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Underground > Radio & Music >

Bob Dylan Covers

12:08 / 19.02.07

You're gonna make me lonesome when you go- Madeleine Peyroux

It aint me babe- Johnny Cash

There must be more than this? surely?

The Ghost of Tom Winter

12:21 / 19.02.07

i don't know who did it first, but animals have a version of "House of the Rising Sun"

but i'm attracted to his voice like a turtle to moonlight

12:27 / 19.02.07

Me too.

Dylan is the best, however- I want to put together a beautiful C.D. in order that my friend who is repelled by his voice like a dog from an ultrasonic whine may yet enjoy his genius.

Masters of War. Most scathing song ever.

Regrettable Juvenilia

12:27 / 19.02.07

I'm partial to 'People Like You Make Barbelith Shit', as rousingly performed by Facestab McFuckwitson.

12:41 / 19.02.07

Thats a really horrible thing to say.

I really don't want to be where I'm not wanted.

I've put in a request to have this thread deleted, so if anyone else wants to add their 10cents to the how fucking horrible Eirdandfracar is please can you save it?

I'm not going to post any more but I still like reading threads and stuff like that is not necessary, and is hurtful.

12:42 / 19.02.07

'Lay Lady Lay' on Ministry's Filth Pig album. Amazon.com even has a sample.

12:54 / 19.02.07

Eirdandfracar, I'm not sure why you got that kind of response but I don't think you should feel you have to delete your thread because of it.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

12:55 / 19.02.07

Agreed. Perhaps Flyboy could go and torture some puppies until he's worked through whatever issues he has with Boby Dylan covers. Yes it's not the best thread ever, but it's hardly the worst either.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

12:56 / 19.02.07

I will be asking to move it to the Music though.

13:23 / 19.02.07

But... But it will take too long to get replies in the Music, and if effinfuddrucker doesn't get what he wants when he wants it right away, he'll hold his breath 'til he turns blue!

You wouldn't want that, would you?

Also: you can't beat the classics—The Byrds doing "My Back Pages" and Jimi Hendrix sending "All Along The Watchtower" into the ether. I'm also fond od Emmylou Harris's take on "Every Grain of Sand," my favorite of Dylan's devotional songs: X doing "Positively 4th Street": Fairport Convention's "Si Tu Dois Partir": and World Party's romp through "All I Really Wanna Do."

And If you haven't heard William Shatner's "Mr Tambourine Man," you really must.

MISTER TAMBOURINE MAAAAAN!!!!!

13:40 / 19.02.07

Cliché though it may be to begin with The Byrds, their "Chimes of Freedom" is absolutely ripping stuff, and their "My Back Pages" is a good 'un too.

I'm also partial the the 13th Floor Elevators slooow acid come-down take on "..Baby Blue".

The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band did a terrific and really rockin' "..Baby Blue" as well, and they also came up with by far the most weird/awful/perversely great '60s Dylan cover I've heard in the form of their rendition of "She Belongs to Me", which basically just has Bob Markley yelping out the lyrics like a drill sergeant in his weird, nasal voice backed by a free-form mess of corny space noises and guitar feedback. Strange stuff from the minds & hands of a strange band.

Fairport Convention's version of "Percy's Song" is a wonderful bit of "altogether-now!" folk-rocking joy, and far transcends the Dylan original, which I've always felt was a pretty stupid and overblown song to be honest. Fairport's "Million Dollar Bash" is a hoot too.

My current favourite Dylan cover though has got to be Billy Childish's take on "The Ballad of Hollis Brown"; absolutely FURIOUS, claustrophobic, minimalist blues - as you might hope/expect, Billy takes the no-bullshit power/catharsis of the song by the reins and drives it home hard.

In fact, as an aside to Flyboy and anyone else who'd flat-out deny Dylan's occasional validity as a worthwhile guy, get yourrself some "..Hollis Brown" ; it's Suicide's 'Frankie Teardrop' only half as long, twice as good, 15 years earlier with double the socio-political fury and it'll kick yr fucking ass.

14:47 / 19.02.07

>Billy Childish's take on "The Ballad of Hollis Brown";

i am sold, where can i get this? billy childish is a truly great covers artist, bringing something brutal and lovely to everything he touches. also like the sound of that emmy lou harris cover mentioned earlier. i have a great live reggae version of lay lady lay on the trojan reggea party volume 1, can't remember who by (the greyhounds?) but surprisingly good and segues into rainy night in georgia.

14:49 / 19.02.07

You can find it on the "25 Years of Being Childish" compilation on Damaged Goods records.

14:52 / 19.02.07

If only there was a website cataloguing all the Dylan covers in existence.

15:00 / 19.02.07

My favorite Dylan covers album was 'Outlaw Blues', way obscure but had a version of the eponymous blues by Thin White Rope that was brilliant. If you go to Dylan Cover Albums (linked above) then to the Various section, then to the I-R section you can find it.

Love the words but hate the voice? Please do try not to accept the first musical cliche that comes along as fact, if you listen to Bob a bit you might find that he can actually sing. Sometimes.

15:20 / 19.02.07

Sometimes people make very big mistakes, but they should still be allowed to move on.

15:21 / 19.02.07

?

16:04 / 19.02.07

Eirdandfracar made an error of judgement in the past and that is not being left where it perhaps should be. Hence the harsh comments here.

16:11 / 19.02.07

Dylan's a wanker! Let's spit on his car.

Regrettable Juvenilia

16:56 / 19.02.07

In fact, as an aside to Flyboy and anyone else who'd flat-out deny Dylan's occasional validity as a worthwhile guy

I would never do any such thing! I likes me some Dylan.

