Roxy Music — Amazona

from Stranded (1973)

Been on a major Bryan Ferry/Roxy Music binge the last few days, a revisiting partly inspired by the season finale of Noel Fielding’s Luxury Comedy, and the “Battle of the Br(y/i)ans.” (Ferry and Eno!)

How cool is this riff?

Bob Dylan — A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall

from Rolling Thunder Revue (1975)

Here’s Dylan performing the rock’n’roll version of Hard Rain in white-face, backed by one of the most epic bands ever assembled—Roger McGuinn, Ramblin’ Jack Elliot, T-Bone Burnett and Mick Ronson on guitars, crazy-eyes-coke-addled Rob Stoner on bass, and Scarlet Rivera on violin. Not to mention Joan Baez on duets… a legendary tour.

(previously mentioned; the Bryan Ferry cover)

Bryan Ferry — A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall

from These Foolish Things (1973)

Roxy Music’s Bryan Ferry reinterprets Dylan’s 1962 acoustic anthem ‘A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall,’ as a majestic glammy romp. This track appears on his solo debut, These Foolish Things, an album of excellent covers, including the Beach Boys’ ‘Don’t Worry Baby’ and Janis Joplin’s ‘Piece of My Heart.’

The really interesting thing about this Dylan cover, though, is that just two years later, Dylan himself reinterpreted the song in this very style during his tour with the Rolling Thunder Revue. I’ve really no way of knowing whether Dylan was aware of Ferry’s version but it’s fun to speculate…

(stay tuned for an absolutely electrifying video of Dylan performing ‘Hard Rain’ during Rolling Thunder…)