IT’S 1985. Someplace in Los Angeles, a studio switchboard illuminate. A receptionist takes the call, puts it through to among the recording areas, and states in deadpan tones: “It’s Bob Dylan on the phone for Dave Stewart.”
Despite The Fact That Stewart and Annie Lennox are riding a wave of extraordinary pop success as the Eurythmics, he can’t rather think his ears.
” At the time, I was producing a record for a guy called Feargal Sharkey,” he remembers today, describing The Undertones vocalist’s launching solo album including the hit An Excellent Heart.
” Initially, I believed it was Feargal having a laugh since he understood I was consumed with Dylan however, as quickly as I heard the voice, I resembled, ‘Oh s ** t! It can’t be anyone else. That voice is so recognisable’.”
The infamously evasive American legend and the pop master from Sunderland consent to fulfill later on “at a small Thai dining establishment on Sundown Strip.”
They quickly struck it off, investing “4 or 5 hours” together, winding up in “a late-night Mexican location” and sealing what ends up being a long-lasting relationship.
For Stewart, it’s a possibility to lastly be familiar with his most significant hero– the vocalist who triggered him to get a guitar as a teen and who motivated his long-lasting infatuation with music.
Dylan, in return, pertained to value his British friend, as soon as describing him as “Captain Dave, a dreamer, a courageous innovator, a visionary of the greatest order.”
The factor I’m informing you all this is since Stewart has actually commemorated his love of Bob by making a covers album– Dave Does Dylan.
‘ I liked playing football’
Talking by means of Zoom from Nashville, he discusses: “I ‘d constantly adored Dylan and was doodling away in a hotel space, thinking back about playing his tunes in folk clubs when I was a kid. “So, I put my iPhone electronic camera on a stick and began singing directly into it.”
Stewart discovered the procedure rather healing. “I played 60 programs in 2015,” he states.
” You get to the hotel or backstage and there’s this waiting, waiting, waiting.
” I have actually constantly discovered methods of handling it. Even back in Eurythmics days, I ‘d have a little studio set-up so Annie might appear and we ‘d mess about.”
Gradually, Stewart put together a large collection of Dylan covers, which he would publish on Instagram.
Such has actually been the favorable reaction that he has actually turned his stripped-back, one-take efforts into a 14-track album– simply his warm, meaningful vocals and deft acoustic guitar.
Dave Does Dylan is launched tomorrow on vinyl as part of Record Shop Day and will be readily available on streaming services in July.
There’s likewise a PBS unique in the States, shot with a band. The album bears tunes from his topic’s folk duration– which Stewart discovered in the Sixties– such as A Difficult Rain’s A-Gonna Fall, Do Not Reconsider, It’s Alright and To Ramona.
It takes in widely known Dylan tunes from other ages like Easy Twist Of Fate, Knockin’ On Paradise’s Door and Make You Feel My Love.
There’s a beautiful performance of lesser-known Mentally Yours from 1985’s Empire Burlesque album, which, you’ll find, is of unique significance.
Like all the other kids, I imagined betting Sunderland however then I had my knee broken throughout a match. It was shattered in a couple of locations.
Dave Stewart
However before his ideas go back to that year and the eventful conference of musical minds in LA, followed by reminiscences of additional encounters with Dylan, Stewart casts through the mists of time to his youth.
” I simply wished to play football,” he states. “I would end up for 3 groups on a Saturday.
” Like all the other kids, I imagined betting Sunderland however then I had my knee broken throughout a match. It was shattered in a couple of locations.
” The very same month, my mum left my papa. My sibling had actually gone to college, and I was stuck in your house, tired out of my mind. Outdoors, there was horizontal, freezing rain.”
However when the postman provided a parcel from Stewart’s cousin, whatever altered. “My cousin was 9 years older than me,” he reports.
” He sent out 2 sets of corduroy Levi’s and some blues albums.
” I put among the records on. Really early blues, Robert Johnson possibly. It had me in a hypnotic trance, however I didn’t truly comprehend it.
” Then I saw my sibling had 2 other albums, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan and Another Side Of Bob Dylan.
