Feature

I wrote this originally for the Boston Phoenix, when Bryan Ferry was doing promo for his "Dylanesque" album.

No currrent show involved, just a revisiting of one of my favorite artists.

In New York ... Bryan Ferry is wearing faded blue jeans, a light blue shirt, and a loose green tie. Slightly disheveled, in a GQ way. His elegantly mussed black hair dangles across his angular face. Ferry, 61, has just flown from England, and if body posture is a give-away, he’s jet-lagged. He’s affable, and cordial, but at times during our interview at the Carlyle Hotel, he is practically prone in his easy chair.

Ferry is here to promote “Dylanesque,” an 11-song CD of Bob Dylan songs. The solo artist, and once-and-future singer-songwriter of Roxy Music, is a longtime Dylan fan, though Ferry has never met him and hadn’t even seen him in concert until last year. When he did, Bob did what Bob does nowadays: He sat at the piano, faced side-stage, sang songs and said nothing.

“My teenage sons took me,” says Ferry. “Otherwise, I probably wouldn’t have made the effort. He wasn’t playing guitar. He didn’t even come to the front of the stage. The audience don’t mind; he gets away with it. He’s great.”

When Ferry was first carving out an alternative career to Roxy Music, in 1973, he radically revamped “A Hard Rain’s-A-Gonna Fall.” It was his first single. Later, came “It Ain’t Me Babe,” “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” and “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right.” Ferry says recording a full album of Dylan songs has been in his mind for years. The songs on“Dylanesque” are, for the most part, not surprising choices – no “Isis,” for instance – but are both definably Ferry and Dylan. Both favor harmonicas. Ferry brings his expressive baritone and his reigned-in art-rock sensibility to poetic songs like “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues,” “Simple Twist of Fate,” “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” and “All Along the Watchtower.” Dylan did most from 1964 to 1975. (The late Eric von Schmidt wrote “Baby, Let Me Follow You Down,”which Dylan covered in ’62; Ferry chose “Make You Feel My Love” from Dylan’s 1997 disc, “Time Out of Mind.”)

Ferry and his band have been touring the new record, playing six or seven of its songs, along with other solo tunes and some Roxy material. A US theater tour is possible for September.

The world “Dylan-esque” has been thrown at a lot of singers. I’m guessing, however, not much at you.

No. I did a B-side of one of the singles [“Love is the Drug”] called “Sultanesque.” I like that“-esque” at the end of words. A friend came up with this title.

You’ve covered numerous songs, but to do an entire album of one person’s music is bold. What went into your choosing or rejecting certain songs?

I didn’t really think about what I didn’t want to do. Certain songs have an appeal. “Positively 4^th Street” stood out. I like the lyrics, I like the tune, I thought it was a good representation. There was no pain in terms of flogging away at it. Either it works or it doesn’t work. I like to think there are a few different moods in the songs. Different keys, and eight or ten ballads.

Did you see “The Times They Are A-Changing” – viewed as a Vietnam era anthem - as pertaining to the Iraqi war.

I think you could say it’s appropriate now because there’s another war going on now that’s just as unpopular, but that isn’t really why I did it. There are many inspired lines in it; it worked outside {the period} as well.

Some people like Dylan’s songs, but not his voice. Thus, they anticipate re-interpretations.

I’ve always liked his voice. I like the way he changes songs. I know some people don’t care for it, but I just think the songs are so strong they can be done in many different ways - the Byrds, Hendrix.

Any other artist you can see doing this to?

Nobody that springs to mind. Nobody has such a huge body of work that I admire.

I know when we’ve talked before you’ve admitted to writer’s block. I’m guessing this album may be a result of that and your admiration for Dylan.

A combination, yes. It’s no secret that I write very slowly and I don’t really write that many songs. I have other things to do. Rather than thinking “Oh there’s something wrong me,” I’ve just been enjoying the other things that I do. Solo shows and also some Roxy shows. We did Roxy in 2001, a big tour, and have done a few smaller tours since then. Last year we did European festivals, three weeks in July and August, and after the tour is when I went into the studio to do the Dylan thing. {Roxy Music} did some recording earlier in the year and then it was down to me to go and write the lyrics to some of the songs. I thought this is going to be a very long haul project, and I didn’t want to wait two years before I put anything out. Simple as that. And the Dylan thing was a project that’s been in the back of my mind for a long time.

Earlier in your solo career, you were cherry picking different artists.

Very much so. Trying different avenues. For me the great freedom of the solo career is I have been able to go in different directions and stretch myself - like doing ‘30s songs with an orchestra. The Dylan thing, it seems very natural to me. These songs are very poetic, very accessible to me.