NME is reporting that Bob Dylan has contributed a track to a new compilation that turns well know songs into “same-sex wedding anthems”. Mick Huckabee will not be amused. They report: “‘Universal Love’ will be released on Friday (April 6) and features the likes of Dylan, St Vincent, Kesha, Bloc Party‘s Kele Okereke, Death Cab For Cutie‘s Ben Gibbard and Valerie June. For the six-track EP, Dylan takes on American classic ‘She’s Funny That Way’ (popularised by Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole), changing the song to be ‘He’s Funny That Way’.
Executive producer Rob Kaplan said Dylan was quick to agree to the project: “It wasn’t just ‘yes, I’ll do this’. It was ‘hey, I have an idea for a song.’” “If you look at the history of pop music, love songs have predominantly come from one heterosexual perspective,” co-producer Tom Murphy told The New York Times. “If we view music as something that brings people together, shouldn’t these popular songs be open to everyone?”
The NY Times report states that the compilation was funded by MGM Resorts International and that its songs are “intended to function as wedding anthems for same-sex couples”. Listen to the EP in full below.