Bob Dylan Covers?

Which are the best covers from Bob Dylan songs you know? I know some Bob Dylan fans would disagree with me, and I rather know little of his music, but for what little I've heard, Bob Dylan has written some very good songs, but often enough the best interpretation is done by someone else. Some of the covers I have liked best until now are:

- All over the Watchtower - Jimmy Hendrix.
- Knocking on Heaven's Door - Guns 'n Roses, and there's a rather cool verion by Roger Waters too.
- Like a Rolling Stone - The Rolling Stones.
- Tomorrow is such a long Time - Rod Stewart.
- It's all over now Baby Blue - Steve Howe with Annie Haslam.
- Sad eyed lady of the lowlands - Steve Howe with Jon Anderson.
- The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carrol - Steve Howe with Dean Dyson.

Many have covered Dylan, but the smart ones know when to leave well enough alone.  The Hendrix cover of All Along the Watchtower is probably the only one to completely subsume the original, and some will argue that even.  Fairport did some good Dylan covers back in the day.  Highway 61 Revisited has been ineptly covered by many.  Rod Stewart, I hate to say, was a pretty good interpreter.  The Nice were also fans...I remember an almost bearable version of Country Pie, saved only by Emerson's keyboards. 

The Nice covered a few Dylan songs although they bear little resemblance to the originals (mercifully)

She Belongs to Me - from Live at The Fillmore East
My Back Pages - from Elegy
Country Pie - from Five Bridges

Always been a big fan of Roxy Music's version of 'Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall' & I agree with Chopper about Harrison's version of 'If Not For You' (but don't agree with Dellinger on GnR's version of Knocking On Heaven's Door)

The thing is with Dylan though, he does his own best cover versions - the original recorded songs often bear no resemblance to when he plays them live; I get the impression he doesn't get bored with the song, just the arrangement, so he changes it completely.

Edited by Jim Garten - December 08 2010 at 02:13

Jim Garten wrote: Always been a big fan of Roxy Music's version of 'Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall'

The Faces doing WIcked Messanger on the First Step album....woooooh!

Jim Garten wrote: Always been a big fan of Roxy Music's version of 'Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall' & I agree with Chopper about Harrison's version of 'If Not For You' (but don't agree with Dellinger on GnR's version of Knocking On Heaven's Door) The thing is with Dylan though, he does his own best cover versions - the original recorded songs often bear no resemblance to when he plays them live; I get the impression he doesn't get bored with the song, just the arrangement, so he changes it completely.

Well, being a prog site I expected people not liking Guns n' Roses version of Knocking on Heaven's Door... well, did you at least like Waters version? I though that one was very beautiful.
About Dylan doing his own covers, from the very little I know from him, I liked very "Blowing in the Wind" from "The concert for Bangladesh". Then I heard the original studio version and didn't really like it so much. As a matter of fact, it would seem to me that his songs on Concert for Bangladesh were rather well played.

Not prog, but I quite love Nico's version of I'll Keep It With Mine.

Oh my God, how could I forget? Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. William Shatner!