Why Bob Dylan pushed Axl Rose into recording ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door’
Bob Dylan is one of the most covered artists in history. Alongside The Beatles, his songs not only creatively affected millions of young people in the 1960s and beyond but arguably changed the entire world. His music would become embedded in popular culture and transform the art of making pop music as we know it. For that reason, the many covers of his original songs are to be expected. Dylan, for the most part, has always seemed pretty detached from this process.
The singer-songwriter has naturally shared his views on the odd cover, which really struck him. Famously, he said of Jimi Hendrix’s cover of ‘All Along The Watchtower: “It overwhelmed me, really. He had such talent, he could find things inside a song and vigorously develop them. He found things that other people wouldn’t think of finding in there. He probably improved upon it by the spaces he was using. I took license with the song from his version, actually, and continue to do it to this day.”
Dylan has also paid tribute to some of the other covers of his songs, naming an unusual cover as his favourite of all time. Johnny Rivers and his version of ‘Positively 4th Street’ that receives Dylan’s seal of approval. “Of all the versions of my recorded songs,” Dylan begins.
“The Johnny Rivers one was my favourite,” he continued. “It was obvious that we were from the same side of town, had been read the same citations, came from the same musical family and were cut from the same cloth.” He then goes on to say that he actually liked his version better, writing: “Most of the cover versions of my songs seemed to take them out into left field somewhere, but Rivers’s version had the mandate down – the attitude, the melodic sense to complete and surpass even the feeling that I had put into it.”
One of Dylan’s most famous compositions has been made so widely famous by other people, a song he wrote for his 1973 collaboration with Sam Peckinpah Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. There are over 150 covers of ‘Knockin’ On Heavens’ Door’, with versions from legends such as Neil Young, Nick Cave, Eric Clapton, Patti Smith, Paul Simon, Jerry Garcia and Television have also delivered renditions of the song in the past. Another icon who delivered a stellar version, although only a live version, was ‘The Boss’, Mr. Bruce Springsteen — Dylan’s favourite of the bunch.
But the most famous of the bunch is the rendition of the classic tune from Guns N Roses, perhaps the most wildly successful rock band of the late 1980s and early 1990s. The group started performing the song live in 1987, and it became an integral part of their set. A year later, they would release the songs as part of a 12-inch single for ‘Welcome to the jungle’, and then in 1990, it was fully released as part of their studio album Days of Thunder. It would seem that Axl Rose, Slash and the rest of the band were given extra impetus to release their cover of the song from the man himself, but not for the wholesome reasons you might imagine.
In 2009, during a concert in Taiwan, Axl Rose revealed that Dylan had given the band the all-clear to release a full version of the song for purely profiteering reasons. Speaking to the audience in between songs, Rose mentioned: “Bob asked me, ‘When you gonna record ‘Heaven’s Door’? And I said, ‘I don’t know, but we really love that song.’ And he said, ‘I don’t give a fuck. I just want the money.’ True story!”
It may not be the most artistically enlightened reason for sharing your song with another artist. However, one must admire Dylan’s realisation that not only was his song bigger than any single performer but that Guns N Roses were a cash cow worth milking.
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