Dave Stewart’s favourite Bob Dylan songs: “A visionary of high order”
Countless artists have covered Bob Dylan, but very few of them have watched on from their kitchen while he formed the Traveling Wilburys in their garden.
In fact, it’s almost certainly less than very few. Barring some strange multiverse theory, it’s simply Dave Stewart. This unique standpoint, not necessarily the unique standpoint of being by the kitchen sink, but rather a general observant intimacy, has provided the Eurythmics man with a special insight into the works of the original vagabond.
Evidently, chief among those insights was perhaps an acknowledgement of Dylan’s view that musical inspiration is sacred and not to be meddled with. In his view, songs are tantamount to finished ideas fished from the ether rather than physical edifices you laboriously craft with your own hands. Therefore, it stands to reason that you shouldn’t meddle with them too much either.
Stewart has done just that with the Sunderland-born musician recording the 14 cover songs on his tribute album, Dave Does Dylan, each in a single take. This immediacy speaks to a plethora of important details: firstly, Stewart’s innate understanding of Dylan and his music. Secondly, his desire, inadvertent or otherwise, to mimic the mercurial nature of the troubadour’s zipping sound. Thirdly, presenting these masterpieces in their rawest form.
In essence, given the fact that Dylan cut masterpieces like ‘Maggie’s Farm’ in a single take and recorded the entirety of Another Side of Bob Dylan in one session, the approach seems apt. Moreover, Stewart has seen him work first-hand, proving that the musician is apt, too. So, it’s perhaps unsurprising that Dave Does Dylan has the ‘Jokerman’ singer’s seal of approval.
“Captain Dave is a dreamer and a fearless innovator,“ Dylan shared in promotion of the album, “a visionary of high order, very delicately tractable on the surface but beneath that, he’s a slamming, thumping, battering ram, very mystical but rational and sensitive when it comes to the hot irons of art forms.“
He continued, “An explosive musician, deft guitar player, innately recognises the genius in other people and puts it into play without being manipulative. With him, there’s mercifully no reality to yesterday. He is incredibly gracious and soulful, can command the ship and steer the course, dragger, trawler or man of war, Captain Dave.”
One of the first geniuses that Stewart ever recognised was Dylan’s shining beacon of meaningful talent. “When I was first learning the guitar, I was about 14 or 15 years old—which would’ve been like 1964 or ’65. I was insistent on getting into folk clubs, but I looked about 12 years old, so they kept me out for a while,“ Stewart recalled.
Finally, he cracked the doors when Mick Elliot, feeling sorry for him, allowed him to play at The George & Dragon, the heart of the folk scene in Sunderland, Stewart’s hometown. He continued. “It was like stepping into a sacred room where visionaries and rebels converged—actually, it was simply a room upstairs in a pub full of older folk singers, beer, whiskey and cigarette smoke everywhere. I was allowed to sing two songs, so I would play Bob Dylan songs from his albums that my brother had left behind when he went to college.“
The rest is history. A little further down the line, Dylan would even contact Stewart, and now things have returned to their full circle beginning. So, to mark the release of the record on digital streaming platforms and via Surfdog Records, we caught up with Stewart and asked him to embark on the simple yet near-impossible tasks of discerning his hero’s back catalogue and picking out a few favourites. Here’s what he had to say.
Dave Stewart’s favourite Bob Dylan songs:
‘Spanish Harlem Incident’
“Yeah, so the first song is ‘Spanish Harlem Incident’. This is because, when I was younger, like 16 or whatever, and playing in or trying to get to play in folk clubs, I learned some Dylan songs, and I was drawn to that one and another one called ‘To Ramona’. But with ‘Spanish Harlem Incident’, I liked this strange sort of structure, maybe I changed it and made it into a weird version, but I like the sort of structure and the way that the words lay out a kind of story.”
“It’s about how he wants to know whether this woman can say what’s going to happen to him, you know, through his palm reading and through her palm reading. It’s also tangled up with a love affair. And there’s a strange way that I play it, where I slide a d7, up a semitone and back down again in between. And it gives it a very rhythmic but pretty sort of unique-sounding rendition.”
‘A Simple Twist of Fate’
“Another song I chose is ‘A Simple Twist of Fate’, because it’s classic Dylan storytelling. Again, most of the album I made is Dylan love songs, rather than all of his social, political ones, apart from a couple tossed in. I did usually stick to his kind of love/narrative driven songs. And this one, ‘Simple Twist’ of Fate, is great.
“You know, it’s about this moment in time that we’ve had, most of us in our lives, where there’s someone that you’ve had a massive connection with, but very briefly, and you think, ‘Oh, this could be the one, but it’s just not gonna happen’. Or, it didn’t happen because of, as he said, a simple twist of fate. The way he puts the lyrics together, and the story and the way it unfolds is so descriptive and visual, and it’s just a brilliantly written, simple song.”
‘Forever Young’
“Another one I chose was ‘Forever Young’. So, it’s interesting, as you get older and you think about your children and friends, and the people in your life, it’s really great to sing something that is sort of a statement that is telling everybody that you love: don’t forget to stay forever young.”
“It was sweet because a special recording of that song was played at the end of my wedding to my wife, Anoushka. A friend of mine who passed away, Roger Pomfrey, collected everybody’s cameras, we didn’t have a wedding film as such, but it was on a beach in France, and he collected everybody’s cameras who had filmed something and edited it all together and gave it to us as a wedding present. And it was this beautiful film shot from 100 different angles, and it ends with this special version of ‘Forever Young’ by Dylan.”
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