August 2007 Feature: Bob Dylan in Gaelic

A COUPLE of years ago I received a letter from the musician and songwriter Roddy Woomble about a project of his. He and his group Idlewild had worked with the poet Edwin Morgan and he'd had the idea of piecing a record together where Scottish writers wrote the words and musicians brought them to life – his words - with music.

Bob Dylan.

He mentioned names such as Kathleen Jamie and Don Paterson as possible collaborators. Would I be up for writing lyrics for a song or two myself? Of course. Among the songs I sent him was a Scottish Gaelic version I wrote of Bob Dylan’s It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry [see full article].

Roddy Woomble's project, The Ballads of the Book, snowballed and although there were no takers for the Dylan song in Gaelic – there weren’t any Gaelic singers as such involved in the project – he came back to me with the further idea of producing a CD of Gaelic versions of Dylan songs...

Links

Bob Dylan Official Site

For download:

Gaelic is the Loving Tongue: Bob Dylan in Gaelic. (PDF 179.8 KB)

Northings 1: Rody Gorman on translating the songs of Bob Dylan into Gaelic

JOHN BURNS speaks to writer and poet RODY GORMAN about his project to translate the songs of Bob Dylan into the Gaelic language. Recorded in January 2008 on location on the Isle of Skye. © HI~Arts, 2008

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March 2004 Interview: Rody Gorman PETER URPETH talks to Skye-based poet RODY GORMAN about the publication of an important new anthology of Gaelic poetryDecember 2003 Feature: Rody Gorman Skye-based poet and translator RODY GORMAN reports on his transatlantic trip to Nova Scotia.

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