Watch Dave Grohl and Greg Kurstin Cover Bob Dylan
Dave Grohl and Foo Fighters producer Greg Kurstin released the fifth of their "Hanukkah Sessions" cover series, performing Bob Dylan’s “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35.”
It follows previous videos including the Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage” and Mountain’s “Mississippi Queen.” They're marking the Jewish celebration by covering music by Jewish artists. “So now everybody must get stoned (not in the Law of Moses sense) as we put some blood on this track,” they explained in a brief statement. You can watch the Dylan cover below.
“Rainy Day Women” first appeared on Dylan’s 1966 album Blonde on Blonde. The famously reserved artist has avoided offering a full explanation of the song's meaning, although the repeated line “everybody must get stoned” has led to speculation that it’s about marijuana. Dylan denied that at the time, saying he’d never write a “drug song.”
While it’s been pointed out that 12 multiplied by 35 equals the marijuana-related 420, an alternative story is that two women entered Dylan’s studio after coming out of the rain, and he correctly guessed their ages as 12 and 35.
Guitarist and bassist Charlie McCoy, who jumped to another instrument for the 1966 recording, said in 2014 the musicians was in high spirits as they worked, because Dylan insisted they all get drunk before tracking began. “[Producer Bob] Johnston said, ‘Tonight he wants to do a song with a Salvation Army sound – we need a trumpet and trombone,'" McCoy noted. "I said, ‘Does the trumpet need to be good?’ He said, ‘No!’”