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Best covers of ‘Knocking on Heaven’s Door’ (blog version)

My longtime position has been don’t do a cover song unless you can bring something to it. Another arrangement, strikingly different vocals, speeded or slowed down.

[See AL.com version of this story by clicking here. ]

An example of a bad cover is Michael Bolton’s cover of Otis Redding’s “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay.’

Redding’s was already one of rock and soul’s top songs ever. Bolton, he of big American Idol-like voice, did nothing but drain the soul out of the song. He sold millions naturally.

Brian Ferry’s cover of John Lennon’s ‘Jealous Guy’ is a way of correctly doing a cover. His lilting beautiful voice was a artful cocktail whereas Lennon’s was a shot of whiskey. Ferry’s version was the second stage of a relationship hurting as defined by Lennon’s version.

Perhaps my bar for a good cover is too high but there are some songs that do covers well. Or, make for more cover possibilities. Bob Dylan’s ‘Knocking on Heaven’s Door’ is one of those songs. Beautiful simple melody, simple sparse words about the universal experience of aging and dying. Dylan songs make good covers because they are good songs in search of a good singer. My Back Pages covered by the Byrds and Blowing in the Wind by Peter Paul and Mary are examples.

I made two Top 10 lists because I found myself listening to these in different ways.

My first list is my sentimental list – probably the list I would choose first. These covers can move me to tears or sadness or joy.

My second list is my cerebral list. These are how I would rank them if I were a rational human listening to the musicianship and songwriting craft and trying grade it with my head not my heart. Obviously there are overlaps.

Cerebral Top 10

Pete Carr – Carr is a session musician who has ties to the Muscle Shoals studios. I had never heard of the guy or his cover until someone at the record convention I attended earlier this year said I had to hear it. I had just finished talking about Danny and Dusty’s version. Carr is a sentimental choice (At No. 4) due to his Alabama connection but is my top cerebral pick (I’m sure surprising lot of folks). Just listen to that guitar! It made me shout Freebird by the end – but that was a psychotic break from reality. No, the extended guitar jam is as good as it gets. Carr has recorded extensively at FAME Recording Studio in Muscle Shoals and Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Sheffield, according to Wikipedia.

Guns and Roses. For sure power, this is the rock hardest or hardest rock cover. You have to be open to lead singer’s Axl Rose’s oddly unsettling multi-octave voice. I am a fan. When he sings: Hey hey hey hey uh hey, I’m there. (Or is it Aye Aye Aye Aye Ayeeeeei-i-i-i-i.)

Eric Clapton – Puts a little impeccable reggae into his version. This is what I mean about mixing it up to make your own.

Bob Dylan — Well the source is Dylan and he does a good job. You have to be open to his voice which is not ordinary sounding to say the least. However this is one of his best vocal performances.

Tracy Chapman Underrated artist does an understated version that touches the soul.

Roger Waters Pink Floyd singer surprises us with a very un-derstated version.

Bryan Ferry The Roxy Music frontman has a knack for great cover songs, the aforementioned ‘Jealous Guy,’ “Like a Hurricane,’ and ‘You Won’t  See Me’ to name just a few.

Ladysmith Black Mambazo – She belts it out, giving it a punch rivaling GN’R.

Warren Zevon – This is poignant in that it was recorded right before he died.

Danny and Dusty – Just loose, good fun, barroom singalong.

Sentimental Top 10

  1. Bob Dylan
  2. Warren Zevon — Open up! Open up!
  3. Tracy Chapman
  4. Pete Carr
  5. Guns and Roses
  6. Bryan Ferry
  7. Danny and Dusty
  8. Roger Waters
  9. Eric Clapton –
  10. Freddie Fender,

Other covers worth noting:Television, the Alarm, Avril Lavigne, John Cale.

See AL.com version of this story by clicking.

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Bob Dylan — 516, 515, 514, 513, 512

ALBUMS:  Biograph (1985 5-record box); Infidels (1983); Slow Train Coming (1979); Blood on the Tracks (1974); Greatest Hits (1967)

MVC Rating: BIograph 5/$$$$$; Infidels 4.5/$$$$; Slow Train Coming $4.5 $$$; Blood on the Tracks 5.0/$$$$;; Greatest Hits 5.0/$$$$.

For a  private, quiet person,  Dylan is a man of many words.

Before I start this essay on Nobel winner and influential singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, I want to point out, once again we are talking about words. (A favorite topic of mine).

Dylan (L) with Bruce Springsteen. From Biograph booklet.

