Credit: Bent Rej

Bob Dylan: the singer-songwriter Tom Jones called incomparable

Mon 1 January 2024 13:00, UK

When an artist decides to take on a song initially crafted by an artist they admire, a significant risk is attached. The worst possible scenario is for the person who initially made the track to react badly to the cover, but thankfully, that wasn’t the case when Tom Jones reimagined one of his favourite Bob Dylan creations.

Dylan has been a constant in Jones’ life for several decades despite taking a while to comprehend the full scale of his brilliance. Many people were in a similar boat as Dylan was ushering in a whole new style and approach to music, which seemed foreign in the early 1960s. Still, after devoting time to understanding his artistry, his work registered profoundly for Jones.

During an interview with The Guardian in 2022, Jones revealed how ‘Blowin’ In The Wind’ was single-handedly responsible for changing his opinion on Dylan. Since then, he’s never looked back and thanks the legendary Greenwich Village alumni for opening his mind to a world of singer-songwriters.

Over the course of his career, Jones has found himself returning to Dylan’s oeuvre on multiple occasions. His most recent album, 2021’s Surrounded By Time, included the Welsh singer’s unique take on ‘One More Cup Of Coffee’ with the expanded edition of the LP also featuring a version of ‘Not Dark Yet’.

Speaking exclusively to Far Out about the album upon release, Jones, when discussing what he looks for when deciding to take on music he loves, said: “Songs are more important to me now, and they take on a different meaning when you’ve lived a long time. And you’ve lived through things, you read more into lyrics than you do when you’re young.”

Despite what the song means to Jones, he also wants his reimagining to connect with the original artist. When he made a version of Dylan’s ‘What Good Am I’ on his 2010 record Praise & Blame, he was thrilled to discover it was met with warmth by its creator. Furthermore, he also asked Jones to perform it at a MusiCares tribute concert for Dylan in 2015.

Ahead of the event, he told the Grammys: “When I recorded it, on the album Praise & Blame is the name of the album, I wanted to do songs of songwriters that I love, and of course, Bob Dylan is one of those people, so that’s why I did it. And I loved it; it was a great session, and I’m glad that he liked my version, which is why I was invited to come along not only to sing a Bob Dylan song but one that I’d recorded that he liked.”

Elaborating on his love of Dylan, Jones added: “It’s important to me because Bob Dylan is a one-off, you can’t compare him to anyone else, he’s a unique singer-songwriter. The music that he makes is fantastic, and he’s been going as long as I have, which is a long time.”

Listen to Jones’ recording of ‘What Good Am I’ below.