Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Review: Bryan Ferry - Dylanesque

Label: Virgin

Released: June 26, 2007

One would think that an accomplished artist who dedicates an entire album to covering another single artist must be both enamored and well-versed in his or her subject. An all-Dylan Bryan Ferry release might sound a bit odd considering that Dylan speaks to our hearts in warm, organic imperfections while Ferry speaks in cold, precise formulas. Still, it at least piques some interest. How will someone like Ferry put himself into Dylan's songs without stripping them of Dylan? How will Ferry show his love and understanding of these songs?

From the opener, "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues," it becomes clear that Ferry isn't up to the challenge. He fails to capture anything remotely reminiscent of Bob Dylan. Even the short studio time (the album was recorded in a week) doesn't loosen things up. He largely takes the music as it would appear in a songbook and plays it in his own adult pop style. It has no life, no passion, no point. When Ferry takes on the 60s protest anthem "The Times They Are A-Changin'," he shows only that the times have indeed changed, but not for the better. There is no sense of anything other than status quo in a song that should, with little effort, drip with revolutionary spirit. But even in these fragile times, Ferry can't muster anything that would stir anyone's pot on a social level (although I must say it stirs my pot a bit that he expects anyone to pay money for this album).

Dylanesque also includes two Dylan songs that were successfully covered by others, a bad choice for Ferry when he's already struggling to create credible covers for himself. "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" is a far cry from Dylan's original and Guns n Roses 1991 cover. As if that weren't sad enough, he also chooses "All Along the Watchtower." While it isn't as bad as a lot of the album, it strives more for Hendrix's definitive version than Dylan's. Even with guitar help from Robin Trower, Ferry's is an utter failure next to Hendrix.

Only once over the course of 11 tracks does Ferry come anywhere close to pulling off what he's attempted. "Positively 4th Street" is a fine, though non-essential, track where Ferry hasn't removed all semblance of Dylan's soul. It certainly doesn't make the album worth buying, but instead raises the question as to why the whole album couldn't have at least hit this mediocre bar.

One would think that Bryan Ferry must be both enamored and well-versed in Bob Dylan's work to have even attempted Dylanesque, but it doesn't take long to start wondering why Ferry would bother, because he surely neither loves nor knows Bob Dylan.

Rating: 2/10

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6 Comments:

Blogger taotechuck said...

Ouch. That's brutal. Of course, I heard one song on the radio, and it was pretty brutal too.

Oh, wait. No, the song I heard was awful, not brutal. My bad.

You know how Leonard Cohen's production is usually pretty terrible (Casio keyboards, anyone?), and the only redeeming quality is Cohen's voice and lyrics? (Work with me for the sake of my argument.) The song I heard sounded like a crappy old Holiday Inn singer doing Karaoke over a Leonard Cohen backing track. I know you don't like to swear on your blog, and I apologize for my vulgarity, but there's just no other way to describe it than... well, there's really just no way to describe it. My ears wept.

2:17 AM  
Blogger Jeff said...

I was asked to review this album but just couldn't. I basically new I would hate it before I heard it. I don't like the idea of one person covering just one single artist, especially when it is someone like Dylan.

1:36 PM  
Blogger bob_vinyl said...

Chuck - Wow. I think you hated it more than I did. I felt like it was just soulless, generic classic rock covers of great songs and that is always a complete waste.

Jeff - Your intuition was correct. You're a wiser man than I!

1:39 PM  
Blogger taotechuck said...

Jeff, don't let your ego run away with you. Most of humanity, along with several inanimate objects, are wiser than Bob.

2:04 PM  
Blogger Ray Van Horn, Jr. said...

I just ruptured a spleen, Chuck! God, that was funny. It almost borders on novelty when someone approaches another artist's body of work and covers it exclusively.

11:04 PM  
Blogger Bar L. said...

Great review even if the music was not so great :)

3:02 AM  

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