the best Dylan covers

Helen Baylor – What Can I Do For You – The Best Dylan Covers

Posted on by Hallgeir Olsen

What can I do for you? is a song by Bob Dylan from the album, Saved. Saved is the twentieth studio album by Dylan, released on June 23, 1980, by Columbia Records.

Helen Baylor (born January 8, 1953 as Helen LaRue Lowe) is an American gospel singer. She covered Dylan’s song for the Bob Dylan tribute album, Gotta Serve Somebody: The Gospel Songs of Bob Dylan. Gotta Serve Somebody: The Gospel Songs of Bob Dylan is a tribute album independently produced by Jeffrey Gaskill of Burning Rose Productions, Ltd. and released under license on the Sony/Columbia label in 2003. The compilation features traditional and contemporary gospel singers performing songs written by Bob Dylan during his “born again” period (1979–81).

Gotta Serve Somebody was Grammy nominated for Best Traditional Soul Gospel Album and also Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals for the Bob Dylan and Mavis Staples duet but neither of the prizes was won. The New York Times called the record “The best African-American covers of Dylan songs since Jimi Hendrix.” Helen Baylor sings one of the finest songs on the album.

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Cat Power – Stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis blues again – The Best Dylan Covers

Posted on by Hallgeir Olsen
Chan Marshall (Cat Power), Paris, November 2005

Cat Power – Stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis blues again – The Best Dylan Covers

 

Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again is written by Bob Dylan and appears on his 1966 album Blonde on Blonde. The album version also appears on 1971’s Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits Vol. II. A live version of this song appears on the 1976 album Hard Rain, and was also released as a single with Rita May as the B-side. An early studio take, done in a faster cut-time, was released on The Bootleg Series Vol. 7: No Direction Home: The Soundtrack. Continue reading “Cat Power – Stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis blues again – The Best Dylan Covers” →

Joan Baez – Farewell Angelina – The Best Dylan Covers

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The Fantastic cover photo is shot by Richard Avedon

Joan Baez – Farewell Angelina – The Best Dylan Covers

 

“Farewell Angelina” is a song written by Bob Dylan in the mid-1960s, and recorded by Joan Baez.

Dylan attempted to record “Farewell Angelina” only once, during the first session for his 1965 album Bringing it All Back Home, and he abandoned all attempts to record the song again. Dylan’s one recording of the song was eventually issued in 1991 on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991.

Joan Baez included this song on her 1965 album Farewell Angelina. In the UK the song was issued at the same time as a single. Baez’s version, though only about half as long as Dylan’s recording, was very similar in structure and showed her moving away from pure folk music with the use of string bass accompaniment. Continue reading “Joan Baez – Farewell Angelina – The Best Dylan Covers” →

Norah Jones – I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight – The Best Dylan Covers

Posted on by Hallgeir Olsen

Norah Jones – I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight – The Best Dylan Covers

Kick your shoes off, do not fear
Bring that bottle over here
I’ll be your baby tonight

“I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight” is a 1967 song by Bob Dylan first released on John Wesley Harding. It was Dylan’s eighth studio album and was released on December 27, 1967 by Columbia Records. Produced by Bob Johnston, the album marked Dylan’s return to acoustic music and traditional roots, after three albums of electric rock music.

Geetali Norah Jones Shankar, widely known as Norah Jones, is an American singer-songwriter, musician and actress. She is a daughter of an American, Sue Jones, and Indian sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar. She has covered several of Bob Dylan’s songs and performed together with him on stage.

Norah Jones’s version was released on a limited edition Greatest Hits collection in 2008. It was also part of the compilation, Covers (2012), and was released as a bonus track on the single Feelin’ the same way. Continue reading “Norah Jones – I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight – The Best Dylan Covers” →

Susan Tedeschi – Lord Protect My Child – The Best Dylan Covers

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Susan Tedeschi – Lord Protect My Child – The Best Dylan Covers

 

There’ll be a time I hear tell
When all will be well
When God and man will be reconciled
But until men lose their chains
And righteousness reigns
Lord, protect my child

Hope and Desire is the sixth studio album by Susan Tedeschi. It was released on October 11, 2005. The album is a slight step away from Tedeschi’s electrifying compositions and wild guitar work, as she concentrates on singing. All songs on Hope and Desire are covers of famous standards. It has a fantastic version of Bob Dylan’s Lord Protect My Child!

“Lord Protect My Child” is a song written by Bob Dylan, who recorded it at New York City’s The Power Station in ten takes on May 2, 1983. The song is an outtake from Dylan’s album Infidels that was later included in The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991 on Volume 3. It is not known why Dylan decided not to include “Lord Protect My Child” on Infidels. It is a Christian song, the lyrics of which express concern for Dylan’s child. Reviewer Jonathan Lethem called the song “an achingly candid blues-plea which [provides] a rare glimpse of Bob Dylan-the-parent”.

Susan Tedeschi, Derek Trucks, and Dave Brubeck recorded this great interpretation of “Lord Protect My Child”, which was produced by Chris Brubeck and used as the theme song for the human trafficking documentary film, Not My Life.

Susan Tedeschi – Lord Protect My Child (Studio version):

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Jimi Hendrix – All Along The Watchtower – The Best Dylan Covers

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Jimi Hendrix – All Along The Watchtower – The Best Dylan Covers

 

“I liked Jimi Hendrix’s record of this and ever since he died I’ve been doing it that way. Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it’s a tribute to him in some kind of way.”
– Bob Dylan (Biograph liner notes)

“It overwhelmed me, really. He had such talent, he could find things inside a song and vigorously develop them. He found things that other people wouldn’t think of finding in there. He probably improved upon it by the spaces he was using. I took license with the song from his version, actually, and continue to do it to this day.”
– Bob Dylan (Fort Lauderdale Sentinel Sun, 1995)

“All Along the Watchtower” is a song written and recorded by Bob Dylan. The song initially appeared on his 1967 album John Wesley Harding, and it has been included on most of Dylan’s subsequent greatest hits compilations. Since the late 1970s, he has performed it in concert more than any of his other songs. Different versions appear on four of Dylan’s live albums.

Covered by numerous artists in various genres, “All Along the Watchtower” is strongly identified with the interpretation Jimi Hendrix recorded for Electric Ladyland with the Jimi Hendrix Experience. The Hendrix version, released six months after Dylan’s original recording, became a Top 20 single in 1968 and was ranked 47th in Rolling Stone magazine’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

It is almost too obvious, but it has to be included in this series of the best Dylan covers. It is after all, maybe THE best Dylan cover ever done!

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