When asked who was the greatest singer of his generation, Bob Dylan replied dryly: “The greatest singer of my generation? Oh, Joe Cocker, I suppose!
Graham Nash can sing. Van Morrison is great and Stevie Wonder is good too. But, of all of them, Joe is the greatest. "
John Robert Cocker OBE (born 20th May 1944– died 22nd Dec 2014)
I’m not exactly obsessed with writing songs i like Buffett, Lightfoot, Warren Zevon, Randy Newman. John Prine. Guy Clark. Those kinds of writers.
Daltrey, Townshend, McCartney, the Beach Boys, Elton, Billy Joel. They made perfect records, so they have to play them perfectly … exactly the way people remember them. My records were never perfect. So there is no point in trying to duplicate them. Anyway, I’m no mainstream artist.
Below: Ron Wood, Joe Cocker cover Dylan's ‘Seven Days’
“I liked Elvis Presley. Elvis Presley recorded a song of mine. That’s the one recording I treasure the most… it was called Tomorrow Is a Long Time. I wrote it but never recorded it,” Dylan told Rolling Stone in 1969.
RANDY NEWMAN
Yeah, Randy. What can you say? I like his early songs, “Sail Away,” “Burn Down the Cornfield,” “Louisiana,” where he kept it simple. Bordello songs. I think of him as the Crown Prince, the heir apparent to Jelly Roll Morton. His style is deceiving. He’s so laid back that you kind of forget he’s saying important things. Randy’s sort of tied to a different era like I am.
In Woodstock (1969), the Sheffield Lion performed a cover of "I Shall Be Released" that left the audience speechless and, when he joined the legendary Leon Russell (for the truly underrated album of Mad Dogs and Englishmen), he sparked an extraordinary and legendary interpretation of "Girl From the North Country".