How did this Bob Dylan remix project come
about?
[Someone from our record company] told me he was gonna put out
Dylan's greatest hits [with a] remix of a tune from the Sixties for
the bonus. I've just been OD-ing on Dylan for the past two years
after I saw Don't Look Back and No Direction
Home. There are only two people that if I listen to them for
too long at a time I start crying and become an emotional wreck.
And that's Dylan and Stevie Wonder. So I started obsessively
listening to everything. I definitely didn't want to do "Like a
Rolling Stone" or "It's All Right, Ma," because it's just too much
to take on a song that's that much in the sort of cultural
conscious. And I just thought it would be great to do "You Go Your
Way." The song already has an amazing groove to it, like the drums
and all that stuff that's going on. It's almost like this New
Orleans Second Line-type drumming.
What was your recording process like?
They gave us the original four-track recording of the song. But
because it was from the early Sixties, it was that style of
recording where everyone's playing in the room at the same time.
There wasn't just an a cappella of Dylan. There was bleed from the
drums coming in, and guitars. The only thing I could really do was
make everyone [in my studio] play much louder over the song so it
would drown out all the stuff. And I had to make it quite busy, a
lot of percussion to cover up all the other stuff going on in the
back of the track. I thought I would keep the vocal and do a really
kind of soulful Southern Memphis-style funk arrangement over it and
see what happens.
Has Dylan heard it?
Yeah, he heard it. I think they had a couple people trying [to do
remixes]. So I was sort of auditioning for it almost. Dylan has
never allowed anyone to do a remix of one his songs before, and on
top of it, he has the most amazing taste. So you know he's not just
gonna approve some bullshit remix where someone slapped a drum beat
over one of his songs. He finally heard it about two weeks ago and
approved it and then we mixed it. The two approvals I've lost sleep
over were Morrissey's for my "Stop Me" cover and definitely the
Dylan approval for this remix.
Have you had like a phone conversation with him? Have
you been working with Dylan directly?
No, I still never got to talk to him. I'm not sure if I'll ever
get to meet him. I saw him in concert in Wembley two months ago.
It's too much to meet somebody like that sometimes. I met Stevie
Wonder once. It's really hard when you're meeting those people who
are just such giant culture personalities and such huge influences
and intimidating talents. You just get verbal diarrhea and make a
fool out of yourself.
How did you approach the remix? Obviously you have a
sound, but did you want to impose your aesthetic on the Dylan track
or did you envision something more?
I'm a big fan of the Band and I think the Band are one of the most
rhythmic bands ever, like there was so much groove on Levon Helm's
drums and Robbie Robertson's guitars and I just kind of imagined
what that song would have been like maybe if he had recorded it in
the studio with the Band in '71 as opposed to doing it in Nashville
in '65, or whenever he did it. I didn¹t want to make it like,
"Oh check it out, Bob Dylan goes hip-hop," that would have been
really cliche.
Did you feel at all hesitant to take on the project?
What do you say to someone who thinks you ruined a Dylan
classic?
I'm under no illusions that it's better than the original. It's
just another approach to that song. There's always gonna be people
who cry sacrilege. There are people who tried to cut the power
cable when he played in the Newport Jazz Festival in '65, when he
went electric for the first time. There's always gonna be people
who attach to the original. I like to think that I did something
interesting and cool with the track.
Have you thought about doing this live with
Dylan?
Yeah, I mean, it's come up. That's just a pipe dream at this point.
That would be cool as fuck.
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