Dylan Covers YOU Do

Subject: Dylan Songs YOU Cover
From: PoppaGator
Date: 28 Nov 04 - 09:58 PM

We started to touch on this in "Favorite Versions..." I believe that more than one repondant spoke up for "MY version of [suchandsuch]," and then JustPicker trumped everyone by posting a link to her own rendition of "Don't Think Twice." Very nice performance, and a *very* slick move!

Not all of us have the technical capability to respond in kind, but we can rattle off titles, can't we?

(I'm a bit of a has-been, by the way, having put in lots of time and effort as a performer way back in 1970-73 before "retiring" to family life and day jobs. So my entire repertoire, Dylan covers and others, is mostly from that earlier era.)

Six or seven years ago, I played my an open-mic-type session on Bob's birthday, my first in many years. The rules: Dylan songs only, and try not to repeat what anyone else did earlier in the evening. I came on relatively late. This was my set:

"Mama You've Been On My Mind"
"Takes A Lot to Laugh, Takes a Train to Cry"
"Tomorrow Is A Long Time"
"When I Paint My Masterpiece"

They're all songs I'd been playing forever, major favorites for which I had well-established guitar parts and thoroughly practiced vocals. I had two others ready, but they had already been done that evening -- "Don't Think Twice" and "I Shall Be Released."

Back in my streetsinging days, I had quite a few more at my fingertips; Dylan songs made up a big chuck of my repertoire. Two longish numbers which often helped me pass the time:

"Tom Thumb's Blues"
"Like A Rolling Stone"

I used to *love* singing "How Does It Feeeeeel" at the top of my lungs, out on the tourist street; I'd get so into it, I'd even jump up and down. Nowadays, I'm not sure I could sing it convincingly enough (to myself anyway) to deliver a plausible performance.

Also mainstays in the olden days:

"Spanish Harlem Incident"
"If You Gotta Go, Go Now"
"Walkin' Down the Line"
"Honey Just Allow Me One More Chance"
"Mr. Tambourine Man"
"Leopard-Skin Pillbox Hat" (all purpose 12-bar-blues-jam lyrics)

Then there's my wife Peggy's single absolute favorite Dylan song, for which I've never yet worked up a good-enough rendition:
"Love Minus Zero/No Limit"

And finally, two numbers I meant to practice and memorize in time for my fiftieth birthday party (seven years ago) and still intend to work up, for me and my friends as we all become more senior every day:
"My Back Pages"
"Forever Young"

Subject: RE: Dylan Covers YOU Do
From: Justa Picker
Date: 28 Nov 04 - 10:42 PM

... then JustPicker trumped everyone by posting a link to her own rendition ...

Ha!

Subject: RE: Dylan Covers YOU Do
From: PoppaGator
Date: 28 Nov 04 - 11:34 PM

I was going by the sound of your voice; I assumed you were the singer on "your" cover performance. But maybe not; after all, you're Justa Picker, aren't you?

If it is your voice, and you're male, I suppose an apology is in order. I wasn't the only person here to hear the clip and assume it was a woman singer.

There's a great New Orleans singer, John Boutte, who regularly fools me in this regard. I'll hear one of his recordings on our local radio station and think it's Etta James or somebody.

Subject: RE: Dylan Covers YOU Do
From: mousethief
Date: 28 Nov 04 - 11:39 PM

Don't Think Twice is the only Dylan cover I do.

Subject: RE: Dylan Covers YOU Do
From: number 6
Date: 28 Nov 04 - 11:54 PM

I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine

Subject: RE: Dylan Covers YOU Do
From: chris nightbird childs
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 12:02 AM

Baby Blue
Tom Thumb's Blues
One More Cup of Coffee
Positively 4th Street

Subject: RE: Dylan Covers YOU Do
From: mg
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 12:08 AM

If I were a preformer I would sing one more night, the hour that the ship comes in, Mighty Quinn, Blowing in the wind. mg

Subject: RE: Dylan Covers YOU Do
From: GUEST, Hamish
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 04:34 AM

Well, I resisted for a long time, but I've always loved All Along the Watchtower. I've heard too many bad versions, but then I stumbled on a individual take on it, and not I use it as my rabble rousing set closer. (I knew I was onto something when I did it an a singaround and the guy next to me said in genuine awestruck tones "that was f***ing brilliant!")

