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Bryan Ferry and how to do a great Bob Dylan cover

John Lewis, So London, 14 March 2007

WAY BACK in 1973, long before any of you were born, the debonair Roxy Music crooner Bryan Ferry had a big hit single with a Bob Dylan song called 'A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall'. At the time, Dylanologists were outraged. Saint Bob's sacred canon was being debased; his cryptic lyric about the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust buried in an avalanche of Motown drums, spangly glam rock guitars and shrieking Phil Spector-style backing vocals. It was like hearing Noddy Holder singing a Sylvia Plath poem.

Total word count of piece: 522

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