Mic drop: The 2024 RIP thread for musicians

I caught a Detroit band called the Rockets once at a stadium show with a lineup featuring Bob Seger and Fleetwood Mac.

Had never heard of them, but I guess they were big in Michigan. Anyway, they fit nicely on that bill, and this song stood out ...

 

Oh, wow, I remember this! It was a pretty big record here in Toronto at the time in regular rotation on CHUM-FM which was the FM behemoth in town then.

 

I'd never heard of these guys until a Toronto radio station, renowned for deep tracks and never playing the same song twice in a 24-hour period, played their version of "Absolutely Sweet Marie", easily one of the best Dylan covers ever. To my ears they were doing something nobody else was doing at that time.

 

My best friend in high school’s 15 year old girlfriend played Marie in the video.

 

Is that station still around?

 

Next on Behind the Music...

 

Another scorching Dylan cover ...

 

It is but it's nothing like it was then. It's now part of the Bell Media monolith up here.

 

I'd never heard that, thanks for passing that along. Great addition to the revved up Dylan cover collection with Jason and the Scorchers and Johnny Winter's "Highway 61".

 

I've told the story before, but briefly, I saw Scorchers lead guitarist Warner Hodges at a house concert several years back and he told this story. After "Sweet Marie" broke on MTV, the band was invited to open for Dylan on tour. The first couple of dates they played, they were freaked out about playing a Dylan cover while opening for Dylan. They dithered and did not play it. Night three, Dylan came to their dressing room. "Why aren't you playing my song? I invited you because I really liked what you did with it, and you're not playing my song. What's going on?" Given that Warner really nailed the impression of Dylan's voice, this was funny as hell.

From then on "Marie" featured prominently.

And yes, they pretty much invented the cross between hard country and punk rock that got called cowpunk.

 

“Everything is Broken” by KWSheperd and “Seven Days” done by Ronnie Wood are excellent revved Dylan covers, too.

 

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/mojo-nixon-dead-obituary-1234964257/