The cover that overwhelmed Bob Dylan: “He had such talent”
Bob Dylan’s music has been covered to no end. At Woodstock alone, at just that one festival, six of his songs were performed by other artists. They’ve become standards in a way as if all folk and rock artists must pass the Dylan test to truly prove their worth. But in the artist’s own eyes, there was one person who not only passed the test but also outdid his own version.
In the long history of Dylan covers, the most amazing and inspiring thing is the way that different artists reworked the songs in such different ways. Each time Joan Baez played a Dylan track, she seemed able to highlight and heighten the emotions in the lyricism, translating them with her own angelic voice into tender and often heart-aching ballads. On the flip side, Joe Cocker’s Dylan covers are powerful, heavier, and full of soul.
Even today, modern artists are having a go. Adele’s take on ‘Make You Feel My Love’ reintroduced the song to a whole new generation, while Miley Cyrus’ version of ‘You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go’ is pure country. There are so many amazing covers that could be highlighted here – Father John Misty’s ‘If You Gotta Go, Go Now (Or Else You Gotta Stay All Night)’ turns the seductive track into a ballad, Laura Marling’s ‘A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall’ is swelling and beautiful, even Timothée Chalamet’s versions of Dylan’s music for A Complete Unknown brings something new to these old classics.
But in Dylan’s eyes, there was one cover that trumped them all. While any version of his music was honouring in a way, he saw this one as completely astounding as he heard his song ripped up and reimagined in a completely thrilling way.
The cover in question was Jimi Hendrix’s take on ‘All Along the Watchtower’, which he recorded in 1968 for his third album, Electric Ladyland. He was a major fan of Dylan’s, with his engineer Andy Johns sharing that Hendrix seemed to have a Dylan plug, sneaking him unreleased recordings. “(Hendrix) came in with these Dylan tapes, and we all heard them for the first time in the studio,” Johns said. “He initially intended to record ‘I Dreamed I Saw St Augustine’ but changed this to ‘All Along the Watchtower’”.
But Hendrix didn’t just cover the song; he completely reworked it using his own musical mind. It doesn’t sound like Hendrix doing Dylan; it simply sounds like Hendrix as he transformed the song into a realm of his own.
For Dylan, that was the highest compliment. “It overwhelmed me, really. He had such talent, he could find things inside a song and vigorously develop them,” Dylan said of the cover. In his eyes, Hendrix had unlocked new layers in the song as he added, “He found things that other people wouldn’t think of finding in there.”
In short, Dylan loved the cover, admitting that he actually maybe thought it was better than his own original. “He probably improved upon it by the spaces he was using,” he said, complimenting Hendrix’s ability to reinvent a song into something new and exciting.
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