Wayne Coyne lays down a birthday homage to Dylan – really worth a listen inside!

Wayne Coyne seems to have forgotten his vitriolic words of almost a decade ago – and has joined the ranks of stars set to wish his Royal Bob-ness a happy Eightieth.

Back in 2013, in Wayne’s world, Bob was a ‘protected’ curmudgeon who had forgotten how to party.

He and his band, the Flaming Lips, had played the Kilkenny festival in Ireland where Bob was headlining. And that was, at the time, Wayne’s only personal connection with the folk, rock, country and all-round musical genius.

Dylan was following them on stage and Wayne had this to say – “We got done playing and suddenly it was like a lockdown. They rushed you offstage. You gotta get your equipment off, you gotta clear the area.”

He also poked fun at Bob’s backstage fleet of black Hummers.

But things have changed and the Lips have done a flaming good version of Dylan’s haunting country love song Lay Lady Lay. It’s a killer and will appear on the new compilation for the British magazine Uncut.

The Flaming Lips’ cover of Lay Lady Lay is brilliant with Wayne wrapping his thin reedy voice in reverb, adding a psychedelic edge.

The Dylan Revisited compilation include Richard Thompson, This Wheel’s On Fire, the Weather Station, Precious Angel, Thurston Moore, Buckets of Rain, Drive-By Truckers, Patterson Hood and Jay Gonzalez, Blind Willie McTell, and Weyes Blood, Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands.

Despite being a 1980s throw-back band, the Lips are an ab-fab joining of timeless talent whether doing the death-laden Do You Realise? Or the thunderous tub-drum thumping Watching the Planets.

And they are definitely in my Top Ten bands.

But back then Wayne said: “I don’t think being with Bob Dylan nowadays is a party. I think he probably doesn’t talk to anybody and I think it’s kind of just the opposite. It doesn’t mean his music isn’t very powerful, but I think Bob Dylan’s been kind of a curmudgeon and I think there’s a contingency of people out there who don’t want to say that.

“And I say, why not?”

“We did a festival quite a few years ago now in Kilkenny, Ireland, where Bob Dylan was playing after us.”

After finishing their set Wayne said: ” We looked out and saw this line of big, black Hummer limousines. Probably six or seven of them in a row. They pull right up to the stage and it’s just Bob Dylan. Bob Dylan is in one. Two guys are in another one. They walk up to the stage. They play. They walk right back down to the limousines as soon as they’re done.”

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