Eric Nicoli the CEO of EMI Group knows the way to my heart. A few weeks ago he gave me a copy of Bryan Ferry’s album Dylanesque. It is a love story in the form of 11 covers of great Dylan songs. Ferry has never met Dylan and even admitted that he originally didn’t like his sound! What I like most about Ferry’s new album is that while the tracks are all covers, they are not imitations. This is probably something to do with Bryan Ferry’s love of jazz. The best of the songs pay tribute and find their own way around the words and music. Ferry has covered Dylan before in single tracks, but this is a serious tribute that infuses Ferry’s own responses with the Lovemark that is Bob Dylan. My two favorite tracks from the album? “Make You Feel My Love” and “Positively 4th Street”. And Eric seems to know the way to the hearts of all music lovers. He recently announced that EMI will now offer its digital catalog on iTunes without DRM protection. As people like their music without DRM (some tests say the ratio is 10:1) the consumer has just got more control. Kick back and load Dylanesque on your iPod. It’s waiting for you.
