YouTube Gold: KT Tunstall
Covering a hit can’t be easy; covering a hit by a musical giant should be really intimidating.
It’s hard to imagine anyone covering Here Comes The Sun by the Beatles with real confidence. Lots of people have tried to cover Chuck Berry songs but no one can really get to the essence of what he did.
No one really even tries Jimi Hendrix or The Who. Lots of people try Bob Dylan but of all the singers since Berry’s era, he’s one of the toughest.
Dylan writes dense, deeply personal songs that are really hard to present as your own. First there’s his verbal gift. Then there’s his voice which could be a liability for a lesser artist. Dylan just conquered that weakness.
He built his own mythology and, when he began to really flee from public idolatry (you should read Chronicles, where he dismisses the ‘60s with withering precision), he really did his best to hide behind that persona. People weren’t going to see the really Dylan.
Except through his songs.
Blood On The Tracks, released in 1975, chronicles his breakup with his wife, or maybe not. With Dylan, it’s hard to tell. But it seems likely.
The greatest song on that album, and one of his very best overall, is Tangled Up In Blue. It’s a rambling song about love lost, regained and lost again.
Here KT Tunstall covers it about as well as anyone could hope to. Her version is raw and while it’s clearly respectful of the original, she makes it her own in a really interesting way.