It seems nothing is sacred these days and whilst we hate to rag on a charity project, the recent announcement by Amnesty International that they have collected a group of musicians to cover Bob Dylan for a tribute compilation album certainly raised a few eyebrows around the office.
The album is titled Chimes of Freedom: Songs of Bob Dylan Honoring 50 Years of Amnesty International, and will feature performances such as Adele covering 1997’s “Make You Feel My Love”, Sting joining forces with Dave Matthews Band and My Morning Jacket to tackle on 1975’s “You’re a Big Girl Now”, and Patti Smith taking on “Drifter’s Escape”.
Nothing too out of the ordinary here, but everyones eyebrows went botox after reading that pop slut Ke$ha has also been commissioned to sing on the record and had chosen to cover 1962’s “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right”, the holy grail of Dylan songs.
It’s true that just about everyone has attempted to cover that song, from Brian Ferry to Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Cher, Elliott Smith and even Metric, but given the shortcomings of previous attempts we can’t help but wonder if the starlet will reinvent the song or totally massacre it.
In an interview with Rolling Stone Magazine, Ke$ha said of the project “When you think of me, you wouldn’t think of Bob Dylan. My music is more about going crazy than politics. But he’s a huge influence – he writes his own music and means what he says. I write my own music and I f—ing mean every word I sing. [In the song] you can hear the snot running down my face.”
The album will be released on 21st November outside of the US, and the following day in the US. All proceeds will naturally go to Amnesty International. You can have a listen to Adele’s version of “Make You Feel My Love” below.