Make You Feel My Love

Make You Feel My Love

Today, May 24th, 2011 is Bob Dylan’s 70th Birthday.

Two weeks ago I challenged readers to do something special for his birthday, considering the lifetime gift of his music.

Last Monday I decided to record a song, Make You Feel My Love, for his birthday.

Happy Birthday Mr. Dylan. Enjoy.  Song follows the break.

I usually just pick this on a nylon string guitar but this time I went for a bigger production.

Thanks to Denis Larocoque (lead guitar) and Tom LeClair (bass) for their help, and to Edith who listened to the numerous takes and mixes until I finished.

The Song: Make You Feel My Love

To Make You Feel My Love has been one of Dylan’s most successful songs of the past 2 decades. The song was recorded by Dylan in 1997 for the CD Time Out of Mind.

A ballad of unreserved love, it was covered by Billy Joel and Garth Brooks. The Brooks cover was used in the movie Hope Floats. Brian Ferry has performed the song.

It has been a more recent success for British singer Adele, who has more than 30 million views on YouTube of various versions. She told the press she made Dylan $1 million from royalties.

To play the song

The song was originally a piano ballad in Db but if you’re like me, you’ll want to play it on the guitar.

You can keep the same key using a capo in C.

I play the song in C and the melody is a simple descending line from C. Dylan has used this progression successfully before such as the song Emotionally Yours which was a big hit for the O-Jays.

The chords for the verse are C, G/b, Gm/Bb, F/a, Fm/Ab, C/g, D9/f#, G11, C. (D9/f#, G11 can be played as Dm7 with the open E string if you’re not familiar with those chords).

The bridge is F, C, C+ (or Am), F, C, F, C, Dm, G.

The words and music are copyright Bob Dylan, Special Rider Music and used with permission.

The recording

The song was recorded using Sonar X1 Producer recording software on an i7 860 I built last year. The sound card is an AES16 with Aurora AD/DA converter. Various mics were used including a Royer 122 and Neumann U87ai. The preamps were Millennia Media.

The beat track is from a sampled 808. Tom LeClair played bass, recorded through a DI. Denis Larocque played a lead on his own Larocque guitar, through a VOX Night Train amp mic’d by the Royer. There is an ES335 (Marshall JTM 30 DI) on the recording along with a Godin synth guitar played through a Roland GR20.

Plugins used included UAD-2 LA-2A, 1176N, Manley Massive, RealVerb and Lexicon Reverb, plus FabFilter Pro – which is a great series of plugins that work wonders for mastering and on individual tracks.