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Great version of this classic Dylan song.
zzzzzzzzzz...
bluedot wrote:
Hell, I don't like either version! One of my least favorite Dylan songs (sorry, leafmold). Bob parodied himself here. It's almost as bad as "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands." There are some serious clunkers on "Blonde on Blonde"—that happens on double albums too many times.
I agree with you, bluedot: Nathaniel really didn't bother to look at the song from a different angle. He just a nicely produced karaoke version.
Bill just segued into "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)"...a far superior Dylan tune.
on some of your points, i agree with you. but i disagree with your assertion that this version is "done beautifully by a fresh young artist." to me, it sounds tired and stale. the original dylan version had the advantage of being, well, dylan. this suffers starkly by comparison. the meandering lyrics come off as tedious when not presented with dylan's trademark delivery. this guy's voice is mediocre, and this song does NOT make me feel compelled to visit his website. maybe if bill found another song to play by him which didn't make him sound like a second-rate dylan wannabe, i might be more interested. having heard this boring thing on rp a few times without it "growing" on me, it just makes me go to my itunes and switch to another internet radio station.
Hell, I don't like either version! One of my least favorite Dylan songs (sorry, leafmold). Bob parodied himself here. It's almost as bad as "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands." There are some serious clunkers on "Blonde on Blonde"—that happens on double albums too many times.
I agree with you, bluedot: Nathaniel really didn't bother to look at the song from a different angle. He just a nicely produced karaoke version.
Bill just segued into "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)"...a far superior Dylan tune.
One of my favorite Dylan songs. I actually like the cover!
I liked this guy better when he was Bob Dylan.I like this Song! Kinda an old post I'm adding to (2004) but I think it's a good version of the song. I really don't know of another I would listen to other than Mr. Dylans!
Bluedot wrote:
on some of your points, i agree with you.
but i disagree with your assertion that this version is "done beautifully by a fresh young artist."
this guy's voice is mediocre, and this song does NOT make me feel compelled to visit his website.
Whatever! But I do agree with you to this point â" knowing Street West's work as a longtime fan I am surprised they are even playing his version of "Visions" on RP. They have his entire debut album and this would not be the song I would choose as a DJ after listening to the entire 17 song "Light Out For the Territory" â" there are much "better" songs on the album. And once they get hold of his upcoming release "American Way" I would be surprised if they play anything from "Light Out" because from what I hear it's gonna blast "Light Out" into the territory. As anyone knows "Light Out" was not very well produced by so-called veteran Duane Baron who should stay out of "production" (at least with blues-rock kind of stuff) & stick with engineering after this attempt at trying to capture the real genius of Street West. (You should hear Street West live â" amazing voice, guitar, performance.)
As an advocate of artistic freedom I don't really think it matters what anybody thinks of an artist's choice to honor another artist by doing one of their songs â" for any reason. As far as the crack about the "voice" goes...as I remember there are still quite a few people on the planet who flat out complain about Dylan's voice so I wouldn't go too far into that subject. Personally I think Dylan walks on water and I love his voice, however it is worth pointing out given your context. Seems to me that each of our opinions are valid to some extent however you appear to have such a Jones on about someone daring to cover Dylan's song it's kinda' weird.
Visit Dylan's website sometime and listen to the "covers" of his work by other artists that he posts on his site then let's see what you have to say. Dylan's longtime compatriot Olaf Bjorner has featured Street West's version of "Visions" on his site, plus the other Dylan song Street West included on "Light Out", "Motorpsycho Nightmare" and in fact the Dylan 'community" lauded the songs as 'Covers of the Month", giving them rave reviews.
Having such a problem with this kid's version is a sort of curmudgeonly, anti-artistic freedom kind of thing. And why in the world would you care about visiting his website â"just don't go! Anyway, I love RP and what it's about, no matter which artist's songs they play they make great choices. It's a big round world and it takes all types but since most of the rest of us love Street West's version of "Visions" why are you so interested in knocking it? That's why we have mute buttons!
