Bob Dylan, Jack White, others

[Analogman]

Dylan, Jack White, others finish Hank songs

Writer: Josh Jackson

News, Published online on 16 Nov 2007

 

Bob Dylan is heading up a project to have several artists write music and record some of Hank Williams' final lyrics, according to Steppin

[boywiththorninside]

This has potential to say the least. I hope he asks Tweedy to contribute. I know from his autobiography that Dylan was aware of Mermaid Avenue, but I'm uncertain what he thought of it. I think he wrote that he would have done it differently than Wilco/Bragg, but does that mean he didn't like it? I don't know.

 

I always liked Dylan's messy hotel room performance of Lost Highway that was captured in Dont Look Back.

 

I love Hank. I love Dylan. I like Jack White. Again, if done right, this could be great.

 

Thanks for posting the article.

[Analogman]

What's funny is - I recall reading that when he briefly left his record label in the early 70s - one of the deals used to steal him away was the promise of " a trunk full of unrecorded Hank songs" - looks like it's finally going to happen.

[LouieB]

Is this a good idea?

 

LouieB

[boywiththorninside]

Is this a good idea?

 

LouieB

 

I think so. I hope so. But it's all in the execution. It could be great. It could be embarrassing. I'd bet on great (or at least very good) though.

[boywiththorninside]

Anyone listen to this?

 

 

I haven't listened to it forever, but I remember liking some of the songs on there - Dylan, Keith Richards in particular.

[LouieB]

Anyone listen to this?

 

 

I haven't listened to it forever, but I remember liking some of the songs on there - Dylan, Keith Richards in particular.

Yea, I have that...good stuff.

 

I suppose a project like this can yield some positive results, but the lightening in the bottle of Mermaid Avenue may be hard to replicate.

 

LouieB

[froggie]

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/page/news/47...williams-lyrics

 

Jack White, Bob Dylan Rework Hank Williams Lyrics

 

 

If Steppin' in It bassist Dominic Suchyta is to be believed, he's right in the middle of quite a bit of music history. Speaking with Paste Magazine, Suchyta explained that that Mr. Bob Dylan is spearheading an initiative to set some of country legend Hank Williams' "lost" lyrics to music. (By "lost" he means "essentially, the lyric sheets Hank died with in his briefcase.") And Jack White of the White Stripes is involved.

 

So how does Suchyta know all this? Apparently, Jack is his "oldest friend", and asked him to play upright bass on his contribution to the project, a take on the unheard Williams tune "You Know That I Know". Suchyta told Paste that "no one has heard" the song, "as it was a Hank Williams lyric sheet that Jack put to music and edited a bit. Jack was sent most of or all of the unfinished tunes and picked this one to finish. We listened to quite a bit of Hank while I was down there and sat around the two of us playing our favorite Hank tunes, but the song was done when I got there. I think Jack just ingested a bunch of Hank Williams and this is what came out of him." Figuratively, he means.

 

White and Suchyta were joined in the studio by engineer Joe Chiccarelli (Stars, the Shins), Raconteur Dean Fertita and Dylan band member Donny Herron on guitar and Autolux's Carla Azar on drums. "We did the session in one long day, live in a circle with some mics around-much like Hank would have," Suchyta said. Mr. Robert Zimmerman didn't take part in the session, though Suchyta "wouldn't put it past" Dylan and White to be cooking up something together. He added that Dylan and White "seem to be cut from the same cloth, sort of misplaced Midwestern brothers."

 

Deep in blabbin' mood, Suchyta hinted that Willie Nelson and Norah Jones may very well also contribute songs, and that Dylan "no doubt" recorded a tune for the project during the sessions for last year's excellent Modern Times. No word on just what the end result of all this will look like, but it's probably safe to assume it'll be wearing a bolo tie.

 

In other White Stripes news, they took time away from hanging out with Bob friggin' Dylan to go palling around with Beck and some bull fighters. You know, no big thing. The Stripes posted a couple photos from the forthcoming "Conquest" video on their website today, taken by photographer Erik Ian Schaetzke. And here they are

[jc4prez]

I herd about this a while ago.

 

 

Who knows if it will be good. At least Bob isn't going to pull another Modern Times and claim the songs are his

[imsjry]

At least Bob isn't going to pull another Modern Times and claim the songs are his

 

Here we go with this BS again....

