I Went Down to St. James Infirmary would never have been written had I not heard Dylan's "Blind Willie McTell" twenty-five years ago.
This caused me to reflect – in a roundabout way – that musicians are sometimes stimulated to write songs about ... Bob Dylan.
Here are three of those songs – two of which ask "What if I was Bob Dylan?"
1. In 2010 the Italian musician, Roberto Tardito, released a song in both Italian ("Se Fossi Dylan") and English ("If I Were Dylan").
Towards the end of "If I Were Dylan" Tardito sings:
I'd have a long story to tell, a hard long story
Of money, women, disillusion
A secret longing to go far away
To walk on distant paths, never trodden before
If I were Dylan I'd not speak any more
I'd not speak any more
Alas, I could find no computer link (including Spotify) for either the Italian or the English recordings. However, about fifteen years ago I bought an mp3 of the song. Blogger does not permit the loading of audio files. But Substack does, and you can find this rarity by travelling to my Substack version of this post. Click here.
2. In 2010 Cade and the Taliesins released the song "If I Was Bob Dylan" on their album The Spiral. Cade and the Taliesins is, again, close to impossible to find information about (although their album is on Spotify). The band is probably from the U.S. and is brainchild of Cade Johnson. Do they still exist? Who is Cade Johnson?
In the opening of "If I Was Bob Dylan," a love song, Cade sings:
If I was Bob Dylan
I would write a new song everyday
If I could be your Bob Dylan
I would speak to you in metaphors always
3. In 2008 Cat Power released "Song to Bobby" on her album Jukebox. In contrast to the above, I suspect all readers know of Cat Power, who has recently toured with her interpretation of Dylan's 1966 Royal Albert Hall concert.
In the opening of "Song to Bobby," Cat Power sings:
I wanna tell you
I've always wanted to tell you
But I never had the chance to say
What I feel in my heart from the beginning til my dying day
There must be other songs of this ilk. Can you send your favourites?
AFTERWORD
Shortly after the release of "If I Were Dylan" ("Se Fossi Dylan") Roberto Tardito was asked "What would you do if you were Dylan?"
Tardito answered (thank you Google's translator for this):
"If I were Dylan, I'd have the credit and attention to allow me to experiment, both in the studio and live, that constantly break the mold. Or rather: I am and feel like a free artist, I'm not under the control of a multinational. I don't care in the slightest what people might like or dislike, I don't try to accommodate anyone. I don't make calculations. Today I'm on this path, nothing prevents me from taking another tomorrow. Of course, if I experiment, it's under the eyes of a few; if Dylan or his colleagues do it it's under the eyes of the world."
