In the 1960s, Bob Dylan revolutionised folk music, stamping his identity into pertinent protest songs and using an electric guitar to pioneer folk rock. His poetry soared to Shakespearean presence and immortality by the end of the decade and has left his musical peers in awe to this day.
Over the years, Dylan’s finest work has been applauded by scores of amateur and professional admirers, mostly to the singer-songwriter’s appreciation. Most famously, Dylan commended Jimi Hendrix for his breathtaking rendition of ‘All Along the Watchtower’.
“I liked Jimi Hendrix’s record of this, and ever since he died, I’ve been doing it that way,” Dylan once said of the cover. “Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it’s a tribute to him in some kind of way.”
Dylan also once labelled Johnny Rivers’ version of ‘Positively 4th Street’ as his favourite of his covered songs. “Most of the cover versions of my songs seemed to take them out into left field somewhere, but Rivers’s version had the mandate down – the attitude, the melodic sense to complete and surpass even the feeling that I had put into it,” he said.
On the other side of the dime, Dylan has expressed his dissatisfaction with some renditions of his songs, including Guns N’ Roses’ take on ‘Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door’. During a live show, frontman Axl Rose once famously explained that it was Dylan who approached him initially.
“Bob asked me, ‘When you gonna record ‘Heaven’s Door’? And I said, ‘I don’t know, but we really love that song.’ And he said, ‘I don’t give a fuck. I just want the money.’ True story,” Rose recalled with a chuckle.
“Guns N’ Roses is okay, Slash is okay, but there’s something about their version of the song that reminds me of the movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” Dylan once said, giving his obscure critique of the cover.
For those who haven’t watched Philip Kaufman’s 1978 movie, its official synopsis offers some crucial context: “A small-town doctor learns that the population of his community is being replaced by emotionless alien duplicates.“
In his review, Dylan suggested that most of his respect for Guns N’ Roses is reserved for Slash. However, in a 2022 interview with the Wall Street Journal, Dylan also showed his admiration for the band’s classic lineup bassist, Duff McKagan, explaining how one of the artist’s songs speaks to him in a profound manner.
“There’s a Duff McKagan song called ‘Chip Away’ that has profound meaning for me. It’s a graphic song,” Dylan explained. “Chip away, chip away, like Michelangelo, breaking up solid marble stone to discover the form of King David inside.
“He didn’t build him from the ground up, he chipped away the stone until he discovered the king. It’s like my own songwriting: I overwrite something, then I chip away lines and phrases until I get to the real thing. Shooter Jennings produced that record. It’s a great song. Dvorak, ‘Moravian Duets.’ I just discovered that, but it’s over 100 years old.”
