Album: Dan Bern
Year: 1997
They don’t really make “New Dylans” any more, do they? That was a big thing for a very long time: the singer-songwriter who was going to somehow takeover the mythical place in the cosmos previously occupied by Bob Dylan.
However, after a half-century of getting their asses kicked by the old Dylan, that concept has pretty much fallen by the wayside.
There were a lot of singer-songwriters who got the “New Dylan” hype were pretty awesome. For example, Bruce Springsteen, who you might have heard of. Or Dan Bern, who had the temerity to actually sound like Dylan.
Normally, that would have three strikes on only one pitch, but Dan Bern turned that disadvantage into a strength, because in the mid-90s, he didn’t sound like he was a new version of a Dylan from the 1960s, but rather a 1990s Dylan from an alternate universe where Bob Dylan never existed. Which makes sense, since a lot of great Dan Bern songs are about imagined alternate history.
Like the hilarious “Marilyn,” from his debut, where he imagines what might have happened if Marilyn Monroe had married wild person Henry Miller instead of the relatively staid Arthur Miller.
But if she did he’d have taken her to Paris
And if she did she’d have smoked a lot of opium
And if she did she’d have dyed her hair blue
And if she did she might be alive
With a melody that feels so familiar that it must have been stolen from somewhere, just enough crunchy guitars and drums to rock a little, “Marilyn” continues with its alternate timeline.
Marilyn Monroe didn’t marry Henry Miller
She lived outside the Tropic of Capricorn
Marilyn Monroe didn’t marry Henry Miller
I don’t even know if she knew Henry MillerBut if she did he’d a taken her to Paris
And if she did they’d have fucked every day
And if she did she’d have felt like a woman
Not like a photograph in a magazine
Hilarious, and yet also a commentary on the dehumanization of stardom, and one of the songs that convinced me that Dan Bern was a totally original voice, no matter who his voice might have sounded like.
Official Video for “Marilyn”