The greatest recordings of Dylan songs by everyone else, part 1

By Tony Attwood

THE GREATEST RECORDINGS OF DYLAN SONGS by everyone else

Part 1: Laura Marling, Old Crowe, Dixie Chicks, Tom Jones, The Helio Sequence, The O-Jays, Mikael Wiehe and Ebba Forsberg, Coulson Dean McGuiness Flint, George Harrison,  Sinéad Lohan

Part 2: Judy Rodman, Spirit, Eric Clapton, Solomon Burke, The Daily Flash, Jason and the Scorchers, George Harrison, The Tallest Man on Earth, Nice, Charlie Parr

Part 3: Nina Simone, Michael Moravek, Jerry, Phil and Bob, The Nice, Bettina Jonic, Sheila Atim, Walter Trout, Stan Denski, Old Crow Medicine Show,  Ramblin’ Jack Eliot 

Part 4: Pearls before Swine, Howard Fishman, Sinead O’Connor, Mandolin Orange, Them, Lindsay Taylor, String Swing, Falco, Jimi Hendrix, Youssou N’Dour.

On our Facebook Group [Untold Dylan – you can join it if you want] I asked for suggestions for great recordings of Dylan songs by other artists.

I thought I might get a handful of replies, so I came up with my three favourites, and hoped that I might get seven suggestions to make it up to ten tracks in all.

But in fact I’ve had many more, and of course if you are on the Untold Dylan Facebook group you can see the whole lot.  (If you are not do join us).   But meanwhile what I have done is started to list the songs out below, with a link to the recording in each case.  It’s a bit clearer and when we’ve finished I’ll merge it into one file that can stay on the site as a page, catalogued at the top of the stie.

Because I was ready with my three, I’ve listed these first, and after that I’m simply putting them in the order they appeared on the Facebook page.  If any are missing it is only because I can’t find a link to the song by that artist, on line.

In a few cases I can’t find a YouTube link so I have searched (or very helpfully been given) a Spotify link.  If you are not a user of Spotify you need to sign up, but it is free at the basic level and that allows you to play the song – although of course I am only speaking about Spotify in the UK.  There might be copyright issues in other countries, or possibly a different site.

If this list (and the next lists that will follow in the coming days) gives you half as much fun as it has given me, you will be having a great time.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed and if you want to send in more please do so.

Putting the list up 10 at a time might seem a bit churlish, but it gives me a chance to listen to each one and check the links etc.  And besides, it is much more fun when these recordings are spread out over time so you can listen to them all and appreciate the lot.

Ten great recordings of Dylan songs by other artists.  

Hard Rain from the TV series Peaky Blinders.  By Laura Marling, suggested by Tony

Visions of Johanna recorded live by Old Crow Medicine Show, suggested by Tony [Spotify]

Mississippi recorded live by Dixie Chicks, suggested by Tony

What Good Am I by Tom Jones, suggested by Pat Sludden (Pat I changed the recording from the one you suggested; this one sounds cleaner. Hope that’s ok).

Mr Tambourine Man by The Helio Sequence suggested by Imam Alfa Abdulkareem

Emotionally Yours by The O-Jays suggested by Imam Alfa Abdulkareem

Boots of Spanish Leather on Dylan på svenska suggested by Jesper Fynbo [Spotify] (This link will start the whole album – you have to move down to the track suggested to play it)

Lo and Behold by Coulson, Dean, McGuiness, Flint suggested by Mike Mooney

If not for you by George Harrison suggested by Larry Fyffe

To Ramona by Sinéad Lohan, suggested by Kurt-Åke Hammarstedt [Spotify – select track 9]

Another list of ten in a day or so.  Do keep the suggestions coming.

What else is on the site

1: 500+ reviews of Dylan songs.  There is an index to these in alphabetical order on the home page, and an index to the songs in the order they were written in the Chronology Pages.

2: The Chronology.  We’ve taken the songs we can find recordings of and put them in the order they were written (as far as possible) not in the order they appeared on albums.  The chronology is more or less complete and is now linked to all the reviews on the site.  We have also produced overviews of Dylan’s work year by year.     The index to the chronologies is here.

3: Bob Dylan’s themes.  We publish a wide range of articles about Bob Dylan and his compositions.  There is an index here.

4:   The Discussion Group    We now have a discussion group “Untold Dylan” on Facebook.  Just type the phrase “Untold Dylan” in, on your Facebook page or follow this link 

5:  Bob Dylan’s creativity.   We’re fascinated in taking the study of Dylan’s creative approach further.  The index is in Dylan’s Creativity.

6: You might also like: A classification of Bob Dylan’s songs and partial Index to Dylan’s Best Opening Lines and our articles on various writers’ lists of Dylan’s ten greatest songs.

And please do note   The Bob Dylan Project, which lists every Dylan song in alphabetical order, and has links to licensed recordings and performances by Dylan and by other artists, is starting to link back to our reviews