19:06 / 19.02.07

Oh, ok. Fair enough. I'm afraid I interpreted your earlier outburst as a protest against Dylan talk, rather than as aggro carried over from another thread which I have evidently missed. Apologies!

ONLY NICE THINGS

17:38 / 20.02.07

I was wondering about what did seem to be a rather extreme first reaction. Oh, _hang on_. Hawsey and Gawmless, wigmakers. Now I remember.

Anyway, back on topic. I am surprised that nobody has so far mentioned Guns and Roses' cover version of Knocking on Heaven's Door, which I am reliably informed is to a true lover of Dylan something like the people next door having a skip delivered at 4am. From the absurdly overstated and drawn-out sounds of "-awwwwwwww" on the word "Door", to the gospel chorus, to what appears to be an answerphone message from Iggy Pop halfway through the guitar solo, which is quite long enough to have a halfway and indeed a break at Scratchwood services, it seems pretty much the perfect treatment for people who find Dylan's voice too irritating.

Trivia: Ted Christopher recorded a cover version of "Knocking on Heaven's Door", with proceeds I imagine going to the Snowdrop charity, in memory of the victims of the Dunblane massacre. This added a verse to the song, whether with or without Dylan's personal approval I do not know, which went:

Lord, these guns have caused too much pain
This town will never be the same
So for the bairns of Dunblane
We ask please never again

However, if eirdandfracar were to put this on a mix tape, I suspect it might lead to a degree of confusion and perhaps hostility.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

00:43 / 21.02.07

Angels Of Light do a damn fine "I Pity The Poor Immigrant" on the split album with Akron/Family.

Regrettable Juvenilia

08:18 / 21.02.07

[Off topic, but apologies to eirdandfracar for my first post in this thread. I was having a very, very bad day. The thing is, I don't want the Music forum to shrivel up and die. And if people don't put threads about music there because they can't be bothered to wait the extra minutes it might take to get a reply, then that's exactly what will happen. Nevertheless, 'twas not a proportionate response - sorry all...]

lonely as a cloud...

12:10 / 21.02.07

Dylan covers... mmmmm. My brother sent me a copy of a cover of Positively 4th Street by Paul Westerberg (of The Replacements) that he found online somewhere. It's a really fun, sloppy version (I suspect it was an outtake or a radio session or something similar), Westerberg stumbles over some of the words. Not a triumph, not making the song his own by any means, but I enjoy it.

lonely as a cloud...

12:23 / 21.02.07

Another two Dylan covers have just sprang to mind... Melanie, a late '60s/early '70s singer/songwriter covered Mr Tambourine Man and Lay Lady Lay. She slowed both songs down, and changed the phrasing slightly to suit her own style.

Actually, the thread kinda reminds me of a drunken night out with my cousin, one of the highlights of which involved my cousin wondering how many women Dylan had picked up by just telling them to "Lay, lady, lay; lay across my big brass bed..."

Hydra vs Leviathan

11:29 / 22.02.07

Wow, i'd bloody love to hear a female-sung version of "Lay Lady Lay". Queering het love songs roxx.

There is, IIRC, a 2 (or possibly even 3) CD set of reggae covers of Dylan songs on the Trojan label (who are famous in the reggae fandom for using and re-using every marketing gimmick they can possibly think of to repackage the same catalogue over and over again, but they release enough good stuff, IMO, to be forgivable for that). It contains a version by Sizzla of "Subterranean Homesick Alien", which i think i'd almost rather not hear, so that i can continue enjoying the struggle to imagine how bizarre a combination that must sound...

UK reggae band Matumbi (the band of producer Dennis Bovell, who went on to produce Cut by The Slits, among other things) did a version of "The Man In Me" which i heard long before the Dylan version, and assumed for years was their original (i think it might have been covered live, and credited to Bovell, by The Clash).

The Heptones' cover of "I Shall Be Released" (which was produced by the great Lee Perry, who needs a thread on Barbelith, if he doesn't already have one) is also awesome (and fits perfectly into the equally awesome Party Time album, which i really need to get a decent copy of)...

Any good covers of "Masters of War" out there? I love the original, but i think that either a soul/gospel/funk (a la Sly Stone or psychedelic-period Motown) cover of it or a RATM style version (a la their cover of Springsteen's "The Ghost Of Tom Joad") could be incredible...

Tom Paine's Bones

18:54 / 24.02.07

PJ Harvey manages to make Highway 61 Revisited her own. There's something about it that really suits her voice.

lonely as a cloud...

09:55 / 26.02.07

The three Dylan covers I mentioned above, if anyone's interested. Link valid for 7 days. Enjoy

Kiltartan Cross

12:34 / 26.02.07

I'm a little surprised there aren't more Traveling Wilburys covers out there; trawling doesn't turn much up. Anyone know of any good ones?

16:47 / 26.02.07

Favorite:
Lou Reed covering Foot of Pride at the Dylan 30th (or 35th, or whatever) anniversary celebration. Clapton's version of Don't Think Twice, It's Alright from the same concert is a close second.

Least favorite:
Black 47's version of Lke a Rolling Stone, from their Live in NYC album.

17:07 / 26.02.07

Black 47 blight everything they touch. This is a scientific fact, and can be proven with diagrams.

01:13 / 27.02.07

Any good covers of "Masters of War" out there?"

The Dylan 30th features Eddie Vedder doing it. It's neato. Most of the concert is, actually (although the CD version-- at least the one I have-- doesn't feature Sinead O'Connor getting booed off the stage, and Kris Kristofferson consoling her with "Don't let the bastards get you down." That's on the VHS version).