Bob Dylan covers vs. Bob Dylan original recordings

I've heard people say that they didn't appreciate Dylan until they heard covers of his songs as they "couldn't get past his voice."

This was me as a dumb kid. Then I bought Freewheelin' shortly after I got to college. Still, it really depends on the song in question. "All Along the Watchtower"? That's Hendrix's song and it always will be. But less iconic things? I take them on a case by case basis.

yeah, i agree with that. to me, dylan's interpretations of his own songs are usually the richest and i totally love his voice. still, some covers are very strong and there is something about covers that bring out different elements of the song that were maybe latent or just not emphasized in the original.

also relevant to the discussion: live versions of dylan songs that are arranged so differently as to be completely different. these are the best of all:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RMVYLCXDgM

bob dylan live at budokan is one of the best albums of all time by the way

hendrix's "all along the watchtower" is so different than bob's that it feels like a completely different song to me. the hendrix one is prob "greater" as a recording but tbh if i have to choose i'd go with the spooky laconic dylan version.

i really don't know what notable dylan covers exist besides the byrds ones. i probably prefer the byrds covers of "tambourine man, back pages, all i really wanna do" to dylan's originals but it's not his fault he can't sing multiple notes at once, it just doesn't seem fair to compare. byrds harmonies were so godlike.

budokan IS really sweet, otm about his live rearrangements.

oh god, how could i forget hendrix's watchtower?? favorite record of all time, probably, or at least top 3. that must be why i forgot about it.

van morrison's "it's all over now, baby blue" might be better than dylan's version.

case for the cover versions:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2C5EPmR7YdY

also much prefer pj harvey's "highway 61" to the original, partly b/c i've always felt like the jokey original didn't really do justice to one of bob's best ever lyrics.

oh yeah fairport too. love sandy's verse on "million dollar bash"

problem with listening to "Percy's Song" before work is i need to keep replaying it

xp this one is pretty fun but it sort of ruins the apocalyptic element of the original, which i think is part of the jokey-ness. still don't understand how bob's voice ever sounded like that though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReKDRTj3ew4&index=8&list=PLknidvzcLCRHFWW006BWP0NSO81EbAUmr

and yeah, noodle, that recording or percy's song is incredible

http://www.vintageconcertposters.com/_main/api/gallery/images/213.jpg

Xp Yes. Would rather listen to that than any bob dylan recording ever. All other versions of that song just make me like, your friend sounds like an asshole and so do you, sentence stands :D

lol otm

it's like "stop lecturing me dammit"

"did you hear me?? 99 YEARS!!!"

The key in the fairport version is how their performance suggests a momentary softening on the judge's part in the "too late, too late" bit, like a brief flicker where he realises that the sentence probably is too harsh, before the narrator pisses him off with the absurd claim that vehicular manslaughter isn't a crime

Just gives you a great sense of the sad senselessness of it all

dylan's punk rock "jokerman" on letterman is one of my fave of his self-reinventions.

I like a few covers of Dylan songs, but the only one that upstages the (already quite wonderful) original, for me, is Nina Simone's "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues."

I fuck with this pretty hard, but not much else besides that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXGLw6ECReE

dylan's delivery is so unique and personal that i have a hard time preferring cover versions, even if there are a few that surpass the originals. hendrix's is one of the few that i prefer more than dylan's. the byrds' are wonderful but i still prefer the originals.

the band versions e.g. "i shall be released" are equal to dylan's in my mind

I don't know Dylan that well but I can think of loads I prefer to the originals: simone, Hendrix and fairport obv, also 13th floor elevators, Bryan ferry, julie Driscoll... I'm sure there are others.

There were a number of the tracks first released by Dylan as the Basement tapes that were circulated in demo form and covered in '67/'68. So you have bands like Manfred Mann, Julie Driscoll and a few others singing Dylan songs that weren't known in any original form or at least legit one for several years. Not sure if Bootleg versions were universally circulated in the interim as in everybody was likely to know somebody who had them so might be around in cassette form or whatever.

Interesting, I do like Dylan himself anyway. Especially the mid 60s stuff when he was first going electric. Plus John Wesley Harding which has a sound of its own. I've got some mid 70s stuff by him but not much after that.

I think I was first aware of him in the early 80s as a current artist who I liked a couple of tracks I was hearing on the radio by.
Then it took me a few years before I picked up bringing It All Back home which was available mid-price on vinyl and I think I picked up the next 2 shortly afterwards which would be around 83/84 i think.

I love the first lp which I first heard at the end of the decade i think. I was thinking it was like acoustic hardcore when I first heard it, seems to have a lot of punch to it. I think it took me until the cd remasters before I discovered the other early 60s lps, the ones he first became famous for. I don't listen to those much but am glad I've heard them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyCn8IC5RpE

13th floor baby blue is all time

also relevant to the discussion: live versions of dylan songs that are arranged so differently as to be completely different.

yes-- eg love album version of isis best, but 2 sped-up live versions always make me laugh (in a good way)

Here is one of the best Dylan covers ever from an obscure 70s band, Coulson Dean McGuinness & Flint. The album is all Bob covers. This is the title track. Thanks to Robert Christgau for this. Dig Lo and Behold

http://youtu.be/R_iE_RqiljQ

love the dick gaughan/andy irvine cover of my back pages...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4prTyqsV4CU

the unhalfbricking percy's song is great, but that swishing sound emanating from the dulcimer has always bugged me, but si tu dois partir, no question. gene clark's cover of tears of rage is on the same level as the basement tapes/big pink versions for me, & the band's cover of when i paint my masterpiece = best thing on cahoots.

