What KT did

I spent the morning listening to the fantastic soundtrack to Todd Hayne's I'm Not There, his 'sort-of but not really' Dylan biopic.. Anyway, Wilco's Jeff Teedy covers Simple Twist of Fate on the cd and it's terrific. Simple Twist of Fate is, for me, one of Dylan's very best songs and Tweedy makes a decent stab of it..

But it sent me back searching for this..


This is KT Tunstall and her band performing the same song at a BBC Bob Dylan tribute show a couple of years ago. It's fantastic. I mean it's really great. I kinda like her stuff anyway but this is surely the best thing she's done. And I don't know if it's intentional or if she did it to suit herself but at critical points in the song she's changed the lyrics.


This is Dylan singing the same song in 1975 with Scarlett Riviera on violin. At the end when the girl has left, KT's version has the male character telling himself that he doesn't care that she's gone. Bob has him in the room looking at a note and not understanding what's happened..

Of course it's entirely possible that Bob has written two versions himself. He's just that good. I could check but in a way I don't think I want to know.. Both versions work.

Incidentally on the topic of the soundtrack, there's lots of great stuff on there (and lots of rubbish too - I'm looking at you Antony Hegarty) but by far the best thing is Cat Power's take of Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again. She's mad as a box of frogs but then so is the song. You can still hear it here. It's flippin' marvelous!