MY FAVORITE COVERS OF BOB DYLAN SONGS

[NightTrain]

Listed alphabetically:

ALL ALONG THE WATCHTOWER, The Jimi Hendrix Experience
BLOWIN' IN THE WIND, Stevie Wonder
DON'T THINK TWICE, IT'S ALRIGHT, Peter, Paul & Mary
THE MIGHTY QUINN, Manfred Mann
MR. TAMBOURINE MAN, The Byds
MY BACK PAGES, The Byrds

Feel free to add your own!

[bluetrain]

1. Don't Think Twice - The Waifs

[welshTerrier2]

28. Don't Think Twice - Arlo Guthrie

I used to have a version of Arlo doing this song on a cassette tape ...

does anyone know if it's on a recorded CD? i can't find a copy of Arlo's version anymore ...

[charlyvi]

45. Don't Think Twice--Eric Clapton

Eric Clapton---tribute concert.

[RevolutionaryActs]

2. Knockin on heavens door - Gun's N' Roses, and Masters of War - Pearl Jam

[NewHampshireDem]

3. Masters of War by Pearl Jam!

:headbang:

[Abelman]

37. Never heard they did a cover of it

But I am very intrigued and will try to find it.

[charlyvi]

46. They did it the 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration cd

I think it was an acoustic version.

[greendog]

4. "Every Grain Of Sand"...Emylou Harris

n/t

[brentspeak]

5. Byrds versions on "Sweetheart"

"You Ain't Going Nowhere", "Nothing Was Delivered"...pretty much every Dylan cover performed by the Byrds up through Sweetheart of the Rodeo.

[madaboutharry]

6. It's All Over Now, Baby Blue

The Grateful Dead. It's great.

[David Zephyr]

18. 13th Floor Elevators Had a Great Cover of This One, Too.

but Hendrix's "All Along the Watchtower" is my favorite.

[AFSCME girl]

7. Maggie's Farm by

U2 :hi:

[Mike Nelson]

8. SHE BELONGS TO ME, Rick Nelson

#

[bluetrain]

9. Most of The Time - Ani DiFranco

[Squeech]

10. Joan Baez: Simple Twist of Fate

It's on Diamonds and Rust. She sings the penultimate verse in that back-of-the-throat fake Dylan voice that everybody knows how to do.

Plus there's a really nice Jerry Garcia Band version.

Plus there's a version that exists only in my head, of Fairport Convention doing it, with Sandy Denny singing, in 6/8 time like their version of "Ballad of Easy Rider." I wish it really existed.

[yardwork]

11. Tomorrow is a Long Time, by Ian and Sylvia

[catbert836]

12. MASTERS OF WAR, Pearl Jam

And THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN', Simon & Garfunkel,
and KNOCKIN' ON HEAVAN'S DOOR, Eric Clapton
All the other ones are good, by Dylan and covered.

[catbert836]

14. oh, and who could forget "House of the Rising Sun" by the Animals?

[mac56]

17. sorry?

I don't think "Rising Sun" is a Dylan song.

[catbert836]

36. He was the first to record it. It's on his first album, "Bob Dylan" n/t

[jpgray]

43. First to record it? Woody Guthrie recorded it in the forties

It's a traditional tune. The Animals heard it from a folk singer (not Dylan) and decided to cover it.

[jdj]

50. Actually, I believe it was first sung by a female blues singer, it

was an admonishment to young women not to become prostitutes.

I have heard an old version of it by a female, but I can't remember who. I want to say Billie Holliday, but that could be wrong, could be her just popping into my head. I also have a really old bluegrass version of it.

edit:
apparently no one knows the original artist, every thing I find on it just says "traditional".

I have another old bluegrass recording of a song called "Midnight Special" that John Fogerty took and apparently bastardized, I don't know if he took writing credits for it or not, but he didn't write that song either, although everyone thinks it's his.

Fogerty apparently does Leadbelly's version, the version I have is so cool, it makes so much more sense lyrically that it must be closer to the original lyrics; "Midnight Special" is a train, this woman's husband has been convicted, "sent off to Atlanta, to serve ten to a score" and this is the train she is waiting on to bring him back, the only lyrics the two have in common are the chorus, "let the midnight special shine it's light on me, let the midnight special, shine it's ever loving light on me". The lyrics are so dated I think they predate Leadbelly's, it goes something like "when he got on the platform of the pullman car/saw the men a'wearin top-hats, smoking big cigars." I googled this and got nothin.

[jpgray]

53. I just was giving an example--I doubt Woody was the first

I just knew Dylan wasn't. :hi:

[jdj]

55. he may have been the first to record it

the earliest I can find it recorded by a woman is Nina Simone in '67.

But it is associated with Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith.

It burns me up to think how much was stolen from these artists and how many people have made mula off of these beautiful songs, compared with the way Billie Holiday went out of this world being treated it just makes my blood boil.

[Liberal_Andy]

13. Blowin' In The Wind by Neil Young and Crazy Horse

On Weld.

[bluetrain]

33. deleted by me

[Nicole]

15. Just Like a Woman - Stevie Nicks

It Ain't Me Babe - Johnny Cash
Mr. Tambourine Man - The Byrds

[NightTrain]

20. Good call on the Cash recording!

I'd completely forgotten about that one.

Truth be told, the pop-hit version by the Turtles wasn't bad, either.

[Nicole]

32. I liked Johnny

when he was singing songs out of his normal genre.

I have not heard the Turtles cover of that, I don't think.

