Bryan Ferry: Dylanesque Live

The tribute to Bob Dylan’s work might be admirable but this DVD complement to Ferry’s album of Dylan covers is little more than a self-indulgent vanity project. Only four years junior to Dylan, Ferry shouldn’t be disconnected from the world the legend inhabited when he wrote some of his most startling material. Still, there’s something smarmy and very ’80s about Ferry’s irreverent take on Dylan. The quartet of dancing female back-up singers cooing during "Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues” is an early alarm signal; the juiced-up guitar solos and punchy arrangements subsequently are mostly off-putting. Ferry seems too twee for the task, dressed like a high school principal on casual Friday, misreading from lyric sheets in his fluttery voice. Outspoken songs like "All I Really Wanna Do” and "Positively 4th Street” are too manly and tough for this. With no tales or footage from the album sessions, this DVD is simply extraneous. Plus: bonus tracks, 1973 video for "A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall.”