Subject: RE: Dylan Covers YOU Do
From: Strollin' Johnny
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 05:02 AM

Lay Down Your Weary Tune.

Subject: RE: Dylan Covers YOU Do
From: fat B****rd
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 05:17 AM

Like a Rolling Stone
Don't Think Twice It's Alright
Knockin' on Heaven's Door
You Aint Goin' Nowhere

All in the comfort of my living room these days.But there was a time........

Subject: RE: Dylan Covers YOU Do
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 07:18 AM

Simple Twist of Fate
Ballad of the Thin Man

dw

Subject: RE: Dylan Covers YOU Do
From: alanabit
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 07:55 AM

I have burgled the Dylan songbook shamelessly over the years - especially the songs from "Blood on the Tracks". The only one I do these days is "Buckets of Rain", because I like playing in the nice, easy open tuning. When I get time, I want to sit down and work out a version of "The Man In The Long Black Coat".

Subject: RE: Dylan Covers YOU Do
From: mkebenn
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 08:08 AM

Mighty Quinn, Don't Think Twice, Blowin', Tamborine, Back Pages, Momma, you've been on my mind. Pretty common, huh? Mike

Subject: RE: Dylan Covers YOU Do
From: Peter T.
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 08:27 AM

"Tangled Up In Blue" is the only one I do -- nice open tuning song (but there are lots one could do -- Dark Eyes, Simple Twist of Fate....

yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: Dylan Covers YOU Do
From: Juan P-B
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 10:41 AM

Poppagator! Try 'Love Minus Zero' in 'open D' - Very exciting!

And I also do the original (sound track) version of 'Knocking On Heaven's Door'

Juan P-B

Subject: RE: Dylan Covers YOU Do
From: GUEST,James
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 10:42 AM

Wedding Song, I love the Tune, love The lyrics, It's Alright Ma, I don'y do it often but It is fun to do so I keep playing it in order to remember the words. Black Diamond Bay because it is a great short story set to music, Baby Let Me Follow you Down, Sarah, Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands and Dark Eyes.

Subject: RE: Dylan Covers YOU Do
From: Pete Jennings
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 10:51 AM

Love Minus Zero/No Limit
Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues
She Belongs To Me
Mississippi
You Ain't Going Nowhere
I Shall Be Released
Blowin' In The Wind
O Sister
Sara
Blind Willie McTell
Knockin' On Heaven's Door
Mr. Tambourine Man
One Too Many Mornings

Currently relearning the words to Every Grain Of Sand.

Subject: RE: Dylan Covers YOU Do
From: PoppaGator
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 10:57 AM

Juan P-B, thanks for the tip [Try 'Love Minus Zero' in 'open D' - Very exciting!].

I have very limited skills/experience in tunings other than standard, but I'll see what I come up with. I have been making an effort recently, and open-D is the first alternate tuning I'm tryng to master.

I think the reason I've never been able to satisfy myself with any arrangement I've put together for "Love Minus Zero" is my absolute inability to even approximate the sound of Bruce Langhorn's great 2d-guitar part, which is what I hear in my mind's ear when I think of the song.

Part of Peggy's attachment to the song is the fact that it's the first and only song she learned during a brief fling at guitar playing, years before we met. (Of course, she picked that one to play because she already loved it.)

Subject: RE: Dylan Covers YOU Do
From: Pete Jennings
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 11:11 AM

Poppa

I cheat a bit on Love Minus Zero. I play it fingerstyle using these chords:

C                      Csus5
My love she speaks like silence
F                Csus5
Without ideals or violence
F                            C
She doesn't have to say she's faithful
          F         Gsus5
Cos she's true like ice like fire
C            Csus5
People carry roses
F                        Csus5
And make promises by the hour
F                         C
My love she laughs at the flowers
F          Gsus5    C
Valentines can't buy her

Csus5 = C, with pinky on 3rd fret top E
Gsus5 = G, with the highest note being 3rd fret B string

I think I get away with it...

