It was somewhere in New Mexico, while out in the desert on a road trip listening the old Nuggets compilation, that a bunch of us got to listing our favorite Dylan homages/ripoffs. Specifically the track “A Public Execution,” by the sixties garage-rock band Mouse, from Tyler, TX. Of course Stealers Wheel came up – their “Stuck In The Middle With You” Dylan aping from 1972; so did the Beatles “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away,” various Donovan tracks, etc, etc.
MP3: Mouse :: A Public Execution
So. Without running down a list of some of the more obvious (and less so) tracks we came up with, I’m curious as to which songs immediately come to mind, re: Dylan aping. Hit us up in the comments. The more blatant the better. Oh, and I’m well aware that Dylan borrowed/stole from many before him, so no need to get into/rehash all that.
Related: After the jump, stream Bob Dylan’s epic 1978 film, ‘Renaldo & Clara,” in its entirety. This version is the best quality I’ve seen yet. Filmed in 1975, during Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue tour, it was originally released in 1978 with a running time of nearly four hours. Epic, indeed.
David Blue – Grand Hotel
1 | bjenny January 31st, 2012 at 8:46 pmapproximately half of that first Ryan Adams record, Heartbreaker. dude couldn’t be more blatant.
2 | mariosa January 31st, 2012 at 8:47 pmRenaldo & Clara! nice
3 | Jenn January 31st, 2012 at 8:49 pmQuite a few Felice Brothers tracks.
4 | Mark January 31st, 2012 at 8:53 pmArlo Guthrie’s ‘Coming into Los Angeles.’
Townes Van Zandt – ‘She Came and She Touched Me’
5 | Justin January 31st, 2012 at 10:07 pmstuck in the middle with you – stealers wheel
6 | mick January 31st, 2012 at 10:20 pmthis cut of R&C is outstanding. just need 3 hours now to view.
7 | Richard January 31st, 2012 at 11:43 pmsimon and garfunkel “a simple desultory philippic (or how i was robert mcnamara’d into submission)
8 | echoprep February 1st, 2012 at 12:09 amhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpvklDPRlhg
This transmission hails from New Mexico (been “passing through” going on 9 years now); I happened to read this post while listening to some Old 97′s, so I had to think of their recent Dylan aping, ‘Champaign Ill.’ And then I thought of Tallest Man on Earth, and also of some Helio Sequence, like “Broken Afternoon” and “Shed Your Love.”
9 | Kristian February 1st, 2012 at 1:46 amSpider – The Comedown Song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5z1BKEseXg
10 | Stove February 1st, 2012 at 2:01 amAnything by The Tallest Man On Earth
11 | Everybody Taste February 1st, 2012 at 6:26 amDishwasher’s Dream by Marah
12 | Sean February 1st, 2012 at 8:20 am“You Don’t Make It Easy Babe” by Josh Ritter. Classic Frewheelin’..-era aping.
13 | J. Neas February 1st, 2012 at 8:59 amAnything by John Hiatt
14 | Dylan February 1st, 2012 at 9:36 amWould saying Jakob Dylan be cheating?
But really, Jason Collett is a big Dylan aper. Particularly off the album “Here’s To Being Here.”
15 | Jared February 1st, 2012 at 10:30 amrolling stones “jigsaw puzzle.” only for the lyrics
16 | simon February 1st, 2012 at 10:47 amEric Earley from Blitzen Trapper on at least one track per record (though I prefer “channeling” to “aping”.)
17 | Brady Lee February 1st, 2012 at 11:49 amEarly Mott The Hoople, right down to Ian Hunter’s vocals. Mick Ralphs’ “Rabbit Foot and Toby Time” from their s/t LP in ’69 is a dead ringer, and an epic track in it’s own right.
18 | Third Axis February 1st, 2012 at 12:30 pmI second that comment above – Blitzen Trapper’s Eric Earley.
19 | Carla F February 1st, 2012 at 1:33 pmwilco’s “remember the mountain bed” from ‘mermaid avenue vol. II’
20 | theMike February 1st, 2012 at 1:44 pmsteve harley and cockney rebel come up and see me
21 | outfidel February 1st, 2012 at 1:58 pmGrateful Dead – Creampuff War…kind of
22 | Rob February 1st, 2012 at 5:23 pmand of course Adrian Belew singing in Frank Zappa’s “Flakes” (Sheik Yerbouti)
23 | -- February 1st, 2012 at 7:11 pmDan Bern is awesome — may be more of an homage than an ape…or maybe just another next Bob Dylan…
http://www.amazon.com/Dog-Boy-Van-Dan-Bern/dp/B000002C49/ref=ntt_mus_ep_dpi_11
24 | johnnie ray February 1st, 2012 at 11:56 pmIt wasn’t a band called “Mouse.” It was “Mouse and the Traps.” Yes, they recorded in Tyler, with Bugs Henderson, who was a well-known regional producer at the time. I think the record was released on Fraternity label, which was fairly widely distributed back then.
