Remember how people used to bite a coin to see if it was authentic?
Ke$ha, the pop/hiphop star with the dollar bill in her name, should know about that. And in pop music, the coin that is the gold standard for authenticity is Bob Dylan. Ragtag poet, rebel, genius, above all a guy who will never, ever, ever sell out. No surprise that Ke$ha, along with a lot of other pop stars of less dubious credentials, would want to take a bite.
“Chimes of Freedom: The Songs of Bob Dylan Honoring 50 Years of Amnesty International,” available Jan. 30, features stars like Adele, Sting, Elvis Costello, Sugarland and many others taking a crack at the Dylan songbook. Among them is Ke$ha. The erstwhile singer of “Your Love is My Drug” does a spooky, downtempo version of “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright.” “I’ve learned that vulnerability is an asset,” Ke$ha told the Associated Press. “It can be just as much of an asset as strength.” She calls the song “tragically relevant.”
Never mind that the Dylan song is in fact an irritable kiss-off note to a woman he’s leaving (“goodbye’s too good a word, gal.”). If it’s Dylan, it MUST be tragically relevant.
What a famous playwright once said about Hollywood applies equally to the music industry. “The secret of success is sincerity,” he said. “Once you can fake that, you’ve got it made.”
Hear it the clip.