When Bob Dylan released his third consecutive album of standards earlier this year—and a triple album, no less—many fans became frustrated. Was America’s greatest living songwriter run out of original songs to sing? Was his recent Nobel prize really a capstone marking the end of his “literary” career?
It’s been five years and counting since Dylan last released a collection of original songs (Tempest), and for all we know, he’s got more sets of standards planned.
Don’t get me wrong. I welcome any new record from Bob Dylan. But man, we could really use a new record from Bob Dylan!
Meanwhile, Joan Osborne is celebrating the music of Bob Dylan on her upcoming album, appropriately titled Songs Of Bob Dylan. Osborne launched the project with a PledgeMusic campaign (which I wrote about in December), and now the completed album is set for release on September 1.
Here’s the full track list for Songs Of Bob Dylan:
01. Tangled Up In Blue
02. Rainy Day Women #12 & #35
03. Buckets of Rain
04. Highway 61 Revisited
05. Quinn The Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn)
06. Tryin’ to Get To Heaven
07. Spanish Harlem Incident
08. Dark Eyes
09. High Water (for Charley Patton)
10. You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go
11. Masters Of War
12. You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere
13. Ring Them Bells
Joan Osborne is no stranger to the music of Bob Dylan. She included a cover of “Man In The Long Black Coat” on her debut album, Relish. And while it may seem mildly hypocritical to be praising a new album of covers by one artist after complaining about another artist doing the same thing, I’m very willing to cut Osborne some slack. First of all, she’s covering Dylan, so she gets points for good taste. And secondly, she’s got several covers albums scattered throughout her discography already, so her fans have come to expect this kind of release from her.
Incidentally, if the song “One Of Us” is all you know of Joan Osborne, you should really dig into her music. While that song may have been her one and only hit, it is probably one of the weakest songs from that album. Relish opens strong with “St. Teresa,” followed by her Dylan cover, and then the provocative “Right Hand Man.”
For more info about the new album, check out her PledgeMusic page.
