Monday, July 3, 2023

Dylan Cover #587 Maria Muldaur "Heart of Mine"

In this ongoing Monday Series we will be exploring various artists versions of Bob Dylan song's. Today's tune is a cover by Maria Muldaur playing "Heart of Mine"


This month we are doing another special focus in RtBE's Dylan Covers series. In the past we have highlighted The ByrdsCoulson-Dean-McGuiness-FlintThe HolliesJoan OsbourneMountainBetty LeVette , Reggae Covers and many more.

This month we highlight Heart of MineMaria Muldaur Sings Love Songs Of Bob Dylan for a full month of Dylan Covers.

Thoughts on Original:
Shot of Love found Dylan beginning to get back to more secular music after his gospel phase and "Heart of Mine" is an odd song that is cliché as hell but also loose and spastic Dylan. The fact that this version was released on Shot of Love is why the Bootleg series exists and the reason fans can become frustrated with his albums, as he himself stated: 
In an interview taken in 1984, Dylan admitted that "Heart of Mine" was "done a bunch of different ways ... but I chose for some reason a particularly funky version of that—and it's really scattered. It's not as good as some of the other versions, but I chose it because Ringo and Ronnie Wood played on it, and we did it in like ten minutes." 
Being that Dylan himself couldn't decide on how the song should actually be constructed, it makes it ripe for other artists to interpret, that is if they can get past the cheesy, "don't do the crime if you can't do the time" line...

Cover:


Thoughts on Cover Artist:
Maria Muldaur is a folk singer who came to prominence in the 60's with Dylan as part of the folk music revival in America. She had her biggest hit with "Midnight at the Oasis" in 1973 and then opened for The Grateful Dead in 1974. She also became a part of the Jerry Garcia Band and sang backup on a lot of their records before becoming a born again Christian and moving to more religious music in the 80's. Her later career saw her return to her folk and blues roots. 

Thoughts on Cover:
The title track of Maria's cover album is where RtBE starts for this months Monday focus. Great flamenco guitar playing, organ and a flipping of the genders work wonders for this cover. The love song has always been a slippery thing in Dylan's hands and Muldaur's vocals work well, warmly moving the track forward. A fun cover to kick off this months focus on the album.  

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