63 interpretations of Dylan standards (and not-so-standards) from across the musical spectrum.  Bluegrass, ska, hard rock, pop, country and psychedelia – all Dylan life is here…

Release Date:  25^th July 2025

Label: Strawberry (a division of Cherry Red Records)

Formats: 3 x CD boxset.

INFLUENCES FROM ACROSS THE MUSICAL SPECTRUM

The subject of Bob Dylan, as others see him, is, as the Press Release to this lavish new boxset from our friends at Cherry Red Records points out, a pretty hot topic right now.  That’s partly a side-effect of the stir created by the recent A Complete Unknown biopic, starring Timothee Chalamet, and also a symptom of the excitement that’s currently growing in anticipation of his Bobness’s imminent arrival on this side of the pond for a run of European shows.  Cherry Red have picked a good time to reconsider how Dylan’s work is interpreted by others.

Dylan covers have always stood apart and that was particularly the case during the years (1963-1970) covered by this compilation.  His songs took in influences from right across the musical spectrum – blues, folk, rock, country, psychedelia and so much more – and it was routine for exponents of those genres to take Dylan’s songs and add their own branding.  Often with enthralling results.  OK, there was, undeniably, much bandwagon-jumping going on at the same time, but so many Dylan covers of the era turned out to be very special indeed.  And many such examples are preserved here.

SPRINKLED WITH JINGLE-JANGLE

In the USA, The Byrds took Dylan’s songs and sprinkled them with jingle-jangle thus inventing, to all intents and purposes, folk-rock.  And, in the UK, the likes of The Hollies and Manfred Mann – and later, Fairport Convention, Fotheringay, Sandy Denny and others all added their special magic to the pathway that Dylan had laid.

This new boxset covers an impressive amount of ground.  There are 63 tracks here, with musical styles varying widely between the eclectic and the ecstatic, the candied and the coarse.  It’s an eclectic mix of tracks, as demonstrated from the very start by Disc one’s opening track, Laurel Aitken’s fascinating ska treatment of Blowing In The Wind.

Most, if not all, of the usual culprits are here, although not always with the material that you might expect.  The Byrds, for example, are represented by Spanish Harlem Incident (from their 1965 debut album Mr Tambourine Man) and their 1970 take on Positively 4^th Street (from that year’s Untitled album) rather than by the more obvious choices of Mr Tambourine Man or My Back Pages.

INFLUENCES AND HIGHLIGHTS

And the influence of The Byrds – they built the prototype for Dylan covers – pervades this boxset almost as much as the in fluence of the man himself.  It’s clear that both Starry Eyed and Laughing and The McCoys used The Byrds’ versions of Chimes of Freedom and All I Really want to Do as the templates for their respective contributions, as did The Marmalade for their slow, orchestrated rework of Mr Tambourine Man.  The Byrds were probably, also, the inspiration behind The Hollies decision to devote an entire album (1969’s Hollies Sing Dylan) to interpretations of Dylan’s work.  Their version of The Times They Are A-Changin’ – included here – is straight, clean and poppy, with stunning vocal harmonies.

The highlights are plentiful.  Leon Russell’s A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall, from his 1971 Leon Russell and the Shelter People album is funky and strutting and knocks Bryan Ferry’s attempt at the song into a cocked hat.  Mike Bloomfield, Al Kooper and Stephen Stills’ interpretation of It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry is intense and truly original and I love Bridget St John’s deliciously intimate and English-sounding Just Like A Woman.

FINE VERSIONS OF FAVOURITE SONGS

Elsewhere, Johnny Winter offers up a bluesy, rocky Highway 61 Revisited without really building on Dylan’s punky original, Janis Joplin’s Dear Landlord is as jazzy and raunchy as you’d expect and Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger and The Trinity eschew the psychedelic direction of their big hit, This Wheel’s on Fire, for an interesting R&B blast through I Am a Lonesome Hobo.

This being a British compilation, the Fairport camp is well-represented, with Fotheringay’s strident take on Too Much Of Nothing (Jerry Donahue’s guitar licks are amazing), Sandy Denny’s Down In The Flood (from her 1971 solo debut, North Star Grassman and the Ravens) and Fairport themselves  with Percy’s Song, a track from their Unhalfbricking album – surely, one of the finest Dylan covers ever committed to vinyl.

POSITIVE – AND WEIRD – SURPRISES

I could go on…  But I’ll finish by sharing a few surprises that this compilation throws out.

Positive surprises include The Fairies’ clean, countrified retake of Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright and Cher’s surprisingly sincere and folky version of Masters Of War.  I also love Flatt and Scruggs’ banjo and lap-steel drenched interpretations of Girl From The North Country and One More Night – a pair of songs that really do benefit from such treatment.

And, if it’s weird that you’re after, cock an ear to Sandie Shaw’s strange, breathy Lay Lady Lay…

I Shall Be Released is an imaginative and welcome collection, thoughtfully compiled and packed with interesting reworkings of well-known songs.  Suitable for Dylanologists and the uninitiated alike.

Listen to Leon Russell perform A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall – a track included on this compilation – below:

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