May 242021
 

‘The Best Covers Ever’ series counts down our favorite covers of great artists.

best bob dylan covers

When we began our Best Covers Ever series a little over three years ago, Bob Dylan was about the first artist who came to mind. But we held off. We needed to work our way up to it. So we started with smaller artists to get our feet wet. You know, up-and-comers like The Rolling Stones and Nirvana, Beyoncé and Pink Floyd, Madonna and Queen.

We kid, obviously, but there’s a kernel of truth there. All those artists have been covered a million times, but in none of their stories do cover songs loom quote as large as they do in Bob Dylan’s. Every time one of his songs has topped the charts, it’s been via a cover. Most of his best-known songs, from “All Along the Watchtower” to “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” didn’t get that way because of his recordings. In some cases fans of the songs don’t even realize they are Bob Dylan songs. That’s been happening since Peter, Paul, and Mary sang “Blowin’ in the Wind,” and it’s still happening almost sixty years later – just look at the number of YouTube videos titled “Make You Feel My Love (cover of Adele)”.

So needless to say, there was a lot of competition for this list. We finally narrowed it down to 100 covers – our biggest list ever, but still only a drop in the bucket of rain. Many of the most famous Dylan covers are on here. Many of them aren’t. The only criteria for inclusion was, whether iconic or obscure, whether the cover reinvented, reimagined, and reinterpreted a Dylan song in a new voice.

With a list like this, and maybe especially with this list in particular, there’s an incentive to jump straight to number one. If you need to do that to assuage your curiosity, fine. But then come back to the start. Even the 100th best Dylan cover is superlative. Making it on this list at all marks a hell of a feat considering the competition. (In fact, Patreon supporters will get several hundred bonus covers, the honorable mentions it killed us to cut.)

In a 2006 interview with Jonathan Lethem, Dylan himself put it well: “My old songs, they’ve got something—I agree, they’ve got something! I think my songs have been covered—maybe not as much as ‘White Christmas’ or ‘Stardust,’ but there’s a list of over 5,000 recordings. That’s a lot of people covering your songs, they must have something. If I was me, I’d cover my songs too.”

The list begins on Page 2.

Nov 042011
 

It was a sad day when Brooklyn’s favorite electronic indie trio, Mobius Band, decided to go on hiatus. But thankfully at least one of its talented members – guitarist and vocalist, Ben Sterling – is still making music, albeit under a different name with new band members. Sterling, bassist Melissa Metrick, and drummer Ian Ainley comprise indie pop band Cookies. If the name isn’t appealing enough (who doesn’t like cookies?), just let the music speak for itself. Cookies’ creative cover of R&B veteran Janet Jackson’s “Love Will Never Do (Without You)” will leave you hungry for more – guaranteed. Continue reading »

Jun 102011
 

Full Albums features covers of every track off a classic album. Got an idea for a future pick? Leave a note in the comments!

Kanye West’s 808s & Heartbreak was universally derided upon its 2008 release. Following three critically-acclaimed rap albums, a heart-on-sleeve pop album by a guy who clearly could barely carry a tune proved dead on arrival. The fact that he masked his vocal deficiencies with Auto-Tune at the very height of the anti-Auto-Tune fervor made 808s a particularly easy target.

Three years later, though, people look back on the album more fondly. 808s clearly played a role in shaping West’s undisputed masterpiece My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, so even the holdouts reluctantly credit the album as a stepping stone to greatness. More generous types recognize, however belatedly, that West perversely used Auto-Tune to make his music more human, not less.

One fact has remained consistent, though, and that is that this album lends itself to covers better than any other Kanye album. The reason is clear – covering a pop song is much easier than covering a hip-hop song. The preponderance of “Love Lockdown”s alone could keep a cover blog going for weeks. Below, then, we present covers of every song off 808s and Heartbreak. No other Kanye West album would be remotely feasible – where the “New Workout Plan” covers at? – but this one proved a cinch. Auto-Tune not included. Continue reading »

Jun 082011
 

Download This! scours the web’s dark corners for cool cover freebies. View past installments.

There’s not much to say about Radiohead’s OK Computer that hasn’t been said since it was released 14 years ago. Here at Cover Me we seem to post Radiohead cover songs almost daily. Well, the sincerest form of flattery is covering a song by an influential artist or album, right? And love it or hate it, it’s difficult to dispute the impression that OK Computer left on music. So it’s no surprise that Stereogum rounded up 12 great artists a few years ago to do a song-for-song tribute to OK Computer. Since the tribute came 10 years after the original, they titled it OKX. Continue reading »

Oct 062010
 

Download This scours the web’s dark corners for cool cover freebies. View past installments.

