The cover so good it made Bob Dylan finally feel nostalgic: “It all came back”
When it comes to being honoured by another artist doing a cover of your work, Bob Dylan has probably had far more instances of his songs being reinterpreted than others can claim.
Even since the earliest days of his career, people were picking up on the magic that his songs held within them. They were simple, yet they made their points clear through incisive and insightful lyricism that commented on the struggles of the times they were written for. Not only that, but the structures and melodies never showed off too much, instead focusing on the importance of being direct rather than needlessly layering every track with ornate musical features.
Plenty of covers of his work have been recorded by others, many of them going on to become more well known than the originals. Take for example how The Byrds turned ‘Mr Tambourine Man’ into their debut hit and an early folk rock masterpiece, or how Jimi Hendrix delivered an incendiary take on ‘All Along the Watchtower’ on Electric Ladyland, and you’ll see just how Dylan’s work has been transformed into these splendid alternative versions by taking these simple elements and seeing how far they can be pushed in new directions. On top of this, there are countless other artists who have delved deep into his songbook and performed multiple of his songs, such as the Grateful Dead and Joan Baez, both of whom are huge fans of his work.
However, one notable fan of his, and someone who receives a lot of comparisons to Dylan for the way he approaches his own songs, is Bruce Springsteen. The New Jersey songwriter is perhaps the performer to have impressed Dylan the most with a version of one of his songs, and when he chose to perform it in front of the man himself, he was taken aback by how faithfully he had delivered it.
At the MusiCares Person of the Year awards ceremony in 2015, where Dylan was the recipient of the award, Springsteen was among the artists who paid tribute to the life and work of Dylan, playing a cover of ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door’ with Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello joining him on stage for the number.
Stunned by Springsteen’s interpretation of the classic track, he stated after witnessing the performance that he thought that it was “incredible”, and that he had played the song exactly as it was on the original recording, which Dylan never thought to be feasible in a live setting. “To tell you the truth, I’d forgotten how the song ought to go,” he told journalist Bill Flanagan. “Bruce pulled all the power and spirituality and beauty out of it like no one has ever done. He was faithful, truly faithful to the version on the record, obviously the only one he has to go by.”
He continued by saying that it evoked strong memories of writing the song for the soundtrack of Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid. “I’m not a nostalgic person, but for a second there it all came back,” Dylan proclaimed. “[Sam] Peckinpah, Slim Pickens, Katy Jurado, James Coburn, the dusty lawless streets of Durango, my first wife, my kids when they were small. For a second it all came back … it was that powerful. Bruce is a deep conscientious cat and the evidence of that was in the performance. He can get to your heart, my heart anyway.”
It’s fair to say that Dylan thoroughly appreciated what Springsteen did to his song, as many others have tried to deliver their own versions of said song, and it’s probably also fair to say that only a disciple of Dylan such as Springsteen could possibly have done the song justice to that degree.
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