Artist News Releases

Bob Dylan releasing an album of covers that aren’t covers

By Andy Malt | Published on Wednesday 10 December 2014

Bob Dylan is going to release an album of songs previously recorded by the likes of Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole. Don’t call them covers though, they’re not covers.

Explains Dylan: “I don’t see myself as covering these songs in any way. They’ve been covered enough. Buried, as a matter a fact. What me and my band are basically doing is uncovering them. Lifting them out of the grave and bringing them into the light of day”.

You might call that an arrogant view, but I think Bob really believes that he’s found new depth to these songs. He added that it had been “a real privilege” to make the album, saying: “I’ve wanted to do something like this for a long time but was never brave enough to approach 30-piece complicated arrangements and refine them down for a five-piece band. That’s the key to all these performances. We knew these songs extremely well. It was all done live. Maybe one or two takes. No overdubbing. No vocal booths. No headphones. No separate tracking, and, for the most part, mixed as it was recorded”.

So you can kind of see what he means when he calls them “uncovers”. It does still seem a bit arrogant though. But it’s alright, here’s Sony/Columbia boss Rob Stringer to dial things back a bit: “Bob has managed to find a way to infuse these songs with new life and contemporary relevance. It is a brilliant record and we are extremely excited to be presenting it to the world”. Oh, bloody hell Rob!

Well, the album’s called ‘Shadows In The Night’, and it’ll be out on 2 Feb. Here’s the tracklist:

I’m A Fool To Want You
The Night We Called It A Day
Stay With Me
Autumn Leaves
Why Try to Change Me Now
Some Enchanted Evening
Full Moon And Empty Arms
Where Are You?
What’ll I Do
That Lucky Old Sun