From Adele to Elvis: the 10 best Bob Dylan cover versions
Amazingly, not everyone likes Bob Dylan’s voice. Back in 1965, Mitch Jayne of bluegrass band The Dillards compared Dylan’s singing to “a dog with its leg caught on barbed wire,” an insult that has followed the great man around ever since. David Bowie called it “a voice like sand and glue” in his 1971 Song for Bob Dylan, although I think he meant it as a compliment. I’ve lost count of the number of people over the years who have told me they can’t listen to Dylan because “he can’t sing.”
They are wrong, of course. Dylan is a gloriously gifted vocalist who always finds distinctive ways to deliver the meaning, intent and emotion of his audaciously lyrical and flowingly melodic songs, whether expressing the aching longing of Visions of Johanna, the surrealist scorn of Ballad of a Thin Man, the tender despair of She’s A Big Girl Now, the righteous defiance of Hurricane, bluesy lust of New Pony or bittersweet regret of Most of the Time.
His pipes may have become increasingly ragged and torn by a lifetime of smoking and gigging, yet his ability to put himself deep into the mysterious fabric of his songs is undiminished on his most recent and quite extraordinary album, 2020’s Rough and Rowdy Ways. It may not be particularly smooth and lovely, and sometimes his tuning is suspect and delivery eccentric, but when Bob Dylan sings, it always sounds like the truth.
Still, his voice is evidently not for everyone. Yet it would be a shame for it to act as a bar to an appreciation of his art. For Bob Dylan has created one of the greatest bodies of work by any songsmith in the history of our musical species, hundreds and hundreds of elaborately conceived songs spanning a huge array of styles and genres, incorporating folk, country, blues, gospel, jazz and pop, from ornate ballads to fierce rockers and other strange and poetic styles he practically invented himself.
Fortunately, there has been no shortage of singers eager to bring their own interpretations to Dylan’s oeuvre, almost certainly the most covered catalogue of songs in pop apart from that of the Beatles. Over a thousand artists have recorded many thousands of versions of Dylan’s songs, in styles varying from heavy rock (Guns ‘N Roses blistering assault on Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door) to reggae (Bob Marley & the Wailers released a weirdly jaunty adaptation of Like a Rolling Stone in 1966).
Some cover versions are more famous than Dylan’s own. Indeed, the gnarly young singer first rose to prominence when squeaky-clean folk trio Peter, Paul & Mary had a number two hit in America with Blowin’ in the Wind in 1963, a song subsequently recorded over 60 times by some of the finest singers in pop history, including Joan Baez, Stevie Wonder, Sam Cooke, Etta James, Elvis Presley, Dionne Warwick and Neil Young.
There are versions of Dylan songs by such all-time-great artists as Adele, The Beach Boys, David Bowie, Glen Campbell, Johnny Cash, Nick Cave, Cher, Eric Clapton, Joe Cocker, Coldplay, Phil Collins, Elvis Costello, Duke Ellington, Marianne Faithfull, Bryan Ferry, Roberta Flack, The Grateful Dead, Herbie Hancock, George Harrison, Emmylou Harris, PJ Harvey, Isaac Hayes, Jimi Hendrix, Norah Jones, Janis Joplin, Alicia Keys, Jerry Lee Lewis, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Morrissey, Willie Nelson, Stevie Nicks, The O’Jays, Dolly Parton, Pearl Jam, Tom Petty, Robert Plant, The Ramones, The Rolling Stones, Diana Ross, Lou Reed, Leon Russell, Simon & Garfunkel, Nina Simone, Siouxsie & the Banshees, Patti Smith, Sonic Youth, The Specials, Bruce Springsteen, Sting, Rage Against the Machine, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rod Stewart, Tina Turner, UB40, U2, Scott Walker, The White Stripes, and Warren Zevon.
That is just scratching the surface, while new cover versions arrive all the time. Chrissie Hynde has become the latest artist to release an entire Dylan tribute album, Standing in the Doorway. There are at least 50 such tribute albums and themed compilations, including offerings by doo wop group the Persuasions, heavy rock band Mountain and instrumental ensemble The Mike Batt Orchestra. New generations of admirers include such contemporary pop superstars as Miley Cyrus (who has recorded Dylan’s heartbreak blues You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go) and Ed Sheeran (who is behind one of over 25 versions of Masters of War).
That so many singers across the musical spectrum cover his songs is a testament to Dylan’s universal genius. From Goldie Hawn cooing through I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight to Duran Duran wrestling with Lay Lady Lay, no matter what your taste in music - and even if you have never acquired a taste for Dylan’s voice - there is surely someone whose dulcet tones can render his tunes accessible to your ears.
In honour of the troubadour's 80th birthday, here is a guide to 10 essential Dylan covers, some being versions that were more significant or successful than the originals, and others being truly transcendent readings of some of the great man’s greatest songs.
1. The Byrds: Mr. Tambourine Man (1965)
A jingling-jangling 12-string Rickenbacker guitar riff and the tightly meshed harmonies of Roger McGuinn, David Crosby and Gene Clark signalled the birth of folk rock. The Californian quintet had got hold of an acoustic acetate of Dylan’s trippy paean to the imaginative power of music, and essentially reinterpreted it in the style of the Beatles. They changed the key, sped it up, cut verses, added hooks and a backbeat. Dylan himself commented “Wow! You can dance to that!” and began experimenting with a backing band of his own on his fifth album, Bringing It All Back Home.
