By Tony Attwood
In meandering my way through this series it is difficult sometimes to understand why some Dylan songs are so often covered while others are ignored. I rather suspect there is a deep laziness within some parts of the music industry – a sort of “What can we do?” question answered by, “Let’s do one of those famous Dylan songs.”
And maybe “Thunder on the Mountain” doesn’t fall into this latter category – it simply isn’t covered just because people don’t think of covering it.
Mind you the one cover I have been able to find is a particularly brilliant cover by Wanda Jackson and Jack White both having a whale of a time making the recording. Which is why I’ll deviate from the usual policy of only focussing on songs that have multiple covers because I do so want to bring this version to your attention.
Now of course there may be other covers available on youtube which I can’t find at the moment on the interent since I am currently in Australia, and a lot of You Tube videos do have country restrictions. So if I remember or if anyone can point any out to me once I get back to England at the end of 2023 then I will have a listen and put up some more.
Going on a search of the internet here in Australia, I did find “Thunder on the Mountain” by Mountain Man Recordings on Spotify, which is actually a recording of rain falling with a photo of a mountain. And a version by Joe Satriani but actually that turns out to be “Thunder High on the Mountain” – which is quite a jolly instrumental if you like that kind of thing.
But all in all it looks like most artists really don’t want to have a bash at this song – and I wonder why. Is it that they think that with Bob’s rendition and the Wanda/Jack version above there is nothing more to be said?
Of course you’ll know Bob’s version well enough, but here it is, just as a contrast to the version above…
Now it might be argued that for some reason this is a song that just doesn’t allow itself to be covered with a new interpretation. But if that is the case, how come Bob can do it with his own work? And yes I know I am covering Bob’s covers of himself in a separate series, but to make my point (that with enough imagination it is always possible to do something of interest with a song) here is Bob from 2018 re-working his own piece.
Yes, beyond doubt there is a lot that can be done with this song. So it is not the music that is the problem; which means it must be the imagination of other artists.
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- The song with numbers in the title.
- Ain’t Talkin
- All I really want to do
- Angelina
- Apple Suckling and Are you Ready.
- As I went out one morning
- Ballad for a Friend
- Ballad in Plain D
- Ballad of a thin man
- Frankie Lee and Judas Priest
- The ballad of Hollis Brown
- Beyond here lies nothing
- Blind Willie McTell
- Black Crow Blues (more fun than you might recall)
- An unexpected cover of “Black Diamond Bay”
- Blowin in the wind as never before
- Bob Dylan’s Dream
- BoB Dylan’s 115th Dream revisited
- Boots of Spanish leather
- Born in Time
- Buckets of Rain
- Can you please crawl out your window
- Can’t wait
- Changing of the Guard
- Chimes of Freedom
- Country Pie
- Crash on the Levee
- Dark Eyes
- Dear Landlord
- Desolation Row as never ever before (twice)
- Dignity.
- Dirge
- Don’t fall apart on me tonight.
- Don’t think twice
- Down along the cove
- Drifter’s Escape
- Duquesne Whistle
- Farewell Angelina
- Foot of Pride and Forever Young
- Fourth Time Around
- From a Buick 6
- Gates of Eden
- Gotta Serve Somebody
- Hard Rain’s a-gonna Fall.
- Heart of Mine
- High Water
- Highway 61
- Hurricane
- I am a lonesome hobo
- I believe in you
- I contain multitudes
- I don’t believe you.
- I love you too much
- I pity the poor immigrant.
- I shall be released
- I threw it all away
- I want you
- I was young when I left home
- I’ll remember you
- Idiot Wind and More idiot wind
- If not for you, and a rant against prosody
- If you Gotta Go, please go and do something different
- If you see her say hello
- Dylan cover a day: I’ll be your baby tonight
- I’m not there.
- In the Summertime, Is your love and an amazing Isis
- It ain’t me babe
- It takes a lot to laugh
- It’s all over now Baby Blue
- It’s all right ma
- Just Like a Woman
- Knocking on Heaven’s Door
- Lay down your weary tune
- Lay Lady Lay
- Lenny Bruce
- That brand new leopard skin pill box hat
- Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts
- License to kill
- Like a Rolling Stone
- Love is just a four letter word
- Love Sick
- Maggies Farm!
- Make you feel my love; a performance that made me cry.
- Mama you’ve been on my mind
- Man in a long black coat.
- Masters of War
- Meet me in the morning
- Million Miles. Listen, and marvel.
- Mississippi. Listen, and marvel (again)
- Most likely you go your way
- Most of the time and a rhythmic thing
- Motorpsycho Nitemare
- Mozambique
- Mr Tambourine Man
- My back pages, with a real treat at the end
- New Morning
- New Pony. Listen where and when appropriate
- Nobody Cept You
- North Country Blues
- No time to think
- Obviously Five Believers
- Oh Sister
- On the road again
- One more cup of coffee
- (Sooner or later) one of us must know
- One too many mornings
- Only a hobo
- Only a pawn in their game
- Outlaw Blues – prepare to be amazed
- Oxford Town
- Peggy Day and Pledging my time
- Please Mrs Henry
- Political world
- Positively 4th Street
- Precious Angel
- Property of Jesus
- Queen Jane Approximately
- Quinn the Eskimo as it should be performed.
- Quit your lowdown ways
- Rainy Day Women as never before
- Restless Farewell. Exquisite arrangements, unbelievable power
- Ring them bells in many different ways
- Romance in Durango, covered and re-written
- Sad Eyed Lady of Lowlands, like you won’t believe
- Sara
- Senor
- A series of Dreams; no one gets it (except Dylan)
- Seven Days
- She Belongs to Me
- Shelter from the Storm
- Sign on the window
- Silvio
- Simple twist of fate
- Slow Train
- Someday Baby
- Spanish Harlem Incident
- Standing in the Doorway
- Stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again
- Subterranean Homesick Blues
- Sweetheart Like You
- Tangled up in Blue
- Tears of Rage
- Temporary Like Achilles. Left in the cold, but there’s still something…
- The Groom’s Still Waiting at the Altar
- The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
- The Man in Me
- Times they are a-changin’
- The Wicked Messenger
- Things have changed
- This Wheel’s on Fire