for some good love songs to put on a mix tape for a girl. “Tupelo Honey” was found and I was back on the track to Vandom once again. I’ve since nabbed many a Van Morrison album and my love has never stopped.

This is Van’s recent take on classic country songs. Honestly, I haven’t given it my full attention yet, just let it play in the background a few times, but from what I can hear he’s still got it.

“The Killing Moon” – Echo and the Bunnymen
From Ocean Rain

Man, what’s up with this list? It is random, but still nabs two alternative 80’s tracks and two raw, powerful women, and Van Morrison.

Back again to junior high (or maybe it was high school, the memory fades these days) the church we went to had just hired a new youth guy and he was chatting me up trying to get a lay of the kids and make us believe he was a cool guy. Anyways he asks me about music and I say I’m into alternative stuff like Soundgarden and Pearl Jam and all that stuff when he asks me about Echo and the Bunnymen. Knowing the name and maybe a couple of songs I say ‘yeah’ and act like they are the coolest. He brings up the soundtrack to the movie Lost Boys and the song “Cry Little Sister” thinking that was Echo and the Bunnymen (though they did cover a version of “People Are Strange” on the soundtrack it was Gerard McMann who did the song in question). Not knowing any better I agreed that it was killer and we basked in our coolness.

We did become great friends, though I learned he wasn’t an Echo fan either, and not really very cool at that.

This particular song I got on a compilation disk from Spin magazine (see there are themes to this post) along with a bunch of other indie/alternative bands they were promoting at the time. It’s still a great song, and I still dig “Cry Little Sister” too.