New Sleep Schedule

It is September- that time of the year when you sharpen your pencils and organize your folders and head back to school (if you happen to be a student). One of the many unfortunate things about the new school year is that I can't be up, say on a Wednesday night at 3:42 am, internet browsing. This is due to the fact that I must pry my eyes open and detach myself from my wonderful bed at 6:20 in the morning in order to get ready for the day. Basically, my browsing sessions are now limited to the weekends.

Tonight, I'm checking out songs from my favorite new guy who happens to be covering my favorite classic guy. I am listening to two renditions of It Ain't Me Babe, interpreted by Robin Pecknold and penned by Bob Dylan. The first is a recording that Robin put together (with majestic voices from above, whatever it is that you believe above to be) under his pseudonym "White Antelope." Accompanied by only a guitar, he fills the song with what I am guessing are three swirling vocal harmonies, but he's captured such an echo-y sound that it makes sense to think that there are thirteen Robin Pecknold voices stuffed into that song. All is breathtaking until you come to the chorus and hear the "no, no, no!" part that Dylan is well-known for shouting; well, Robin's done his own wacky version of these three words. At first, you think maybe he's out of tune. Maybe his falsetto quivers during this part. Maybe the chords were harmonized wrong. But all the choruses are sung the same. So I started to wonder if this was maybe a homage to Dylan's wild vocal contortions at this part of the song. Or maybe Robin just decided to pen a funky chord here, to make it interesting. There's no arguing that it doesn't stand out. The oddness even grows on you; "no, no, no!", that point where you're violently pushing the subject of the song away, almost sounds manic, so I guess that the climax of the song is indeed delivered.

Here is the vid- scroll for the next.






What I then listened to was an apparently live version (according to youtube) that occurred at a BBC session. Robin again performed solo, yet this version was much more true to the original; though I do recognize that his throat cannot emit 2 pitches at once. It is a lovely cover; there is no doubt that he can sing perfectly in tune, and the cover is a bit more subdued than his recorded version. Nothing sounds frenzied during the chorus, only tired.






It was actually Robin Pecknold's love for Bob Dylan that posessed me pick up Freewheelin', The Times They Are A-Changin', and Bringing it All Back Home while walking through my local Border's. Back when Robin was briefly a Twitterer (the only reason I joined and remained on Twitter for around 3-4 months) he would rant and rave about his favorite artists, including Dylan. I remember one time when he linked to a duet of Joan and Bob singing It Ain't Me Babe and stating how he loved It's Alright Ma, I'm Only Bleeding. This prompted me to check out both Dylan and Baez and fueled me on my journey of going broke buying old CDs.

People often ask why I got so into Dylan, because now I rant and rave about him, and I even got the chance to see him in August. To these questions, I rarely respond. I feel like such a stalker talking about how I, well, stalked Robin Pecknold's twitter for several months and ended up enjoying what he recommended. I feel as though I may be accused of liking what the frontman of my favorite band likes just because he is the frontman of my favorite band. Twitter also just made me feel so skeeved out; it's purpose really is to just "follow" (stalk) celebrities. It must have made Robin feel skeeved as well because he promptly quit one day, later joining under a new account only for a select number of family and friends (and this is when I quit, because I really WAS stalking the guy.. oh no..). But I'll still be grateful and always remember how it was a person I idolize who turned me onto another person I idolize. I'm not going to say it changed my life because that phrase always sounds so cheesy to me, but music does touch you in ways that are indescribable. Bob Dylan's music certainly did this for me, shortly after the much younger artists of Fleet Foxes had. And somehow, I've seen Dylan live before my introducer, though I would very much like to get a move-on on seeing the latter. Fleet Foxes have got to come back from Europe, first.

And so I leave you with this.





*EDIT: Oh man, copyright laws, you tear at my heart. Why must you take down my favorite videos? Well, I'll post two more that will more than make up for what's missing.









Oh Mr. Dylan, you're a wonder. How do you reinterpret YOUR OWN SONGS so successfully? Excuse me while I gush.