When Bob Dylan heard the most important cover of his career: “Gave us his approval”
There have been countless covers of Bob Dylan‘s work throughout his career, so much so that he’s quite possibly one of the most covered artists in the history of music.
The fact that so many other artists have chosen to pay tribute to his work is testament to how incredible and timeless his material has always been, and if someone else wants to perform their own interpretation of it, that’s as much of a compliment as you’re likely going to get.
It’s also worth noting that in many cases, these covers expanded upon what Dylan presented on the original versions. Much of his work has always been ripe for a cover version due to the fact that his arrangements were often simplistic, with a lot of his early material simply consisting of vocals, guitar and harmonica. If Dylan could lay down the foundations of a great track with just these three components, others could elaborate on it by adding their own embellishments that filled out the empty spaces he had left.
The thing is, the man has also written so many songs throughout his career that it’s likely he’s forgotten many of them by this stage in his life. Having been active for over 60 years and releasing 40 studio albums, not to mention all of the outtakes and rarities that never made it onto official records, you’d imagine that some of the more disappointing tracks he’s chosen to release will have been wilfully confined to the unreachable top shelf of his mind for good reason, but at the same time, you wouldn’t imagine that he’s forgotten about his finest works.
You also wouldn’t expect him to have forgotten about any of his material so early on in his career, especially not when it ranks among his best songs ever composed. However, when presented with a timeless cover of one of his own songs in 1965, he didn’t immediately recognise it as his own work due to how significantly the covering artist had expanded upon his work.
What’s funny is that The Byrds’ debut single, their version of ‘Mr Tambourine Man’, is perhaps the most immediately recognisable Dylan cover to have ever existed, and is arguably responsible for having helped birth the folk rock movement. Taking his simple composition and adding a more lavish arrangement on top of it, the band managed to score a number one hit with the track, something Dylan has never managed himself in his illustrious career.
Roger McGuinn, who sang lead vocals on the track, explained in an interview with Guitar Player how they’d invited Dylan into the studio to listen to the track, but that the singer was initially perplexed about the origins of the song. “Bob came over, and he was listening to us do this rock-inspired version of the song,” McGuinn recalled. “I remember I played the song, and Bob said, ‘What’s that?’ I said, ‘That’s one of your songs, man.’ He didn’t really recognise it. But he did like it and gave us his approval.”
It may well be the most important cover to have ever been done of his work, and while he may have seemed nonplussed about the band’s version and unable to recognise it as one of his own songs, I’m sure he feels differently about its existence now that it has become one of his most beloved tunes.
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