Subject: RE: Dylan Covers YOU Do
From: Pete Jennings
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 11:13 AM

The spacing came out wrong, but you should be able to hear where the chords change.

Subject: RE: Dylan Covers YOU Do
From: GUEST,Jim
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 11:32 AM

Current:
Love Minus Zero (DADGAD)
Girl from the North Country
Bob Dylan's Dream (but prefer to sing Lord Franklyn instead)
Tambourine Man
Don't Think Twice
Lay Lady Lay
I Shall be Released
All Along the Watchtower (+ freestyling harmonica blues in Am and lucky enough to be blessed with a great fiddle accompanyist)
Baby Blue (Dropped D - great groove with Em7 and a Bm thrown in for good measure)

Past:
Blowin' in the Wind (far too many better songs followed)
Times they are a-changin' (OK at the time I suppose)
Masters of War
Gates of Eden
It's allright Ma
Knock k'nock k'nocking (boredom factor knocked it out)

Subject: RE: Dylan Covers YOU Do
From: Cluin
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 12:16 PM

Senor (Tales of Yankee Power)
Farewell Angelina
Don't Think Twice
It Ain't Me Babe
Lay Down Your Weary Tune
Forever Young

Subject: RE: Dylan Covers YOU Do
From: late 'n short 2
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 12:23 PM

Don't Think Twice, You Ain't Goin Nowhere, I'll Be Your Baby Tonight (or does that belong to someone else?)

Subject: RE: Dylan Covers YOU Do
From: PoppaGator
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 12:52 PM

Thanks Pete. "Hearing" the chord changes isn't my problem; it's more a matter of what to do within the chords. I just have never come up with an arrangement for this song that satisfies *me*, as I have for those other numbers I feel I can list as "covers that I do." There are gazillions of songs I can fake my way through, with minimal chord strumming, but I don't consider them "mine."

I had thought that "sustained fifths" were more exotic than those two inversions of C and G, which I play all the time but never knew what they were. Learn someting every day -- thanks!

late 'n short 2, good handle! I think I may have a legitimate claim to the number one spot in the "day late and a dollar short" category, and I'm glad to see you're modest enough only to claim number-two status...

"I'll Be Your Baby Tonight" is indeed one of Bob's. I like it and have done it; in fact, it was a mainsay in certain situations back in my busking days, but we won't go there. Earlier in this thread, someone mentioned (somewhat disparagingly) Kristofferon's cover of this one in the "30th" concert.

Is this the first mention of "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere"? That's another one I used to play very often, but forgot to mention earlier.

Subject: RE: Dylan Covers YOU Do
From: open mike
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 12:53 PM

Forever Young is such a versitile song..
I have sung it at birthdays, funerals,
rest/convalescent homes, and bed time.
It is like a prayer.

You ain't goin' No Where,
Don't think twice
I Shall be released

Subject: RE: Dylan Covers YOU Do
From: Ebbie
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 01:57 PM

JustaPicker- if that were your voice on that recording, I'd think you'd be very proud! LOL (She has a lovely voice)

Subject: RE: Dylan Covers YOU Do
From: Tradsinger
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 02:15 PM

Boots of Spanish Leather - great song. I do it with slow-picked banjo.

Gwilym

Subject: RE: Dylan Covers YOU Do
From: Little Hawk
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 03:42 PM

I do so many Dylan covers that it almost equals my own original repertoire. Among my favourites, and played most often are:

Love Minus Zero (No Limit)
Every Grain of Sand
Forever Young
She Belongs To Me
Just Like a Woman
Desolation Row
Dark Eyes
One More Cup of Coffee
I Dreamed I Saw St Augustine
I Pity the Poor Immigrant
All Along the Watchtower
Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
Mr Tambourine Man
To Ramona
Ring Them Bells
Blowin' In The Wind
Lay Down Your Weary Tune

Dylan's songs are the only songs in the World that feel just like my own songs to me every time I sing them. I seem to become Bob when I play his songs (but I still sing them in my own voice, which most people like better anyway).

