Here is something a little different this week. Two songs, that include as part of the song, a Dylan Cover.
First up is the fabulous Country Feedback by REM and features at the end, part of Like a Rolling Stone. It fits in just perfectly. This was recorded in 2001 in an Unplugged Session and is available.
The second one by Arcade Fire features It's a Hard Rain and this time it is at the beginning of the equally fabulous Wake Up. This was recorded live on 2005-05-06 at Academy 2, Birmingham, UK.
I might do some of this type of cover in the future. What do you think?
ARCADE FIRE - It's a Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall/Wake Up
I just had to find a R.E.M cover to help me come to terms with the end of this superb band, as someone 'great' once said "you don't know what you have lost until its gone". Everybody loves R.E.M. and everybody has an R.E.M. story and 'Everybody Hurts'.
I heard of this gig but was unaware that R.E.M. sang this cover there. It was supposedly a secret gig at the Borderline Club in London, 15.03.91, The Band was billed as 'Bingo Hand Job' which turned out to be one of the most publicised events at the time.
The quality is not the greatest but I just had to do it for historical purposes. I am unaware of any other R.E.M. Dylan covers, other than their teaming up with the Byrds, featured in 'Expecting Rain' on Fri 23rd Sep 2011.
Thursday I'm in Love..a chance for me to share some of my favourite tunes.
R.E.M. - 'Find The River'(1991)
What? Two R.E.M. posts in a week? After Grumpy's Shed's guest post on Monday, I'd like to give my Boba Fett nod of appreciation, let's just hope Take That don't split up!
There's no doubt R.E.M. were one of the most influential rock bands of the last 30 years, especially between the mid 80's to the late 90's. They certainly had a say on my musical landscape when I discovered them on the 'Chart Show' with the track we all love to hate, 'Its the End the World' (I think there was a skateboard in the video which helped) up to 2008's Accelerate, where there were glimpses of their best.
I have happy memories of many of their songs and many of them are classics. 'Find the River' is not my personal favourite but it's an absolute spine tingly beautiful song of hope and despair and it reminds me of my dad and sister. My sis was 8 at the time and was a massive fan of 'Out of Time', however she was disappointed with the more sombre 'Automatic for the People', maybe it was scaring her Sylvanian Families. My dad loved it of course for that very reason and I remember 'Find the River' a personal favourite of theirs especially when they listened to it in the car on the shopping run. Ah sweet!
Good night last....did you tell Michael?
R.E.M also hold the the unwanted title of one of rocks most disappointing moments. Living in Jeddah, we used to buy bootleg tapes, quality and editing were something left to be desired and the album Document was no different. Side B ended with 'Oddfellow's Local 151', a great atmospheric tune, made better by the fact that at the end of the song the distinctive guitar intro starts up again for about 30 seconds before fading out. It was brilliant and defined that album, song, universe! I thought R.E.M. were geniuses for doing something so original!! When the CD re-issue of Document came out I was so looking forward to hearing the song in the quality it deserved. Imagine my disappointment when 'Oddfellow's Local 151' ended and that was that. No intro ending!!?? What? Surely a mistake, I remember taking the CD out wiping it and blowing on it but no! It dawned on me that I had been fooled all along, distraught doesn't even come near it. The Indonesian lad (where most of these tapes hailed from) had obviously seen that there was still some room on the end of his C60 and decided to fill it by replaying the song until the tape ended, genius! Gutted!
This guest post came from Grumpy's Shed (Andrew Brown)....
....I don’t think that the week can pass without reference to the ‘passing’ of REM. Probably one of the most reluctant supergroups over the last 3 decades it’s amazing how each member of the group has remained so private between albums and tours. The extent of their music, which I find difficult to categorise, has been vast and has covered so many issues. I have always been fascinated by Michael Stipe, never knowing how the face paint was next going to be applied. I always thought that he looked rather ill but I think that it was just the intensity of the man. I have chosen the attached clip because it demonstrates the emotion both of the song and the person. To fully take in the strength of the emotive force in the song you should listen with eyes shut – but you also need to see the ‘out of body’ force that comes from Michael Stipe with the perfection of the band behind. I will certainly be playing some of the classic tracks from REM over the next few days.
