Almanac Music: Dylan Cover Songs ~ International Style #12: French Artists Do Dylan

Beyond the coastlines of the USA and the UK, France was next in line to tune in to Dylan.

 

The evidence is based on the timing and extent that Dylan albums entered the French album charts….and the impetus for that timing can be traced back to The Beatles in Paris.

 

The history books show that from 16 January – 4 February 1964, The Beatles were performing their first official concerts in Paris ~ an 18 day/36 ‘mini’ concert shared residency* at Olympia Theatre, comprising a 30 minute seven song set ~ played twice per day.

 

{*One of the acts sharing top billing during this residency was Trini Lopez. Trini’s drummer was Mickey Jones, who was invited by Dylan to join The Hawks (minus Levon Helm) for his first electric world tour between April – May 1966.}

 

During this Paris residency, The Beatles stayed at the George V Hotel. While engaged in a local radio interview, McCartney noticed that the DJ had a copy of Dylan’s May 1963 En Roue Libre (aka Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan) and asked if he could borrow it, as he had been hearing about this guy called ‘Dylan’. Back at the hotel, between gigs and other commitments, En Roue Libre was on constant replay.

 

It was the first time any of The Beatles had listened to Dylan and this (almost) three week immersion in Dylan’s earliest lyrics (e.g. ‘Blowin’ In The Wind’; ‘A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall’; ‘Masters Of War’; ‘Girl From The North Country’; ‘Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right’; ‘Bob Dylan’s Dream’) converted The Beatles (collectively and individually) and led them to champion Dylan to the British media ~ effectively, thrusting open the door for Dylan’s triumphant May 1965 tour.

 

The ripple effects of UK ‘Dylanmania’ in May 1965 permeated across the English Channel and resulted in France also embracing Dylan.

 

And so it came to be that, similar to the experience in the UK, Dylan’s May 1963 Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan album (i.e. En Roue Libre) belatedly entered the French album charts in mid-1965 and peaked at #27. In fact, apart from the UK and US, France is the only other country where Freewheelin’ sold enough copies in a concentrated period to qualify for entry into the national album chart.

 

Dylan’s chart success in the USA, UK and France remained fairly consistent until Dylan, through sheer force of talent, broke through other national boundaries from circa 1966 as shown by these ‘peak chart positions’:

 

* The Times They Are A-Changin’ (Feb ‘64) ~ UK#4, US#20, France#33;

* Another Side Of Bob Dylan (Aug ‘64) ~ UK#8, Germany#24, US#43;

* Bringing It All Back Home (Mar ‘65) ~ UK#1, US#6, France#35;

* Highway 61 Revisited (Aug ‘65) ~ US#3, UK#4, Germany#28, France#35;

* Blonde On Blonde (Jun ‘66) ~ UK#3, Aust#4, US#9, Spain#11, France#30.

And so, l’heure est venue to celebrate and showcase French artists doing Dylan.

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Marie Laforêt (5 October 1939 – 2 November 2019)

Marie was a French-Swiss actress, singer, writer, and lyricist. Her singing career included the release of sixteen albums between 1964 – 1979.

 

Marie released ‘Blowin’ In The Wind’ as a single in August 1963 and included the song on her debut 1964 self-titled album. Of the twelve songs on this debut album, only ‘Blowin’ In The Wind’ was sung in English:

 

 

 

 

Marie’s single cover of ‘Blowin’ In The Wind’ was released only two months after Peter, Paul & Mary’s cover was being played on radio stations around the globe, and was the first cover to be recorded and released from outside the USA.

 

Marie’s 1970 Marie Laforêt Vol. VII album included her only other commercially available cover of a Dylan song ~ ‘D’Être A Vous’, which translates to ‘I Want You’.

 

 

Valerie LaGrange (born Paris 25 February 1942)

Valerie was a French actress and singer. Her acting career involved thirteen movies released between 1959-2013, including a starring role in the 1960 adventure film Morgan, The Pirate.

 

On the music front, Valerie released six studio albums between 1966 – 2003.

 

Valerie turned to the Dylan songbook on two occasions. The first time was on her self-titled 1980 second album with ‘I Want You’. The second occasion, and the chosen song for this article, is her commanding cover of ‘Masters Of War’ from her 1981 Chez Moi album.

 

 

 

 

Passion Fodder

Passion Fodder were a punk/folk alternative rock band formed in Paris in 1984. Led by American-born Theo Hakola and surrounded by a handful of talented French musicians, the band released five albums between 1985-1991.

