WELCOME

Welcome to the Blog in Plain D. For the non-Dylan world, I should explain the title is adapted from Bob Dylan's song Ballad in Plain D, from his 1964 album Another Side of Bob Dylan. Sure, there are better Dylan puns: Bloggin' in the Wind, Blog On The Tracks, Bloggin' On Heaven's Door, Blog on Blog, The Times They Are A-Bloggin', Tangled Up In Blog, etc., etc. But all of these are already in use, for Blogs with no Dylan content. Another example of how the language has been influenced by Bob Dylan's impact on popular culture. Friends lobbied hard for Blog Is Just a Four Letter Word... I like it, but it's too wordy.

So Blog in Plain D it is. Think of it as D for Dylan, or D for Dave (me)!

In this Blog you will find news, information and miscellaneous ramblings about Dylan covers, defined as the songs of Bob Dylan as performed by others. For the uninitiated, or if you have surfed to this page by chance or error, the collecting of Dylan covers is a fascinating little corner of music collecting. There is a seemingly endless stream of Dylan covers, both newly discovered older recordings and new releases. Dylan songs have been covered in almost every genre and style of music, by artists from around the world both well-known and unknown, and have been translated and performed in over 30 languages. They also range from the truly great to the unbelievably bad... but all - well, most - are worth having to the true collector!

To those who have some bias against Dylan covers - the "only Dylan should sing Dylan" faction - I'm not going to try and explain or justify it, except to say you are missing the point and you are in the wrong Blog! Thanks for visiting. ;)

Please feel free to comment on this (or any Blog in Plain D posting) by clicking "comments" at the bottom of any post. No registration is required, you can post anonymously if you wish. You can also contact me via e-mail using the link at top of the sidebar on the right.

History

I'm Dave Plentus, from the USofA. I've been a record collector for many years and an avid Dylan covers collector for much of that time. In 1999, mostly to gain some trade contacts and establish some presence on the internet, I decided to start a website featuring my Dylan tribute albums, naively thinking it was a good collection. A that time I didn't even know if there were other collectors out there. I soon discovered, thanks to contacts from around the world, that my little collection was far from complete. With their help and contributions, that website and associated sites have expanded to over 220 pages encompassing all aspects of Dylan cover collecting.

• Dylan Cover Albums: Initially launched on January 30, 1999, and moved to the dylancoveralbums.com domain in November 2000, Dylan Cover Albums is a visual discography of albums featuring the songs of Bob Dylan as performed by others. This site now lists well over 350 tribute and compilation albums in Vocal, Instrumental, Translations, Shared, Various Artists, E.P.s, and Near Misses categories, as well as numerous secondary pages. Dylan Cover Albums has been mentioned in the national media, linked to by many other Dylan-related and artist's websites, and thanked or mentioned in several CD releases around the world.

• Dylan Title Tracks: In August 2000, by popular demand, I added Dylan Title Tracks, a gallery of picture sleeves and albums with a Dylan song as their title track, later expanded to include any record sleeve with a Dylan title displayed. Title Tracks now displays over 1,100 records, almost all supplied by contributors in the collector community.

• Dylan Covers On-Line: Somewhere along the line, I started a page of Dylan Covers On-Line, a list of links to Dylan covers available for download around the web from artist or label sites. Covers from paysites or archive sites are not included on this list. Currently there are over 530 covers listed, the total fluctuates as new links are added and old links are lost. Note that none of these dowloads are hosted by DylanCover.com, Dylan Covers On-Line provides links to where they can be found.

• Dylan Covers Collector's Guides: In 2004 I launched Collector's Guides, a series of illustrated guides to the Dylan covers of over 100 artists, plus several genre guides such as Blues, Bluegrass, Celebrities, Country, Jazz, Reggae and Soundtracks.

• Dylan Covers DataBase: Up to this point none of my pages attempted a complete list of Dylan covers, so in late 2004 I launched the Dylan Covers DataBase, a comprehensive, all-inclusive and hopefully error free list of Dylan covers. This is a never-ending task, as old covers are constantly being discovered and new music is always being released. Currently, almost 15,000 Dylan covers are included in the DataBase, over 7,000 illustrated, with an average of several hundred added each month.

• Blog in Plain D: In April 2006 I launched this Blog in Plain D as a new source of information, tying together all 5 of the sites described above, with some added features unique to the Blog.

• DylanCover.com: Portal page unifying all 6 of these sites under the domain DylanCover.com. With all the additions over the years, Dylan Cover Albums was no longer an apt description of all the resources available. (Note no "s": DylanCover.com not DylanCovers.com)

Direct links to these various websites are listed in the Links section of the right sidebar. Or you can bookmark and/or start at DylanCover.com.

Much of the content on all these pages have come from world wide contributors. My thanks to all those who have contributed to the DylanCover.com websites over the years. You know who you are! If you have any comments, suggestions, news or other content to submit for consideration, please contact me via the e-mail link in the right column sidebar, or just click the "comments" link at the bottom of this post.

Blog in Plain D

A few words about Blogs. If they're new to you, think of them as on-line newsletters or journals. Some mistakenly compare them to newsgroups, forums or chat rooms, but they are not the same. On a Blog, only the moderator (me) can create a new post (news item.) Readers have the ability to comment or respond to posts, simple click "comments" below each post and type your message. For now, I have left the comment section unmoderated and open to all, however if spam or nuisance comments become a problem I will have to add some restrictions.

Note that I have been posting to Blog in Plain D for a few weeks before going live, so scroll down and see what you've missed. This will give you an idea of what will be available here in the future. The last 20 posts appear on the main page, older links can be accessed via the monthly "archive" links near the bottom of the right column sidebar.

Also in the sidebar are links to the webpages described above, links to various other Dylan-related sites, and an e-mail link.

Support

You can help support DylanCover.com by using the amazon links included with some posts of new releases and new additions, or the links in the right column sidebar, or those throughout the websites. When you enter these shopping websites through my links, DylanCover.com earns a commission on any purchase made during those shopping sessions, it doesn't have to be the item featured. So even if you're buying books or a snowblower (as someone did last winter - thanks, whoever you are!) please use an extra click and enter amazon or GEMM through my links. The earnings help defray the costs of maintaining DylanCover.com including domain registration & web hosting.

This Welcome page will remain available via a link on the sidebar.