The only Bob Dylan covers Bob Dylan actually liked: “He probably improved upon it”
One of the most surprising things about Bob Dylan’s music, when you set aside how impactful it was and how it managed to speak to such a vast range of the global population, is its simplicity. Bob Dylan wasn’t a complicated man when putting together melody and chord progressions. Yet, despite not teetering outside of standard chord structure, he was able to touch the hearts of many and write about subjects that are overarching on a grand scale.
If you have moving music that isn’t all that difficult to play, you invite people to cover your songs. Bob Dylan is probably one of the most covered musicians of all time, as his music has been interpreted by various people over the years who want to honour a musician that means a great deal to them, yet also put their own spin on what many people already know as a classic.
Given people loved Bob Dylan’s music, the crowd was always quite easy to win over when people played Bob Dylan’s songs. However, Bob Dylan himself was a bit more difficult to win over. His attitude towards live music was different from how he perceived recorded music, as he liked music to exist in the moment it was played rather than do something that was pre-planned.
Leonard Cohen recalled seeing Bob Dylan live and how strange an event it was. “Something else was going on, which was a celebration of some kind of genius that is so apparent and so clear and has touched people so deeply that all they need is some kind of symbolic unfolding of the event,” said Cohen. “It doesn’t have to be the songs. All it has to be is: remember that song and what it did to you. It’s a very strange event.”
Dylan was very particular about how his songs should be played, believing that an artist shouldn’t just do the track justice but also let the song represent them. It’s for this reason he was such a big fan of Jimi Hendrix, as while Hendrix stayed somewhat faithful to Dylan’s songs, he also wasn’t afraid to add his own inflictions, be it playing around with the structure or adding killer guitar solos.
“It overwhelmed me, really. He had such talent, he could find things inside a song and vigorously develop them. He found things that other people wouldn’t think of finding in there,” said Dylan when discussing Hendrix’s version of ‘All Along the Watchtower’. “He probably improved upon it by the spaces he was using. I took license with the song from his version, actually, and continue to do it to this day.”
Hendrix wasn’t the only artist who covered Dylan’s work in a way that the songwriter found appropriate. Throughout his career, there have been a number of artists who have delivered cover versions of his songs that he’s enjoyed. These are some of the songs that Dylan spoke most positively about.
Bob Dylan’s favourite Bob Dylan covers
- Jimi Hendrix – ‘All Along the Watchtower’
- Aaron Neville – ‘Shooting Star’ *(Not on Spotify)
- Alanis Morissette – ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’ *(Not on Spotify)
- Billy Joel – ‘Make You Feel My Love’
- Bonnie Raitt – ‘Standing in the Doorway’ and ‘Million Miles’
- Bruce Springsteen – ‘Knocking on Heavens Door’ *(Not on Spotify)
- Elvis Presley – ‘Tomorrow Is A Long Time’
- Joan Baez – ‘Farewell Angelina’
- John Doe – ‘Pressing On’
- Johnny Rivers – ‘Positively 4th Street’
- Neil Young – ‘Blowing in the Wind’
- The Neville Brothers – ‘With God On Our Side’
- Richie Havens – ‘Just Like a Woman’
- Tom Jones – ‘What Good Am I?’
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