‘ I ended up being consumed’
” When I listened to those, I believed, ‘Holy st, this truly is music!’ So I hobbled into the cooking area and put the radio on.
” It’s 1964, I’m 13 years of ages and I’m hearing The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, Dusty Springfield. It was f * ing incredible.”
Enthused by what he heard, Stewart went to his sibling’s closet and acquired his five-string guitar. “I could not truly play it,” he confesses. “However I attempted to make a bluesy noise.”
Hint a see to Mr Len Gibson, a World War 2 veteran, “who had actually made a guitar out of absolutely nothing when he was a Japanese PoW.”
I sang to myself– all Bob Dylan– since I might put those 2 records on once again and once again,” he continues. I ended up being consumed and forgotten whatever else.
Dave Stewart
Stewart states: “He lived round the corner and really sweetly revealed me how to play.”
Regardless of finding out with “the tuning all incorrect, like a banjo or something” and needing to begin once again, he was bitten by the music bug.
” I sang to myself– all Bob Dylan– since I might put those 2 records on once again and once again,” he continues.
” I ended up being consumed and forgotten whatever else.
” My school grades went from being 3rd from top of the class to bottom. Something increased and whatever else crashed down.”
By the time he was 15, Stewart was itching to carry out in the folk clubs around Sunderland– The Londonderry, The George & & Dragon and “others outside the city where I would go on the bus.”
He states: “I looked young for my age, and I keep in mind standing in a passage as the guy on the door stated, ‘You can’t be available in, kid.'”
Ultimately Stewart’s determination settled and he provided a set including To Ramona and Do Not Reconsider, It’s Alright.
He later on discovered I’ll Be Your Mirror by The Velour Underground & & Nico.
By 1970, Stewart had actually transferred to London and became part of an acoustic band signed to Elton John’s label. “We sang consistencies and understood Crosby Stills & & Nash tunes,” he states.
DYLAN ON ‘CAPTAIN DAVE’
IN generally significant style, Bob Dylan as soon as commemorated his buddy Dave Stewart by means of a fax:
” Captain Dave is a dreamer and a courageous innovator, a visionary of high order, really delicately tractable on the surface area however underneath that, he’s a slamming, thumping, damaging ram, really magical however logical and delicate when it pertains to the curling irons of art kinds.
” An explosive artist, deft guitarist, innately identifies the genius in other individuals and puts it into play without being manipulative.
” With him, there’s mercifully no truth to the other day. He is extremely thoughtful and emotional, can command the ship and guide the course, dragger, trawler or male of war, Captain Dave.”
” When I was 19, however looked about 15, I wed my sweetheart. We would rest on the flooring of the bedsit getting stoned listening to Van Morrison’s Celestial Weeks, Nick Drake, John Martyn– and all 4 sides of Bob Dylan’s Blonde On Blonde.
” After that, I began gathering every Dylan album that came out, in every format.
” I liked his Seventies records, Blood On The Tracks and Desire. He could not rather connect to the dance-pop Eighties, however I discover gems on each and every single among his albums.”
It was certainly a weird time for Bob, needing to browse synth-based music when his go-to designs had actually been folk, rock, blues and nation.
On The Other Hand, Stewart was a scene-setter in tandem with Annie Lennox.
The set initially got observed as members of The Tourists, scoring a Leading 30 struck with a cover of Dusty Springfield’s I Just Wished to Be With You.
‘ We consumed sake’
However, naturally, they’re finest kept in mind for a blissful rush of hits as Eurythmics– Sweet Dreams (Are Made From This), Love Is A Complete stranger, Who’s That Woman?, Here Comes The Rain Once again and the rest.
We consumed a fair bit of sake, which is Japanese naturally, and Thai whisky– and we talked for ages and truly struck it off.
Dave Stewart
Right in the middle of that trouble, in 1985, Stewart discovered himself being in the Thai dining establishment with Dylan.
He gets the story: “We were seated in the far corner, and I asked if they might put a little screen around us.
” We consumed a fair bit of sake, which is Japanese naturally, and Thai whisky– and we talked for ages and truly struck it off.”
They found a shared fascination with art-house films by the similarity Italian directors Federico Fellini and Pier Paolo Pasolini.
