Dylan Week Begins: Our Top 12 Favorite Bob Dylan Covers
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It almost seems unfair to include The Band, considering how close their ties were to Dylan. Their renditions of "I Shall Be Released," "This Wheel's On Fire" and "Tears Of Rage" from their first album are better known than the Dylan versions at this point. But our absolute favorite has to be "When I Paint My Masterpiece"âwith the prominent Garth Hudson accordion, The Band bring the song to jubilant life. Listening to their version versus Dylan's original is like the difference between a technicolor movie and a black and white film. And their take includes the single greatest bridge ever written: "Sailin' round the world in a dirty gondola/Oh to be back in the land of Coca-Cola"For good measure, here's their beautiful organ-drenched take on "Tears Of Rage," which introduced them to the world as track one on Music From The Big Pink:
It was perhaps hardest to choose which was the definitive version of "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue." But we have to give the nod to Them and Van Morrison's utterly transfixing howlâso fantastic, Beck sampled it for his hit "Jackass."Echo and The Bunnymen do a very good version, but our second favorite version is courtesy of The 13th Floor Elevators:
Joan Baez has at least TWO albums just filled with her Dylan covers. There are so many great ones to choose from: "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright," "Daddy You've Been On My Mind," "It Ain't Me Babe," "I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine." But "Farewell Angelina" is the cover which truly transcends the original:Bonus: her long, lilting take on "Sad-Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands:"
The Byrds owe their whole career to Dylan: their cover of "Mr. Tambourine Man" turned them into superstars, and remains both their most indelible hit as well as the definite version. But we'd give a slight nod to their countrified take on "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere:""It's All Over Now, Baby Blue," "Lay Lady Lay," "Just Like A Woman," "Chimes Of Freedom," "Spanish Harlem Incident," "All I Wanna Do," "My Back Pages," "The Times They Are A-Changin'," "Lay Down Your Weary Tune"âseriously, what Dylan song haven't The Byrds covered? Bonus: lead singer Roger McGuinn did a lovely solo rendition on lesser-known Dylan outtake/gem "Up To Me" in the mid-70s:
Fairport Convention did something bizarre with "Si Tu Dois Partir"âthey sang a Dylan song in French. But their delightful version elevates Dylan's throwaway mid-60's sex gag "If You Gotta Go, Go Now." While his version wasn't deemed worthy of release until The Bootleg Series, you can practically feel the floorboards vibrating as Fairport Convention mix fiddles, triangles and accordions:Fairport Convention also covered "Dear Landlord," "Percy's Song," t"I'll Keep It With Mine," and "Million Dollar Bash:"
There's no voice like Nina Simone. She was a master interpreter, from Leonard Cohen songs to Broadway hits. She had several Dylan covers, including the breathtaking "I Shall Be Released:"Bonus: Simone's take on "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues:"
Ramblin' Jack Elliott and Dylan had a long friendship which started when Dylan first arrived in NYC. Elliott would often introduce Dylan's songs with the words: "Here's a song from my son, Bob Dylan." Here's his take on "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues:"Bonus: Elliott tells a story about Dylan, then plays "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright:"
The I'm Not There soundtrack has many, many more amazing Dylan covers than it has misses. At the top of that pile is My Morning Jacket singer Jim James teaming up with Calexico for The Basement Tapes classic "Goin' To Acapulco:"James' voice also really works well with "You're A Big Girl Now:"
Several artists have transformed Dylan's tunes into jazz songs, but our favorite has to be Madeline Peyroux's sexy version of "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go:"Also worth checking out: a bouncy, almost unrecognizable rendition of "Things Have Changed" by the band String Swing:
The Flying Burrito Brothers first album, The Gilded Palace Of Sin, is the Rosetta Stone for all of alt-country. Unfortunately, disagreements within the band led to founder Gram Parsons leaving (he died soon after). The band never came close to matching the heights of their first album, but this cover of "To Ramona" is utterly beautiful:
Dylan was a longtime admirer of the late, great Warren Zevonâafter his death, Dylan performed no less than three of his tunes live. Lots of bands have made hits out of "Knockin' On Heaven's Door," but only Zevon owned the song entirely, especially since he was acutely aware that he was dying when he recorded it. You can hear it all in every breath from his croaky vocals:Bonus: check out behind-the-scenes footage of Zevon recording the song (with best bud Billy Bob Thorton):
The White Stripes were always eager to pay respect to their favorite blues and folk artistsâalmost every one of their albums included a cover song. And they certainly made "One More Cup Of Coffee" into their own on their debut:Bonus: The Stripes covered Dylan live several times throughout their career, including "Love Sick," "Black Jack Davey," and "Outlaw Blues." But the best was their resuscitation of "Isis:"
There were tons of covers we had to skip for our list, but here are some more that are worth your time (most of which are available online):Solomon Burke-"What Good Am I?"Yo La Tengo-"4th Time Around"Adele-"Make You Feel My Love"PJ Harvey-"Highway 61 Revisited"Thea Gilmore-"As I Went Out One Morning"Angels Of Light-"I Pity The Poor Immigrant"The Faces-"Wicked Messenger"Caetano Veloso-"Jokerman"Gene Clark-"Tears Of Rage"The Go-Betweens-"You're A Big Girl Now"Emmylou Harris-"Every Grain Of Sand"Neko Case-"Buckets Of Rain"Andrew Bird-"Oh Sister"Jimi Hendrix-"Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window"Mark Lanegan-"Man In The Long Black Coat"Stephen Malkmus-"Can't Leave Her Behind"Nico-"I'll Keep It With Mine"George Harrison-"If Not For You"Jeff Buckley-"Mama You've Been On My Mind"The Everly Brothers-"Abandoned Love"And the single least reverential Dylan cover of all time: The Replacements "Like A Rolling Pin."