No one told them the song was gonna blow up this way.
The Rembrandts were putting finishing touches on their third album, “L.P.,” when a sidestep into television drastically altered their course in 1994. Now, 26 years since “I’ll Be There for You” debuted on “Friends,” band member Phil Solem is reflecting on the ups and downs caused by the track, how a few beers led to its iconic claps, and witnessing Brad Pitt enjoy a performance of the hit more than the cast.
Solem and bandmate Danny Wilde, who previously had a hit with 1990’s “Just the Way It Is, Baby,” will forever be associated with “Friends,” yet they initially asked to remain anonymous while working on the tune after viewing the pilot. “In those days, it was uncool for a band like ours to be involved in television,” Solem explains.
For Bob Dylan’s 80th birthday we’ve compiled our list of the 80 greatest covers of his songs — a collective gift back to him to say thank you for everything he’s given us. The list has songs recorded by his folk peers nearly 60 years ago, and others from as recently as last year. Getting down to 80 wasn’t easy. As the greatest songwriter of all time, Dylan has inspired thousands of covers of his songs by artists from every corner of music. Our picks include everyone from Hendrix, Baez, and the Byrds to Cher, Adele, and Roots.
Dylan loved the ides of other people doing his songs, and it’s amazing how many songs here were recorded many times by other artists before the man himself ever released his own versions; often, they lived whole other lives, evolving and changing over the years, with his idea of the song as only a blueprint. And because there are so many kinds of Dylan songs, there’s a vast array of different kinds of Dylan covers: R&B singers love relaxing into the contours of “Lay Lady Lay”; country singers like his rootsy stuff; indie-rockers key into his sad side; heroic rock singers love scaling the peaks of open-ended classics — like “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” or “Like a Rolling Stone” — finding their own way to make new meanings amidst the intersecting, and often contradictory, emotions and ideas that can roil around within one Dylan song. Even weird, tossed-off or straight-up bad Dylan songs can make for great covers.
Upon reading this, true fans will immediately think of their own favorite covers that didn’t make the list. And that’s part of the fun. This story leads in a million directions. The road always ends wherever you’re at right now.
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Photographs in illustration by Bruce Fleming/AP; Yui Mok/PA Wire/AP; H. Thompson/Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images; David Corio/Redferns/Getty Images; Jason DeCrow/AP
Few debut albums have altered the course of rock to the extent that Are You Experienced, the full-length bow from the Jimi Hendrix Experience, did in the spring of 1967. First released in the U.K. – a version with a different track selection and running order would be issued in the U.S. three months later – the LP not only showcased Hendrix’s remarkably inventive guitar playing but also combined R&B, blues, psychedelia, pop, heavy rock, and even jazz in a way that no one had ever done (or even imagined) before. Are You Experienced also revealed Hendrix (a veteran of the “chitlin’ circuit” who’d been all but unknown to rock fans a year earlier) as a songwriter with a uniquely whimsical and imaginative lyrical vision, one which could leap from earthy lust to futuristic fantasy with just a handful of words?
Featuring such immortal tracks as “Foxy Lady,” “Fire,” “Love or Confusion,” “Are You Experienced?” and “Manic Depression,” the album – especially the U.S. edition, which also included the U.K. singles “Hey Joe,” “Purple Haze,” and “The Wind Cries Mary” – is practically a greatest-hits record unto itself. Hendrix, however, was just getting started; on his next two albums, 1967’s Axis: Bold As Love and 1968’s Electric Ladyland, he would paint sonic canvases so colorful and detailed as to make Are You Experienced seem raw and primitive by comparison. “Are You Experienced was one of the most direct records we’ve done,” he told Hit Parader magazine in January 1969. “What it was saying was, ‘Let us through the wall, man, we want you to dig it.’” And dig it, they did: Are You Experienced went on to spend 106 weeks on the Billboard 200, eventually selling more than 5 million copies in the U.S. alone.
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The interrogators were doing a lousy job. Never mind that David Christ was the one being interrogated. It was his professional opinion that these Cubans couldn’t make a can of beer sweat.
