Comments on: Seuss via Zimmerman

Seuss via Zimmerman

staggernation — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 13:11:47 -0800

Bob, that is. Caution: autoplaying audio. (Via)

By: Milkman Dan

Milkman Dan — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 13:26:25 -0800

Hot damn! The faux-Dylan concept has already been completely beaten to death, but this brave mini-site effortlessly reincarnates that dead horse into a black and white stallion. The songs are perfect, the site is understated and gorgeous, and the execution is so graceful. Dr. Seuss plus Mr. Zimmerman is a perfect marriage of nonsense and style. It’s hijacked my fingers and made me type like a critic’s soundbite. A triumph of the human spirit. An inspiring coming of age story. A powerful tour-de-force.

By: amyms

amyms — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 13:32:39 -0800

Aww darn... The songs wouldn't load for me, then I saw the note: **IF SONGS DO NOT LOAD IN INTERNET EXPLORER, PLEASE USE FIREFOX... It looks like great fun, though, and Milkman Dan's review is making me very sorry that I'm missing out.

By: JBennett

JBennett — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 13:32:59 -0800

I expected the worst, but that is incredibly well done. Up there with the best faux-recordings like those on matthew's celebrity pixies covers

By: languagehat

languagehat — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 13:38:08 -0800

That works a lot better than I expected it to. The odd thing is that hearing the lyrics in this context automatically activates the Dylan-interpretation neurons: "Once every day and on Saturday twice"... hmm, what does that meeeeeean? Man, I'd love to have had this to slip on the turntable back when I was dj'ing parties in that huge prewar apartment in Washington Heights I was lucky enough to live in back in the '80s; I'd wait till everybody was good and drunk, and then see how long it took for someone to notice. (I used to do this with Brother D and the Collective Effort's "How We Gonna Make The Black Nation Rise?"—people would be diddy-bopping and so-socializing to the beat, and then I'd see that "Wait a minute, did he just say 'America was built, you understand, with stolen labor on stolen land'?" look.)

By: danb

danb — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 13:44:08 -0800

This rules so much.

By: mmahaffie

mmahaffie — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 13:45:38 -0800

Wow. Green Eggs and Ham works really really way this way.

By: Milkman Dan

Milkman Dan — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 13:53:50 -0800

Oh, languagehat. Reading your comment made me wish I was back in that abandoned warehouse in Manhattan; that one I retrofitted with shag carpet and a hardwood dancefloor in 1972. I lived upstairs in the loft, and in the mornings I’d walk out onto the hover-veranda and raise my hands and the entire populace of NYC would throw Mardi Gras beads in the air and climb up the escape ladders to my free-for-all disco-hall mini-mall, where ladies got free ricecakes and the men had to wear overalls. Everyone loved it when I’d slip that tape recording of Winston Churchill on the PA. It would take people ten minutes before I'd see that "Wait a minute, did he just say ‘Nevertheless, our thankfulness at the escape of our army with so many men, and the thankfulness of their loved ones, who passed through an agonizing week, must not blind us to the fact that what happened in France and Belgium is a colossal military disaster’ look,” and then I’d illuminate the neon sign that said “MMKAY IM T BEST” and everybody would begin weeping.

By: ewagoner

ewagoner — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 13:55:55 -0800

So, anyone figure out how to download the tracks yet? I'd like to listen to these on the ride home.

By: Armitage Shanks

Armitage Shanks — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 13:59:44 -0800

It looks like great fun, though, and Milkman Dan's review is making me very sorry that I'm missing out. Green Eggs And Ham The Cat In The Hat etc. It's really good. iPodworthy. I wish there was a donate link somewhere.

By: interrobang

interrobang — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 14:00:41 -0800

Much better than I expected it to be.

By: EarBucket

EarBucket — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 14:00:44 -0800

That's fantastic. It's probably the first decent Dylan parody I've ever seen, ever.

By: Armitage Shanks

Armitage Shanks — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 14:02:23 -0800

It's probably the first decent Dylan parody I've ever seen, ever. Barry McGuire doesn't count?

By: buriedpaul

buriedpaul — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 14:14:30 -0800

That parody's devastating -- it's like when Woody Allen really sticks it to Dylan in Annie Hall ("She aches like a women. Yes she does.) Otherwise I'm with EarBucket: the guy's such a genius that he's hard to parody intelligently.

By: danb

danb — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 14:15:05 -0800

Here are the filenames; a couple have missing words. TheThinksYouCanThink.mp3 GreenEggsAndHam.mp3 GertrudeMcFuzz.mp3 McElligotsPool.mp3 TooManyDaves.mp3 TheCatInTheHat.mp3

By: eperker

eperker — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 14:18:18 -0800

I want to know who did this. The production is amazing!

By: danb

danb — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 14:19:51 -0800

and TheZax.mp3

By: nola

nola — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 14:31:28 -0800

Thanks. That made my day.

By: sfred

sfred — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 14:41:45 -0800

Excellent. Should be Zimmerman vs. Geisel though.

By: ColdChef

ColdChef — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 14:42:20 -0800

Holy crap. Spot on.