Stewart had actually currently been associated with making the surreal, now renowned video for Sugary food Dreams, “which the record business believed was bonkers.”
It revealed androgynous Lennox with close-cropped orange hair, worn a guy’s fit and tie– and Stewart messing around in a field with a cello.
His chat with Dylan took a remarkable twist when, “by the time we ‘d transferred to a late-night Mexican location, Bob stated, ‘Why do not we make a movie tomorrow?’ He was severe.”
With absolutely no notification, Stewart put together a team to shoot videos for 2 tunes from Dylan’s newest album, Empire Burlesque– Mentally Yours and When The Night Comes Falling From The Sky
For the very first, Dylan had actually stated: “I desire a starlet who appears like a really young Elizabeth Taylor and I wish to have an argument with her.”
Stewart chuckles before relating the scene. “Bob sat under a tree outside the church where we were shooting, arguing with this lady, simply to get the horrified search her face– however you can’t hear it since there is music playing!
” For the 2nd video, Bob didn’t have atrioventricular bundle so there’s me playing guitar, Feargal [Sharkey] freaking on his tambourine and a lady we fulfilled in the Mexican location singing support vocals.”
After these enjoyable however disorderly scenes, Stewart and Dylan “fulfilled loads of times.”
” I took the young boys [his two sons] round to Bob’s location and he revealed them how to milk a cow,” he states.
” Then he ‘d come round to my home in LA on a motorcycle. One time, the guy taking care of the studio believed someone had actually broken in however it was simply Bob using safety glasses.”
Stewart remembers how the Taking a trip Wilburys– Dylan, George Harrison, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne– assembled in his back garden for 9 days in Might, 1988, “taping their very first album in my little studio.”
He likewise broaches meeting Bob in Rio De Janeiro when they were on different South American trips. “We chose to enter into the countryside and our trip supervisors were going nuts.
” We consumed a really sweet, really strong Brazilian beverage. It provides you a blinding headache in the early morning.”
Another time, in London, Stewart welcomed Dylan onto his houseboat in Camden Lock.
” My mum was making soup and Bob was simply sitting there, playing the guitar,” he states.
” Then we took a black taxi to Hyde Park and went to Speaker’s Corner. I believed Bob would take pleasure in seeing individuals basing on boxes ranting.”
The see plainly made an impression since Dylan’s television Talkin’ Tune from his 1990 album Under The Red Sky starts with the lines: “One time in London, I ‘d gone out for a walk/ Past a location called Hyde Park where individuals talk.”
Then came a well known Tuesday afternoon in 1993 when Stewart shot Dylan walking around Camden Market– this time for a cover of conventional folk tune Blood In My Eyes.
He states: “I got Bob to place on a stovepipe hat and stated to him, ‘We’ll simply walk and I’ll movie individuals’s responses’.
” Really rapidly, about an hour in, I understood that we didn’t have security and there were rather a great deal of individuals about.
” So, I sounded this excellent Colombian lady who had actually won a journey to England in a photography competitors. She joined us and took photos of Bob– among them ended up being the album cover.”
As you can inform, Dave Does Dylan includes an unbelievable back story, offering uncommon insight into both artists.
Stewart still captures Bob’s live programs whenever he can, seeing him at Hollywood’s Pantages Theatre and Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium.
All we require now is an album of Eurythmics covers called Dylan Does Dave.
Dave Stewart
Dave Does Dylan
★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
EURYTHMICS: NEVER SAY NEVER
ANNIE Lennox and Dave Stewart stay on great terms and embrace a “never ever state never ever” technique to Eurythmics reunions.
The last was a superb set in 2022 when they were inducted into the Rock-and-roll Hall Of Popularity.
Lennox has actually dismissed visiting however Stewart keeps the flag zipping carrying out the Eurythmics Songbook with atrioventricular bundle and Vanessa Amorosi on vocals.
” The tunes are still on the radio all the time in the States,” Stewart states. “I can play whatever I desire, having co-written and produced all the tunes. I understand them by heart.
” And I can stick in anything else I desire– a Dylan tune possibly!”
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