Covers Dylan has performed
Although much has been made of the fact that Dylan's work has been covered-- Dylan himself has covered a great many songs, beginning with the covers he did early in his career.
One of my favorites early on was Dylan's cover on his first album of Eric von Scmidt's "Baby let me follow you down." Dylan did a great version of this song at the 1966 Royal Albert Hall concert that was only available as a bootleg for many years (which was how I first heard it) but was released in 1998 as "Live 1966"-- for me, it has the freedom and joy of what Dylan called "that wild mercury sound" he brought to his albums at that time.
Speaking of that sound -- Robert Zimmerman's stated ambition in his high school yearbook was to play in Little Richard's band. Well, last night, at the Grammys Richard himself -- old as time but timeless nonetheless, performed and I heard in his wild yelps and hollers and pounding rhythm some of that sound that Dylan found in his electric albums.
But back to the covers. Dylan has also done some strange, awful and unusual versions of other people's songs. There was his 1970 cover of Paul Simon's "The Boxer." In 1973, in what I have to believe was a moment of contractual dispute, Columbia released an album mostly filled with covers that is now called "Dylan" (I think it may have been called "13" at one time). It includes covers of Jerry Jeff Walker's "Mr. Bojangles," Joni Mitchell's "Big Yellow Taxi" and Elvis' "Can't help falling in Love."
Recently, as Warren Zevon was living his last days, Dylan started performing some of his songs.
However, one of the most unusual set of covers I ever saw Dylan sing, was at a concert at Wolf Trap in Maryland where he performed Dave Mason's "We Just Disagree," Jimmy Buffett's "Pirate looks at 40," and -- this I'll never forget -- Dion's "Abraham, Martin & John."
One of my favorites early on was Dylan's cover on his first album of Eric von Scmidt's "Baby let me follow you down." Dylan did a great version of this song at the 1966 Royal Albert Hall concert that was only available as a bootleg for many years (which was how I first heard it) but was released in 1998 as "Live 1966"-- for me, it has the freedom and joy of what Dylan called "that wild mercury sound" he brought to his albums at that time.
Speaking of that sound -- Robert Zimmerman's stated ambition in his high school yearbook was to play in Little Richard's band. Well, last night, at the Grammys Richard himself -- old as time but timeless nonetheless, performed and I heard in his wild yelps and hollers and pounding rhythm some of that sound that Dylan found in his electric albums.
But back to the covers. Dylan has also done some strange, awful and unusual versions of other people's songs. There was his 1970 cover of Paul Simon's "The Boxer." In 1973, in what I have to believe was a moment of contractual dispute, Columbia released an album mostly filled with covers that is now called "Dylan" (I think it may have been called "13" at one time). It includes covers of Jerry Jeff Walker's "Mr. Bojangles," Joni Mitchell's "Big Yellow Taxi" and Elvis' "Can't help falling in Love."
Recently, as Warren Zevon was living his last days, Dylan started performing some of his songs.
However, one of the most unusual set of covers I ever saw Dylan sing, was at a concert at Wolf Trap in Maryland where he performed Dave Mason's "We Just Disagree," Jimmy Buffett's "Pirate looks at 40," and -- this I'll never forget -- Dion's "Abraham, Martin & John."
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