Dear Bob Dylan:
We love you dearly.
However, you just released Tripicate, a triple-album collection of Sinatra-era standards, making a total of 5 album's worth of Sinatra-era gold now.
BASTA! ENOUGH ALREADY WITH THE SINATRA!!!
Yeah, we noticed too that Rod Stewart and all kinds of people have made boatloads of dough singing standards to their aging audiences, and that seems to be where your audience is going too (see AARP cover below)
I can assure you that there is a substantial fanbase of people who love your classics, are damned proud of your Nobel (because it's really for all of us), who DON'T like Sinatra, and would love to hear literally anything else from you.
Things we would rather hear you, Bob Dylan, sing than Sinatra-era standards:
1. Your own classics
2. Your own new material
3. Blues, folk, and country "standards" from your heroes and forefathers - Reverend Gary Davis, Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly, Jimmie Rodgers, Hank Williams, Charley Patton, Son House...
Any of that would be a million times better than this Sinatra stuff.
We've heard a 20-something Bob Dylan cover Reverend Gary Davis... why not a 70-something Dylan doing The Reverend? You finally have the Voice for it.
I'm begging you please!
This Sinatra material means nothing to most of your fans. This is the music of their parents and grandparents. It's pre-rock n roll. It's what rock replaced, and thank the gods it did.
Consider what Rick Rubin and Johnny Cash did with the American Recordings. You could cover blues, folk, and country standards, as well as shining a light on some of your contemporaries who deserve a new look - Gene Clark, Eric von Schmidt, Dave Van Ronk, Eric Andersen, Carolyn Hester, Phil Ochs, Ramblin' Jack Elliot, Bob Gibson, Hamilton Camp, Len Chandler, Gordon Lightfoot, Fred Neil, and Roger McGuinn, to name a few. And there are literally an unlimited number of folk songs you can cover - British, Scottish, Welsh, Irish, North American... and a host of other traditions.
Please come home to rock, folk, country, gospel, and blues. It's what you do best. It is you.
We love you dearly.
However, you just released Tripicate, a triple-album collection of Sinatra-era standards, making a total of 5 album's worth of Sinatra-era gold now.
BASTA! ENOUGH ALREADY WITH THE SINATRA!!!
Yeah, we noticed too that Rod Stewart and all kinds of people have made boatloads of dough singing standards to their aging audiences, and that seems to be where your audience is going too (see AARP cover below)
Things we would rather hear you, Bob Dylan, sing than Sinatra-era standards:
1. Your own classics
2. Your own new material
3. Blues, folk, and country "standards" from your heroes and forefathers - Reverend Gary Davis, Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly, Jimmie Rodgers, Hank Williams, Charley Patton, Son House...
Any of that would be a million times better than this Sinatra stuff.
We've heard a 20-something Bob Dylan cover Reverend Gary Davis... why not a 70-something Dylan doing The Reverend? You finally have the Voice for it.
I'm begging you please!
This Sinatra material means nothing to most of your fans. This is the music of their parents and grandparents. It's pre-rock n roll. It's what rock replaced, and thank the gods it did.
Consider what Rick Rubin and Johnny Cash did with the American Recordings. You could cover blues, folk, and country standards, as well as shining a light on some of your contemporaries who deserve a new look - Gene Clark, Eric von Schmidt, Dave Van Ronk, Eric Andersen, Carolyn Hester, Phil Ochs, Ramblin' Jack Elliot, Bob Gibson, Hamilton Camp, Len Chandler, Gordon Lightfoot, Fred Neil, and Roger McGuinn, to name a few. And there are literally an unlimited number of folk songs you can cover - British, Scottish, Welsh, Irish, North American... and a host of other traditions.
Please come home to rock, folk, country, gospel, and blues. It's what you do best. It is you.
I just got this and I haven't even got to listen to it are you telling me this is a bunch of Moore cover songs?
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid so.... but I'm encouraged that he did a bunch of classics in concert last year for the folks at Desert Trip.
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