ONLY A RIVER 日本公演最終日、ボブ・ディランが美しいバラッド初カバー
聞いていただけたでしょうか？ディランの独特な声は慈しみに溢れ、近年のバラッドの中でも特に美しく、胸に染み入ってくる。誰の曲だろう？と思ったらその答えはTwitterに流れてきた。
ボブ・ウィアーが2016年にソロアルバムで発表したOnly A Riverだ。またしてもグレートフル・デッド関連。ディランはデッドとツアーをやりライヴアルバムも出している。1987年の共演スタジアム・ツアー"Alone & Together"から選び、1989年に発表している。
ボブ・ウィアーのバージョンはアルバムBlue Mountainの１曲目に収録されている。美しさが胸を打つ。ギターソロも美しい。
Josh Ritter
When I learned yesterday that Mr. Dylan had sung a song that I’d written, I was washed over with a feeling that that can only be described as a cousin of vertigo. So many songs, and all of them rambling around out there. Somehow, this one found Dylan’s pasture. How beautiful.
It opened a crack in the door through which I could momentarily imagine all of these many songs out in the night , traveling, sneaking cookies from the jar, attending the air around griefs and joys of all kinds.
I wrote Only a River in my dorm in college. Like all my favorites, it came unbidden, and I just wrote it down. Many years later, as I got the amazing opportunity to work with Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead, this song rose to the top of the pack, asking to be let out the door.
I sent it to Weir and Josh Kaufman, who beautifully arranged and recorded and performed the song that Dylan eventually must have heard.
To all my friends out there making art: it’s not always this easy seeing the ripples your work makes, but take the story of my little song, Only a River, as comfort. Art travels. Voices carry. Your art is out there in the world, making its home in many places, many hearts.
How beautiful. Rock on.