Dylanesque

long a bob dylan fan, bryan ferry remade 'a hard rain's a-gonna fall' for his 1973 self-titled album of covers. this time around, the celebrated roxy music leader turns in 'dylanesque', recasting 11 dylan classics during a single live-in-the-studio week that leaves the album sounding vibrantly faithful to the original numbers. far be it for the imaginative contrarian to retrace dylan's steps, and sure enough - despite an omnipresent harmonica - ferry does just the opposite. the raw rocker 'just like tom thumb's blues' becomes a seductive british pop song, while despair and loneliness turn into effervescence for the driving 'simple twist of fate.' ferry's ageless tenor injects a modern momentum into early dylan imprints 'positively 4th street' (with strings!), 'all i really want to do,' and 'the times they are a-changing,' and gloriously respects the more recent 'make you feel my love' (from 1997's 'time out of mind'). but the best is yet to come, as the oft-covered 'knockin' on heaven's door' may never have received better treatment and 'baby, let me follow you down' loses not a beat of its original knock-down luster. the record closes with 'all along the watchtower,' a twin tribute to dylan and jimi hendrix, the visionary for this adaptation.