Cover version

Alicia Keys – Pressing On – The Best Dylan Covers

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Alicia Keys – Pressing On – The Best Dylan Covers

Saved is the twentieth studio album by Bob Dylan, released on June 23, 1980. Among the songs are the hymn-like song, Pressing On.

“Two stand-out tracks, nonetheless: the turbulent ‘Pressing On’ (Dylan creating convincing hot gospel) and the intelligently submissive, courageous address (including a lovely, aptly devotional harmonica) that is ‘What Can I Do For You?””
~Michael Gray (The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia)

The album was recorded at Muscle Shoals and was produced by Barry Beckett and Jerry Wexler. In 2013 Alicia Keys chose Pressing On as her song for the documentary about “The Muscle Shoals sound”.

 

Muscle Shoals is a 2013 documentary film about FAME Studios and Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Muscle Shoals, Alabama.

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Peter Case – Long Time Gone – The Best Dylan Covers

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Peter Case – Long Time Gone – The Best Dylan Covers

Long Time Gone is a song by Bob Dylan, first officially released at the Bootleg Series Vol. 9: The Witmark Demos: 1962–1964, an album of demo recordings Bob Dylan made for his first two publishing companies, Leeds Music and M. Witmark & Sons, from 1962 to 1964. According to Bobdylan.com he played the song twice, once in 1962 and once in 1963.

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Nina Simone – Ballad of Hollis Brown – The Best Dylan Covers

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The rats have got your flour
Bad blood it got your mare
If there’s anyone that knows
Is there anyone that cares?
– Bob Dylan (Ballad of Hollis Brown)

The Best Dylan Covers: Nina Simone – Ballad of Hollis Brown

Ballad of Hollis Brown is a song written by Bob Dylan, released in 1964 on his third album The Times They Are A-Changin’. The song tells the story of a South Dakota farmer, who overwhelmed by the desperation of poverty, kills his wife, children and then himself.

Lyrically, this song consists of 11 verses which bring the listener to a bleak and destitute South Dakota farm, where a poor farmer (Hollis Brown), his wife and five children, already living in abject poverty, are subjected to even more hardships. In despair, the man kills his wife and children and himself with a shotgun. A murder ballad if there ever was one, I would love to hear Nick Cave tackle this song.

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Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy aka Will Oldham – Brownsville Girl – The Best Dylan Covers

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Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy aka Will Oldham – Brownsville Girl – The Best Dylan Covers

“Brownsville Girl” is a song from Bob Dylan’s 1986 album, Knocked Out Loaded, recorded in May of that year. It is notable for its length, over 11 minutes, and for being co-written by playwright Sam Shepard. The song is an overdubbed version of a December 1984 outtake from the Empire Burlesque sessions entitled “New Danville Girl”.

bob dylan knocked out

While as an album Knocked Out Loaded was poorly received upon release, “Brownsville Girl” is considered one of Dylan’s best pieces by some critics. Music critic Robert Christgau praised “Brownsville Girl” as “one of the greatest and most ridiculous of Dylan’s great ridiculous epics. Doesn’t matter who came up with such lines as ‘She said even the swap meets around here are getting pretty corrupt’ and ‘I didn’t know whether to duck or to run, so I ran’ — they’re classic Dylan.”

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Alison Krauss – I Believe In You – The Best Dylan Covers

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“They ask me how I feel
And if my love is real
And how I know I’ll make it through
And they, they look at me and frown
They’d like to drive me from this town
They don’t want me around
‘Cause I believe in you”

 

Alison Krauss – I Believe In You – The Best Dylan Covers

I Believe In You is the third song on Slow Train Coming, the nineteenth studio album by Bob Dylan, released on August 20, 1979. It was his first effort since becoming a born-again Christian, and all of the songs either express his strong personal faith, or stress the importance of Christian teachings and philosophy. The evangelical nature of the record alienated many of Dylan’s existing fans; at the same time, many Christians were drawn into his fan base. Slow Train Coming was listed at #16 in the 2001 book CCM Presents: The 100 Greatest Albums in Christian Music.

“One of the most tender love songs Dylan wrote in the 1980’s, even though the object of his affection is not a woman, but Christ. “I Believe in You” also contains arguably Dylan’s most committed vocal on Slow Train Coming. The song’s lyrics are simple but touching – “I believe in you/even through the tears and laughter” and “I believe in you/Even when I feel outnumbered” are just two examples. Indeed, the song is a simple statement on Dylan’s new found faith and the notion that Dylan will now drop everything and make any sacrifice for Christ now that his faith is strong. The song contains a beautiful melody and some lovely guitar flourishes by Mark Knopfler. One of the best songs of Dylan’s Christian period.”
– Thomas Ward (allmusic.com)

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Jerry Garcia Band – I Shall Be Released – The Best Dylan Covers

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” the somber, nearly claustrophobic strains of I Shall Be Released burst with the fiery force of spiritual transcendence.”
– John Metzger / Music Box

Jerry Garcia Band – I Shall Be Released – The Best Dylan Covers

 

I Shall Be Released is a 1967 song written by Bob Dylan.

The Band recorded the first officially-released version of the song for their 1968 debut album, Music from Big Pink, with Richard Manuel singing lead vocals, and Rick Danko and Levon Helm harmonizing in the chorus. The song was also performed near the end of the Band’s 1976 farewell concert, The Last Waltz, in which all the night’s performers (with the exception of Muddy Waters) plus Ringo Starr and Ronnie Wood appeared on the same stage. Additional live recordings by the Band were included on the 1974 concert album Before the Flood and the 2001 expanded CD reissue of Rock of Ages.

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