May 2011 sees the 70th birthday of Bob Dylan. To celebrate, we're taking you on a journey through the lesser celebrated avenues of his back catalogue. A journey down Highway 61 that won't stop off at 'Blowin' In The Wind', 'All Along The Watchtower' or 'Knockin' On Heaven's Door' but will call by... Simple Twist Of Fate (1974)
Ever since the sixties the search has been on for a ‘new Dylan’, the title being bestowed upon many both credible and unworthy recipients. I mean with Bruce Springsteen I’d say fair enough, even though he’s gone on to enjoy a far more calculated and controlled career than Bob could ever have managed, still a great artist. With someone like seventies troubadour Steve Forbert the comparison was going to always look a little flattering. Other candidates perhaps were the new sixties moulded somebody but not always Dylan; Billy Bragg has always been more a new Phil Ochs than Bob but make no mistake, it’s a creditable thing to be. I’d venture as far as to say that Billy came closest to a genuine ‘new Dylan’ when he worked with Wilco on the Woody Guthrie material, because Wilco’s singer and writer Jeff Tweedy is arguably worthy of the mantle more than anyone else we’ve seen in 40 years. Here’s a songwriter and performer whose main arena for bringing his music to life is live and who, like Neil Young too, never compromises the direction his muse is taking in the studio or in concert for any outside influences. With Wilco Jeff Tweedy has quietly accumulated an impressive body of work, incredible songs that in recent times have started to receive cover versions by people like Norah Jones and Mavis Staples (who Tweedy also produced recently).His style, like Dylan’s, surfs folk, blues, country and rock but Jeff also has a tuned in production ear that can merge styles as disparate as Beatles-pop and experimental Krautrock. When the ‘I’m Not There’ soundtrack appeared in 2007 it was immediately apparent that, with Tweedy’s take on ‘Simple Twist Of Fate’, here was an immaculate marriage of singer and song. I’d even offer that not even Dylan himself tackles this song with such understanding, empathy and soul. The sound of the singer raking over his private post-mortem of a recently ended affair is utterly gripping. Check it out for yourself; it’s Jeff Tweedy, the genuine ‘new Dylan’!
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