Cover versions can be tricky little buggers. Rather like movie remakes, they can sometimes surpass the original (Heat), just about offer a flattering copy (The Ring), or completely murder the hell out of the original and leave all fans of it employing small animals to scratch out their eyeballs (Get Carter).
Songs are a lot shorter than your average film though, and therefore, should be a lot harder to make a mess of. Although not if you’re Mark Ronson, whose grindingly shit (and admittedly incredibly successful) take on covers involves simply a jaunty rhythm and a trumpet. Again. And. Again.
Anyway, whatever the failings of the twat in the hat, you surely can’t go wrong with an album packed full of Bob Dylan belters can you? Well, maybe in some ways you can.
Acting as the soundtrack to the recent Todd Haynes pseudo biopic of little Bobby Zimmerman, what you get here is a whopping two CDs and 31 tracks of artists paying tribute to the man himself.
Unsurprisingly among such a big bunch, there are a few that fall short. Charlotte Gainsbourg is so breathily sexy that she sounds like Mike Myers‘ Marilyn Monroe impression from Wayne’s World, Anthony Hegarty fails to beat Axl Rose‘s version of Knocking On Heaven’s Door (no shame there), and poor old Marlon Jennings gets saddled with an impossible task after picking The Times They Are A Changin’ out of the hat.
How to handle some of Dylan’s more iconic songs does seem to be one of the problems here, and another that suffers is Eddie Vedder‘s All Along The Watchtower. Apparently putting your own spin on one of the 20th century’s most recognisable songs just isn’t that easy.
On the whole though, the songs chosen are a little more off the beaten track and the artists selected prove to be a high quality group of interpreters.
There’s a healthy bunch of contemporary Dylan fans such as Jeff Tweedy of Wilco and Jim James of My Morning Jacket, but also contemporaries of Bob himself in the shape of Willie Nelson and Roger McGuinn.
We even get a track from Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, of whom Dylan was a big fan, and fittingly, his take on Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues is one of the most authentic moments. Dylan bassist Tony Garnier also appears as part of the album’s ‘house band’ The Million Dollar Bashers.
Authenticity can become a bit of an issue, with several songs descending into impressions more than anything else (step forward Cat Power), but as the actors in the film found, doing an impression of Bob can be a lot of fun.
Ultimately, the soundtrack’s main success is to reflect the film by covering each facet and phase of Dylan’s career from rock to religion and back again. Fan’s will relish the inclusion of Dylan’s own I’m Not There for the first time on an official release, but its interpretation by Sonic Youth is one of the best tracks here, proving that this interesting collection will keep anyone’s interest for months to come.