Favorite Dylan Song

Scorchers also did best-ever, IMO, version of Hank Sr.'s "Lost Highway."

And slightly off-topic, Bowie's "Song for Bob Dylan" on the 1971 Hunky Dory album is as cool a tribute as Bob's "Song for Woody."

Oh, hear this Robert Zimmerman
I wrote a song for you
About a strange young man
called Dylan
With a voice like sand and glue
His words of truthful vengeance
They could pin us to the floor
Brought a few more people on
And put the fear in a whole lot more

Ah, Here she comes
Here she comes
Here she comes again
The same old painted lady
From the brow of a superbrain
She'll scratch this world to pieces
As she comes on like a friend
But a couple of songs
From your old scrapbook
Could send her home again

You gave your heart to every bedsit room
At least a picture on my wall
And you sat behind a million pair of eyes
And told them how they saw
Then we lost your train of thought
The paintings are all your own
While troubles are rising
We'd rather be scared
Together than alone

Ah, Here she comes...[etc.]

Now hear this Robert Zimmerman
Though I don't suppose we'll meet
Ask your good friend Dylan
If he'd gaze a while
down the old street
Tell him we've lost his poems
So they're writing on the walls
Give us back our unity
Give us back our family
You're every nation's refugee
Don't leave us with their sanity

Ah, Here she comes....[etc.]

Live version:

Shitty recording, but Mick Ronson's guitar still sounds good.

 

"A voice like sand and glue" is as close as anyone's ever come, I think.

 

Favorite Dylan songs...

1. Tangled Up In Blue
2. Positively 4th Street
3. Simple Twist of Fate
4. Hurricane
5. Highway 61 Revisited


Favorite lesser-known Dylan covers...

X - "Positively 4th Street"
Jeff Tweedy - "Simple Twist of Fate"
John Doe - "I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine"
Mike Ness - "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright"

 

A couple notes for early risers on Saturday/insomniacs on Friday: Centenary college radio station WNTI, which broadcasts online, has a dylan hour from 7 to 8 a.m., mix of Dylan originals and covers, that is very well done.

The show turned me on to the album Simple Twist of Fate by a band called Dave's True Story. It's an album of Dylan covers done is semi-cabaret style, with a female singer. The album's problem is that it inexplicably includes three versions of one song and two of another, but some of the tracks on there are great, particularly their covers of I Want You, Just Like a Woman, and Simple Twist of Fate. If you're a fan, worth getting for those three tracks alone.

Also, among covers, love Nico's "I'll Keep It With Mine," on Chelsea Girl.

 

Welcome aboard, rook.
Good post.

 

i am biased on this topic but Dylan is quoted as saying the grateful dead/jerry garcia do/did the best interpretations of his songs:
just like tom thumb's blues
queen jane
tangled up in blue
senor
simple twist of fate
tears of rage
it's all over now, baby blue
i shall be released

jerry nailed knockin' on heaven's door with tony rice and david grisman.

however, the dead was not so good with the mighty quinn and all along the watchtower.

 

Dylan covers, aside from Jimi's galactic "Watchtower," are the territory of early Fairport Convention, with "I'll Keep It With Mine," "Million Dollar Bash," "Percy's Song," and "Si Dois Tu Partir" ("If You Gotta Go, Go Now" transmogrified into French).

 

I saw Phish open their second set with Quinn the Eskimo, and it was fantastic.

 

Starman....you might be interested in hearing an retrospective on Sandy Denny done by BBC2...the 30th anniv of her passing... link found here... http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/musicclub/doc_sandydenny.shtml

Few other more vintage BD covers that I like (for various reasons) are "Hard Rain" - Leon Russell, "Baby Blue" - Them (w/Van Morrison), and "Don't Think Twice" - Wonder Who (aka Four Seasons)... the Hollies did a fine album of Dylan songs c. 1968 I think....

 

oh, and I just remembered....I once owned an album by Sebastian Cabot reciting Dylan lyrics.... think it was called Sebastian Cabot, Actor Bob Dylan, Poet, or something like that....still remember treatment of "Who Killed Davey Moore"...

 

You need to find a new coffee shop.

 

Very true. I love Dylan, but there are a few of his songs that are better as covers. One of the best concert moment's I've had was hearing pearl jam do an acoustic version of "masters of war" at Beneroya Hall (a 2,500-seat venue in Seattle with amazing acoustics). Vedder's voice is perfect for a song with such powerful lyrics.