[mac56]

16. "Absolutely Sweet Marie" by Jason and the Scorchers.

"Chimes Of Freedom" by the Byrds, and again by Springsteen.
And I've always had a soft spot for "It Ain't Me Babe" by the Turtles.

[welshTerrier2]

25. love George Harrison's version of Absolutely Sweet Marie ...

he did it on that double CD for Dylan's Birthday concert ...

[ForrestGump]

19. Elvis' 1966 "Tomorrow Is A Long Time," over five minutes of perfection

Dylan said that it was his favorite of all the cover versions of one of his songs. Recorded during the May, 1966 Nashville sessions that produced the How Great Thou Art gospel LP.

Here's a WAV file for anyone who wants to hear for themselves:

http://www.geocities.com/anelvisfan2001wav14/TomorrowIsALongTime.wav

Elvis also did a tasty studio jam in 1971 (the engineer rolled tape after it already got going) of "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right." That one lasts at least 15 minutes. Elvis often loosened up in the studio and in rehearsal with songs that he might jam on for a half hour or so at a time. He's rumored to have played around with a bunch of other Dylan songs during the same sessions (on a bit of a folk kick that year -- at an earlier session he did versions of Gordon Lightfoot's "Early Morning Rain" and "For Lovin' Me"). A few years back RCA-BMG released another between-takes snippet of Elvis doing "I Shall Be Released" (again from May, 1971) that makes me wish he'd laid down a full version of the song. Around the same time, they unearthed a 1966 home recording of Elvis doing "Blowing In The Wind," to which he took an interesting approach (mostly singing it bass).

I've always understood that his version of "Tomorrow Is A Long Time" predates Mr Zimmerman's own or, at least, its release. True? Elvis was very impressed by Nashville Skyline (perhaps partly explains his many concert references to the Bobster and occasional bits of Bob mimicry 1969-71) but he'd been interested and aware of his work for years before...quite impressive, given that Elvis was not up on a lot of the newer stuff coming out while he was in Hollywood exile (e.g., when Eric Clapton met him in the '70s Elvis supposedly had no idea who he was).

[DancingBear]

21. Two more "Watchtower" covers

Dave Mason does a wonderful version (from "Dave Mason"), and Brewer & Shipley do a very nice quasi-acoustic version, from "Weeds."

[donheld]

30. I love Dave Matthews live version of

All Along The Watchtower

[mr_hat]

22. I like Springsteen's "Chimes of Freedom." Doesn't do

much to make it "his", just puts his heart into a great song.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

23. I Want You - Sophie B Hawkins

[donheld]

24. Big Yellow Taxi - Joni Mitchell

:yourock:

[welshTerrier2]

26. Joni Mitchell wrote Big Yellow Taxi ...

I saw her perform it about a week after she returned from Hawaii ... the "paradise" the song refers to (i.e. they paved paradise and put up a parking lot) is Hawaii ...

concert date: december 6, 1970 - Syracuse University ... no idea why i remember this ...

[donheld]

31. ooops my bad

this website misled me. :spank:

[welshTerrier2]

34. no problem ... here are some more details on the song ...

source: http://www.jmdl.com/articles/view.cfm?id=144

BIG YELLOW TAXI (1970)

"I wrote "Big Yellow Taxi" on my first trip to Hawaii. I took a taxi to the hotel and when I woke up the next morning, I threw back the curtains and saw these beautiful green mountains in the distance. Then, I looked down and there was a parking lot as far as the eye could see, and it broke my heart... this blight on paradise. That's when I sat down and wrote the song. When it first came out, it was a regional hit in Hawaii because people there realized their paradise was being chewed up. It took 20 years for that song to sink in to people most other places in the country. That is a powerful little song because there have been cases in a couple of cities of parking lots being torn up and turned into parks because of it."

[flvegan]

27. Sorry, gotta say it, live version of "Knockin" by Guns n Roses

[MiddleRiverRefugee]

39. I prefer Warren Zevon's version...

When he sings

Open up open up open up....

I tear up. Every time. Absolutely cannot help myself.

[welshTerrier2]

29. Farewell Angelina - Joan Baez (n/t)

[Mike Nelson]

35. I'LL BE YOUR BABY TONIGHT, The Co-Dependents

****

[Abelman]

38. Blowing in the Wind

Me First and Gimme Gimmes.

But I still prefer Bob's version. What a great performer.

[mr blur]

40. Knockin' On Heaven's Door - Television (n/t)

[MrScorpio]

41. Lay Lady Lay

By both the Isley Brothers and the Mighty Diamonds

I love that song

[Cornjob]

42. It's all over now Baby Blue, a very old cover by Them

Van Morrison absolutely smokes the song!

[Mike Nelson]

44. TEARS OF RAGE, The Band

-30-

[charlyvi]

47. Just Like a Woman--Richie Havens n/t

[charlyvi]

48. Girl From the North Country--Joe Cocker

From "Mad Dogs and Englishmen"

[CBHagman]

49. Definitely "My Back Pages" by the Byrds.

I also really enjoy the new reggae album "Is It Rolling, Bob?"

[jdj]

51. Polly Harvey's "Highway 61" is awesome

and Joan Osbourne's "Man with the Long Black Coat" is good too.

I like Linda Ronstadt's "I'll be your baby tonight".

[leftofthedial]

52. With God on Our Side

Buddy Miller

hands down.

[rppper]

54. TSOL's live version of "all along the watchtower".

great punk cover if you can find it by one of the greatest unknown bands of the 80's