A friend asked me a long time ago  if I thought Dylan knew what he was talking about or is he just throwing words up on the wall. From experience I can say, he probably does and doesn’t.

Know what his words mean, I mean.

As with many writers, words are chosen for different things:  The sound of the word, the meaning of the word, the secondary meaning of the word, the meaning of the word in context with the other words. Writers make choices about what  words to use. Sometimes straight prose is what it says it is, like a recipe for a  casserole.  Add one cup of grated cheese.

Other times it’s more of an ink blot test and that’s where song lyrics can become part of an artistic presentation that means different things to different people.

Dylan was just better than almost anyone else at that.

By that, I mean the nimble word use that leaves you wondering, visualizing, thinking or letting it seep into your subconscious (for use later by your brain, for a dream perhaps). Of course it means something. It means something just by its very existence on the page. But it may mean nothing much or a whole lot. It may mean different things to different people. It may be Jabberwocky. That was Dylan’s art.

Of the big three: Elvis, the Beatles and Dylan, Minnesota-born Dylan aka  Robert Zimmerman, probably did the most to influence the song in pop music, just my opinion.

(And a quick acknowledgement here on race and gender. These  ‘Big 3’ —actually six when you add Beatles — white men climbed  a foundation laid by many black artists and female artists such,as Robert Johnson, Ella Fitzgerald,  Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Aretha Franklin, Carole King, Scott Joplin, Chuck Berry and so on. I picked the ‘Big 3’ based on the type of change and  measure of change they brought to modern pop music. Though blessed with talent, the Big 3’s influence was largely circumstantial — or, to paraphrase Dr. John —  they were in the right place at the right time.)

Dylan’s influence was greatest yet most subtle. It showed people that rock and pop songs could mean something. ‘Love Me Do’ to ‘A Day in the Life.’ His singing  had obvious influences on such artists as Tom Petty, Mark Knopfler, and even the Beatles.

But let me anticipate the argument against this pick.

Many casual Dylan fans or non-fans say Dylan could write some good  songs but that was about it, he couldn’t sing, he wasn’t a musical game-changer.

But that’s wrong.

I know I’m hypocritically and arbitrarily wiping away your right to your  own ink-blot interpretation,  but I’m using a writing device to debate or persuade you to my side.

Sure Dylan has a nasal vocal delivery that sounds like he gargled with Liquid Plumber. And then, periodically he would stop his rap and blow into a harmonica making honking, choo choo noises as a proper Woody Guthrie acolyte should.

But those are the pieces, what was the result of the whole. Dylan melded the words of the lyrics  into the music’s structure and tied it all up with phrasing.

From Biograh album booklet.

Dylan made the song reinforce the words. And his voice, my gosh, his voice was that of a dying man’s  last words backed by  guitar.

One of his best songs was ‘Like a Rolling Stone.’ Let’s deconstruct a verse or two:

Once upon a time you dressed so fine [up and down with his voice here like a sarcastic nursery rhyme]
Threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn’t you? [Internal rhyming in this  1965 song sound like today’s rappers).
People call say ‘beware doll, you’re bound to fall’
You thought they were all kidding you
You used to laugh about {Yoooo Yooooost toooo — stringing it out for effect]
Everybody that was hanging out
Now you don’t talk so loud
Now you don’t seem so proud [steps down in lower timbre for a Dylan scold –‘seem to proud,’ he spits.
About having to be scrounging your next meal [How about his dragging the word ‘scrounging’ out just in case I haven’t humiliated you enough.]
How does it feel, how does it feel? [how does it feeeel….I can hear the Dylan imitators popping up in every pub and street corner).
To be without a home
Like a complete unknown, like a rolling stone
More memorable lyrics from the Nobel Prize for Literature winner:
 
My Back Pages
Ah, but I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now.

‘Positively 4th Street’ – 1965

Yes, I wish that for just one time/You could stand inside my shoes/You’d know what a drag it is to see you

Tangled Up in Blue

And later on as the crowd thinned out
I’s just about to do the same
She was standing there in back of my chair
Said to me “Don’t I know your name?”
I muttered somethin’ under my breath
She studied the lines on my face
I must admit I felt a little uneasy
When she bent down to tie the laces
Of my shoe
Tangled up in blue

Tangled up in blue  (more)

Then she opened up a book of poems
And handed it to me
Written by an Italian poet
From the thirteenth century
And everyone of them words rang true
And glowed like burnin’ coal
Pourin’ off of every page
Like it was written in my soul
From me to you
Tangled up in blue

The Times They are a Changin’

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won’t come again
And don’t speak too soon
For the wheel’s still in spin

The times they are a changin’

 Subterranean  Homesick Blues
Walk on your tip toes
Don’t tie no bows
Better stay away from those
That carry around a fire hose
Keep a clean nose
Watch the plain clothes
You don’t need a weather man
To know which way the wind blows
Oh, get sick, get well
MIKE NOTE: Is Subterranean HB rap? How about Tombstone Blues?

