Friday, January 18, 2008

Yo, how does it feel?





















A whole book on one song sounds a bit rich, even if the song in question is Like A Rolling Stone. But in Like A Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan At The Crossroads, author Greil Marcus showed it could be done. Easily. Anyway, this post is not about that book, it´s about a cover version of Dylan´s masterpiece that Marcus mentions quite enthousiastically. About an outfit called the Mystery Tramps and their hiphop-stylee cover version of Like A Rolling Stone. And since I´m both a Bobcat and a sucker for curios, I just had to check it out .

The cd single was released in 1993 on รค records and is long out of print, but I managed to hunt it down and yo, it´s not bad at all. Funny enough it starts with a sample of the original intro (that masterly organ riff by Al Kooper). The - white - rapper is hamming it up just a bit too much for my liking, but the talking girl ("spare change, anybody?" and "hey! where´s my stuff") cracks me up every time. Plus it´s rather alienating to hear such a familiar song in such a completely different musical setting. "This is a story about a girl who goes from riches to rags, and it´s a drag, so check it ouuuut."

Mystery Tramps - Like A Rolling Stone MP3

1 comment:

tincaveerman@gmail.com said...

it's a real struggle through the lyrics! "How does it feel" makes it feel good again! Great cover!
Tinca