ROBYN HITCHCOCK
Sings Dylan (Editions PAF)
Reviewed by Alan Wright

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This is a very cool release. Longtime Dylan fan Robyn Hitchcock does two CDs worth of (mostly) vintage '60s Dylan tunes. Recorded at a variety of different venues and put together by Mr. Hitchcock himself, Disc One (a.k.a. "disc stripes") features Hitchcock in a mostly acoustic setting, accompanying himself on guitar and harmonica, though a few friends join in here and there. Hitchcock does a fine job on songs like "Tangled Up In Blue," "Visions Of Johanna," "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue," "Desolation Row" - though he messes up some of the words/verses on that one - and even a couple of newer Dylan tunes, "Dignity" and "Not Dark Yet." The first CD ends off with another version of "Visions Of Johanna," that feature Grant Lee-Phillips (guitar), Bill Bonk (piano), Jon Brion (guitar) and Richard Chutney (drums).

The second disc (a.k.a. "disc dots") features Hitchcock with a full electric band - Andrew Claridge, Tim Keegan, Jake Kyle and Patrick Haman - doing the famous electric portion of Dylan's 1966 Manchester, England show (not Albert Hall as stated in the liner notes) where he did an acoustic set, then came out with the full band to heckles and boos from much of the audience. In this 1996 show, Hitchcock and crew do a commendable job on the eight tunes, especially rousing is "Baby Let Me Follow You Down" and "Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat."

Overall, this is a really cool release, though I should mention that the track order for disc stripes on the CD backtray is wrong and gets "Desolution Row" and "It's All Over Now" mixed up, and that the liners refer to "disc stripes" as the electric set, instead of "disc dots," which is correct.

[Pick this up at www.eraline.com.]

© 2003 - Alan Wright