25 | Don Eldredge February 2nd, 2012 at 8:32 amI’ve always disliked Nowhere Man and You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away for exactly this reason. Lennon is pretending to be something he’s not. He’s pretending to be Dylan. It drives me nuts when people praise either of those songs because they just seem so derivative.
My pet theory: I think Lennon went about methodically destroying the Beatles in 68-69 because he wanted to be Dylan — he wanted the sole attention of the world on his songwriting and on him as some sort of truth teller. He certainly didn’t want to share the limelight with a partner (even tho that partner helped make every one of Lennon’s Beatles songs much better in ways large and small.)
Ergo, it’s Dylan’s fault that the Beatles broke up.
26 | Steve February 2nd, 2012 at 10:02 amCheck out Jake Bugg – Trouble Town at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTM9rV8uKpI
He’s only 17 so good on him for picking up on being another new Bob!
27 | Richard February 2nd, 2012 at 11:52 am[...] Found this song while reading a great post over at theaquariumdrunkard.com that discussed all of the great ripoffs of Bob dylan’s sound. Read the full post here. [...]
28 | Thursday Buzz, Feb 2, 2012 « The Thursday Buzz on CFCR February 2nd, 2012 at 2:49 pmNobody mentions the Hombres? Come on now.
29 | Peter February 2nd, 2012 at 4:24 pmhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgVMMdOplHw
@peter – yeah, that one totally came up on our road trip
30 | Satisfied '75 February 2nd, 2012 at 6:02 pmY’all forgot to mention Ernie Graham’s fantastic self titled solo album. “Sebastian” will take you to the heights of recorded Dylan impersonation. I’m sure you’re all well of the recent Pet Records release “It’s Zimmerman’s World…We just live in it”. Lots of Dylan worship goin’ on there. The swamp garage band from Tyler, Texas is indeed called Mouse and the Traps. They even backed up Dale Hawkins on area tracks off of “L.A, Memphis, and Tyler Texas”.
31 | Kowalksi February 3rd, 2012 at 4:35 amFleet Foxes – “Lorelai” = “4th Time Around” from Blonde on Blonde
32 | Ronnie February 3rd, 2012 at 1:15 pmBright Eyes’ “Landlocked Blues” makes me think of “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall”. But maybe it’s just because of the guitar chords progression… Anyway, both are great songs.
33 | PWy February 3rd, 2012 at 2:03 pmKaty Perry, ‘Last Friday Night’.
34 | Johnny JaZz February 4th, 2012 at 3:17 am“It’s Zimmerman’s World We Just Live In It”
“A far-out collection of rare mid-’60s garage and folk 45 cuts by groups that did their darndest to emulate their hero, the Beatnik Bard himself, Bob Dylan. If you dig Mouse and the Traps’ ‘Public Execution,” the Trashmen’s ‘Same Lines’ or David Blue’s records then you’ll flip for the sounds you’re gonna hear here! It’s Zimmerman’s World features all kinds of obscure tracks by Terry and the Trip-Outs, the Toads, Billy Easley and the Gorillamen, the Changin’ Times, the Love Society, and many more. Eighteen songs altogether.”
http://beta.forcedexposure.com/Catalog/PET.009CD.html
35 | DJ M February 5th, 2012 at 11:18 pmCan I recommend Andre Ethier’s Pride of Egypt? It is the best apeing I have heard. Would be interested to see if others agree.
36 | Adam St. Patrick February 7th, 2012 at 8:46 pmThe animal- Baby let me take you home= Baby let me follow you down. Exactly.
37 | Rafferty February 11th, 2012 at 7:00 pmsunday morning with old country records and reminded of this post. jerry jeff walker – ramblin’ scramblin’, most certainly.
38 | Dylan Patrick February 26th, 2012 at 1:35 pm“Who Are You” by World Party
39 | Ro March 12th, 2012 at 11:34 am