I don't really like the Si Tu Dois Partir, might have prefered it in English but the idea that doing it in French is a good idea seems to smack too much of a college prank or something.

But most of Fairports Dylans or at least the early era ones are great. I'll Keep It With Mine is nice too.

Probably goes without saying but Dylan seems to be the major catalyst in the development of the rock lyric throughout the 60s. So you could blame a lot of the cod lyricism of the prog years on him, or at least on people channeling him.

Band's version of "When I Paint My Masterpiece" is definitely better than Dylan's demo

Overall I vote for Dylan, I guess. But I like so many covers so goddamn much. There are some that are their own kind of awesome - not necessarily better, but I'm glad they exist:

The Band's "I Shall Be Released."

Marshall Crenshaw's "My Back Pages."

Mary Lou Lord's "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go," and honorable mention to (yes) Shawn Colvin here too.

Elvis Costello's "I Threw It All Away."

Of course, always and forever, Jimi ruleth the land.

Van Morrison's "Baby Blue" is probably my favorite cover, but I still prefer Dylan's

I like Falco's "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue"

I can't think of another songwriter who has been covered as widely, and wonderfully, as Dylan.

Excellent poll, just want to make one point (I've had this discussion before). Because the second part of your statement is probably true, I think people make the understandable leap to the first part, which I'm pretty sure isn't close to true. The Beatles have been covered far, far more often. The difference is that there are a number of famous Dylan covers and more or less no famous Beatles covers.

Anyway, I'll stick with Dylan. Even when I love the cover--e.g., Nico's "I'll Keep It with Mine"--I usually love the original even more. There's probably an exception or two.

"Mr. Tambourine Man" might be one. But even there, I'm not sure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zwBHd4kll0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtTyOa8kVTY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73qny9RqVEM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHgzOkeCgVY

Anyway, I think even now Dylan's an underrated vocalist. Live, he's been a mess for decades, but in the studio he's always made an effort. That's why there will never be a cover of, say, "Rolling Stone" (the cover of Rolling Stone!) nearly as good as Dylan's, because the original is so vocally sharp. If anything, the Byrds and Hendrix covers are among the only few definitive covers that better Dylan. Most of the time, the covers are solid or good but not swappable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJFNQI_ZiC0

Elvis' blurt of "Dylan" at the end of this take is reason enough to vote for covers (I voted originals though)

Frisell's "A Hard Rain A-Gonna Fall" classic imo.

The Byrds' "Mr. Tambourine Man" was #1 on the charts before anything Dylan recorded himself ever reached that mark.

Also, Peter, Paul, and Mary's "Blowin' in the Wind" reached #2 two years earlier, of course.

I'm happily voting for covers.

It takes Van a couple of minutes to get going with Just Like A Woman but then just wow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZpKAB_6qkM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgE1HliE-H0

Didn't know Elvis covered that, thanks! He also did good versions of "Tomorrow Is A Long Time" and "Don't Think Twice."
Jerry Lee Lewis did "Rita May," maybe some other lesser-knowns a while back, and his latest, Rock 'n' Roll Timeincl. a Dylan I'd never heard of,"Stepchild."
Bonnie Raitt did a good version of one he sent her, "Let's Keep It Between Us."
The Dylan's Gospel reissue on Light In The Attic is somewhat misleadingly titled, but in a good way: a wilder assortment than I'd expect from any gospel choir (The Brothers and Sisters), but they mostly pull it off with great aplomb.
The Kentucky Headhunters, who are sort of rock country, rather than country rock, did a credible version of "Like A Rolling Stone." (Come to think of it, their prev, unreleased album with Chuck Berry's pianist Johnnie Johnson starts streaming tomorrow on WSJ.com's Speakeasy page.)

Oh yeah, and the Persuasions did an album of Dylan covers, which is good, but back in the early 70s, they really killed it with this (think it's their early 70s arrangement and line-up, but might be from later)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bsx9YBV9EnM

Info & audio samples for Dylan's Gospel here---"I Shall Be Released" is immediately followed by "Lay Lady Lay," for instance...
http://lightintheattic.net/releases/1007-dylans-gospel
There's also at least one entire album of actual Dylan religious songs, but blanking on the title and artists.

And Vernon Reid's been tweeting Dylan covers this evening, incl. several I'd never heard of:
https://twitter.com/vurnt22

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Thanks for those Vernon Reid Dylan tweets.

Not close, but 13 votes for the covers is interesting. Hope these weren't mostly anti-Dylan protest votes