Amph 50 Best Bob Dylan Covers of all Time: 47. Sufjan Stevens - "Ring Them Bells"

By Josh Jackson
50 Best Bob Dylan Covers of All Time

with Michael Dunaway and Steve LaBate

Page 1 of 5

"As we began to compile this list of the 50 Best Bob Dylan Covers of All Time?asking for input from Paste readers, writers and editors?someone suggested that it might be easier to compile a list of artists who haven't covered Dylan. I've listened to literally hundreds of Dylan covers over the course of the past week, trying to weigh choices like, "Who's version of 'Tomorrow Is a Long Time' is better, Nick Drake or Nickel Creek?" But I don't mean to make it sound like grueling work. My biggest take-away from this exercise is that going to Dylan for source material generally elevates whatever artist is tackling it. There are so many transcendent moments in these 50 songs. Antony's trembling tenor veering "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" into a completely new direction. Beck making "Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat" sound like he wrote it. I could put this playlist on repeat, and it'd be a long while before it grew old.
We chose only one song from each of the artists, though some are mentioned multiple times in the alternate takes. We disqualified any songs that were duets with Dylan, but we didn't limit it to official releases or studio versions. There are several rumored songs we wish we could have heard and considered (like Gillian Welch and David Rawling's "Idiot Wind"), and I'm sure there are songs you love that we just didn't know about. No artist has likely been covered as much as Dylan, so while this list is pretty well researched, it's far from exhaustive. Let us know your favorites in the comments section below.

A special thanks goes out to Michael Dunaway, Kate Kiefer, Andy Whitman and Steve LaBate who helped compile this list and who wrote many of the blurbs below. And thanks to all of Paste's Twitter followers and Facebook fans who made sure that their favorites were considered. Many of these were brand-new discoveries for us. Here are the 50 Best Bob Dylan Covers of All Time:

50. Cowboy Junkies - "If You Gotta Go, Go Now"
Give the Junkies credit for tackling the greats. On the band's U.K.-only live album, In the Time Before Llamas, Margo Timmins sings Dylan, Lou Reed, Robert Johnson and Gram Parsons. Opting for a rocking blues version of "If You Gotta Go," Margo's smoky vocals make for a lovely send-off. If not the Junkies, then... we like The Flying Burrito Brothers' sunny country rave-up."

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Well, I suppose it's a change up, though at the expense of the meaning of the song, and by a lead that can't sing.

 

Dylan does kind of confound people sometimes and here's a good example. Dylan is able to deliver some fairly innocuous lyrics and imbue them with a strange meaning and profundity. In this cover, you've just the fairly innocuous lyrics set to a serviceable country backing. It's a fun track, but if you didn't know it was Dylan, you'd never guess it.

I should link, however, to a Cowboy Junkies cover that I have loved for years, which is their version of Robert Johnson's Me & the Devil Blues, which they give a menacing, dark reading, as is, of course, correct. It doesn't replace Johnson's version (nothing ever could), but it's a lot better cover than this Dylan one.

 

49. The Ramones - "My Back Pages"

"A decade earlier, The Replacements? hilarious, drunken Dylan parody ?Like a Rolling Pin? proved that there should be no sacred cows in rock ?n? roll. But this sped-up Ramones cover of one of Dylan?s finest is delivered without a hint of irony. Every bit as simultaneously nostalgic and forward-looking as the original, it does what most punk covers of non-punk songs fail to do?it pays genuine heartfelt tribute to the original. If not The Ramones, then... we like The Hollies."

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'unironic' says it all...

 

That's more like it. It's done in the signature style of the Ramones, but you can get the emotion out of it too. The line "I'm younger than that now," sounds fantastic over those churning guitars and they even take a break in the middle for a short, but very evocative, guitar solo. Good work, guys.

 

48. Chrissie Hynde - "I Shall Be Released"

"Another gospel-soul arrangement, but Hynde lays surprisingly jazzy vocals on top for the verses. That's jarring enough given her classic rock-chick voice, but more voices join her on the chorus to turn the song into a pure anthem. If not Chrissie, then... we like Kevn Kinney's version with Warren Haynes and Edwin McCain."

I could find only one music clip of this with some revoltingly geeky geek playing the drums over it...just no. No.

 

I love Hynde's voice and I think I Shall Be Released is a song that really benefits from a soul-gospel take. Dylan's take is a kind of folk-gospel, the kind of gospel Flatt & Scruggs used to do, or maybe Bill Monroe. But the song is so simple and so inspirational that I think it really requires a more anthemic take. Dylan's certainly capable of doing black gospel; check out When He Returns on Slow Train Coming, the best album of his Christian trilogy. He just made the decision to do it in a different style, but it strikes me that this is the rare Dylan song where the cover has a shot at being better than Dylan's original.

 

47. Sufjan Stevens - "Ring Them Bells"

"Stevens' tasty arrangement includes horns bursting into subtle piano and guitar that make it absolutely his own. If not Sufjan then... we like Joe Cocker's earnest growls."

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