BOB DYLAN – Ron Franklin
And that brings me to this month’s Under-Appreciated Rock Artist of the Month, Ron Franklin. He reminds me a lot of Bob Dylan – but of course, I suppose you would have to be someone like me who likes the way Dylan sings (there, I said it). I have told several people that I have always thought that Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler sounds just like Dylan, but no one seems to hear what I hear.
Anyway, to some extent, I think it is intentional. Two of the songs (Ron Franklin writes all of his own material) basically quote Bob Dylan: the death-obsessed “Do Not Wait Till I’m Laid ’Neath the Clay”; this song is reminiscent of early Dylan songs like “Fixin’ to Die” and “In My Time of Dyin’” on his first album, Bob Dylan, and the fantastic “Let Me Die in My Footsteps” that was intended for inclusion on his second, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan (the song was finally released officially on The Bootleg Series, Vols. 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991). “We Ain’t Got No Home” has a title and some lyrics that are virtually the same as Woody Guthrie’s “I Ain’t Got No Home”. In the very beginning, Dylan was described as being just one among a host of Guthrie wannabes; but “I Ain’t Got No Home” is one of the very few Guthrie songs that Dylan recorded, even before he did much songwriting – I speak as someone owning dozens of Dylan bootleg albums as well as virtually all of his Columbia and Asylum releases.
(January 2012)