I also play harmonica like he does, but not exactly like does...just kind of similarly. He was doing some virtuoso level harmonica playing in 64-66. I can't match some of it. I've also heard him play some very poor harmonica breaks at other times.

Subject: RE: Dylan Covers YOU Do
From: Steve-o
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 05:41 PM

I never do a set by myself or with my "string band" that doesn't include at least one Bobby song. Current favorites include Bob Dylan's Dream, Tomorrow is a Long Time, I Shall Be Released, Boots of Spanish Leather, Talking WW III Blues, When I Paint My Masterpiece, I'll Be Your Baby Tonight, and Positively 4th Street. Lots and lots of others, but obviously I don't do a whole lot of the "newer" ones.

Subject: RE: Dylan Covers YOU Do
From: Margret RoadKnight
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 08:58 PM

Babe I'm In the Mood For You
Walking Down the Line

Subject: RE: Dylan Covers YOU Do
From: jacqui.c
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 09:45 PM

Have done Blowing in the Wind. Would love to be able to do With God On Our Side. Maybe one day.....

Subject: RE: Dylan Covers YOU Do
From: jaze
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 09:52 PM

I'm impressed with the person who does "Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands" Now that's an impressive undertaking.

Subject: RE: Dylan Covers YOU Do
From: Padre
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 10:09 PM

Percy's Song

Subject: RE: Dylan Covers YOU Do
From: Little Hawk
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 11:55 PM

Geez! I forgot the Blood on the Tracks stuff...

I do "Tangled Up in Blue", "You're a Big Girl Now", "Simple Twist of Fate", and "If You See Her, Say Hello". Have done "Idiot Wind" the odd time as well, but usually just for my own enjoyment at home. Used to do "Hazel" and a few others from "Planet Waves".

Another guy's songs I love to cover is Al Stewart.

Subject: RE: Dylan Covers YOU Do
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 02:38 AM

Don't Think Twice
Boots of Spanish Leather
Blowin' in the Wind
It Ain't Me Babe
I'll Be Your Baby Tonight


Don't Think Twice is my favourite.


Doug C

Subject: RE: Dylan Covers YOU Do
From: fat B****rd
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 04:40 AM

I forgot Too Much of Nothing.

Subject: RE: Dylan Covers YOU Do
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 09:11 AM

Noted: Don't Think Twice seems to be the song most listed; maybe it's one of the favourites amongst mudcatters. After performing it for the millionth time last week my wife amazed me by saying "that's the best song ever written", but then she wiped the smile off my face by saying "but you do it too fast" -

"but I do it at the same tempo as Dylan!" I retorted........

"Yes" she says .. "much too fast"

Now I spent many hours getting that fingerstyle right many years ago - and NOW she tells me!

Does she have a point? - how do you play it? (or do I need to start another thread?)

Subject: RE: Dylan Covers YOU Do
From: PoppaGator
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 10:17 AM

I tend to play *everything* too fast if I'm not careful, especially when I've just finished learning to play it and am beginning to fall into the groove of "knowing" it.

Subject: RE: Dylan Covers YOU Do
From: Bsondahl
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 10:42 AM

So ami I the only one that does, "Tell me that it isn't true" (off Nashville Skyline?)
What I say about covering Dylan, is that everybody does it because everybody sounds better than Dylan singing his songs. (But no one, not even Baez mugging, sounds "like" Dylan).
Brad Sondahl
sondahl.com

Subject: RE: Dylan Covers YOU Do
From: Little Hawk
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 10:50 AM

I used to do "Tell Me That it Isn't True". Also have done "Lay, Lady, Lay", "I Threw it All Away", "One More Night", and a couple others off that album. It's a kind of odd album for Bob, but does have a few gems on it.

It's easy to play "Don't Think Twice" too fast...something about the arrangement.

I used to do "Visions of Johanna" a lot. What a great song.

Subject: RE: Dylan Covers YOU Do
From: GUEST,Jim
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 12:07 PM

I'm not sure it's easy to play "Don't Think Twice" fast OR slow (after all - Dylan didn't play guitar on that track I'm told - is that true?) but I know I play it the same way/same speed as the original - maybe it was too fast to project the true feelings and sentiments in the lyrics; slowing it right down might be an improvement.