The answer my friend is blowing in the wind.

So that’s my  take on Dylan. For now. Of my many records listed at the top, I’d recommend Biograph, the 5-record box set. It is a very well done compilation containing everything from his classics to never before published gems. Liner notes in a separate booklet enclosed is by Cameron Crowe and many comments on the songs by the man himself. Any of the other albums I’d recommend highly. The Greatest Hits from his 1960s songs was my first introduction and my hook. Blood on the  tracks is just great, and Slow Train Coming and Infidels taken from his sometimes maligned ‘Christian’ conversion period are very good. (Actually Jann Wenner, Rolling Stone founder, called Slow Train Dylan’s finest work.)

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Ducks DeLuxe –517

ALBUM:  Don’t Mind Rockin’ Tonight (1978)

MVC Rating: 4.0/$$$

In the liner notes it says pub rock was no cliche’ in those days.

I’m not sure when or if it has become  a cliche’ but this is pub rock by definition.

“Down in the swamp, Daddy put the bomp in my soul.” Don’t  know exactly what that means but ‘Daddy was a preacher.’ Later Mama,  a Texas lady, taught him how to jive.

This is a compilation of two albums. Kind of odd but that’s the way they did it because theirs was a short-lived pit stop on the way to other bands.

The band was Sean Tyla (later of Tyla Gang), Nick Garvey and  Andy McMasters, (both later of the Motors ), Martin Belmont (later with Graham  Parker and Rumour). Dave Edmunds was close friends and sometimes a producer.

There is feel-good rock and roll playing here: ‘Coast to Coast’ rocks like nobody’s business. ‘Fireball’ and ‘Love’s Melody’ stand out. Reminded me at  times of Danny and Dusty whom I earlier reviewed.

I  thought at first that  ‘Daddy put the Bomp’ was an early 1960s  cover of a song called “Who put the Bomp (in the rama  lama ding dong). But apparently it’s two different songs.  This came out while I was a senior in High School. Yep. It ages well, if not me. Also seems like this one may be a little collectible as it was a short-lived band that never got much promotion in the US.

Here’s an old Bomp song here by Chuck Prophet (of Green on Red). I think it’s a hybrid re-make of the 1961 version.   But  not sure.

Here’s Ducks Deluxe ‘Daddy put  the Bomp.’

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The Drifters — 518

ALBUM: The Drifters, Their Greatest Recordings, the Early Years (1971)

MVC Rating: 4.0/$$

Dion and the Belmonts picked up a lot of big hits the Drifters did first: Drip Drop, Ruby Baby and Save the Last Dance for Me.

Dion and the Belmonts, reared in Italian neighborhoods of NYC, of course, were bringing black R&B influenced Doo-Wop to white audiences. These early years, the Drifters had the wonderful Clyde McPhatter. Over many years,the Drifters ended up being more of a franchise, with rotating quarterbacks.

Ultimately they recorded one of the best songs of that era and genre, Under the Boardwalk. I love that song. But I also totally enjoy the rawer R&B sounds from the early years represented here.

One song, the opening one on this album, didn’t get released until this collection in 1971. From 1954 a song from McPhatter had executives running for cover and stopping its release. The song was ‘333.’

Lyrics like this were why: “Good Times,  cheap wine, young chicks, so fine, there’s a whole lot of ecstasy, any time you fall in 333.” A little too hot for 1954.

Other hits for the Drifters in these early years include: Money Honey, Fools Fall in Love and There  Goes My Baby.

Their slyly subversive take on Irving Berlin’s ‘White Christmas’ sells nearly as many copies as Bing Crosby’s version, according to the liner notes. Their version of that classic Christmas song holds a firm spot in my Christmas rotation.

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The Doors — 519

ALBUM: The Doors Greatest Hits  (1980)

MVC Rating: 4.5/$$$$

Man, what do you say about the Doors? They became a phenomenon while lead singer Jim “Lizard King” Morrison was alive and an even bigger one after he died in 1971.

As Rolling Stone magazine in 1981 famously put on the cover a photo of the handsome lead singer with this headline:  Jim Morrison. He’s hot, He’s sexy, and he’s dead.

