In this ongoing Monday Series we will be exploring various artists versions of Bob Dylan song's. Today's tune is a live cover by Lou Reed doing his version of "Foot of Pride".
Thoughts on Original:
A mighty deep cut that was left off of Infidels and saw the official light of day on the amazing Bootleg Series 1-3. Dylan has said of Infidels that the songs "hung around too long" and there has been issues with the final mix and Mark Knopfler has never been happy with it. Even long time fans are split on it and I am sure a future Bootleg series will show up with all of the unreleased recording surrounding that disk, putting it in a new light the way the recent series did for Self Portrait. Anyway, "Foot of Pride" is Dylan at his jumbliest, his most rambling self. He is incoherent one stanza and his blindingly beautiful profound self the next; in a sense it is quintessential Gemini Dylan. It is hard to say it is a great song, but it is a good summation of the man and his style, if never one of our favorites.
Cover:
Thoughts on Cover Artist:
We paid our respects to Lou a few weeks ago, and it is true we were never much a fan of the substance of his work. We appreciate his style, his "piss-people-off-becuase-why-the-fuck-not" work ethic but overall the man never really did it for us.However we mentioned that a few times already so...
Thoughts on Cover:
That said, this is our favorite thing Lou has done. He takes a Dylan song which was probably unknown to at least 80% of the crowd at the Garden during Bobfest and plays the hell out of it, actually caring (it seems) what his voice sounds like for once. The band certainly helps, Booker T, The MG's, G.E. Smith, all top notch keeping Lou on his game and the song chugging along. We love covers that use the original as inspiration then go above and beyond and when they end up this good you gotta give them love.
Grade: A+
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