Considered by many to be the greatest songwriter of all time, Dylan’s influence on music can’t be understated. His voice, however, has divided listeners over the decades. Some find it “mesmeric” and others have likened it to that of “a dog with his leg caught in barbed wire”.
Despite having, as a researcher of songwriting, something of a penchant for Dylan’s idiosyncratic and character-filled style, here are six covers of his songs which I believe outperform his versions.
1. Girl from the North Country by Eels
Girl from the North Country first appeared on Dylan’s 1963 album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. But it featured again on Nashville Skyline in 1969 as a duet with Johnny Cash. That version has been praised for the skip and groove of the acoustic guitar performances and how Dylan and Cash’s vocals are instinctive and spontaneous.
Another view would be that the guitars are out of time and the vocals are under-rehearsed – and the same shortcomings are on display during the song’s performance on the Johnny Cash show. Far superior in my humble opinion is the 2005 version by alt-rock band Eels.
The band performed the song for their Eels with Strings: Live at Town Hall DVD and album. Band leader Mark Everett switched it from acoustic guitar to piano. His gentle arpeggiated playing complemented his gruff yet tender vocals and drew every drop of emotion out of the lyrics and melody. He keeps in time, too.
2. Mr Tambourine Man by The Byrds
A masterclass in lyric writing, Mr Tambourine Man (1965) saw Dylan flexing his linguistic muscles to reel off dozens of intricate internal and end rhymes, including my personal favourite:
Though I know that evening’s empire has returned into sand
Vanished from my hand
Left me blindly here to stand, but still not sleeping.
The Byrds’ version, released in the same year and hitting number one in both the US and the UK, isn’t better than the brilliant original (how could it be?) but it is brilliantly different.
Abridging Dylan’s version in order to make for a more palatable running time for the singles market, what it lacks in lyrics it more than makes up for in melody. The harmonies in the chorus add to Dylan’s main vocal line. It was an era-defining moment that launched the folk-rock genre.
3. All Along The Watchtower by The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Dylan may have released the original version of All Along The Watchtower on his John Wesley Harding album in 1967, but it was The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s cover, released just six months later, which has largely been accepted as the definitive recording.
Taking Dylan’s gentle acoustic guitar and harmonica number and feeding it through his legendary white Strat, Hendrix rocks seven shades of summer out of the song until it takes on a completely new life.
So great was his reinterpretation (it seems derisive to merely label it a “cover”) that as well as being ranked at number 40 in Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list, Dylan amended the song’s structure for later live performances in order for it to be more like Hendrix’s.
4. If Not For You by George Harrison
Granted, I only heard Dylan’s recording of If Not For You after already being familiar with George Harrison’s version included on his 1970 album All Things Must Pass for several years, so it was always going to feel slightly foreign to me.
What I wasn’t expecting, though, was how unimpressive and strangely flat it seems compared to Harrison’s recording. Dylan’s run-together vocal lines were backed by oddly jaunty and accented side-stick drumming (with the snare struck on the second beat but then a quaver before the fourth instead of on the fourth itself) and punctuated with glockenspiel. It all adds up to a slightly confused and messy arrangement, which takes attention away from the sincerity of the lyrics.
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5. If Not For You by Olivia Newton John
When Olivia Newton-John issued her own cover of If Not For You in 1971, she wisely opted for the same arrangement as Harrison’s, thankfully, minus Phil Spector’s muddy over-production – and scored an international hit with it in the process.
To my mind If Not For You remains one of Dylan’s most simplistic, beautiful songs – so long as he’s not singing it.
6. Ballad of Hollis Brown by David Lynch
Appearing on The Times They Are A-Changin’ (1964), Dylan presents the five-minute Ballad of Hollis Brown as its title suggests, as a traditional ballad in both form and theme. His voice is backed by a lone acoustic guitar, minus even his ever-present harmonica.
Nearly half a century later, director David Lynch took time out from his day job to reimagine the song as drum-heavy claustrophobia, twisting the original until it would have been unrecognisable if not for its title and lyrics. Dylan diehards may want to give this one a miss, but for those of us who enjoyed the music from the Roadhouse in Twin Peaks series three, this is a winner.
Glenn Fosbraey, Associate Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Winchester
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.