This past Friday, Brooklyn’s Mobius Band announced that after over a decade of recording and touring, the group was splitting up. For cover lovers, this is terrible news. On Valentine’s Days ’08 and ’09 the band released two free love-song cover EPs on their website. Though they skipped this year (perhaps because things were already on the fritz), we were hoping a new offering would come on V-Day 2011. It seems that’s not to be.

So instead, we use the occasion to revisit their two prior EPs. The band irreverently squeezes artists old and new into their indie pop mold, treating love songs by Townes Van Zandt and Kanye West with equal care. The 2008 EP Love Will Reign Supreme transitions straight from Bob Dylan (“I’ll Keep It with Mine”) to Daft Punk (“Digital Love”). Empire of Love, released one year later, gives the Dixie Chicks’ “Lullaby” a haze-pop sheen and adds xylophone to TV on the Radio’s “Satellite.” Continue reading »

Apr 202010
 

Omigod, you just have to hear this new Bob Dylan cover.  You know that folksy ballad, “All Along the Watchtower”?  Well some afro-headscarf weirdnik named Jimi rocked it so hard that…  What’s that?  You’ve already heard it?  You say it tops every single list of the best Dylan covers that has ever been made with absolutely no exceptions so don’t bother looking to try to prove me wrong?  Ah.  Well, Mr. Music Snob, try these ten lesser-known covers on for size, spanning from Bob’s folk origins until his post-Blonde on Blonde motorcycle crash.

Grand Panda ft. Dawn – Ballad of a Thin Man


This grinding synth slow-burn comes via comp curator extraordinaire Béatrice Ardisson, whose Dylan Mania contains sixteen of the most fantastically weird covers you’re likely to hear.  [Buy]

Mobius Band – I’ll Keep It With Mine


Though Dylan wrote this song in 1964, his own version didn’t see the light of day until 1985’s Biograph compilation.  It indicates he was experimenting with what he called “that thin, wild mercury music” several years before Blonde on Blonde[Buy]

The Roots – Masters of War


Outside of free jazz and the Dead, there aren’t many songs where a blogger must decide whether to post the ten-minute version or the twenty.  I went with the conservative length, but I’ll probably post the longer one on Twitter this week.  Now with extra ?uestlove drum solo!  [Buy]

Dion – Spanish Harlem Incident


When Dion opened Dylan’s New York concerts last fall, he missed an opportunity to deliver this swinging gem to an appreciative audience.  It’s not like he had to worry about stepping on Bob’s toes; the man has only performed it one time himself.  [Buy]

40 Thieves – Subterranean Homesick Blues


“Subterranean” has been described as the first rap song.  40 Thieves make the argument by ripping through the lyrics over a funky Public Enemy-esq beat.  [Buy]

Martin Simpson – Boots of Spanish Leather


Dylan’s finger-picking from the early days should get more credit than it does (see “Don’t Think Twice”), but even at his best he had nothing on this guy.  Listen those funky bass note slaps.  [Buy]

I Can Make a Mess Like Nobody’s Business – Positively 4th Street


This song seems even angrier in a polite acoustic guise.  By the time singer Arthur “Ace” Enders makes it to that cutting last line, you wonder what he’s capable of.  [Buy]

Mike Ness – Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright


Putting Dylan’s acoustic songs to a heavy rock beat is not a novel concept, but the Social Distortion frontman handles it particularly well.  What song doesn’t improve with a little growl?  [Buy]

The Magokoro Brothers – My Back Pages


Even for critics underwhelmed by the incoherent storyline of Dylan’s 2003 film Masked and Anonymous (people, plot is so twentieth century), few could object to the cover-heavy soundtrack.  The Magokoro Bros’ translation of “My Back Pages” into Japanese works because it doesn’t.  Each line has three times as many syllables as will fit, so the singer always seems to be playing catch-up.  [Buy]

Douglas September – Girl from the North Country


The word haunting gets overused, but it has never been more appropriate.  September’s hoarse whisper is devastating and that gusting wind raises the hairs on your neck.  [Buy]

Read Part 2: After the Crash.