Bryan Ferry - Dylanesque

Brian Ferry's Usual Genius at Work

This CD is a pleasure to listen to. Original Dylan fans may be uncomfortable at first but, like all great albums, Brian Ferry's take on the master's classics just gets better, richer and more nuanced with every listen. It will be a long time before I get tired of this one. July 4, 2008

Not for Dylan Fans

I love Dylan. I received this CD as a gift from a friend who thought I would like another take on some of Dylan's work. It was hard to imagine someone being having the nerve to be "Dylanesque" but thought I'd give the CD a chance. There are a few pieces that are nice listening--but since when was Dylan nice listening? There are other pieces that are absolutely horrible--like nails on a blackboard. I can't turn them off fast enough. If you love Dylan don't get this CD. As for my "Dylanesque" I'm giving it to the person who gave it to me. He doesn't like Dylan and should just love this CD. May 13, 2008

A class act ! Engaging, never boring.

Most of us would not associate Bryan Ferry the art-rock lounge lizard with Bob Dylan, the ragged poet-troubadour.
But Ferry's swaggering 1973 version of Dylan's "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall" left old smoothie chops with a desire to do a whole album of Dylan covers, but it has taken him over 30 years to get round to it.
One of the supremely gifted interpreters of other people's songs, Ferry's take on Dylan's work was always bound to be at the very least interesting.
Twenty songs were rattled off in a week, of which 11 made the final cut, and the spontaneity of the session is obvious.
Ferry's band deftly evoke the sturdy, simplistic country-tinged rock which is Dylan's thing, and the album kicks off convincingly with "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" and "Simple Twist Of Fate".
But some of the mid-tempo material, like "All I Really Wanna Do", is merely so-so, and it's a surprise to hear the protest song "The Times They Are A-Changin'" dashed off at yet another plodder in this vein. Neither is there much that Ferry can do to improve on Hendrix's blistering re-interpretation of "All Along The Watchtowe"r or even Eric Clapton's reggaefication of "Knockin' On Heaven's Door".
Where Ferry scores is in a wistful, airy reading of "Make You Feel My Love", the velvety-yet-venomous "Positively 4th Street" and the Roxy-like "If Not For You", complete with simmering sonic enhancements by old buddy Brian Eno. April 27, 2008

HUGE disappointment

I am a huge Roxy Music fan (their best, obviously, being their first five albums, but the later ones hold gems, too). So, of course, I love a lot of Bryan Ferry solo, my favorites being the 70s output, of course. His version of Hard Rain's Gonna Fall is simply amazing. I even liked a good part of Frantic -- his version of It's All Over Now, Baby Blue, I thought, was quite good.

I like Dylan a lot, too. Not fanatical, but I know my Freewheelin' from my Highway 61.

So I thought this album was going to be amazing.

It isn't.

It's easily the biggest disappointment I've heard in a while. The versions are barely different from their Dylan counterparts -- Ferry even uses harmonica judiciously -- I mean, at least make that somewhat interesting by turning it into a French Horn or a sax solo or something. Worse yet, these versions even make you question if you even want to hear the Dylan versions again. You'll think you do, but these versions are so banal, you'll wonder if it's the songs or the singer (to paraphrase the Stones) -- don't worry, in this case, it's the singer.

If you're looking for interesting takes on Dylan songs, just pull out Hard Rain's Gonna Fall again. Ferry will never reach that height again.

Skip this if you even remotely like Ferry. Or Dylan for that matter. December 31, 2007

Danceable Dylan

I had high hopes for this CD when I bought it. I like Dylan, I like Ferry, and music magazine reviews were generally positive. But my rule for cover versions is not to do them unless you do them better than the originals or that you must add something interesting to them. And though Dylanesque is listenable, I find that Bryan Ferry has failed both of my criteria for recording a cover version of a song.
There are a couple of them I really like. Just Like Tom Thumb Blues features a strong driving beat and some ooga-booga background vocals. Simple Twist of Fate comes on strong as well. But most of the rest of the rather short CD is tepid and uninspired. A strong closing with All Along the Watchtower, which features the great Robin Trower on acoustic guitar, prevents the listener from going away completely disappointed.
There is nothing at all wrong with reinterpretation of a song as long as you make it interesting. Dylan does it to his own songs all the time, and in another genre, Astor Piazzolla played his songs in a new way every time he hit the stage or the recording studio. But Ferry does not make it interesting and gives the listener little real reason to buy Dylanesque unless that listener just happens to prefer the voice of Bryan Ferry to that of Bob Dylan. The most that can be said for this is that Ferry makes Dylan danceable. December 28, 2007

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