Is there a Dylan cover more beautiful than Fairport Convention's 'I'll Keep It With Mine'?

There are NO good versions of "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" except the Basement Tapes original, which has to be one of his five or so best songs.

There really aren't all that many good Dylan covers. A couple: "It's All Over Now Baby Blue" by Van Morrison and "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" by Bryan Ferry.

And I know Hendrix's "...Watchtower" is an obvious choice but it is marvellous.

Nice to hear she went country, like that Monkee guy - getting back to her roots.

I dunno about Dylan covers. I like The Byrds' This Wheel's on Fire, obivously any of them by Jimi are cool too. To be honest, I actually skipped the Dylan ones on the Fairport LP's last time I listened to them, maybe I'll give them another go thanks to Nick.

As I said before, it's the guitar figures in FC's 'I'll Keep It With Mine' that get me, though I do love Sandy Denny's voice too.

right now i'm listening to the 13th floor elevators doing "it's all over now, baby blue". this might have my vote... i forgot how beautiful and ghostly it is.

I would love to hear The Church cover "Isis"

I like Neko's version of Buckets of Rain best tho...

you know its strange, dylan is covered so much, but so few of the versions are as powerful as dylans own, but heres a few suggestions

i quite like yo la tengo's "i threw it all away" which preserves all the simple loveliness of nashville skyline-era dylan with somewhat different instrumentation, i think its about the equal of the original.

also great, theres a will oldham live recording ive heard where he plays new pony from street legal and manages to strip it right down and turn it into something raw, and the song benefits a lot from that.

also, in the "don't look back" film joan baez plays just a little bit of "love is just a four letter word" in a hotel room, and this works out to be far more lovely than her released version of the song (what the fuck is up with the sitar in that??), you just wish the song was complete in "don't look back". she also does a lovely version of percy's song in the same hotel room that is a bit more complete.

I love some of the versions on his live albums when he moves the arrangement, the phrasing, even the lyrics so far from the original as to at least shed a whole new light on the song, at most make it virtually a new item altogether.

Try 'Shelter From The Storm' from Hard Rain, 'Love Minus Zero/No Limit' from Live At The Budokan or oh, I can't think of a suitable one from the recent Rolling Thunder Revue one.

oh and my favorite dyaln rearrangement of a dylan song - "one too many mornings" from live 1966, that robbie robertson guitar solo with the little slide in it that just makes my heart jump, and the "SWEEEETHEAAARTS" belted out by dylan and danko, aw, its one of my favorite things ever

(As in, "a 1,000 miles...BEEE-HIND")

maybe im getting confused, there must be another great song somewhere where some other artist belts out sweetheart, and im gonna spend all afternoon trying to work it out, dammit.

Nina Simone's "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues"

There are others, but yeah: the Fairports' "I'll Keep It With Mine" is great.

I've never heard the McGuinness, Coulson album of Dylan covers," Lo and Behold." People say it's great--anyone familiar with this?

The two versions of "Knocking on Heaven's Door" on the new Cat Power DVD are like dust bunnies of sound and singing, they are these really, really wispy, formless things. Because the original is so powerful it takes on a weird dynamic that I think is cool.

i agree entirely, although sometimes i think people are inordinately impressed with it simply because it's been put in french. as noted above, my objection (mild) is that i find the arrangement a little too stiff and jaunty. and i always have mixed feelings about sandy denny vocals.

your (positive) description of the cat power cover (which i haven't heard) could so easily be read as negative if it weren't for the phrase "dust bunnies."

O yeah. Though upthread I also was one of those who spoketh their fondness of Fairport C's French language finess, the Byrds' "Back Pages" I just love something rotten.

Johnny Rivers' take on "positively 4th street" is grand. and i reckon i'd call it beautiful. in its own way

Olivia Newton-John's "If Not For You" is beautiful in much the same way that Olivia Newton-John's hair is beautiful.

Nina Simone's "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" is beautiful in much the same way that blood trickling down a drain can be beautiful.

How do folks feel about "Eastern Rain", the Joni cover on WWDOOH? Having pulled out the album for the first time in a while, I'm just mesmerized by this one. Don't feel I've paid it the proper attention before on an album with "I'll Keep it With Mine" and "Meet on the Ledge", etc.. Denny in full-throated mode, but still her singing (and the instrumentation, too) manages lovely delicacy at the same time.

the guitar solo in "Eastern Rain" is unfortunate.

I've always loved it fwiw.

haha, i like the solo, but think i understand where you're coming from. xp