Today, I’m posting a cover of “From a Buick 6,” again from the great Highway 61 Revisited album. This song certainly has appeal to a blues musician—I think it’s one of Dylan’s most succesful transformations of the old time blues feel into an updated lyrical presentation & (in his case) electric sound. Because I wanted a bit of that raw sound in my version, I used the Regal resonator guitar—the metal body can be easily coaxed into a natural distortion that seems just the ticket for this song. The guitar is tuned to drop D—for those non-guitarists out there, that means the lowest sounding string is tuned down to a D rather than an E as in in standard tuning. The guitar is capoed, so the actual key is Eb.
Please check in on Friday, Christmas Eve, for a seasonal tune from the Alice in Wonder Band archives. & next Monday will wrap up our Dylan feature!
Hope you enjoy it!
Wow! You give it a spooky, Delta blues feel. Good work, John!
ReplyDeleteHi Roy: Thanks! It seems to fit--glad you liked it.
ReplyDeleteLove IT!
ReplyDeleteIf you have time take a listen to 'Monday Morning Coffee" on my site.
http://shearsshorts.blogspot.com/
The music is on the right side of the page. They're all originals by me, but I think you'd dig Monday Morning Coffee....
Spooky, indeed! Because Dylan rarely moves very far from his progenitors, his songs will take arrangements that move them back towards their roots. Sounding good here, John!
ReplyDeleteThe mysterious 'n. smith' is me with a too-quick trigger finger!
ReplyDeleteHi Kevin: Sounds great! I'll definitely be checking this out. & glad you liked the tune.
ReplyDeleteHi Dick (AKA n smith!): Yes, Dylan at his best is about as "roots" as a modern white musician gets. Glad you liked it.
Nice pick. I'm a die-hard Dylan fan, and I love the way you've transformed this song (which I always thought of as satirical) into a very haunting, understated and traditional delta bluesy acoustic take. Great line I'd forgotten: "--need a steam shovel mama to keep away the dead..."
ReplyDeleteI actually just got through linking a 1978 Dylan tune today at my place...great minds etc.
Hi Hedwitch: The song as Dylan does it has a satirical edge, yes--satire seems to underlie pretty much all of Highway 61 Revisited. Glad you liked this version! I'll swing by to hear your "Street Legal" cut soon--I remember when that album came out.
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