It was the middle of the night but hot as an oven in Havana. Christ had just been dragged from his cell in the bowels of G2, the Cuban intelligence agency, to a small interrogation room that held one desk, two chairs, and three Cubans. In Christ’s view, they were a motley crew of lowlifes — which made it all the more humiliating that they’d caught him red-handed. One of the Cubans wore baggy slacks and a Hawaiian shirt. He looked like a pimp. The second was big as a refrigerator. He barely moved, just flexed his biceps, and glared from a damp corner. The third ran the show. He had a chubby face and bad teeth riddled with festering holes. Christ nicknamed him bad teeth.
“Vicissitudes” Underwater sculpture in Grenada in honor of African Ancestors who were thrown overboard…RIP
This is located in the Caribbean Sea off the coast of Grenada under water… Pass it along so more people will know about this wonderful work of art in honor of those who perished so tragically. Artist, Jason DeCaires Taylor
“Comment from Viewer: Thanks! We appreciate your comments.
According to THE ARTIST: 1. “Vicissitudes depicts a circle of figures, all linked through holding hands. These are life-size casts taken from a group of children of diverse ethnic background. Circular in structure … the work both withstands strong currents and replicates one of the primary geometric shapes, evoking ideas of unity and continuum. … The sculpture proposes growth, chance, and natural transformation. It shows how time and environment impact on and shape the physical body. Children by nature are adaptive to their surroundings. Their use within the work highlights the importance of creating a sustainable and well-managed environment, a space for future generations.”
2. “Projects : T.A. Marryshow Community College (depicts casts faces in the side of a large underwater stone)
In March 2007, a project was initiated with Helen Hayward of T.A. Marryshow Community College to produce a series of work for the Moliniere sculpture park.
Workshops were planned with A-level Art and Design students. Each student was required to produce a life cast of their face, to form an installation two metres deep around the shoreline of Moliniere Bay.
The project aimed to encourage local artists to contribute further works to the site and provide a arena for communities to appreciate and highlight the marine processes evident in their local environment.
The students were taught a range of skills including life-casting, cement casting and sculpting. The final pieces were installed by Jason on 25th April 2007.””
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Gabrielle Smith – Comment on “Vicissitudes” posted on “The NUBLK”
[News] Artist Jason de Caires Taylor clarifies intention of Underwater sculptures in Grenada originally thought to be a tribute to slavery
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We posted images of the underwater sculptures in Grenada by Jason de Caires Taylor. The pictures of the beautiful scenes of what was originally thought to be a tribute to fallen African slaves have been circulated on many websites. A few weeks ago I noticed that there were comments circulating that this indeed was not true and that the sculptures had nothing to do with slavery.
As a child of Grenadian parents, I was interested to find out the intention of the piece as the island of Grenada as with the majority of islands in the Caribbean have a very strong connection with the slave trade and you can still find remnants of this even today. It would be interesting to find out the discourse between the Grenadian government and the artist when they were first approached to have the sculptures placed there. After contacting the artist I received the following reply:
“It was never my intention to have any connection to the Middle passage, below is the original text. Although it was not my intention from the outset I am very encouraged how it has resonated differently within various communities and feel it is working as an art piece by questioning our identity, history and stimulating debate.”
– Jason de Caires Taylor
Although I do find it interesting that these particular sculptures were allowed to be placed on the island of Grenada I also have to respect the artists intention and commend the fact that now that he’s aware of what many take the sculptures to mean that he is now leaving the intention open to discussion.
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.Click any image below to enter gallery (While in gallery click outside image or Xin upper left corner to exit):
Underwater sculpture 1, “Vicissitudes” in Grenada, in honor of our African Ancestors who were thrown overboard the slave ships during the Middle Passage of the African Holocaust (see comments above). Plus, Underwater sculptures 2,3 and 5 by artist Jason DeCaires Taylor
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.Click link below forhistory of artist Jason DeCaires Taylor and his sculptures:
Film and Writing Festival for Comedy. Showcasing best of comedy short films at the FEEDBACK Film Festival. Plus, showcasing best of comedy novels, short stories, poems, screenplays (TV, short, feature) at the festival performed by professional actors.
The Rembrandts
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James' World 2 