 

Passion Fodder covered Dylan’s ‘Tomorrow Is A Long Time’ on their second studio album, Fat Tuesday (1986):

 

 

 

 

Taxi Girl

Taxi Girl were an alt-punk/new wave five-piece outfit from Paris, who were active between 1978-1986. The band released 5 mini-albums and one full length album, predominantly featuring original songs in French.

 

In 1981, the band recorded a demo cover of Dylan’s ‘Like A Rolling Stone’. While the song never featured on a studio album, it was included on a post career (1989) compilation album Suite Et Fin ? (which translates to Next And Final):

 

 

 

 

Alain Bashung (1 December 1947 – 14 March 2009)

Alain was a French singer, songwriter and actor. During his recording career, Alain received twelve ‘Victories of Music’ awards (the French equivalent of a ‘Grammy Award’) and has been recognised as an influential French rock musician.

 

Alain has only once ventured into the Dylan songbook ~ on his 1991 Osez Joséphine album with a cover of ‘She Belongs To Me’:

 

 

 

 

The Dynamics

Formed around 2004, The Dynamics are a French reggae/soul/dub collective based in Lyon, and renowned for their reinterpretations of rock, pop, and soul hits.

 

The Dynamics showcase their ‘soulful reggae reinterpretation’ of Dylan’s ‘Lay Lady Lay’ on their debut 2007 Version Excursions album:

 

 

 

 

Louisa Bey

Louisa is a French pop-jazz singer and songwriter, who has forged a solid reputation on the Parisian jazz-scene.

 

Louisa’s dive into studio recording has been somewhat limited, with only two albums to her credit ~ Blue Thoughts (2005) and Turning Me Jazz (2009). It is on this latter album that Louisa delivers her pop-jazz-infused interpretation of Dylan’s ‘Everything Is Broken’.

 

 

 

 

Johan Asherton (born 3 May 1958)

Johan is a prolific Paris-based singer-songwriter and guitarist. In a recording career that began in 1988, Johan has released fifteen studio albums including an eleven-song tribute album to Marc Bolan (of T-Rex fame).

 

It wasn’t until 2010 and Johan’s eleventh studio album, High Lonesomes, that we find Johan’s one and only Dylan cover ~ ‘Abandoned Love’:

 

 

 

 

Dylan recorded ‘Abandoned Love’ in mid-1975 during the Desire album sessions. For reasons best known to Dylan, the song was left off the album in favour of ‘Joey’. Fortunately, ‘Abandoned Love’ was released on the 1985 Biograph box set.

 

 

Phoenix

Phoenix are a Versailles-based electronic pop band formed in 1997, that has established a significant international reputation. Between 2000-2022, the band released seven studio albums, including two albums that entered the Australian top 20 ~ Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (2009) and Bankrupt! (2013).

 

On 12 October 2009, Phoenix recorded live and unplugged at the youth orientated public radio station N-Joy (NDR Hörfunk) in Hamburg (i.e. the equivalent of Triple JJJ). The resulting Live & Unplugged album was issued free with the February 2010 issue of Musikexpress.

 

It is on this album that we discover a cover of Dylan’s ‘Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands’:

 

 

 

 

Note: This shortened cover version only manages to re-create the first two of five verses, reducing the recording from Dylan’s original 11m:21s to 4m:37s.

 

 

Charlotte Gainsbourg (born 21 July 1971)

Charlotte is a British-born French actress and singer ~ the daughter of British actress Jane Birkin and French singer and songwriter Serge Gainsborough.

 

Charlotte’s introduction to the music scene was at thirteen, when she and her father Serge sang on a controversial song titled ‘Lemon Incest’. At age fifteen, Charlotte released her debut solo album Charlotte For Ever, but it failed to chart.

 

The majority of Charlotte’s professional career was devoted to film, where she played roles in over sixty movies between 1984 – 2025. One of these roles was as ‘Claire Clark’ in the 2007 Todd Haynes directed Dylan-inspired musical drama I’m Not There.

 

Twenty years after her unsuccessful debut solo album, Charlotte returned to the recording studio and released a further four albums between 2006 – 2017. These proved more commercially successful across Europe including top 10 albums in France, Belgium and Switzerland. Charlotte also received a ‘Victory For Music’ award in 2018 for ‘Female Artist Of The Year’.

 

In 2011, Charlotte released her Stage Whisper 2-disc CD. The 2^nd CD comprised eleven songs recorded in a live setting. Track 7 is Charlotte’s evocative cover of Dylan’s ‘Just Like A Woman’:

 

 

 

 

Trivia: Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsborough are best known, world-wide, for the 1969 smash hit ‘J’Taime… moi non plus’, which translates to “I love you… me neither’. The song topped the charts across Europe but had mixed commercial success in the USA (#58) and Australia (#91) as it had limited airplay due to the lyrics being considered ‘obscene’.