 

Come up with something half as wonderful as Modern Times and get back to us. How are those songs NOT his? Jesus.

[jc4prez]

Here we go with this BS again....

 

Come up with something half as wonderful as Modern Times and get back to us. How are those songs NOT his? Jesus.

 

 

Being as though a majority of the music is pulled from other sources and the lyrics are based off of others works. I would say they aren't completely his.

 

 

Love and Theft and Time Out Of Mind used the technique of pulling from other sources much more tastefully. Modern Times doesn't even try to hide the sources in many instances.

 

On top of that I thought it was crap; where as Love And Theft really added to the material it pulled from.

[Harold Pinto]

This idea that Bob Dylan has only been doing this re-imagining of traditional songs for his last three records is hilarious. He's been doing it from the beginning. I would think that if you examined almost every "new" song recorded by anyone since recording began you'd find a framework inherited from the past, be it the chord progression, the melody or the lyrics. Wilco have many songs where melodies are closely related to traditional songs, chord progressions that have been used many many times before and lyrical themes that have been around for hundreds of years. It is in the re-contextualization of these well worn forms that something individual is created. Bob Dylan has often been very good at this. So when he writes a version of When the Leveee Breaks or takes a Carter Family melody (which AP Carter took from someone else) it isn't so much a steal as it is an extending of the song, he is taking it out of its time and adding to it, giving to the song not just stealing it and that is art.

[jc4prez]

This idea that Bob Dylan has only been doing this re-imagining of traditional songs for his last three records is hilarious. He's been doing it from the beginning. I would think that if you examined almost every "new" song recorded by anyone since recording began you'd find a framework inherited from the past, be it the chord progression, the melody or the lyrics. Wilco have many songs where melodies are closely related to traditional songs, chord progressions that have been used many many times before and lyrical themes that have been around for hundreds of years. It is in the re-contextualization of these well worn forms that something individual is created. Bob Dylan has often been very good at this. So when he writes a version of When the Leveee Breaks or takes a Carter Family melody (which AP Carter took from someone else) it isn't so much a steal as it is an extending of the song, he is taking it out of its time and adding to it, giving to the song not just stealing it and that is art.

 

 

I don't want to hijack the thread but I personally disagree. I find that in his earlier work he would more often take a melody or lyrical idea and transform it.

 

Modern Times feels like he is just regurgitating others work. Point to songs in his early catalogue that have the same title, melody, lyrics, and theme as another song. I'd say its pretty hard to find. Even on Love and Theft he didn't do what I just said. Look at Tweedle Dee And Tweedle Dum its obviously "Uncle John's Bongo's" but Dylan does a good job of changing the lyrics and themes. Most of Modern Times doesn't have Dylan adding much to these tunes which is the big difference. On top of that I think it seems like he wrote the lyrics while taking a shit and went out and recorded them without looking at them.

[imsjry]

This idea that Bob Dylan has only been doing this re-imagining of traditional songs for his last three records is hilarious. He's been doing it from the beginning. I would think that if you examined almost every "new" song recorded by anyone since recording began you'd find a framework inherited from the past, be it the chord progression, the melody or the lyrics. Wilco have many songs where melodies are closely related to traditional songs, chord progressions that have been used many many times before and lyrical themes that have been around for hundreds of years. It is in the re-contextualization of these well worn forms that something individual is created. Bob Dylan has often been very good at this. So when he writes a version of When the Leveee Breaks or takes a Carter Family melody (which AP Carter took from someone else) it isn't so much a steal as it is an extending of the song, he is taking it out of its time and adding to it, giving to the song not just stealing it and that is art.

 

I was going to respond but this post above sums it up.

 

I don't really care what all the influences were. The fact that Dylan can take all that stuff, put it in a pot, and come up with something as great as Modern Times is all I need.

[Synthesizer Patel]

If it was one group of people recording the tracks (like Mermaid Avenue), I'd say this sounded like a good idea. The fact that it isn't just means it's going to end up being a mixed bag and be hard to listen to as a consistent piece.

