Throwback Thursday: Joe Cocker's Dylan Covers Continue To Reward Listeners

This week I was watching a DVD on Joe Cocker and it brought back to mind this blog post I assembled four years ago. It was impressive how much energy he generated. 

Bob Dylan earned the Nobel Prize "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition." He not only consumed the music, he re-shaped it, gave it new luster, and shared it in new forms. It would be comparable to inventing new colors to add to the rainbow.

Now available to all, countless artists have inhaled the new "colors" Dylan gave us and proceeded to take them to new and remarkable places and spaces. One of these performer/interpreters was Joe Cocker, who passed from us in 2014 but has not been forgotten.

There are certain performers whose distinctive qualities set them apart as one of a kind, and Cocker was one of them. He'd been around for many years before he exploded on the scene in 1969 with his first United States tour which included Woodstock. His re-interpretation of "With A Little Help From My Friends" established him as a seriously notable performer. (It didn't hurt that his friends included Jimmy Page, Leon Russell, drummer B.J. Wilson and Tommy Eyre on the organ.)

After three years with his Grease Band, he assembled Mad Dogs & Englishmen, continuing a life of recording and performing. Once Joe Cocker embraced a song and reconfigured it, it became his own.

Here are nine Dylan songs that Joe Cocker recorded. Most, like Dear Landlord, were already familiar by the time he gave them renewed electricity. Others were not released by Dylan himself till much later. (Even lifetime fans have been repeatedly surprised and impressed by the contents of what keeps coming out of the Dylan vault.) The five emotion-laden tunes embedded here are among my favorites.

Dear Landlord (Joe Cocker!, 1969)

Just Like A Woman  (With a Little Help from My Friends, 1969)  Amazing.

Watching the River Flow (Luxury You Can Afford, 1978) -- Joe Cocker and the gang ratchet things up with this live performance in Italy. Love it. But then, here he is belting it out in San Francisco. Mmmmm, yeah.

Dignity (Organic, 1996)  Another great selection.

Let's close it out with this wonderful version of Ring Them Bells (Hymn for My Soul, 2007) from Dylan's Oh Mercy.

Want more Joe Cocker interpretations of Dylan? These are also easy to find...

Seven Days (Sheffield Steel, 1982) was released by Dylan on his Bootleg Series: Rare & Unreleased in 1991.

I Shall Be Released (With a Little Help from My Friends, 1969)

Catfish (Stingray, 1976)

And a laid back Reggae version of The Man In Me (Stingray, 1976)

* * * *
Trivia: Tommy Eyre, who played the organ on Joe Cocker's With A Little Help From My Friends, married Scarlet Rivera in 1991, to whom he was wed till he died from cancer in the summer of 2001. Scarlet has become a "special friend of the Northland" with many fans here as a result of her performances on behalf of the Armory (among other things.) Bringing this blog post full circle, Scarlet's imaginative violin work contributed to the distinctive sound Dylan's Desire album. Being recruited to travel with the Rolling Thunder Revue helped ignite her own career as a performer.

* * * *
Acknowledgement: Source for the nine songs, the tribute to Joe Cocker at Positively Bob Dylan.

Year In Review: Dylan Themes Continue to Top the Top 10 Blog Posts for 2017

Well something's lost, but something's gained 
 In living every day. 
-- Joni Mitchell

The year 2017 is winding down and as in years past I've decided to see what topics have most connected with my readers. The most recurring theme, writing about our vibrant local arts scene, has the most regular volume. Occasionally various subjects hit a nerve, but in years past the numbers always jumped when I wrote about Dylan, and this year was no different. Since Dylan is one of many interests for me, and because so many people have produced more in depth coverage of his music and career, I am not really interested in having to sacrifice all my other interests simply to convert this to a Bob Dylan blog.

Alas, my interest in Dylan has not abated, and I continue to feel enriched by his work, his words, and the words of others who attempt to interpret the meaning of what he has produced.

All that being said, here were my top ten blog posts of 2017 in terms of visitors....

10
Marketing the Dylan Machine and Leveraging His Latest Achievement
Having spent half a lifetime in marketing, it's hard not to look at anything (from ideas to politics to holidays) without it being filtered through the marketing filter. Dylan and his team are masters.

9
Joe Cocker's Dylan Covers Continue To Reward Listeners
Like Dylan, Joe Cocker inhales a song and breathes it out as his own. Here are a number of Dylan covers that I especially liked.

8
An Inquiry Regarding Bob Dylan's Guitar Collection
A magazine editor asked me what I knew about Bob Dylan's guitar collection. I had to admit, "Not much." So I did a little digging and found something worth sharing.

7
Origins of Bob Dylan's Never Ending Tour
I did some speculating about how early in his career Dylan imagined a never ending tour.

