A performance of Like a Rolling Stone from Patti Smith has been hailed as an “amazing” cover of Bob Dylan‘s classic song.
The Horses hitmaker tackled the song during a Live at Montreux performance and has received plenty of praise since her performance. Smith, who would collaborate with Dylan on stage for a legendary performance of Dark Eyes, went on to cover his Highway 61 Revisited hit. The standout song has been covered by everyone from The Rolling Stones to Green Day, but Smith’s performance is a truly special one. Fans were left hailing Smith’s performance as “amazing”, but only a few viewers noticed the veteran Tom Verlaine playing bass during the performance. The Television member was spotted on stage by one fan, who was surprised to see him playing with Smith.
In a video upload of the performance to YouTube, fans praised Smith’s rendition of the song. One fan wrote: “She’s amazing.” Another added: “A very nice cover and great video, thank you!” A third suggested the song was a well-matched set of lyrics for Smith’s voice.
The listener shared: “Love her tough-as-nails New Jersey voice. It matches up well with and does justice to Dylan’s indescribably weird North Country accent. Or idiom.” Another asked: “Is that Tom Verlaine playing bass?”
A reply reads: “Yea it is! They don’t get a lot of camera on him. Kinda unusual instead of his great guitar playing. Thanks for pointing that out. Saw this tour.” Smith had worked with Dylan before this performance on a surprise cover of Dark Eyes.
The pair’s performance came as Dylan said Smith could pick any song from his catalogue to play at that night’s show. Smith recalled: “He gave me the opportunity to choose any song from his catalogue and we could do it together. So I looked through his lyric book, and I realised what a profound opportunity this was.
“This was somebody that I had adored and admired since I was fifteen years old, giving me the opportunity to sing any one of his songs with him. So I chose Dark Eyes, and Bob and I sang it for the next several days. Ending, I believe, in Philadelphia, where I’m from.
“I chose Dark Eyes because it’s one of his lesser-known songs, and I just think the lyrics are very beautiful. They’re sort of in the tradition of Milton and Blake; the lyrics stand as a poem. Also, it’s a good song for my voice. It’s tonally dark. It would have been very obvious to do Highway 61 or something, or Like A Rolling Stone. It would have been fun, but I wanted to experience doing something beautiful with him. And it was beautiful.”
You can watch Smith’s cover of Like a Rolling Stone below.
Discover more from Cult Following
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
