This Ace Records compilation, released last year, escaped my notice until internet randomness brought it to my attention this morning:
Most of you will know at least some of these, and they include that great version of 'From A Buick 6' by Gary US Bonds (which, as it happens, I included in a Dylan compilation album issued decades ago now); but I'd like to mention a lesser-known track on How Many Roads - and that is 'I Shall Be Released' by Freddie Scott. I've not heard it and it might not be all that good, but Freddie Scott is always worth looking out for. His slow, ineffably soulful 1960s version of the normally fast-paced 'I Got A Woman' by Ray Charles was one of those singles I played to myself compulsively in adolescence. It still sounds tremendous. He also made a cover of Van the Man's 'Brown-Eyed Girl' and after a 15-year silence made one last album in 2001. He died in 2007. There's a good brief biography of him by Jason Ankeny here.
Just out of curiosity, what was the name of the Dylan compilation you put together? I seem to remember having one with that particular track on, called, I think, the Bob Dylan Song Book. It's buried somewhere so I can't easily check it out.
ReplyDeleteIts imaginative title was THE SONGS OF BOB DYLAN; Start Records (UK), 1989. Mostly it was a good collection, I think. As well as Gary US Bonds it included 'Dusty Old Fairgrounds' by Blue Ash, 'Let's Keep It Between Us' by Bonnie Raitt, 'Lay lady Lay' by Hoyt Axton, 'Wanted Man' by George Thorogood, 'If You Gotta Go, Go Now' by the Flying Burrito Brothers and the magnificent Jason & the Scorchers' 'Absolutely Sweet Marie'.
ReplyDeleteIt's not the one I have, but in comparison to The Bob Dylan Song Book (if that was its name) it does seem, from your sampling, to have some interesting and less obvious choices. It must be fun to get to compile a Bob related release.
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