In this ongoing Monday Series we will be exploring various artists versions of Bob Dylan song's. Today's tune comes from Beth Orton and M. Ward covering "Buckets of Rain" (sorry for the delay, but we here at RTBE took Monday off)
Thoughts on Dylan's Original:
Dylan's mid career masterpiece closes out with this song and to me it always seemed tacked on whimsically. After going through a ton of raw emotion with "Idiot Wind" and other tunes, Blood on the Tracks finishes with this ditty. Honestly never one of my favorites, it acted more as a palate cleanser and a sweet one at that.
Cover:
Thoughts on Cover Artist's-
Not very familiar with Beth Orton at all. Not a huge M. Ward fan either. My favorite work of his has to do with the "super" group Monsters of Folk. Actually coming into this one with a pretty clean slate on the Artists which is refreshing.
Thoughts on Cover-
M. Ward and Beth Orton add some gravity to a light and airy song, and I am not sure much was needed. Slowing it down and dragging it out certainly makes it seem more important, but I am not sure it works better, just different. That is really the only thing different about it. The vocals are paired nicely, but it is still structured acoustically with very little musical distinction from the original, there is some buzzing underneath the playing that takes the place of the bass in the original, but it isn't overwhelming. One thing I would have liked to have heard was the duo harmonizing more which I think adds a lot to the last verse when they finally do. A fine little song that doesn't try to be anything grander, and the Duo pretty much treat it that way.
Grade (A being Blood on the Tracks, F being Dylan)-
B-
Wilson's Take-
(Wilsons take will arrive once the carrier pigeon flying from his secluded shack in Nova Scotia lands on my fire escape with the parchment strapped to his ankle...damn pigeons...always late...)
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