CAdams wrote:
Let's see, where do I begin...Perhaps you may want to visit the artist's web site if you want to hear what this guy has to offer that is "original" in your opinion. On the song page of the website there are songclips of all the "original" songs from Light Out For the Territory. What is the point of covering a song another artist has written, you ask? Any musician, or anyone who understands music, understands that musicians - from Beethoven through Coltrane through Dave Matthews and "Whomever" have a tradition of honoring other composers or songwriters by "covering" their work. Hopefully it is never done to make improvements on the original which would be an insult to the original songwriter/performer. In fact, any artist who would cover a song of Dylan's hoping to make an "improvement" would be both foolhardy and mean-spirited. Street West did the song to honor Bob Dylan and most people love his version simply because it is an opportunity to hear the song done beautifully by a fresh young artist. Many of Nathaniel Street West's fans have put their appreciation for his version of "Visions of Johanna" in writing and it has been featured by many radio stations and websites because people enjoy listening to it. So, the "point" is found in an understanding and appreciation of music â" nothing more, nothing less.
on some of your points, i agree with you.
but i disagree with your assertion that this version is "done beautifully by a fresh young artist."
to me, it sounds tired and stale. the original dylan version had the advantage of being, well, dylan.
this suffers starkly by comparison. the meandering lyrics come off as tedious when not presented with dylan's trademark delivery. this guy's voice is mediocre, and this song does NOT make me feel compelled to visit his website.
maybe if bill found another song to play by him which didn't make him sound like a second-rate dylan wannabe, i might be more interested.
having heard this boring thing on rp a few times without it "growing" on me, it just makes me go to my itunes and switch to another internet radio station.
bluedot wrote:
what's the point?
i'd rather hear what this guy has to offer that's original.
how is this an improvement on dylan's version?
Let's see, where do I begin...Perhaps you may want to visit the artist's web site if you want to hear what this guy has to offer that is "original" in your opinion. On the song page of the website there are songclips of all the "original" songs from Light Out For the Territory. What is the point of covering a song another artist has written, you ask? Any musician, or anyone who understands music, understands that musicians - from Beethoven through Coltrane through Dave Matthews and "Whomever" have a tradition of honoring other composers or songwriters by "covering" their work. Hopefully it is never done to make improvements on the original which would be an insult to the original songwriter/performer. In fact, any artist who would cover a song of Dylan's hoping to make an "improvement" would be both foolhardy and mean-spirited. Street West did the song to honor Bob Dylan and most people love his version simply because it is an opportunity to hear the song done beautifully by a fresh young artist. Many of Nathaniel Street West's fans have put their appreciation for his version of "Visions of Johanna" in writing and it has been featured by many radio stations and websites because people enjoy listening to it. So, the "point" is found in an understanding and appreciation of music â" nothing more, nothing less.
what's the point?
i'd rather hear what this guy has to offer that's original.
how is this an improvement on dylan's version?
Who says the song "Visions of Johanna", originally written and performed by Bob Dylan, is autobiographical? I wasn't aware that Dylan had made any pronouncements on the subject and although the song is full of emotional weight and color few songwriters would want listeners to automatically assume that "deep" songs were necessarily taken directly from their own personal life experience. Perhaps he was simply emersed in the poetics, the beautiful turns of phrase, lyrical language, etc and maybe it is a songwriter's version of the short story â" built on character â" in this case a character different from Dylan's own persona.
Nathaniel Street West, a renowned young bluesman, is simply following in the great tradition of singer/songwriters, moved to create his own take on songs written by others. Many musicians have covered "Visions of Johanna" besides Street West: The Greatful Dead, Marianne Faithful, etc, etc, etc. Dylan had to personally & legally give permission to Street West to record his song in order for Street West to have included it on his record, "Light Out For the Territory". Furthermore, Street West's version of this song is featured on several Dylan websites as a critically-acclaimed version of the tune.
Thank goodness artists possess a few remaining freedoms in these restrictive, benumbing, & confusing times â" hopefully it allows the rest of us to share in a bit of their courageous spirit.
Fantastic!! This artist obviously loves this tune....so well done!!
This is a tremendous song, and I'm sure the artist is having a great time singing it (hell, I like to sing along myself), but does it really make sense to cover somebody else's semi-autobiographical work? It's like he's channelling Dylan. Spooky!
Wow, I finally know what these lyrics are! He captures Dylan's drawl in this album well enough, but it's not as garbled . But I love this song anyway. I'm glad to hear it, no matter who sings it.
Better than the original