Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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4.0 out of 5 stars
HANAWAY, 30 Aug 2003
I wrote a review of this CD last night when i was freshly listening to it for the second time but I was also so sleepy I didn't realise (a) the band's name is "The HanaWAY Band" not the "HanaHAN" -- goes to show how obscure the band really is. I also didn't realise (b) that it's actually called "The HITS of Bob Dylan" not "a selection of Bob Dylan's all-time greatest masterpieces that your reviewer would have liked to hear". Slight difference there. And (c) there's "Things Have Changed", perhaps the most Dire-Straitsish track here, but after a while the real surprise. Really pleasant. It alone is worth the price of the record. If they were to play it on the radio, they'd have another "Sultans of Swing". Very sweet. Of course, Dire Straits might sue. Finally, are these guys Japanese? No, they must be Brits, the phonetics give Mr HanAway away, pronouncing "clothes" WITH a soft "th" rather than the Dylan way to rhyme with "close", and that "oh" sound in words "all" or "fall" feels rather northern English or Scots. Overall though, a brilliant job of making a note-perfect copy that does NOT sound like a mere COPY. Of course, if you check the internet, there's easily three score or more compilations of Dylan covers out there, so why get this one? Ummmm -- maybe just for that one song, initially. And after that, because it really is a very nicely done record. "If Not For You", too, moves very happily a step or two away from the original -- the whining that seemed to be taken to a higher power when Dylan met George Beatle Harrison is notably absent here. So: Four Stars!
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4.0 out of 5 stars
GREAT STUFF FROM OBSCURE BAND, 29 Aug 2003
They're not Japanese, I imagine. But actually I haven't the foggiest just who "The Hanaway Band" are or where they're really from. I suspect they might be British, since it's my feeling that the British have an especial affinity to Bob Dylan. Then again, they COULD be an American band. Mind you, there were a number of great young British groups out on Imaginary Records ten, twelve years ago that came up with a couple of MARVELOUS (and since forgotten) tribute albums. This band sounds like it might come from somewhere out in that same territory. In fact, the feeling I get listening to this CD is like I'm listening to that very first Dire Straits record -- the one with "Sultans of Swing" -- a sort of brilliant imitation Dylan, and kind of "better" than the Old Master himself. This, then, is the record for people who like the odd Dylan song, SORT OF, but can't stand the man's voice. It's like you wouldn't mind the odd Elton John song, as long as it was sung by somebody else. I'd say this recording is better even than 1972's McGuinnss/Flint LP of Dylan covers [Lo And Behold], even if less concentrated on rare bootleg tracks. What one finds here are practically all those early Dylan standards. Note-perfect copies, and yet imbued with a life of their own. It's such an odd thing to do, really, outside the field of traditional folk music or classical music, that I was inclined to think it must be a Japanese "we-can-imitate-anything"-job. On the down side, I swore to myself I'd never buy a CD of Dylan songs that contained "Knocking On Heaven's Door" -- or "Lay Lady Lay", two songs I find equally vacuous. And they're both Dylan film songs, showing his Tin Pan Alley=ish side (which he also has) in the most grating way. They're both included here, and --well -- they're pretty well done, but of course I wonder why they needed doing in the first place? Like the rest of this collection, I guess, they were done just to prove that it could be done. It liberates Dylan from the old addage that "nobody sings Dylan like Dylan" or it's inversion that "only Dylan can sing Dylan the way Dylan should be sung." No, with this record the Dylan repertoire enters into the public domain -- anyone can sing Dylan like Dylan now, he has become part of the nervous fibre of Western Culture. This is an execellent compilation. But I'm giving it four stars instead of five, just to leave a bit of space at the top for something possibly even better. As I say, the Imaginary tributes were, on the whole, just as good and even a tad livelier, wilder, less respectful. Dye-hard Dylan fans may find this a handy gift to give to somebody else, but chances are they just might decide to keep it for themselves, after a couple of close critical listenings. That's my bet, anyway.
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~ Seasick Steve
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