The cover of ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’ Bob Dylan preferred to his own
Bob Dylan has never been one to mince his words very much. Though he remained one of the most enigmatic figures of rock history throughout the majority of the 1960s, he was always looking to knock the establishment down a few pegs, even if it meant taking down some of the biggest acts of all time in the process. Outside of his work in the public eye, Dylan was a pure poet, and each of his lyrics reflected what was on his mind.
Towards the mid-’60s, Dylan sought to expand beyond his traditional folk music, making songs that had their roots more in rock and roll, like ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’. Taking the perspective of someone just scraping by, Dylan is singing at a rapid pace throughout most of the tune so the listener will hang on to his every word as he gets to the end of the song. Like most of Dylan’s songs, though, fans have picked apart the little nuances of the tune when covering it, but only one of those covers caught Dylan’s attention.
After Dylan had long since vacated the public eye, Alanis Morrissette became one of the biggest female forces in alternative music. Around the time of riot grrl, Morrissette offered a sophisticated take on alt-rock on the album Jagged Little Pill, which featured some allusions to Dylan. While Morrissette may not have wanted her work to be picked apart like Mr Zimmerman’s were, the folksy guitars on her version put her in the same wheelhouse as Dylan’s early work, alongside her prominent use of harmonica on songs like ‘Hand In My Pocket’.
When talking about some of the best renditions of his songs, Dylan singled out Morrissette’s version of ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’ as a favourite, saying of her version in 2015 (via covermesongs), “I couldn’t believe she got that so right, something I’d never been able to do”. Performing the song during a tribute concert for Dylan, Morrissette sets the tune at a much slower tempo than the original, bringing a calm and collected sound to her version of the song.
Although not much has changed in terms of arrangements, what Dylan might have been alluding to liking in this version is the tone of voice that Morrissette takes on while singing the song. Since this tune is from the point of view of someone at the bottom trying to tell where everything’s going wrong, her sarcastic take on the lyrics makes it sound like she has all of the answers to those blues.
That tone wasn’t dissimilar from what Morrissette was all about in her early days, either. For most of her career, she made ferocious songs that tore down common tropes, like the spiteful message back to her man on ‘You Oughta Know’ or cynical love songs like ‘Head Over Feet’.
Then again, that tone of voice was what Dylan was all about in interviews, but it would take someone like Morrissette to capture that biting tone in song. The ‘90s and ‘60s eras of rock music might seem like night and day when looked at surface level, but things haven’t changed one bit as far as Dylan and Morrissette are concerned.
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