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October 25, 2007

New Karen O - "Highway 61 Revisited" (Stereogum Premiere)

Everything's coming up Dylan. As mentioned, a lot of folks we like got together to cover the car salesman Mr. Zimmerman as part of the I'm Not There soundtrack. We pointed out streams for Dylan takes by Sufjan, Calexico with Jim James, and Cat Power and now we get a listen of Karen O's bluesy, boozy revisitation of "Highway 61 Revisited." Get howlin', Karen!


[Yeah Yeah Yeahs @ Webster Hall, NYC 8/7/07]

She's backed by the so-called "Million Dollar Bashers," that made-for-soundtrack band featuring Lee Ranaldo, Steve Shelley, Tom Verlaine, Nels Cline, Smokey Hormel, John Medeski and Dylan band bassist Tony Garnier. They also flesh-out Eddie Vedder and Steve Malkmus, among others, on the comp. Not sure if all of 'em play on O's ode, but the track sure has a full-band swing. In that spirit, check out some video footage of Dylan doing the tune with the Band way back in 1969. Right, Karen wasn't even alive yet (and, come to think of it, neither were we).

The I'm Not There Soundtrack is out 10/30 on Columbia.

Posted at 1:55 PM
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18 Comments

why is ko singing dylan tunes? i can't draw even one single thing yyy and bob having in common. i guess the backing band sounds good. ko - get back to the screaming stuff from early on. i liked you a lot more then.

Posted by: ko at 10/25/07 2:39 PM | Reply
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That was really cool!!

Posted by: Sammy Davis at 10/25/07 2:56 PM | Reply
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I'm counting the days until I can get my hands on the entire soundtrack!

Posted by: Rachel at 10/25/07 3:02 PM | Reply
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Lee Ranaldo, Steve Shelley, Tom Verlaine, Nels Cline, Smokey Hormel, John Medeski and Dylan band bassist Tony Garnier.

Geez, all-star line-ups don't get much better than that...

Posted by: Doug at 10/25/07 3:03 PM | Reply
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That ruled!! Karen O can do no wrong in my book

Posted by: Claire J at 10/25/07 3:34 PM | Reply
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comon folk rock, come back..

Posted by: dannygutters at 10/25/07 4:14 PM | Reply
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i had my doubts/fears about this cover, but it turned out great!

what a blast

Posted by: solace at 10/25/07 4:30 PM | Reply
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just makes me want to listen to the original version. covers that sound so much like the real song don't make any sense to me.

Posted by: spaceman at 10/25/07 4:39 PM | Reply
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Wow, she really phoned that one in.

Posted by: spittingoutteeth at 10/25/07 5:10 PM | Reply
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Wow, PJ Harvey really outclassed her on that one, huh?

Posted by: Jeff K at 10/25/07 6:11 PM | Reply
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Yeah, fun and all, but not that spectacular.

Posted by: Reed at 10/25/07 7:57 PM | Reply
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I like this version Karen O did. I think people just need to enjoy music more and stop being such a damn critic all the time

Posted by: eric at 10/25/07 8:46 PM | Reply
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Eric, I can't enjoy music if the music is crap. This isn't the worst thing in the world, but I Karen O sounds way too boozy and sloppy for me to bear. It just makes me want to listen to the original instead. It's just kind of sloppy and gross, like most of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' material. The band sounds okay, though... not that Nels Cline can ever do wrong.

Posted by: The Other Matthew at 10/26/07 2:36 AM | Reply
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yeah, it's a pretty good impression, but it PJ Harvey beats it by a mile by doing it a little less faithfully. I will say that it's much less self-conscious than most of KO's stuff, but still a little too cutesy for me to want to listen to it regularly. If I didn't know it was KO, would I care? I dunno. But PJ's version is still better.

Posted by: historyman68 at 10/26/07 2:41 AM | Reply
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karen orzolek blues exlosion!

Posted by: maxx at 10/26/07 9:25 PM | Reply
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when i first saw Karen O perform (at the SF Fillmore) i thought Janis Joplin.....

Posted by: john at 11/02/07 9:32 AM | Reply
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I want to eat her voice box. Watch it ko

Posted by: Adam at 11/03/07 10:56 PM | Reply
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Karen sounds great but the band sucks

Posted by: gerry at 04/20/08 11:26 PM | Reply
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