MOG

As the hours fly by, certain members of the MOG-telligensia have been bandying around an interesting premise: If you could somehow bring together two artists to perform a duet on a specific song, who would they be, and what would they sing?

I decided to confine my conjecture to performers who were still alive and well, and could actually do my bidding, rather than imagining one of those digitally-fabricated, slightly morbid Natalie Cole-sings-the-hits-with-her-late-father-Nat vanities.

For some reason (I’ll blame the DVD of "I’m Not There," which was playing on a friend’s plasma screen while a few of us were dining at his loft last night), I thought of Bob Dylan. The bard of Hibbing, Minnesota – nasal-voiced, chameleonic master of folk-rock, arcane lyrics, and random chicanery – has already recorded his share of memorable duets, especially the sincerity-saturated version of "Girl of the North Country" sung with country deity Johnny Cash. But surely, there would be other possibilities.

I mused on one of my less favorite Dylan periods – his born-again-Christian phase – and Slow Train Coming, the album that marked his conversion, then considered how he might sound testifying on the gospel traditional "Wade in the Water." This led me to think about the aquatic imagery in the spooky, near-sacred number "Down by the Water," courtesy of soul-bearing, art-rocking U.K. singer-songwriter Polly Jean Harvey, better known as PJ Harvey.

That was it: Dylan’s whine and Polly Jean’s keen, coming together to channel a higher power on "Wade in the Water." There’s an epiphany for you, if someone could make it happen…

Mavis Staples gives "Wade in the Water" some of that old-time religion on the MOG player above. Dylan tells us "Gotta Serve Somebody," and PJ Harvey goes "Down by the Water" on the video clips below.

Bob Dylan – "Gotta Serve Somebody"

PJ Harvey – "Down by the Water"