SCJoniGuy wrote, re: Roger McGuinn's version of "Dreamland": > It's on his LP "Cardiff Rose". I like McGuinn on a song like "Chestnut Mare", but he can't get the rhythm or the melodic line of Dreamland and it's pretty horrible. >
To give Roger his due, here ... McGuinn's version of "Dreamland" is based on Joni's own early version of the song, which was quite different from the version that was released on "Don Juan's Reckless Daughter." Joni taught it to Roger soon after she'd written it (accompanying herself on guitar on "Dreamland," then), when both were touring together with Dylan in his Rolling Thunder Revue (1975). Roger's "Cardiff Rose" LP was a direct outgrowth of that traveling minstrel show, and it's one of my favorites of his solo albums. He included a brand new Dylan song on it, too - "Up To Me" - which was about to become "Tangled Up In Blue" on Dylan's "Blood On The Tracks." Dylan's own version of "Up To Me" (an early outtake from BOTT) can be heard on the "Biograph" box set. In both cases, McGuinn took the embryonic versions of the songs into the studio, and his versions are accurate representations of the songs as they existed at that time. Best, (Boston) Jim
