Ke$ha raised eyebrows when it was revealed her cover of Bob Dylan”s classic “Don”t Think Twice, It”s Alright” would be included on the massive 76-song compilation, “Chimes of Freedom: The Songs of Bob Dylan,” coming out Jan. 24.
She is joined by such artists as Adele, My Morning Jacket, and Miley Cyrus on the set, which benefits Amnesty International.
We”re all for the great cause and we applaud her for participating in such a worthy endeavor. Admittedly, unless some miracle occurred, there was really no way that this was a marriage that was going to work. Should we stop now since we”ve said something nice… because here it comes. Her cover of “Don”t Think Twice,” which you can hear snippets of in the below video, courtesy of Rolling Stone, is, if it”s possible, even worse that we”d imagined. She”s overwrought and distraught and mistakes pausing and singing really slowly for emoting. She has talked often about her love for Dylan, and she tells Rolling Stone that she thought about turning the song into a suicide note of sorts. That information is helpful, but it doesn’t make the interpretation any better.
In this video, she reveals her method: “I pulled up my Garage Band on my laptop and just sang through the song once…And by the end of it I was just crying hysterically alone on my bed.” We felt that way too after listening to her version.
Ke$ha, whose recently leaked material has featured her singing more than talking, has every right, of course, to record the Dylan classic in anyway she wants, but has she listened to the original? Part of what makes Dylan”s take so devastating is the breeziness that he tries, unsuccessfully, to impart as he heads on down the road, knowing full well that he couldn”t provide the woman with what she needed. The key is the last paragraph, when he turns downright bitter about her “wasting his precious time” although he still tries to shrug it off.
We keep trying to embed it, but, no kidding, our computer won’t let us. So here’s the link here.
What are your thoughts?