Song of the Day: This remarkable number from Bob’s 2020 album Rough And Rowdy Ways plays with the idea of the many ways to perceive and be perceived, parodying his various personas with the Frankenstein metaphor
Read moreLead Belly to Nirvana and more – Where Did You Sleep Last Night?
Lead Belly
Song of the Day: Also known as In The Pines, and Black Girl, today we move onto another traditional song variously interpreted, dark and brooding, haunting in its melody, and simmering with suspicion and jealousy
Read moreSon House … to House of the Rising Sun – various
The Animals may have done the best-known cover version, but there are arguably others than better it
To some it’s a masterpiece, to others a dirge, but from 17th century England to 20th century New Orleans, with artists that include Woody Guthrie, Nina Simone, The Animals and alt-J it’s a song that keeps evolving
Read moreBlind Willie McTell - Travelin' Blues / Statesboro Blues
Blind Willie McTell (1898-1959)
Song of the Day: Today's deep-south exploration goes to the Piedmont blues style of the man born in Thomson, Georgia, whose ragtime-like picking style and voice is so clearly a huge influence on Bob Dylan, Jack White and Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page and Robert Plant
Read moreRocky Mountain Mike – Mr Tangerine Man / Don't Think Twice They're Alt Right
Go home, you fuckwit
Song of the Day: To mark the unwelcome visit of the current US president to the UK, two ironic versions of the famous Bob Dylan song that capture the falsehood, narcissism, hypocrisy and divisive racism of the Donald
Read moreFourth of July Special: Bob Dylan – Bob Dylan's 115th Dream
From the cover of Bringing It All Back Home, Bob Dylan's fourth album (1965)
Song of the Day: Some songs for Independence Day are patriotic, others heavily critical, but this American dream number sees the then great young lyricist capture his country with surreal, vivid, humorous irony
Read moreTom Petty & the Heartbreakers – Southern Accents
Thomas Earl Petty, 1950-2017
Song of the Day: Many great songs are being suggested to mark Petty's passing, but this, from the 1985 from the album of the same name, is defiant and moving, highlighting the importance of being oneself, of being proud of your roots, appropriate for an artist who constantly fought for artistic freedom
Read moreBob Dylan – A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall
Bob Dylan in 1962
Song of the Day: A Dylan song was inevitably going to drop here at some point, and, from current flooding, climate change and US foreign policy wrangles, this apocalyptic early number recorded in 1962 the shadow of the Cuban missile crisis remains just as hard-hitting and relevant
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