Covers of Bob Dylan can be spectacular misfires or modernisations of the greats. There is no middle ground. They are either some of the most ambitious and defining moments of an accomplished artist trying their hand at the great lyrical interplay or the scraping of a barrel. Ripped from Pussy Cats and produced by John Lennon, the bar is set incredibly high for this Harry Nilsson cover. He has plenty of hits under his belt but every artist, from Richard Hawley to My Chemical Romance has tried their hand at the works of Dylan. Subterranean Homesick Blues may feel like an obvious choice but it has the potential for brilliance with Lennon producing it. It may be a coincidence or a well-buried nod, but Subterranean Homesick Blues opens with the same drumming march style of Rainy Day Women #12 & 35.
Who’s to say? It could all be one wild coincidence, but the closeness and contemporary nods between Dylan and Lennon are hard to ignore. The latter brings a flourish to this Subterranean Homesick Blues cover while Nilsson finds his love of the former’s writing to be enough to carry this cover. Hindsight is ideal for this one, the punk-like tone of the Nilsson-led cover holds instrumental form even now. Those hammering bits of percussion and the piercing guitar disappearing when the vocals punch through, trying to wrestle control when Nilsson has a break, are wild. Moments like this shine a light on a tone Dylan would later take with his live performances over a decade later. Smooth saxophone additions feel like the right way to round this one out, and Lennon does not disappoint there. A brief but brilliant spot of brass is what gives Subterranean Homesick Blues a new punch here.
This is an ambitious cover of one of the all-time greats, but we should expect nothing less. Nilsson powers through the lyrical context, the “look out kid” easily identified but the burst of socio-political commentary to precede and follow sounds haggard, a brutal punch of emotive work from him. This Subterranean Homesick Blues will not win awards for its contemporary consideration but it does mark a moment of real importance not for Nilsson, but for Lennon. He was staggered by the song on its release and would spend much of his career trying to figure out how to reach this charged and vibrant writing style. He succeeded, of course, but returning to the source of inspiration and reworking it, meddling with the structure and tone, is as good a way to get to grips with it as anything.
Subterranean Homesick Blues is a Dylan song which does lose a bit of its charm the more it is played. It has not lost the extremely vital core, the instrumental tempo and the bold commentaries within. Kick a new bit of life into it with a cover or two. Nilsson is an ample replacement for Dylan, whose folk-like voice is replaced here by a vocal performance which is closer to the Jump into the Fire excitement than it is to the sombre heartbreaks of Without You. Roaring great fun for those who need a fresh take on a classic, Lennon and Nilsson provide a suitably fun cover of a Dylan classic but find a few new routes through the lyrical undertaking. It is not enough to replicate the tempo, it needs expanding. A venomous thread runs through this cover, and it sets it apart from those who tried their hand at Subterranean Homesick Blues over the years.
