Music reviewer Will Hermes examines how singer/songwriter Cat Energy re-created the legendary 1966 Bob Dylan live performance throughout which the folks icon performed an electrical guitar and received jeered.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
On Could 17, 1966, Bob Dylan performed a live performance in England that went down in historical past. As a substitute of the topical people songs he was recognized for, he introduced an electrical guitar and a band. They usually performed loud.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
BOB DYLAN: (Singing) As soon as upon a time, you dressed so positive, threw the bums a dime in your prime, did not you?
FADEL: Now, the folkies within the crowd weren’t pleased. One famously yelled out, Judas. However the present marked a shift in Dylan’s profession and the arc of fashionable music. Now singer-songwriter Chan Marshall, higher often known as Cat Energy, has issued a song-by-song recreation of this legendary live performance. Will Hermes has this assessment.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “SHE BELONGS TO ME”)
CAT POWER: (Singing) She’s received all the pieces she wants. She’s an artist. She do not look again.
WILL HERMES, BYLINE: Despite the fact that it was recorded in Manchester, the well-known bootleg of that Bob Dylan present was incorrectly titled “The Royal Albert Corridor Live performance.” Chan Marshall as soon as known as Dylan’s catalogue the Mount Everest of songwriting. So when supplied the possibility to carry out at London’s fabled Royal Albert Corridor, she impulsively agreed, with the caveat that she’d play all Dylan songs in a sly nod to the well-known bootleg. The reside album that resulted from her efficiency would possibly appear to be a ginormous act of hubris however to not me. Marshall is each a superb songwriter and track interpreter, now with 4 full-length albums of canopy songs. She’s considered one of our Billie Holidays, Frank Sinatras, Nina Simones, a singer who uncovers new meanings and contemporary feelings in traditional songs.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “IT’S ALL OVER NOW, BABY BLUE”)
CAT POWER: (Singing) Yonder stands your orphan together with his gun, crying like a fireplace within the solar. Look out. The saints are coming by way of. And it is throughout now, Child Blue.
HERMES: In fact, Bob Dylan started his profession singing different individuals’s songs. He nonetheless does it. And lots of the best recordings of Dylan songs are by different artists. Suppose Jimi Hendrix’s “All Alongside The Watchtower.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “ALL ALONG THE WATCHTOWER”)
JIMI HENDRIX: (Singing) There have to be some form of method out of right here, mentioned the joker to the thief.
HERMES: And The Byrds’ “Mr. Tambourine Man.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “MR. TAMBOURINE MAN”)
THE BYRDS: (Singing) Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a track for me.
HERMES: Chan Marshall covers that one, too, unpacking the lonely restlessness of Dylan’s model with one which’s sultry and just a little bit flirty.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “MR. TAMBOURINE MAN”)
CAT POWER: (Singing) Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a track for me. Within the jingle jangle morning, I will come following you.
HERMES: “Cat Energy Sings Dylan” is, in a way, a type of drag present, demonstrating what Shakespeare knew – how artists can reveal truths about gender and romance by way of cross-dressing. The album can be a mash observe to a fellow singer-songwriter and a torch passing to considered one of our nice torch singers.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “LIKE A ROLLING STONE”)
CAT POWER: (Singing) As soon as upon a time, you dressed so positive, threw the bums a dime in your prime, did not you?
FADEL: Cat Energy Sings Dylan: The Royal Albert Corridor Live performance” is offered on Domino Information. Critic Will Hermes is creator of the brand new biography “Lou Reed: The King of New York.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “LIKE A ROLLING STONE”)
CAT POWER: (Singing) You used…
Copyright © 2023 NPR. All rights reserved. Go to our web site phrases of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for additional info.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This textual content is probably not in its closing type and could also be up to date or revised sooner or later. Accuracy and availability could range. The authoritative report of NPR’s programming is the audio report.