By: ColdChef

ColdChef — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 14:44:16 -0800

You know...the more I listen to this...AND I KNOW THIS SOUNDS CRAZY...the more I'm certain that this is Mr. Dylan himself. It's not out of the range of possibility. It's his kind of sense of humor. I'm just saying. Somebody prove me wrong or I'm prepared to believe this is Bob.

By: ColdChef

ColdChef — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 14:45:47 -0800

You know what? Nobody prove me wrong. It's fun to pretend. Thank you.

By: languagehat

languagehat — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 15:02:05 -0800

Having been listening to this for a while now, I'm prepared to say I prefer it to some of Dylan's actual albums. Shoot me now. Oh, and since I forgot to say it before: thanks for the post!

By: Brittanie

Brittanie — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 15:29:03 -0800

I dunno, it's a cute concept but the Dylan impersonator is overdoing it a bit. I think it would be better if it were more subtle, because then I'd actually wonder if it was the man himself.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 15:52:05 -0800

This is immensely entertaining and shockingly well done. The band sounds absolutely vintage-perfect, the Dylan impersonator is not just doing the usual tricks but actually sounds uncannily like Dylan himself: the vocal formant, the timbre of the voice... Good lord, I'm almost ready to believe this is Zimmerman himself. Something from the vaults. My theory is that we're only now hearing this because it's taken a few decades for the Dr. Seuss legal team to work out a deal with Columbia records! ;-) What's also charming is how you get vinyl pops and such when you pause a tune on the player. Thanks for the post, staggernation!

By: flarbuse

flarbuse — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 16:05:28 -0800

One of the finer Dylan impersonations can be found on Mary Lee's Corvette's remake of Blood on the Tracks. The songs are done live in order. She calls up a random guy to sing the first verse or so of Lily, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts and the guy proceeds to not only show no stage fright, but to mimic Dylan's voice from all periods of his career within one verse.

By: EarBucket

EarBucket — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 16:08:57 -0800

Ugh. I can't stand the guy on that track, flarbuse. To my ear, he comes on way too strong with the hacky Dylan impression and ruins an otherwise good version of the song.

By: carter

carter — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 16:12:40 -0800

Heh, just works really well, somehow. Green Eggs and Ham is the best so far.

By: Kattullus

Kattullus — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 16:13:03 -0800

I sent this to my dad who used to sing Dylan songs and play guitar to me as lullabies. This is most excellent. And yeah, it is better than some Dylan albums. Also, some of the lines are sooooo damn Dylanesque... "I might catch a fish who is partly a cow!"

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 16:28:04 -0800

Heh, just works really well, somehow. Hey, no mystery. Dylan and Dr. Seuss are two of the giants of American literature, and Dylan's 60's voice/delivery is the perfect vehicle for the good Dr.'s stylings. I'm a little sad they left out one of my all time Seuss faves, Yertle the Turtle.

By: flarbuse

flarbuse — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 16:38:26 -0800

To my ear, he comes on way too strong with the hacky Dylan impression and ruins an otherwise good version of the song. I don't really disagree. To me, it is the context within which the impersonation occurs and the range of Dylan voices he tries to do in such a short period that make it a favorite of mine.

By: carter

carter — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 17:29:52 -0800

Dylan and Dr. Seuss are two of the giants of American literature I think the genius for me is in recognizing that they are somehow soul brothers. I was kind of jonesing for a 'Hard Rain' track; I wonder what Seuss book would work for that ...

By: moss

moss — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 19:24:47 -0800

Good Lord. This actually is as brilliant as everyone's been saying.

By: Alvy Ampersand

Alvy Ampersand — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 19:34:56 -0800

Brilliant, just brilliant, thanks!!! Seconding the Yertle the Turtle request - perhaps Masters of War-style?

By: blasdelf

blasdelf — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 00:06:36 -0800

This is so motherfucking wonderful.

By: luckypozzo

luckypozzo — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 01:19:00 -0800

Most satisfactory.

By: algreer

algreer — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 04:30:47 -0800

Yay! It's almost as good as the man himself releasing a new good album.

By: algreer

algreer — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 04:34:08 -0800

If any of you fans haven't got the wonderful Skyline Sessions featuring Dylan & Cash duetting (and you want them, you need them, you really do), check out this previous post. Downloadable! For Free! On the internets!

By: staggernation

staggernation — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 06:14:54 -0800

algreer, those files appear to be gone now, unfortunately.

By: redsparkler

redsparkler — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 09:19:23 -0800

Quite, quite enjoyable. Well done, except now I'll be much more prone to clicking on all those other shoddy Dylan parodies, in hopes of finding something this good.

By: OmieWise

OmieWise — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 08:50:13 -0800

Excellent.

By: Turd Ferguson

Turd Ferguson — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 08:21:25 -0800

All 7 songs, in a .zip.

By: junesix

junesix — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 14:59:34 -0800

Anyone able to mirror the zip or individual songs?

By: mattpfeff

mattpfeff — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 15:38:31 -0800

The site went down sometime yesterday afternoon (I saw it in the morning, it was down later). At first it just said "Site Down"; now there's an image saying "This site has been retired. Thanks for your interest." I wonder if there was a lawyer involved. Either way, it's too bad.