With biopic A Complete Unknown still in cinemas - and its star, Timothee Chalamet, on the promotional circuit as he vies for his first Oscar - the level of interest in Bob Dylan and his music is as high as it’s been for years.
Perhaps sensing that now is the moment, then, producer and former Eurythmic Dave Stewart has just announced a 14-song album of Bob Dylan covers, the snappily titled Dave Does Dylan.
A limited-edition release for Record Store Day, this will land on Saturday 12 April, and comprises “live takes, pure and unedited”. Stewart recorded all the vocals and guitars in a single pass, which one hopes will give the album a sense of rawness and authenticity.
Stewart is no Dylan dillitante (Dylantante?), either: he’s been playing these songs for more than 50 years.
“When I was first learning the guitar, I was about 14 or 15 years old - which would’ve been like 1964 or ’65,” he recalls. “I was insistent on getting into folk clubs, but I looked about 12 years old, so they kept me out for a while. Then one chap, Mick Elliot, took pity and allowed me to play at The George & Dragon which became the centre of the folk music scene in my hometown, Sunderland, in the 1960s. 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, whisky 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.”
His choice of material, says Stewart, took some of the locals by surprise. “The audience was always a bit shocked that this kid, who looked so young, was singing these lyrics - especially in that kind of folk club,” he remembers. “It was mostly old folk music that was being played from the local area about the coal mines and about the shipyards, which I loved too…and Dylan would have loved also.”
From here, Stewart took his repertoire on the road. “I started to sing and play these Dylan songs anywhere I could; in other folk clubs, even on the street all over the north east of England. From then on, I got every Bob Dylan album - and still do to this day - on vinyl and in every possible variation.”
Not only is Stewart a Dylan superfan, though - he also got the chance to meet and work with him.
“One day in 1985, I received a phone call from Bob Dylan while I was in the studio in Los Angeles,” he says. “At first, I thought it was my friend joking when the receptionist said ‘Bob Dylan on the phone for you,’ but I could tell as soon as he spoke, it was Bob. We met up that night and we talked about everything; films, music, life, etc… and we ended up in a great Mexican place in South LA.
“He knew everybody and he said, ‘hey, why don’t we make a video tomorrow or the next day?’ It was already two in the morning, but I agreed and I helped make various videos with him during which we became great friends. Years later, I filmed Blood In My Eyes, which is a video I shot on two 8mm cameras - just the two of us walking around Camden town.”
Stewart’s friendship with Dylan endures to this day, and his album is a tribute both to Bob’s songs and the man himself.
I’ve played on stage with Bob in London, LA and Tokyo, and I find conversations with him - whether on the phone or when we’re together - really relaxed and easy,” says Stewart. “As you can imagine, he is full of great observations and wisdom, all wrapped up in a poetic language. I’m so, so grateful for getting to know him personally and to now record this album of songs after years of singing them to friends and to myself. It's been a long road and these lyrics and melodies have kept me company through the best and the worst of times. I hope my album can do the same for Dylan fans out there - who understand the mastery and the mystery Bob has bestowed on us, and still does to this day.”
Dave Does Dylan will be released on Surfdog Records.
