Bob Dylan‘s June 29 show at the Moody Amphitheater in Austin was supposed to just be a standard stop on a long tour that’s scheduled to run through the end of the year. But after guitarist Doug Lancio left the band two weeks ago, replacement Julian Lage had a prior commitment in Brooklyn that night, and second guitarist Bob Britt suddenly quit the group with a “Sayonara Bobby” Facebook post a couple of days earlier, nobody knew who may be joining Dylan, bassist Tony Garnier, and drummer Anton Fig that night.
In the fan community, speculation ran wild: Might Jimmie Vaughan step into the void? Would Lancio return? Was there any chance that a beloved past member of Dylan’s group like Larry Campbell or G.E. Smith would come back for an encore run? Was there a scenario where Dylan, Garnier, and Fig play as a Ben Folds Five-style trio? Could Britt pull a reverse “sayonara” and come back to help Dylan out of his jam? And would Dylan have just one guitarist in the band for the first time since the John Jackson days of 1991, or might we see the debut of two new members?
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The answer came when the lights dimmed and Chicago-based blues guitarist Joel Paterson walked onto the stage to make his debut with Dylan’s band, and faced the difficult task of handling all of the guitar parts by himself. Paterson is hardly a household name, but he has a long history on the Chicago blues scene and has recorded with Dave “Honey Boy” Edwards, Wanda Jackson, Cactus Blossoms, and JD McPherson.
Up until this week, Paterson played every Monday with his jazz quartet at the historic Green Mill Cocktail Lounge in Chicago, which seats just about 150 people. He last performed there Saturday, June 27, two days before his debut with Dylan. Hours before Paterson made his debut with Dylan, his Joel Paterson Quartet bandmate Natalie Scharf wrote on Facebook that he’d be absent from the Monday gig for the next two or three weeks, and guitarist Andy Brown would take his place. She didn’t mention that he was about to play “All Along the Watchtower” and 15 other songs with Dylan at a 5,000-seat amphitheater in Austin.
According to early fan reports, Paterson did a stellar job with Dylan, and seemed remarkably confident. It’s unclear how much time he had to prepare for the gig, or when he learned that Britt wouldn’t be up there to help him. It’s also unclear how familiar he was with Dylan’s music, but he did play pedal steel on four Dylan songs (“If Not for You,” “To Ramona,” “When to See the Gypsy,” and “Tell Me That It Isn’t True”) on the 2022 Cactus Blossoms EP Bob Dylan Songs Vol. 1.
Not long before showtime, Britt posted a more detailed explanation of his exit from Dylan’s band on Facebook. “Apparently there are quite a few threads out there with people speculating about my departure from the Bob tour,” he wrote. “I’d like to clear it up. I was not fired but left of my own accord for reasons I would prefer to keep private. I will miss my band mates and crew. I am looking forward to getting back to doing sessions (give me a call) and also finishing up [my wife] Etta’s gospel record. As far as any touring goes, we will see what the future holds. Meanwhile, I have some flower beds to weed.”
He hasn’t written anything else, but his wife has revealed slightly more on her Facebook page. “Yes, but not because of Julian [Lage],” Etta wrote when asked if Bob left the band. “Julian has gone back to his tour. He enjoyed playing with him and said he’s a great guy.” Later in the comment thread, she wrote “word is he’s coming back” in reference to Lage.
We have also learned that Lage indeed plans on playing additional dates with Dylan this year when his schedule permits. He couldn’t make the show in Austin because he was booked at National Sawdust in Brooklyn for an hourlong Q&A with The New Yorker’s Alec Wilkinson, followed by an acoustic performance. Throughout the entire event, Dylan’s name was never uttered once. It seemed to take place in an alternate universe where Lage didn’t just wrap up a surprise stint with one of the most important artists of the century. (I was in the front row and put my hand high into the air during the Q&A portion. I was going to ask a multipart question that went something like, “You just spent a couple of weeks on tour with Bob Dylan. How did that come about, what was the experience like, and do you plan on going back?” But they never called on me. I felt like Tracy Flick in Election, desperately trying to get the attention of the teacher and failing miserably.)
Dylan’s tour resumes Tuesday night in New Braunfels, Texas. The U.S. leg wraps up Aug. 1 in Nashville. Lage’s schedule makes it possible for him to make every show besides the July 4 gig in Kansas City, Missouri. Things get trickier when Dylan goes to Europe in October, since Lage is booked up solid that month in America.
Nobody knows exactly how this will play out. Paterson could be a temporary replacement and will soon be back to his Monday-night gig at the Green Mill Cocktail Lounge. He might stick around as the sole guitarist. Dylan might hire a replacement for Britt, keep Paterson on a permanent basis, and return to the standard two-guitar lineup. Lage might parachute in and out when his schedule allows, leaving Paterson to handle the show by himself some nights.
We simply have no idea. What we can say is that the Never Ending Tour hasn’t seen this much drama in a very long time.
‘Karma’s a Bitch’: Boy George on Why Culture Club Recreated Their Biggest Hit With AI
More than 40 years after its original release, Boy George and Culture Club have rerecorded their chart-topping hit, “Karma Chameleon,” using AI to recreate the vocal characteristics of the original 1983 recording. Alongside digital formats, the release will be available on vinyl in red, gold and green, the colors referenced in the song, featuring reimagined cover art. The rerecord marks the launch of Artist Included, a music technology company co-founded by Boy George’s manager, Paul Kemsley, and entertainment attorney and film producer Jeremy Rosen. Boy George serves as creative director.
