“We’re playing Bob Dylan covers because we can’t stop.”
The words came from Jim Lauderdale who, with Buddy Miller, was co-hosting two back to back two-hour episodes of Bob Dylan’s music on the Buddy & Jim Show on SiriusXM in honor of his recent award as the “MusiCares Person of The Year.” Artists including Bruce Springsteen, Sheryl Crow, Jack White, Beck, Neil Young, John Mellencamp, Garth Brooks and others paid tribute to the legendary songwriter who Lauderdale estimated to be the most covered songwriter ever.
Miller, who was part of a house band led by producer Don Was, said that no one expected Dylan to say more than a few minutes in his acceptance remarks. But the legendary songwriter delivered what Miller called a “jaw dropping” half-hour speech about songwriting, his career and the people who helped him along the way.
“I couldn’t tell you who I played with after that,” said Buddy Miller of his reaction to Dylan’s riveting speech as he stood stage right alongside Benmont Tench of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers.
“You must be on cloud nine,” Lauderdale said to his radio partner about the experience.”
“It’s going to stay with me a while,” Miller responded.
MusiCares was set-up to help musicians in need of funds for health care and living expenses, like Dylan’s lifelong hero and friend Billy Lee Riley, the rockabilly artist best known for “Red Hot” and who Dylan made a plug to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
As Beck’s psychedelic version of “Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat” and Waylon Jennings cover of “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” played, we were transported back to the early Sixties when Dylan was at the epicenter of the folk protest movement. He was seen as a heretic when he began playing electric music and later surprisingly turned to Nashville to record at the height of the counterculture movement.
During the speech, Dylan highlighted his friendship with Johnny Cash. Cash covered Dylan’s song “One Too Many Mornings” and the two sang “Girl From The North Country,” the opening song on “Nashville Skyline.” Dylan, who grew up listening to Cash, told the audience he knew “Big River” and “I Walk The Line” better than he knew his own songs. He said the man in black was a “giant of a man” and an intense character. As he saw the people were putting down Dylan for playing electric music, he posted letters to magazines, telling them to shut up and let Dylan sing.
“I’ll always cherish the friendship we had until the day there will be no more days,” Dylan told the audience of more than 3000 people, waxing philosophical throughout his speech about his songs that he likened to “mystery stories.”
It was interesting to be reminded of the depth of country musicians who covered Dylan’s songs, including Booby Bare who sang “It Ain’t Me Babe” and Willie Nelson & Calexico which teamed up on “Senor (Tales of Yankee Power).” Miller and Lauderdale showcased Dylan’s presence through the lineage of Lester Flatt, Flatt and Scruggs and the Earl Scruggs Revue. Miller was marveling at Flatt’s version of “She Belongs To Me” and Lauderdale commented that it was pretty adventurous for Lester “who you tend to think of being more conservative.”
Dylan had praise for Buck Owens, the architect of the Bakersfield sound who covered “Love Minus Zero, No Limit.” In contrast, Dylan was less than complimentary about Merle Haggard whom he personally believed never liked his songs. Dylan also took a shot at the Nashville establishment, singling out Tom T. Hall and a group of writers who represented the old guard through which all young writers had to be blessed. When Kris Kristofferson came to Nashville and wrote “Sunday Morning Coming Down,” Dylan said he changed everything. He referred to Nashville in the “pre-Kris” and “post-Kris” eras.
Dylan’s described bands like the Byrds and the Turtles playing covers as if they were commercials of his songs. The Byrds “Sweetheart of The Rodeo” was a transformative album, signaling the beginning of the melding of country and rock. We also heard the Flying Burrito Brothers, the band that emerged out of the Byrds when Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman defected. Later Parsons would record the seminal “Grievous Angel” album featuring Emmylou Harris. Miller and Lauderdale noted Harris had covered at least three Dylan tracks including “When I Paint My Masterpiece” which she recorded with the Nash Ramblers. Miller noted how he and Harris went to see Cate Blanchett on the screen as a fictitious Dylan in the film “I’m Not There.”
Dylan was just another unknown songwriter in the early Sixties when Peter Paul & Mary chose to record his “Blowin’ In The Wind.” The echoes of an era when Dylan was the flagbearer of the anti-war movement can be heard in the chilling rendition of “Masters of War” by the Staple Singers and in the tender reading of Miller’s own cover of “With God on Our Side.” In his speech, Dylan talked about the importance of artists who covered his songs, crediting Nina Simone as validating everything he was about.
The Rolling Stones’ later cover of Dylan’s anthemic “Like a Rolling Stone” reminded of what is arguably Dylan’s greatest achievement.
“Why did it take them that long to do?” Miller wondered aloud.
By the time Dylan put out a string of gospel records in the late Seventies and early Eighties, he had undergone yet another manifestation. The resonance of those songs is evidenced by Shirley Caesar’s version of “Gotta Serve Somebody” and Mavis Staples’ banter with Dylan on “Change My Way of Thinking.” The late Joe Cocker’s reading of “Ring Them Bells” and Tom Jones’ “What Good Am I,” two songs from his great “Oh Mercy” album, are the essence of someone whose songs gain further resonance through the interpretation by other great singers. If Dylan, who just cut an album of Frank Sinatra’s standards, is a chameleon, perhaps his career can be best summed up by the words he put forth in his own speech.
“Times always change,” he reflected. “They really do. And you always have to be ready for something that’s coming along and you never expected it.”
