Tag Archives: Best Dylan Covers

Bob Dylan, Cover versions

Richie Havens sings Bob Dylan: 11 good interpretations

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Two friends having fun
Richie Havens sings Bob Dylan: 11 good interpretations

Richard Pierce Havens (January 21, 1941 – April 22, 2013), known as Richie Havens, was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. His music encompassed elements of folk, soul, and rhythm and blues. He is best known for his intense and rhythmic guitar style (often in open tunings), soulful covers of pop and folk songs, and his opening performance at the 1969 Woodstock Festival.

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Bob Dylan, Cover versions, Punk, Ramones

The Best Dylan Covers: The Ramones – My Back Pages

acid_eaters

No sacred cows in rock ’n’ roll!

“My Back Pages” written by Bob Dylan and included on his 1964 album Another Side of Bob Dylan. It is stylistically similar to his earlier folk protest songs and features Dylan’s voice with an acoustic guitar accompaniment. However, its lyrics—in particular the refrain”Ah, but I was so much older then/I’m younger than that now”—have been interpreted as a rejection of Dylan’s earlier personal and political idealism, illustrating his growing disillusionment with the 1960’s folk protest movement with which he was associated, and his desire to move in a new direction. Although Dylan wrote the song in 1964, he did not perform it live until 1978.

“…But this sped-up Ramones cover of one of Dylan’s finest is delivered without a hint of irony. Every bit as simultaneously nostalgic and forward-looking as the original, it does what most punk covers of non-punk songs fail to do—it pays genuine heartfelt tribute to the original.”
– Paste Magazine

The Ramones recorded My Back Pages for the album Acid Eaters:

“Tearing through a bunch of psychedelic and garage rock classics from the 1960s, the Ramones regain much of the fun and abandon of earlier records, making Acid Eaters easily their best record in a decade; the guest appearances of Pete Townshend (“Substitute”) and ex-porn star Traci Lords (“Somebody to Love”) help make the record a blast.”
– Allmusic

Punk and Bob Dylan is a match made in heaven, angry music to angry words!

Album version:

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Bob Dylan, Cover versions

The Best Dylan Covers: Cowboy Junkies – If You Gotta Go, Go Now

Cowboy junkies

You know I’d have nightmares
And a guilty conscience, too
If I kept you from anything
That you really wanted to do
– Bob Dylan

The Best Dylan Covers: Cowboy Junkies – If You Gotta Go, Go Now

Dylan began the recording for If You Gotta Go, Go Now on January 13, 1965, during the first session for Bringing It All Back Home.[1] Of the two acoustic takes completed, neither was used. He recorded the song again on January 15, producing four takes. On May 21, 1965, producer Tom Wilson brought in several unidentified musicians to overdub various parts onto the takes recorded on January 15. From these overdubbing sessions, two takes were eventually released: take 5, released as a single in The Netherlands in 1967, and take 7, released on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991 in 1991.

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Cowboy Junkies version:

Cowboy Junkies are a Canadian alternative country/blues/folk rock band. The group was formed in Toronto in 1985 by Margo Timmins (vocalist), Michael Timmins (songwriter, guitarist), Peter Timmins (drummer) and Alan Anton (bassist)

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Bob Dylan, Cover versions

The Best Dylan Covers: 16 Horsepower – Nobody ‘Cept You

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sixteen-horsepower

There’s a hymn I used to hear
In the churches all the time
Make me feel so good inside
So peaceful, so sublime
And there’s nothing to remind me of that
Old familiar chime
’Cept you, uh huh you

The Best Dylan Covers: 16 Horsepower – Nobody ‘cept You

Dylan left for New York in October, 1973 to compose new material for album sessions scheduled in November. Dylan already had three songs (“Forever Young,” “Nobody ‘Cept You,” and “Never Say Goodbye”) which he had demoed in June, and when he returned to Malibu after twenty days in New York, he had six more.

A session (Nov 2nd)  was devoted to all three songs demoed in June, and Dylan and The Band succeeded in recording complete takes of “Forever Young” and “Nobody ‘Cept You” as well as the master take for “Never Say Goodbye.”

When Dylan and The Band reconvened at Village Recorder the following Monday, November 5, with Levon Helm now present, they made another attempt at “Nobody ‘Cept You.”

The last song recorded on the 9th was a new composition titled “Wedding Song,” which Dylan had completed over the course of the sessions. “Nobody ‘Cept You” was originally planned as the album’s closing number, but without a satisfactory performance, it would be omitted and replaced by “Wedding Song.” (The November 2 recording of “Nobody ‘Cept You” was eventually released in 1991 on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991.) Both Wedding Song and Nobody ‘Cept You are wonderful songs and the one that surfaced on the Bootleg series is a very good take.

Secret South is 16 Horsepower’s third full-length studio album. Released in 2000, the album marked a distinct change in direction compared to previous efforts as it focuses more on storytelling over a more laid back soundscape. It had two cover songs, Wayfaring Stranger and Nobody ‘cept you.  The Dylan song is so immersed into the feel and concept of the album that you will think it was written for this record. Fantastic choice of song from David Eugene Edwards and 16 Horsepower.

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Blues, Bob Dylan, Cover versions

The Best Dylan Covers: Dave Alvin – Highway 61 Revisited

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The Best Dylan Covers: Dave Alvin – Highway 61 Revisited

Highway 61 Revisited is the title track of Bob Dylan’s 1965 album Highway 61 Revisited. It was also released as the B-side to the single “Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?” later the same year.

I’ve read somewhere that Dave Alvin recorded it at the Ashgrove sessions, that makes sense. His cover of Highway 61 Revisited would fit that album very nicely. The Groove and overall feel from Ashgrove is very present in his interpretation of Highway 61 Revisited. The song is not on the album (not the release that I have at least) but check out the album, it’s a classic (June 15, 2004)

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Highway 61 Revisited by Dave Alvin was however included on a CD that came with an issue of Uncut Magazine, Highway 61 Revisited Revisited (2005).

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