Current listening: I'm Not There
In heavy rotation on the Rainy Day iPod, the 34 tracks from the soundtrack of I'm Not There, Todd Haynes' contentious biopic of the iconic musical enigma known as Bob Dylan.
Favourites? Two interpretations by very different female singers that bring out the subtleties of two very different Dylan songs: Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again by Cat Power and Just Like A Woman by Charlotte Gainsbourg, accompanied by Calexico. At the other end of the spectrum, the rockin' and rollin' Dylan is given great voice in I Wanna Be Your Lover by Yo La Tengo and Maggie's Farm by Stephen Malkmus & The Million Dollar Bashers. Both versions are marked by their terrific drive.
Sufjan Stevens fails dramatically with his bombastic Ring Them Bells and Marcus Carl Franklin adds nothing to When The Ship Comes In. But they tried. Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova have better luck with You Ain't Goin' Nowhere and it's great to hear Ramblin' Jack Elliot having a go at Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues. But the stand-out track is a divine version of Knockin' On Heaven's Door by Antony & The Johnsons. The plaintive beauty of the lyrics and the melody has rarely been so exquisitely expressed: "Mama, put my guns in the ground / I can't shoot them anymore / That long black cloud is comin' down / I feel like I'm knockin' on heaven's door." Dylan's songs will keep generations of singers busy mining their endless seams of meaning. I'm Not There is the proof.