 

 

Francis Cabrel (born 23 November 1953)

Francis is a prolific and influential French folk and blues singer-songwriter. Between 1977 – 2021, Francis released over 20 studio and live albums, with eight of those albums peaking at #1 and three peaking at #2 on the French album charts.

 

One of those albums to peak at #1 was the 2012 Vise le ciel ou Bob Dylan revisité (which translates to Aim For The Sky Or Bob Dylan Revisited). The album consisted of eleven Dylan cover songs ~ seven from Dylan’s 60’s songbook and four scattered across 1975-1989: ‘Simple Twist of Fate’ (1975); ‘Gotta Serve Somebody’ (1979); Blind Willie McTell (1983 outtake); and ‘Dignity’ (1989 outtake).

 

The chosen song for this article is the unmistakable French version of ‘Quinn L’Esquimau’:

 

 

 

 

Bobby Dirninger

Bobby is a French blues-rock musician, singer and songwriter. ~ but, without a wikipedia page, fleshing out further details is problematic.

 

Nevertheless, between 1998 – 2015, Bobby released five studio albums. On two of those album, Bobby included a Dylan cover: ‘Baby I’m In The Mood For You’ (a 1963 outtake) on the 2008 In The End…And Even More album; and ‘Blind Willie McTell’ (a 1983 outtake) on the 2015 Change Of Season album.

 

However, the chosen YouTube clip for this article, which conveys the essence of Bobby’s style, is a live duet of ‘One More Cup of Coffee’ with Lise Dellac:

 

 

 

 

Pierre Sibille

Pierre is a French singer, instrumentalist, and songwriter from the South of France known for his work in blues, soul, and jazz-influenced music.

 

Between 1994 – 2019, Pierre released five studio and two live albums.

 

Pierre’s 2017 album was titled Peace Love And Bob Dylan. This ten song album is 50% original songs and 50% Dylan covers. The Dylan covers are: ‘All Along The Watchtower’; ‘Licence To Kill’; ‘Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You’; ‘Dirge’; and (this article’s chosen song) ‘Life Is Hard’:

 

 

 

 

‘Life Is Hard’ is co-written by Dylan and Robert Hunter (Grateful Dead lyricist) and was included on Dylan’s 2009 Together Through Life album.

 

 

Hugues Aufray (born 18 August 1929 – currently 96 years old)

Hugues is a French singer-songwriter who, from the early 1960’s, became the foremost French interpreter of Dylan songs. Hugues and Dylan became friends in the early 1960’s and have maintained a professional and personal connection ever since.

 

Every Dylan cover song recorded by Hugues has been translated into and sung in French.

 

Here is what Dylan wrote for the liner notes of Hugues 2009 New Yorker album:

 

 

 

 

 

In addition to a scattering of Dylan covers on various studio and live albums, Hugues released three complete Dylan tribute albums:

 

* Aufray chante Bob Dylan (1965) ~ eleven songs;

* Aufray Trans Dylan (1995) ~ twenty-five songs (including the eleven songs from the 1965 album);

* New Yorker – Hommage à Bob Dylan (2009) ~ twelve songs sung in duet with a variety of guests; ‘Just Like A Woman’ and ‘Ring Them Bells’ featured for the first time on a Hugues recording.

 

In lieu of any of the twenty-seven Dylan covers that Hugues recorded in the studio over his career to date, the selected cover is a duet of ‘The Times They Are A-Changin’’, sung by Dylan and Hugues in concert at Grenoble on 3 July 1984. The YouTube video reveals, better than any text, the unique relationship that Hugues and Dylan shared over the years:

 

 

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Final comments:

It is most fitting to conclude this article with Hugues Aufray, as he introduced Dylan’s lyrics and songs to generations of French music and poetry lovers in ways that could not be done other than through French translations and studio recordings. Along with The Beatles endorsement that propelled UK ‘Dylanmania’, Dylan’s early commercial success in France also owes a debt to Hugues ~ and Dylan acknowledged that debt through his ongoing camaraderie and friendship.

 

When next we revisit ‘Dylan Covers ~ International Style’ (circa mid-September 2026), we will do so through the lens that remembers those singers/musicians who died during 2025 but honoured Dylan in a cover song during their music careers.

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More from Karl Dubravs can be read HERE.

 

 

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