Bought during one of my periodic Bob binges. This one was some years before I got the reggae tribute, but I feel similarly indifferent to it. A bunch of blues singers have picked the Bobsong closest to their own idiom and done what you might call stealth versions, not pushing their own boundaries or those of the song any more than they have to. Isaac Hayes's spoken word introductions to Walk on By and By the Time I Get to Phoenix added an layer of intrigue and interpretation. His introduction to Lay, Lady, Lay just spells out that it's a seduction song, and I think most of us kinda guessed that. This time the extra just lays it on too thick: if I were the Lady, I'd be making my excuses and calling a cab before Isaac reached the first line, the impact of which he inexcusably fluffs, deflated by all his prefatory mumbling and cooing.
The silver lining to this cloud is that it's reminded me to book tickets to see Barb Jungr's Bob show next month. She's up there with Odetta and Tim O'Brien for drawing things out of the songs that you just hadn't noticed were there before.
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