2. Elvis Presley: Tomorrow Is a Long Time (1966)
Composed when Dylan was 21 but not officially released until 1971, this is a tender ballad of loss and regret with a beautiful melody and a world-weary air that belies his tender years. Elvis Presley was Dylan’s teenage hero, and his gentle version (released with the soundtrack album for Spinout) is absolutely gorgeous, showcasing what a sensitive balladeer the King of Rock ’n’ Roll could be. Dylan described it as “the one recording I treasure the most.” Presley recorded several Dylan songs over the years, whilst Dylan composed Went to See the Gypsy about a possibly imaginary Las Vegas encounter with Elvis in 1970.
3. Jimi Hendrix: All Along the Watchtower (1968)
Dylan’s 1967 acoustic original is stark and barren, its richly symbolic language heavy with portents of societal reckoning and mood of approaching doom. Hendrix’s extraordinarily atmospheric and propulsive electric version explodes that ambience into life, a veritable apocalypse erupting from the twists and flares of his burning lead guitar. It quickly became a rock classic, and even Dylan adapted his own live arrangement to match the Hendrix version.
4. The Band: I Shall Be Released (1968)
Originally known as The Hawks, roots rock pioneers The Band were Dylan’s backing group for his incendiary electric tours of 1965-66, before hunkering down in a basement in Woodstock to help concoct Americana as we know it. Dylan did not release his own version of this plangent spiritual of transcending physical bonds until 1971, so strictly speaking The Band’s luminously moving version (on debut album Music From Big Pink) might be considered the original. In a spookily atmospheric setting, Richie Manuel’s tender falsetto strains desperately towards the heavens while his bandmates offer harmonic support. Much covered, The Heptones released a great reggae version in 1969, while the Beatles jammed through it during Let It Be sessions the same year.
5. Bryan Ferry: A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall (1973)
The Roxy Music frontman gave Dylan’s apocalyptic acoustic folk epic the full glam rock production in a highly charged version featuring thunderous drums, hammering piano, sawing strings, blazing lead guitar and a soulful answering chorus of female backing singers. It can be a challenge adapting Dylan’s wordiest songs, but Ferry's conviction brought him a top 10 debut solo single. In 2007 the dapper crooner recorded a whole album of his hero’s songs: Dylanesque. Once you realise what an influence Dylan was on Ferry, it helps explain Ferry’s own very mannered vocal style.
6. Shirley Caesar: Gotta Serve Somebody (1980)
Many Dylan fans turned away during his proselytising early 80s Born Again phase, but the gospel musical flourishes and Biblical imagery infusing songs on Slow Train Coming, Saved and Shot Of Love infuse the material with timeless depth. The great gospel singer Shirley Caesar first recorded this belting testament to the power of the Lord on 1980 album Rejoice, with a funky choir punctuating her fierce spiritual declarations. She changed Dylan’s jokey line “You may call me Bobby, you may call me Zimmy” to “You might call me mommy, but my name is Shirley.” During a televised concert in 2007, cameras caught guest of honour Dylan openly weeping during Caesar’s performance.
7. Siouxsie & the Banshees: This Wheel’s on Fire (1987)
The punk band had become goth icons when they had a hit with this bold cover of one of Dylan’s oddest ditties, written with Rick Danko as part of The Basement Tapes and originally released by The Band in 1968. For a song of inscrutable meaning (“Best notify my next of kin / This wheel shall explode!”) it has proved surprisingly enduring. Julie Driscoll and Brian Augur turned it into a psychedelic hit in 1968; The Hollies, Elvis Costello and Golden Earing have all given it a bash; and Kylie Minogue recorded a joyous version for the soundtrack of Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie in 2016.
8. Jeff Buckley: Just Like a Woman (1993)
One of Dylan’s loveliest melodies and most darkly romantic lyrics, from Blonde on Blonde in 1966, rumoured to be inspired by a brief encounter with doomed Andy Warhol starlet Edie Sedgwick. Many great singers have recorded it, including Nina Simone, Roberta Flack, Joe Cocker, Rod Stewart and Stevie Nicks. Tragic troubadour Jeff Buckley really gets inside the song on a six-minute version featuring fluid guitar playing and a sensationally sensitive vocal that spirals into places few singers can ever reach. It was demoed in 1993 (and features on a live album from that year) although not officially released until the posthumous You and I in 2016.
9. Adele: Make You Feel My Love (2008)
A swooningly romantic ballad from Dylan’s 1997 masterpiece Time Out of Mind, its regal melody helped make it a karaoke classic after Adele’s glorious piano and strings version on her debut album, 19. “I love Bob Dylan’s writing but I don’t like his voice, it really grates,” Adele told me at the time. “But it’s a beautiful tune and they are the most beautiful lyrics. It’s stunning, and it kind of summed up what I’d been trying to say in all of my songs. I love singing that song.”
10. Bonnie Raitt: Standing in the Doorway (2012)
Veteran blues singer-songwriter Raitt offers a languorously sorrowful take on this lost love lament from Time Out of Mind, the aching notes of her guitars decorating a smoky, regret-filled vocal. When we consider Dylan’s great canon of songs, the spotlight tends to fall on his classic early work, but there are so many fantastic songs from his later period crying out for new interpretations to join Wanda Jackson’s rocking delivery of Thunder on the Mountain (2011), jazz singer Curtis Steiger’s slinky Things Have Changed (2012), Betty LaVette’s mesmeric Ain’t Talkin’ (2018) and Emma Swift’s intimate take on I Contain Multitudes (2020). Until new generations of singers take up the challenge, we will always have Dylan’s grizzled originals to draw us into his magical world of song.