Subject: RE: Dylan Covers YOU Do
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 01:10 PM

I've heard Don't Think Twice both fast and slow and I found the slow version to be a bit of a dirge. I much prefer it at the same speed as the original. Sometimes, however, I get carried away have to slow myself down to that pace.

Doug C

Subject: RE: Dylan Covers YOU Do
From: Little Hawk
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 01:28 PM

I'm pretty sure Dylan did the picking on that track. He was a hell of a good acoustic guitar player back then...due to practicing almost constantly and picking up every trick he could off others like Dave Van Ronk, Ramblin' Jack, etc...

Subject: RE: Dylan Covers YOU Do
From: PoppaGator
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 02:47 PM

"Throw my ticket out the window!"

Correction: Yesterday at 12:52, I posted:

~~"I'll Be Your Baby Tonight" is indeed one of Bob's. I like it and have done it; in fact, it was a mainsay in certain situations back in my busking days, but we won't go there.~~

Actually, it was "Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You" that worked best for making new friends out on the streetcorner, way back in '71-'72-'73. Forgot all about that one.

"Is it really any wonder / the love that a stranger might receive?
You cast your spell and I went under / I find it so difficult to leave."

Subject: RE: Dylan Covers YOU Do
From: Little Hawk
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 03:48 PM

Bob entered into a period of writing mostly love songs with Nashville Skyline and it endured through and into Blood On The Tracks. This coincided with his conscious commitment to marriage, family, and private life, as opposed to being a rock star.

Subject: RE: Dylan Covers YOU Do
From: PoppaGator
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 04:54 PM

The two songs I just mentioned (as I understand them and used to interpret them) may have plenty to do with love, but not much at all with marriage, family, and fidelity.

Subject: RE: Dylan Covers YOU Do
From: Once Famous
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 04:58 PM

I tend to stay away from many of these tired old songs in my solo gigs. I would do "you ain't goin' nowhere" except I think it lacks something done as a solo thing without that great harmony part for the chorus.

Subject: RE: Dylan Covers YOU Do
From: GUEST,To Ramona
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 08:50 PM

Freddy Fender and the Texas Tornados do a real nice version of "To Ramona" with the added spanish verse:

Ramona tus ojos me dicen que vas a llorar
Tu Sueno se boran y nada se va realiza
Ramona sus ojos se secan y pierden su luz
Te viste un carino de un hombre y un nino eres y hora soalamente eres

I'm looking for the chord sequence if anyone can send it to me I would appreciate it

Marshall

Subject: RE: Dylan Covers YOU Do
From: GUEST,Songster Bob
Date: 01 Dec 04 - 12:18 AM

It ain't no use to sit and wonder why, Babe,
There's so many folk-singers around.
It ain't no use to sit and wonder why, Babe,
They all make the same sound.
They look the same, and they sound the same,
They all sing like Bobby, and Joanie What's-her-name*;
They're on their way to fortune and fame,
And if they don't think twice, that's all right.

Copyright circa 1965 Chuck Perdue

* Chuck, who sang with wife Nan, sang
"They all sound like Peter, Paul, and What's-her-name." but I sing solo, so I changed it.

This is the main Bob Dylan song I still do.


Bob Clayton

Subject: RE: Dylan Covers YOU Do
From: GUEST,Whistle Stop
Date: 01 Dec 04 - 10:10 AM

I do a lot of them, too: Tomorrow Is A Long Time; A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall; Don't Think Twice, It's All Right; The Times They Are A-Changin'; Chimes Of Freedom; Love Minus Zero/No Limit; It's All Over Now, Baby Blue; It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry; Visions Of Johanna; Just Like A Woman; Down In The Flood; I'll Be Your Baby Tonight; Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You; I Threw It All Away; Emotionally Yours. And, of course, I'm always happy to join in on the ones everyone trots out at musical get-togethers: I Shall Be Released and Forever Young.

Those of us who are truly obsessive Dylan fans can generally play others on a moment's notice; they get into your bones after a while, and since they're not all that sophisticated musically, it's pretty easy to recall one well enough to play it when the notion hits.