Your Weekly Dylan Cover (#7)

"Forever Young"
Liam O Maonlai with The Swell Season
Original Dylan version found on Planet Waves (1974)

Thanks to our friend Bird, we discovered this little gem, recorded for Czech Republic television back in 2008. Marketa Irglova, a native of that Eastern European nation and half of The Swell Season with Glen Hansard, are joined by Liam O Maonlai, former lead singer of Hothouse Flowers.

It is O Maonlai who shines on this take of Dylan's "Forever Young," leading the melody both on piano and by building his voice verse by verse to the point of exuberance. Hansard keeps up on guitar and subtly compliments the end of each stanza with a gentle backing vocal; it is evident that these fellow Dubliners have played together on Grafton Street or in pubs before.

Irglova and Hansard look at each other a few times as if saying, "this is really something special." It is.

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There are two versions of "Forever Young" on the 1974 release Planet Waves, bridging Sides One and Two. While the song is now a long-time Dylan standard, it did not make much of a ripple upon its release, and neither, surprisingly, did the album. This in and of itself was very curious, for the pairing with The Band - now stars in their own right - with old mentor Dylan , and a pending tour (memorialized on Before The Flood) should have been a home run. Maybe it was the malaise that was setting into the bloated rock world, only to be reinvigorated a couple years later by the punk movement. Maybe it was the odd fact that the LP label looked weird on the turntable (Dylan had defected to David Geffen's Asylum Records, after nearly fifteen years with titan Columbia Records). Or maybe it was the hodgepodge of song selection (Bill Wyman called it "a spare but twisted collection of songs").

In retrospect, "Forever Young" is the most enduring and strongest selection off Planet Waves. Its waltz melody perfectly accents the Psalm-like recitation of wishes that all parents have for their children. In one of the rare direct references to his songs, Dylan said: "I wrote it thinking about one of my boys and not trying to be too sentimental."

Original Listening: Bob Dylan, "Forever Young"

Live Listening & Viewing: Bob Dylan & The Band, "Forever Young" (The Last Waltz, 1975)

Alternate Take: Bob Dylan, "Forever Young" (Biograph, 1985)

Other Cover Versions:

Eddie Vedder, "Forever Young" (Boston, 2006)

Neil Young & The Grateful Dead, "Forever Young" (San Francisco, 1991)

Busking On The Radio

The good folks at 88Nine Radio Milwaukee will be simulcasting The Swell Season concert set for this Sunday night, 1 November. The sold out show at The Pabst Theatre in Milwaukee is scheduled to begin at 8.00pm CST.

The band also makes an appearance this Thursday night (29 October) on Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

Celtic Ray

[Note to Readers: On occasion, Celtic Ray sends TNOP a note from County Clare, weighing in on various aspects of the Irish music scene.]

Dia dhuit! TNOP Readers,

County Kildare's Bell X1 have had an eventful 2009, releasing their fourth record, Blue Lights On The Runway (YepRoc). It contains one of our favorite singles of the year, the Talking Heads-infused "The Great Defector." The single reached #3 on the Irish charts and can be downloaded for free at Amazon.com. Or enjoy a live performance earlier this year from Dublin here. Bell x1 also opened for U2 at their first tour date this summer at Croke Park.

The aforementioned local heroes Paul "Bono Vox" Hewson, Dave "The Edge" Evans, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr have come a long way from originally recording on Windmill Lane in the Docklands area of Dublin. Embracing "biggest band in the world" status yet once more, the boys are lugging a 170 ton, 360-degree stage around the world which requires transport assistance of 120 trucks. A recent lengthy cover story in Rolling Stone follows the latest exploits of U2 on the road. While the critics were all over the map in their reviews of No Line On The Horizon, the raves are everywhere for the live show (Jon Pareles in the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune rock critic Greg Kot are good examples).

Meanwhile, word has come that erstwhile head man of The Frames, Glen Hansard, has reteamed with Marketa Irglova for another record as The Swell Season. NPR Music reports the tentative track listing and also provides us with a performance of some of the new material, to be released under the title Strict Joy, out on October 27.

Finally, if you are looking for some enduring entertainment, give a (re)viewing to the fine indie film Waking Ned Devine, if only for the opening shots of The Isle of Man and musical background from "Fisherman's Blues" by The Waterboys.

Slainte,

Ray