6
Trepanier Hall Being Renamed to Honor Dr. Robert Powless at AICHO Fifth Anniversary
The American Indian CommunityHousing Organization (AICHO) in Downtown Duluth has become a vital center for a lot of culturally rich experiences.

5
Shooting Star: Bookend on Dylan's Monumental Oh Mercy
Reflections on a great song from a great album.

4
Scott Warmuth Weighs In On Dylan's Latest Appropriations
Some have accused him of plagiarism. Others call his intertextual wordplay genius, an approach to songwriting that borrows from tradition and interacts with it in new ways. Dylan's Nobel Speech seemed to raise the another rhubarb.

3
Dylan and Mavis Makin' Their Way Home. Tom Petty Tribute Is A Knockout.
The NET Fall Tour passed through Bob's home state of Minnesota again this year. Shortly after Tom Petty's passing Dylan tipped the hat to his friend with a rendition of "Learning To Fly."

2
It's All Over Now, Baby Blue: From Whence Comes the Power of This Song?
In March I took a reflected on one of Dylan's classics.

1
Photos and a Note from Glasgow as Dylan's Never Ending Tour Leaves Fans Warmed in the British Isles
In May, as we were preparing for this year's Duluth Dylan Fest, fans in the British Isles were relishing the last leg of Bob's Spring European Tour. Some fans who had been with us in 2016 sent photos from Glasgow.

* * * *

Word on the street is that a theme is taking shape for the 2018 Duluth Dylan Fest in May. The event will run from Saturday May 20 (Armory Concert) thru to the Zeitgeist Farewell Brunch with Jim Hall on Sunday May 27, with music galore as well as art, music and memory-making. In 2016 Dylan's 75th birthday took center stage. This past spring the Nobel Prize added a measure of electricity. In 2018 Bob will be 77, so the theme of Twins is being nurtured. Dylan is a Gemini (The Twins) with a nod to the pair of Sevens for his age. Learn more. Visit BobDylanWay.com

Meantime, life goes on all around you. Get into it.

Joe Cocker's Dylan Covers Continue To Reward Listeners

Bob Dylan earned the Nobel Prize "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition." He not only consumed the music, he re-shaped it, gave it new luster, and shared it in new forms. It would be comparable to inventing new colors to add to the rainbow.

Now available to all, countless artists have inhaled the new "colors" Dylan gave us and proceeded to take them to new and remarkable places and spaces. One of these performer/interpreters was Joe Cocker, who passed from us in 2014 but has not been forgotten.

There are certain performers whose distinctive qualities set them apart as one of a kind, and Cocker was one of them. He'd been around for many years before he exploded on the scene in 1969 with his first United States tour which included Woodstock. His re-interpretation of "With A Little Help From My Friends" established him as a seriously notable artist. (It didn't hurt that his friends included Jimmy Page, drummer B.J. Wilson and Tommy Eyre on the organ.)

After three years with his Grease Band, he assembled Mad Dogs & Englishmen, continuing a life of recording and performing. Once Joe Cocker embraced a song and reconfigured it, it became his own.

Here are nine Dylan songs that Joe Cocker recorded. Most, like Dear Landlord, were already familiar by the time he gave them renewed electricity. Others were not released by Dylan himself till much later. (Even lifetime fans have been repeatedly surprised and impressed by the contents of what keeps coming out of the Dylan vault.) The five emotion-laden tunes embedded here are among my favorites.

Dear Landlord (Joe Cocker!, 1969)

Just Like A Woman  (With a Little Help from My Friends, 1969) 

Watching the River Flow (Luxury You Can Afford, 1978) -- Joe Cocker and the gang ratchet things up with this live performance in Italy. Love it. But then, here he is belting it out in San Francisco. Mmmmm, yeah.

Dignity (Organic, 1996)  Another great selection.

Let's close it out with this wonderful version of Ring Them Bells (Hymn for My Soul, 2007) from Dylan's Oh Mercy.

Want more Joe Cocker interpretations of Dylan? These are also easy to find...

Seven Days (Sheffield Steel, 1982) was released by Dylan on his Bootleg Series: Rare & Unreleased in 1991.

I Shall Be Released (With a Little Help from My Friends, 1969)

Catfish (Stingray, 1976)

And a laid back Reggae version of The Man In Me (Stingray, 1976)

* * * *
Trivia: Tommy Eyre, who played the organ on Joe Cocker's With A Little Help From My Friends, married Scarlet Rivera in 1991, to whom he was wed till he died from cancer in the summer of 2001. Scarlet has become a "special friend of the Northland" with many fans here as a result of her performances on behalf of the Armory (among other things.) Bringing this blog post full circle, Scarlet's imaginative violin work contributed to the distinctive sound on Dylan's Desire album. Being recruited to travel with the Rolling Thunder Revue helped ignite her own career as a performer.

* * * *
Acknowledgement: Source for the nine songs, the tribute to Joe Cocker at Positively Bob Dylan.