Old 97s "Champaign Illinois"

When Bruce Springsteen’s song “The Rising” came out, someone at the station (I can’t remember who, otherwise I’d give proper credit), suggested that this would be a perfect song for Verizon to license and appropriate for a commercial.

Sing it with me, “Come on up for Verizon! Come on up for Verizon tonight!”

(Of course, Springsteen would never agree to such a thing)

There is some small level of talent required to take an existing song, and make a sturdy parody or sideways version.

It’s a fun game to play, to try to change the lyrics of an existing song, to something fun and funny.

But you’d have to have real talent to take it a step further, and actually make it a good song.

And that’s the difference between us, and Rhett Miller.

The story goes that Miller, lead singer of the Old 97s, was the one driving the tour van for hours at a time. And to keep himself occupied, he’d take an actual song, try to retain the melody and the cadence, but write completely new original lyrics.

When we got the album “Grand Theatre Volume One” I instantly gravitated toward the song “Champaign Illinois.” But it was only after months of playing it, that I learned of the song’s origins.

In putting together the station’s Bob Dylan Covers Channel, this song appeared on a list as a song written by Bob Dylan.

Huh?

After some research, I learned that Miller had been driving, fooling around with Dylan’s “Desolation Row.” He kept the melody and the cadence, and the spirit of the song, but wrote completely new lyrics and a completely new story.

Thinking that there was no way he could release the song without getting the pants sued off him, he had shelved it for several years. But he was finally convinced to ask Dylan’s people for permission, and to Miller’s surprise and delight, Dylan’s folks said Yes.

So the songwriting credit is to “Dylan/Miller.”

Check out both songs, and be struck by the similarity that you may not have ever noticed.


See the video on Youtube.


See the video on Youtube.