Cover v. Original: Morning Dew
The original: “Morning Dew” by Bonnie Dobson
The contenders: The Grateful Dead, Jeff Beck, Lulu, Devo (video below), Einstürzende Neubauten, & Lee Hazlewood (link to mp3 below).
I’m not sure whether it’s the oppressive heat, the path of destruction being left throughout east Asia by typhoon Marakot, or my recent viewing of the trailer for Roland Emmerich’s next masterwork 2012 that’s got me feeling, well, feelin’ a little apocalyptic.
I suppose Nevil Shute must have felt that way in 1957 when he penned his novel “On The Beach”, a bleak tale of nuclear war in which the forced euthanasia of an infant is one of the more positive occurrences on humanity’s inexorable march to extinction. Shute didn’t have to worry about our modern doomsday scenarios (it’s gonna be the LHC, I tell you); no, in the 50’s men were men and our impending doom was an old-fashioned nuclear holocaust.
The novel struck a chord with a lot of people, probably because they had been performing duck & cover drills before homeroom since the Soviets got the bomb in 1949. Stanley Kramer adopted the novel was into a film starring Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner in 1959 and it was this film that inspired a young Bonnie Dobson to write “Morning Dew” in 1962.
Dobson’s lyrics lament a world in which nothing is spared by the apocalypse: “You didn’t hear no young man cry/Now there is no more morning dew” – the end will be swift and brutal. The relentless hopelessness of Shute’s novel hammered home, that was not a young man crying out, it was humanity’s death rattle.
Dobson’s version of the song, recorded live in 1962 at Folk City in Greenwich Village consists of just Dobson’s voice and guitar accompaniment and was a modest success. The song was destined to become another slightly well-known folk standard until it was plucked from obscurity by a soon-to-be world famous band from San Francisco.
The Grateful Dead, hippies, Jerry Garcia, Dick’s Picks… honestly, nuclear holocaust doesn’t seem like a bad option when confronted with this list. But crazy as it may seem, The Dead did occasionally pull a gem out of their never-ending pile of boring, pointless, patchouli-scented jams (and even one fair-to-good album!). On their 1967 debut, they wisely chose to stick to someone else’s songwriting for at least one track, and cut their own version of “Morning Dew”. It became a live favorite that the band played for decades. Their version, expanded for a full band, takes the song from its stark folk roots and turns it into a nice piece of west-coast psychedelia. The Dead’s version lacks the ominous sorrow of Dobson’s original, but its midtempo, laid-back vibe has considerable charm of it’s own. On the other hand, all it takes is one Deadhead completely missing the point of the song and talking about “Jerry’s moving and soulful riffs” to consider getting your hands on the suicide pills handed out to the victims of radiation in On The Beach.
Inexplicably, this song about nuclear holocaust, written by a relatively unknown Canadian folkie went on to be covered by a wide range of artists. Maybe it’s the timeless subject matter of our species’ march toward annihilation, or maybe it’s just good songwriting. But now it’s time for a battle royale to determine which version of this song is the best, one of the covers or the original. Before you vote, let’s take a look at some of the other contenders in addition to the Grateful Dead.
