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The song that split Bob Dylan when it came to famous covers

Fri 31 March 2023 17:00, UK

If you’re going to bust out a Bob Dylan cover around the campfire, there are some songs that immediately jump to the forefront. The verbose storytelling of ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ is hard to remember, as are the numerous highly specific images that fill out ‘A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall’. ‘Lay Lady Lay’ might not be well known to all, and ‘Just Like a Woman’ risks some raised eyebrows from any women who might be around. No, you want something simple and straightforward that’s easy to play, sing, and remember. You need to go with ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door’.

Originally written and recorded for the 1973 film Patt Garrett and Billy the Kid (in which Dylan had an acting role in), ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door’ quickly became a standard in Dylan’s repertoire. Shunning his previously established penchant for long, languid verse and intricately-detailed lyrics, ‘Heaven’s Door’ was as simple as any Dylan song had ever been: four chords, two verses, one repeated chorus, and just under 35 words total.

Thanks to its durability and simplicity, ‘Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door’ has inspired numerous covers over the years. One of Dylan’s favourites is from Bruce Springsteen, a man who explicitly modelled his early writing style on songs like ‘Blinded By the Light’ after Dylan. When Springsteen sang a version of ‘Heaven’s Door’ during the brief period when he disbanded The E Street Band in the 1990s, Dylan was complimentary.

“Incredible! He did that song like the record, something I myself have never tried,” Dylan said in a Q+A on his website in 2015. “I never even thought it was worth it. Maybe never had the manpower in one band to pull it off. I don’t know, but I never thought about it. To tell you the truth, I’d forgotten how the song ought to go. 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.”

“I’m not a nostalgic person, but for a second there, it all came back, 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,” Dylan added. “Bruce is a deep conscientious cat, and the evidence of that was in the performance. He can get to your heart, my heart anyway.”

Springsteen’s version isn’t the most famous cover of ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door’, however. That distinction goes to Guns N’ Roses, who originally recorded their cover for the 1990 Tom Cruise film Days of Thunder and later included it on their 1992 album Use Your Illusion II. The Guns N’ Roses version rose all the way to number two in the UK, but Dylan himself was a bit dismissive of it.

“Guns N’ Roses are OK,” Dylan told Eduardo Bueno in 1990. “Slash is OK. But there’s something about their version of that song that reminds me of the movie Invasion Of The Body Snatchers. I always wonder who’s been transformed into some sort of a clone and who’s stayed true to himself. And I never seem to have an answer.”

Check out both cover versions of ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door’ down below.