the best Dylan covers

Lucinda Williams – Tryin’ to get to heaven – The Best Dylan Covers

Posted on by Hallgeir Olsen

When I was in Missouri
They would not let me be
I had to leave there in a hurry
I only saw what they let me see
You broke a heart that loved you
Now you can seal up the book and not write anymore
I’ve been walking that lonesome valley
Trying to get to heaven before they close the door
– Bob Dylan (Trying To Get To Heaven)

Lucinda Williams – Tryin’ to get to heaven – The Best Dylan Covers

One of the most praised songs of Time Out of Mind is “Tryin’ to Get to Heaven”, Dylan has a very strong and clear vocal on the song. It is also Dylan’s only harmonica performance on the entire album.

Time Out of Mind is the thirtieth studio album by the American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released on September 30, 1997, by Columbia Records. It was his first double studio album (on vinyl) since Self Portrait in 1970. It was also released as a single CD.

For fans and critics, the album marked Dylan’s artistic comeback after he struggled with his musical identity throughout the 1980s; he hadn’t released any original material for seven years, since Under the Red Sky in 1990. Time Out of Mind is hailed as one of Dylan’s best albums, and it went on to win three Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year in 1998. It was also ranked number 408 on Rolling Stone’s list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2003.

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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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Lou Reed – Foot Of Pride – The Best Dylan Covers

Posted on by Hallgeir Olsen

Lou Reed – Foot of Pride – The Best Dylan Covers

“That’s the song I picked to do at Bobfest (in New York in 1992). I’d been listening to it almost every day for two months. It’s so fucking funny: ‘Did he make it to the top? Well, he probably did and dropped.’ There are so many verses, it was impossible to learn. G.E. Smith, who was playing with me, turned the pages. There is a lot of anger here. It’s not the Three Stooges.”
– Lou Reed

Foot of Pride is an outtake from the Infidels sessions. As with most Dylan albums, outtakes and rough mixes from Infidels were bootlegged and these sessions had some very interesting gems. A take of Foot of Pride with Bob Dylan was later released on The Bootleg Series Vol. 1-3.

Bob Dylan has not performed the song live (to my knowledge) but Lou Reed does a great job.

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Patti Smith – Changing Of The Guards – The Best Dylan Covers

Posted on by Hallgeir Olsen
Photo: BornToListen, Bergenfest 2015

 

I stumbled to my feet
I rode past destruction in the ditches
With the stitches still mending beneath a heart-shaped tattoo
Renegade priests and treacherous young witches
Were handing out the flowers that I’d given to you.

 

Patti Smith – Changing Of The Guards – The Best Dylan Covers

“…I had finished Gone Again in memory of Fred [‘Sonic’ Smith, her late husband], and I really didn’t think about touring at all, since my children were in school, but I heard from Dylan in 1995, and he asked whether I wanted to do a series of East coast dates with him.
…
Bob and I spoke privately and I thanked him for giving me the opportunity, and he really encouraged me to come back into the fold. He said the people would be happy to see me. I truthfully wasn’t certain how I would be received, or what I should do, and being encouraged by him was very important to me. I mean, Bob – the man I know – is a man of few words, but the words are always meaningful. And so that was very important. He was very encouraging to me about my place in the community of rock’n’roll.”
– Patti Smith (Kirk Elder, interview 2009, AlternativesToValium)

Changing of the Guards is a song written by Bob Dylan, released in 1978 as a single and as the first track on his album Street-Legal.

Lyrically, this song has provoked much critical insight, both positive and negative. According to Oliver Trager author of Keys to the Rain: The Definitive Bob Dylan Encyclopedia, “Changing of the Guards” has been criticized as a “song in which Dylan unsuccessfully and cynically parodies his anthemic self in haunting fashion…

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Emmylou Harris – Every Grain Of Sand – The Best Dylan Covers

Posted on by Hallgeir Olsen

I hear the ancient footsteps like the motion of the sea
Sometimes I turn, there’s someone there, other times it’s only me
I am hanging in the balance of the reality of man
Like every sparrow falling, like every grain of sand

Emmylou Harris – Every Grain of Sand – The Best Dylan Covers

That was an inspired song that came to me. I felt like I was just putting down words that were coming from somewhere else, and I just stuck it out.
~Bob Dylan (“Biograph” notes)

Every Grain of Sand” is a song written by Bob Dylan, recorded in May 1981 and originally released the following August on Dylan’s album Shot of Love. It was subsequently included on the compilation Biograph. An early version of the song, recorded in September 1980 and featuring Jennifer Warnes on backing vocal, was released in 1991 on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991. To me it sounds like and feels like a hymn. Continue reading “Emmylou Harris – Every Grain Of Sand – The Best Dylan Covers” →

Peter Case – Long Time Gone – The Best Dylan Covers

Posted on by Hallgeir Olsen

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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