 

I want to hear more about Dylan recording with Rick Rubin early next year . . . that'll be more interesting (even if Modern Times was a big drop in quality after the 2 albums before)

[jc4prez]

If it was one group of people recording the tracks (like Mermaid Avenue), I'd say this sounded like a good idea. The fact that it isn't just means it's going to end up being a mixed bag and be hard to listen to as a consistent piece.

 

I want to hear more about Dylan recording with Rick Rubin early next year . . . that'll be more interesting (even if Modern Times was a big drop in quality after the 2 albums before)

 

 

I thought that was just a rumor. Wasn't there a fake tracklist and album name circulating?

[froggie]

yeah, it was a rumour.. i read a link somewhere confirming that

[boywiththorninside]

Rumor:

 

The (Rubin) record has the tentative title of Anchor, and the three tracks so far worked on are:

[Lammycat]

I was going to respond but this post above sums it up.

Pretty much. One thing Dylan's got going is having folks talk about what he "is" or "isn't" over many, many years.

[jc4prez]

What is so great about Modern Times?

 

 

I don't understand all the praise it continues to get. Throw away the fact that a lot of it is stolen. The band never gets any real energy going, the lyrics are half assed. Again my opinion.

 

 

I'm interested to hear why others think its such a great album. I really think that if Joe Nobody put the record out it would have gone unnoticed. I thought it was great marketing that helped this album the most (and the right timing).

[Analogman]

I wonder if this deal will sound like World Gone Wrong or As Good As I Been To You - although, those were solo records, of course.

[Harold Pinto]

Well Joe Nobody didn't put Modern Times out, Bob Dylan did. Evaluating an artists work in some kind of vacuum without referencing their entire body of work is, to my mind, pointless. If someone new put out Modern Times as their first record its true it might not have gotten as much press, but there is depth and value given to the record if it is approached as a strand in a long lasting body of work. Removing it from its context as a "Bob Dylan record" is pointless. Part of its power is it is part of the whole that is "Bob Dylan".

 

ps. An early example of the Modern Times method , Down on Penny's Farm - The Bently Boys = Hard Times in New York Town with some new lyrics, same chords, same melody. There are literally dozens of examples like this in his catalogue.

[jc4prez]

Well Joe Nobody didn't put Modern Times out, Bob Dylan did. Evaluating an artists work in some kind of vacuum without referencing their entire body of work is, to my mind, pointless. If someone new put out Modern Times as their first record its true it might not have gotten as much press, but there is depth and value given to the record if it is approached as a strand in a long lasting body of work. Removing it from its context as a "Bob Dylan record" is pointless. Part of its power is it is part of the whole that is "Bob Dylan".

 

ps. An early example of the Modern Times method , Down on Penny's Farm - The Bently Boys = Hard Times in New York Town with some new lyrics, same chords, same melody. There are literally dozens of examples like this in his catalogue.

 

 

As I pointed out in my post there are plenty of examples like the one you mentioned. But I can almost promise you won't find other tunes Rollin and Tumblin or Someday Baby that steal:lyrics, tune, and melody. Hard Times has more changes.

 

As for putting it in a vacuum. It should be. Its a piece of art. Just because Picasso painted Guernica doesn't make all of his other painting good. Shouldn't you enjoy a piece of music because its good (and thats fine if you thinK MT is good but you are telling me to put it into context)? I mean Down in The Groove, Knocked Out Loaded, sure they can be appreciated in context but outside they are crap for the most part. Would you call those good records too, just because their "Bob Dylan" records.

[theashtraysays]

"It's like deja-vu, all over again."

Yogi Berra

[TheMaker]

On top of that I think it seems like he wrote the lyrics while taking a shit and went out and recorded them without looking at them.

 

Quoted for truth, as the kids say. Modern Times, from a literary shot, is atrocious - atrocious! - compared to its two predecessors. Compare the lyrics of a stunner like Moonlight or Floater with, well, anything on MT, and it's just night and day. The new record is basically just moon/june/spoon stuff, silly fluff, not to be taken seriously. Add to that a vocal performance that sounds disconcertingly like a hairball coming to life, to say nothing of the boring band Bobby dragged into the studio with him, and you've got a record that ranks "up" there with the likes of Under the Red Sky and Shot of Love, if not Down in the Groove and Knocked Out Loaded. Embarrassing critical spunkloads notwithstanding, it's certainly a bottom of the barrel Dylan offering, in my opinion.