Asked why he decided to recreate the song, Boy George has a simple answer: “Control!,” he tells Rolling Stone. “Having some say over where it goes. ‘Karma Chameleon’ is a secret weapon. It’s a song you starve the audience for because they want to hear it, and live, it’s always been a real pleasure to sing it. But in terms of what it does commercially, it’s like having something really powerful with your name on it, and you have no say about where it goes.”
The idea for the rerecord was prompted by a commercial sync license for “Karma Chameleon” involving Richard Branson for Virgin Voyages. Culture Club signed to Branson’s Virgin Records in 1982, and Boy George has maintained a close relationship with the entrepreneur ever since. According to Kemsley, Branson paid approximately $4 million for the deal ($2 million of which went to the master recording rights holders), while Boy George received only an appearance fee because he has never owned the masters for his biggest song.
“Karma’s a bitch,” Boy George states. “When we wrote that song, we weren’t looking 40 years ahead. We weren’t thinking of longevity. That song, because of the context of when it was recorded, the social feeling has stayed with people. It’s become part of people’s lives. Having control over it again, to a certain extent, is very exciting.”
The rerecord has a warmer vocal tone and sits slightly lower in the mix than the original, but is faithful enough to it that it plays like a remaster. The rerecording was produced by JJ Blair and Culture Club’s guitarist Roy Hay with additional production by song’s original producer, Steve Levine. Prior to the session, the AI was trained using archival demos licensed from Levine who had preserved them for decades. The instrumentation was newly recorded by Hay, Culture Club bassist Mikey Craig and session musicians. Only the vocal performance is AI-assisted.
“When I went into the studio to record it, I was like a pub singer imitating myself,” says Boy George. “You listen to where you pace things [sings the first line of ‘Karma Chameleon’]. You listen to where you put the voice: in your nose or your throat or chest. What you do instinctively as a 22-year-old, you don’t do as a 40-year-old or a 65-year-old. There’s a clipped way of singing it, which you forget through playing it live so many times. It was very European-sounding and youthful. I’ve taken it somewhere much more blues-y over the years, dragging out the notes. It’s about the nuance. When you sing something live over 40 years, it changes shape. It’s interesting to take it back to the original recording and recapture that feeling.”
Getting close to the original vocal is a hurdle for most musicians whose voices change over time. It took 18 months for Artist Included’s AI to work out the kinks. In the first iteration, Boy George sounded like “Pinky and Perky, two pigs on helium in a cartoon,” says Kemsley, referring to a children’s television series where the titular characters sing in high-pitched, fast-paced voices. The technology is now refined, and the plan is to rerecord Culture Club’s and Boy George’s entire back catalogs. Kemsley claims this will take two weeks, or as long as it takes Boy George to sing every song.
“I was a naysayer,” admits Boy George. “I was like, ‘This will never work.’ But I actually prefer this version [of ‘Karma Chameleon’]. For me, as the person that sang it originally, and re-sang it, what I love about this version, it has the sound of that time, but the warmth and experience and integrity of everything I’ve learned in my life.”
Kemsley, who has managed Boy George since 2014, frames the project as an attempt to rebalance longstanding industry economics. “This record has been making millions of dollars for [almost] 45 years, and George hasn’t,” says Kemsley. “The whole thing seems terribly unjust. You sign your life away at the age of 22, then have to wait 35 years to get the reversions, but you still don’t get any master recording income. Over the years, bands try to get their masters back and they never get them, with the major labels claiming they are work-for-hire.”
To put this in context, a record company often owns or controls master recording rights, a term stipulated when it signs an artist. That covers the music; the lyrics and composition are an entirely separate right known as publishing, which, by contrast, follows the composition, and therefore the song through every new recording. As a result, rerecords create a new master recording, and can benefit publishing by re-engaging the artist and generating renewed interest in the underlying work.
When it comes to rerecords, many artists are restricted to a certain length of time during which they are forbidden from releasing a new, faithful version to the original. Longstanding artists sometimes use Section 203 of the U.S. Copyright Act to reclaim rights to their masters after 35 years. They are rarely successful, as record companies often argue the masters were created as work made for hire.
The way Artist Included is structured, the artist receives the lion’s share of revenue. “The industry I was in no longer exists,” Boy George points out. “Artists like me are expected to carry on following that model. I haven’t done that for years. I used to say I’m the only person who realizes the ‘80s are over. You want to keep the spirit of that moment to some extent, but you move on. AI is not going anywhere, so having that conversation is exciting. And being ahead of the game in terms of how people use it, is also quite exciting for me.”
Considering Culture Club’s acrimonious split with their former drummer, Jon Moss, which resulted in a hefty settlement, rerecords of their songs also have the benefit of bypassing the need for his approval to use the original master recordings, which have four-way songwriting credit between its members.
“He still gets something from it,” clarifies Boy George. “Jon is a part of what we did [originally as a band].” But Kemsley is quick to point out that Moss is not a part of what they’re doing now with the rerecords, and is not entitled to any percentage of it. The band will see an increase in publishing, and as a credited songwriter, Moss will continue to receive publishing income, while the new master revenues do not involve him.
The next song queued up for rerecord is another signature Culture Club hit, “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me,” and Artist Included’s AI is primed, having retained Boy George’s voice for training purposes. The company has also been in conversations with publishing companies and other artists, mainly from the Eighties and Nineties, though no names are being disclosed yet. Kemsley says the conversations have not been a hard sell.
“People will react to what they see and hear,” says Boy George. “It’s much more powerful when people see it released and see what can happen.”
Kemsley notes Boy George turns 65 the day before the release of the new “Karma Chameleon,” which is the retirement age in the UK. “We’re not retiring,” Kemsley clarifies. “Far from it. We’re going back to the beginning, and we’re going to do it all again. We’re going to change the way revenue flows through to the artist. And we’re going to have some real fun with it.”