‘Laibach’ is one of the greatest and most popular bands to come out from the ex-Yugoslavian music scene. They come from Slovenia and were amongst the forerunners of the post-punk/industrial wave in the eighties. Formed in Trbovlje, Slovenia in 1980, Laibach represents the musical wing of the Neue Slowenische Kunst (NSK) collective, a group which Laibach helped found in 1984. A year before, due to their radical avant-garde, but also politically charged performances which caused major negative reactions, they were banned from using the name Laibach as well as performing in public. Some early Laibach albums were pure industrial, with hard industrial percussion, heavy rhythms, and roaring vocals. Later in the mid-80s, the Laibach sound became more richly layered with samples from classical music including from Gustav Holst’s The Planets. The band began their tradition of cover songs in 1987 with the album Opus Dei, where their sound changed again. Laibach's cover versions are often used to subvert the original message or intention of the song — notable examples being their versions of the songs "Live is Life" by Opus, “Across the Universe” by The Beatles, and “Ballad of a Thin Man” by Bob Dylan.
"Ballad of a Thin Man" is a dirge song written and recorded by Bob Dylan, and released as the final track on Side One of his sixth album, Highway 61 Revisited, in 1965. Dylan's song revolves around the mishaps of a Mr. Jones, who keeps blundering into strange situations, and the more questions he asks, the less the world makes sense to him. Critic Andy Gill called the song "one of Dylan's most unrelenting inquisitions, a furious, sneering, dressing-down of a hapless bourgeois intruder into the hipster world of freaks and weirdoes which Dylan now inhabited." Dylan critic Mike Marqusee writes that "Ballad of a Thin Man" can be read as "one of the purest songs of protest ever sung", with its scathing take on "the media, its interest in, and inability to comprehend [Dylan] and his music." For Marqusee, the song became the anthem of an in-group, "disgusted by the old, excited by the new... elated by their discovery of others who shared their feelings", with its central refrain "Something is happening here/ But you don't know what it is/ Do you, Mr. Jones?" epitomizing the hip exclusivity of the burgeoning counterculture.
The lyrics sound much darker, even scary in the Laibach version of the song. It grows a distinct conspirative feeling which emphasizes the obscurity of the character of Mr.Jones. Also, this re-interpretation of the Dylan classic is an excellent introduction to the music of Laibach, a band which is not to be missed.
COVERLAND VOL.1: EASY COVERLAND VOL.2: HUSH COVERLAND VOL.3: NOTHING COMPARES 2 U COVERLAND VOL.4: HARD TO HANDLE COVERLAND VOL.5: GUINNEVERE COVERLAND VOL.6: I SCARE MYSELF COVERLAND VOL. 7: CHINA GIRL COVERLAND VOL.8: LIVE AND LET DIE COVERLAND VOL. 9: PERSONAL JESUS COVERLAND VOL.10: THE JUNGLE LINE COVERLAND VOL.11: THE MAN WHO SOLD THE WORLD COVERLAND VOL.12: ALL ALONG THE WATCHTOWER COVERLAND VOL.13: LEOPARD-SKIN PILL-BOX HAT COVERLAND VOL.14: JUST GOT PAID COVERLAND VOL.15: DO WAH DIDDY DIDDY COVERLAND VOL.16: LAST KIND WORDS COVERLAND VOL.17: WOODSTOCK COVERLAND VOL.18: JOURNEY IN SATCHIDANANDA COVERLAND VOL.18: HAIR COVERLAND VOL.19: SOS COVERLAND VOL.20: RESPECT COVERLAND VOL.21: WHIPPING POST COVERLAND VOL.22: LIKE A ROLLING STONE COVERLAND VOL.23: LOŠE VINO COVERLAND VOL.24: SIGNS COVERLAND VOL.25: GET LUCKY COVERLAND VOL.26: WITH A LITLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS
