Bryan Ferry – The Times They Are A Changin’ (Virgin)
4/5
By: Alex Lee Thomson
The splendour of Bob Dylan is that he was, and still kind of is, one of the greatest poets of all time. He wasn't the best of singers (though his voice is still remarkably... individual) and as such his songs have been covered relentlessly over history - many times chafing off better than the Dylan originals, namely 'Quinn The Eskimo' by Manfred Mann, 'Mr Tambourine Man' by The Byrds and 'All Along The Watchtower' by Jimi Hendrix, a song that was so well construed that Dylan started using this new version himself when playing live.
Bryan Ferry has made a whole album dedicated to Dylan as others have before him and if it wasn't for the fact that Mr Ferry is among the coolest people to have ever existed in music, you'd almost have to punish him for it. Dylan is the one guy who you can get away with covering without question as most of his songs, barring the exceptions of 'Subterranean Homesick Blues' and 'Like A Rolling Stone', were all open to interpretation and change and this song, the first single from this homage to the great one, is undoubtedly one of them.
The album, 'Dylanesque', a name that doesn't skulk around the subject matter, is up there with the top tributes to the folk hero (boo hiss say the older readers who saw him go electric... boo hiss yourself), but this single isn't the best on there and finds very little of a Ferry touch. A touch that we've already seen on other classic cover songs such as John Lennon's 'Jealous Guy', the only well done Lennon remake... ever. It's a tremendous song to listen to and without Dylan's wavy voice you can appreciate the lyrics more now than ever, at a time when they're as much an importance. Even the sub-Sum 41 guitars work surprisingly well making it a welcomed redesign rather than yet another badly done Dylan track.
This is a tune, a darn ace tune actually, and Ferry does it justice bringing it into a new light for a new generation as he has indeed across the whole new album which is out not far behind this wonderful classic along with a new Roxy album.
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