“A king”: when Bob Dylan crowned Richie Havens’ cover of ‘Just Like a Woman’ as the best
Bob Dylan is likely one of the most covered artists of all time, and it’s easy to see why. When you listen to his music, despite the fact he only uses simple chord progressions, he creates incredibly complex music that touches listeners on a profound level. His ability to paint pictures with words and music transcends time, which is why so many people are still so excited about his work.
The stripped-back nature of his music often acts as a double-edged sword when people want to cover it. The straightforward nature of songs means that many artists are confident they can play it and do it justice. However, it also means they put their own inflexions on tracks that sometimes don’t work.
When discussing his song ‘Just Like a Woman’, Bob Dylan talked about some of the legendary artists who had covered it and confirmed that he wasn’t sure why they had attempted it and changed the words when performing it. When discussing Roberta Flack and Nina Simone’s interpretations of the song, he wasn’t too keen.
“Roberta Flack did ‘Just Like A Woman’, but she got the words wrong,” he said, “I don’t think she changed them. I think she just got ‘em wrong.” He had similar criticisms for Nina Simone when he said, “Personally, I don’t understand why anybody would want to do that song, except me.”
While this could be a fair assessment, Bob Dylan quickly changed his tune when he was reminded that Richie Havens had also covered it. “Now Richie, it made sense coming from Richie,” he said, “He’s like a king.”
This isn’t the only time that Bob Dylan has been moved by another artist covering his music. Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix represented parts of each other that they couldn’t wholly engage with. Subsequently, Dylan was always excited when Jimi Hendrix covered his music, and he felt so strongly about his interpretations of his songs that he changed the way he played them moving forward.
“I liked Jimi Hendrix’s record of this, and ever since he died, I’ve been doing it that way,” said Dylan when discussing Hendrix’s rendition of ‘All Along The Watchtower’, “Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it’s a tribute to him in some kind of way.”
Jimi Hendrix was equally a fan of Dylan, which is why he was always keen on covering his music. “I am as Dylan,” said Hendrix. “None of us can sing normally. Sometimes, I play Dylan’s songs and they are so much like me that it seems to me that I wrote them. I have the feeling that ‘Watchtower’ is a song I could have come up with, but I’m sure I would never have finished it.”
It’s likely Dylan was a fan of Havens’ version of his song because of how entrenched the latter was in the folk scene. He blended different genres in his performance, but a lot of the emotion that Dylan put into his own music was equally reflected in how Havens performed. As a fan, Dylan was likely excited to hear him play his music.
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