Aside from the legendary Fab Four, whose songs have been covered an innumerable number of times—spanning from the sublime (like Crosby, Stills & Nash’s rendition of ‘Blackbird’) to the utterly questionable (too many examples to mention)—no other musician in history has had their work reinterpreted and recorded as extensively as Bob Dylan.
His work’s been covered by artists in practically every genre, including by the most unlikely of artists, folk artists, blues artists, soul artists, psych and prog bands, as well as mainstream pop artists. Dylan’s songs include timeless anthems ‘Blowing in the Wind,’ ‘Times They Are a-Changing,’ ‘I Shall Be Released’ – protest songs ‘Masters of War,’ ‘A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall,’ ‘John Brown’ – songs protesting racism in the deep South ‘Oxford Town,’ ‘Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll’ – also spiritual songs ‘Tears Of Rage,’ ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door’. He was also responsible for creating the conditions for ‘folk-rock’ by plugging in and playing electric guitar at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, which influenced many artists and bands to follow suit, bands like The Byrds and Fairport Convention.
In short, his influence is such that the 1960’s, along with the Beatles and Brian Wilson, is unimaginable without his immense contribution .. albums such as The Beatles’ Rubber Soul are a direct result of Dylan’s influence and, even if he’d written nothing else after 1966, he’d still have changed the face of music and altered the course of the 1960’s. Springsteen’s claim, “Elvis freed your body but Dylan freed your mind,” is appropriate because Dylan wrote lyrics which were thoughtful and incisive, and which addressed real issues, placing them firmly in the mainstream.
The sixty three songs on I Shall Be Released is probably as good a collection of Dylan covers as could have been gathered together from right across the board, and while there are quite a number of artists who’re very well-known covering Dylan songs .. Grace Slick, Johnny Cash, The Byrds, Al Kooper, etc .. including a few surprising ones (Cher covering ‘Masters Of War’? The 1910 Fruitgum Company playing ‘The Mighty Quinn’?) the focus has largely been on lesser known artists, including several this reviewer had not even heard of, with some extremely good versions, such as ‘Tears of Rage’ by The Golden Cups, The Factotums performing ‘Sweet Marie’ and The Raiders with ‘If I Had To Do It Over Again,’ plus many more.
Several of the featured artists have chosen to cover Dylan in the style they’re known for. So Flatt & Scruggs give us a bluegrass ‘Girl From The North Country,’ Leon Russell funks and souls up ‘A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall,’ Janis Joplin R&Bs up ‘Dear Landlord’ and Johnny Winter blues-rocks his way through ‘Highway 61 Revisited’. There are also many very good versions by artists you’d not normally associate with Dylan tunes .. notably Sandie Shaw’s ‘Lay Lady Lay,’ The Faces ‘Wicked Messenger’ and Orange Bicycle’s ‘Tonight I’ll Be Staying With You’. It’s just a pity no artists chose to perform ‘Only A Pawn In Their Game,’ ‘With God On Their Side’ and ‘Talking John Birch Paranoid Blues’.
It’s worth noting that Dylan’s songs have also had some quite fortuitous, albeit unintended, consequences. The Hollies decision to record an album of Dylan cover versions was the catalyst which finally convinced Graham Nash to leave the band and join with David Crosby and Steve Stills to form Crosby, Stills & Nash .. and the rest is history.
