Saturday, August 09, 2008

Bob Dylan meets Johann Pachabel - no, really!

Listen carefully for yourself. Is Dylan amazing or what?

Here's the classic Pachelbel's Canon written in 1680 by Johann Pachelbel:



Here's Workingman's Blues #2: from Modern Times by Bob Dylan:

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

I cannot believe I didn't catch that. Brilliant!

I see you got a shot of Platform 9 3/4 while in London. Wait till you see the cover art for my book ;-)

Unknown said...

I can't wait to see your book - and it's cover, Travis!! ;-)

bb

Jim said...

Wow, I can't believe I never noticed that before- no one's ever presented it right next to the classical song before. "Workingman's Blues" is one of my favorite Bob Dylan songs of all time and I hope to do a cover song of it very soon. Great article!

~Jim

Anonymous said...

neat one, when he's good he's very good...

bob f said...

Dylan has done it before....listen to Is Your Love in Vain (street legal)

Anonymous said...

There are quite a few songs that use the same chordal pattern as Pachelbel's famous canon. One that quickly comes to mind is "Seek Ye First" by Karen Lafferty.

Unknown said...

As I was listening to Pachelbel I thought, "There's no way Workingman sounds like this."

Then I played Workingman. Dang.

Anonymous said...

Isn't that a picture of Mozart you have there? I don't think that is the Pachelbel gentleman.

Anonymous said...

That picture is definitely Mozart. Try googling Mozart and you will find that picture. The hair style isn't even close to 1680. It's more 1750ish.

Anonymous said...

As Jill C says, the chord progression is very common:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM

Anonymous said...

Shows how brilliant Pachabel was. And yes, it is a pic of Mozart, who also had a few good songs as well.

And BB, Dylan is pretty darn good too.

Anonymous Catholic

St. James said...

Pachelbel's CAnon was unknown to the general public until it was used as theme music in the 1980 film "Ordinary People." It became an instant hit, performed and recorded in many arrangements. For info, google "The Fate of the Artist: Pachelbel; his Canon."

W.A.Mozart (1756-1791) was born 50 years after the death of Pachelbel.
In his short lifetime he composed
a body of works almost unmatched.
Nocolas Slonimsky called him "su-
preme genius of music."

If you need a break from Bob Dylan,
a liitle Mozart will do you a lot of good.