It had been 10 years since he overdosed  in Paris on drugs after many months of erratic behavior including arrests for drugs and exposing himself at a concert. But the band’s music was seeing a resurgence surrounding a book and a movie.

I truly believe this Greatest Hits album is all you need. They had the best-worst discography of all time. In other words they had some amazing songs that you wondered where they came from —  because  they would be side-by-side on albums with some truly awful  stuff.

On this album most of the songs are good, even excellent except for the godawful psychedelic tune Not to Touch the Earth, which like Five to One, thankfully not on this album, showcases everything bad about the band, trippy psuedo poetry from Morrison, and psychedelic guitar-organ interplay.

But then there was the good stuff.

Compare the aforementioned horror Five to One to LA Woman. In the latter song the band kicks into a thump thumping blues rift and Morrison’s words suddently make some sense, not profound but propelling what is essentially a long jam song with speedup-slowdown parts.

Drivin’ down your freeways
Midnight alleys roam
Cops in cars, the topless bars
Never saw a woman
So alone, so alone
So alone, so alone

Are you a lucky little lady in the city of light
Or just another lost angel, city of night

Mr. Mojo’s rising …

Jim Morrison busted.

The musicians were good. Morrison strained too much on his voice. He certainly thought it was better than it was, but it was effective most of the time and he was the quintessential good looking, hard partying, artsy leaning, rock star. Robby Krieger on guitar was above average. Ray Manzarek on keyboards was outstanding and probably the real brains behind the music.

The thing I  find fascinating stepping back on all this is how good some of the good songs were. Light My Fire is a classic that Frank Sinatra could have sung. So is Touch Me.  And Riders on the Storm is timeless. Roadhouse Blues is a raucous rock and roller, also with timeless feel.

The lyrics are poetry, rarely great or even good poetry, but  fitting right in and often doing their job as lyrics to Doors music.

On glaring omission on this collection is The End, famous for its Oedipal overtones and the darkness of death. It was featured in the movie Apocalypse Now — but it’s a long dark song and I’m not missing it here.

OK, I have to tell you my  prank story involving Morrison and Birmingham News colleague. Ready Tom?

Nah, not yet, going to save that for a post solely dedicated to pranks.

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Dr. John — 520

ALBUM: Dr. John’s Gumbo (1986 RE Alligator Records)

MVC  Rating: 4.5/$$$

Say you are planning a party. A party where music would be up front. But then the president comes on and declares National Music Conservation week.

President’s edict is that parties may play only one vinyl record the entire party.

Seems plausible? Right?

Well here’s the party record I’d recommend, Dr. John’s Gumbo.

It is  danceable, hummable, sing-with-able and eat cajun food-able. Iko Iko can be played 29 times straight without diminished pleasure, scientists measuring brain activity have discovered.

Add on to Iko Iko songs like Mess Around, Big Chief, Stack A Lee, Let the Good Times Roll and you got a party veering toward that shaky ground between ecstasy and agony. The agony is caused by the imbibeable forces the album propels, however those effects won’t begin until  morning. Health specialists recommend that you stay away from the song Iko Iko for several days before easing back in at low volume.

Counting down my 678 vinyl records before I die of brain disease.

RIP Charles Neville

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Drivin’ and Cryin’ — 521

ALBUM:  Mystery Road (1989)

MVC Rating: 4.0/ $$$

Kevin Kinney is the soul of this band, his aching voice sounds a little like Rod Stewart. And his band definitely rocks. Maybe he sounds like the Bodeans lead singer.

Paste Magazine named this album the 39th best ‘Southern Rock album of all time. Guitarist Buren Fowler, whose name is not known to me, is as good as any playing in what we are loosely calling the Southern rock genre. You can tell he’s listened to a little Dickey Betts in his day and Skynyrd.

‘I’m  going straight to hell’  is fun song.

I have a six degrees of separation with Kinney, which I will tell below.

But first if you want a really interesting take on how Paste defines Southern Rock, go here.

OK, so for my story. I was alone in WUXTRY  in  Athens, Ga. , except for the guy behind the register. Peter Buck (REM) walks in, apparently not too unusual, he worked at WUXTRY for a while before REM took off. I used to buy from  him. So anyway, Buck goes  flipping through the music. We chat a little  I think  it was 1991 or 92 so probably much of the music was in the already established  CD format.

He said he recommended Kevin Kinney’s ‘McDougal Blues’ a solo album from  the Drivin’ and Cryin’ frontman –which Mr. Buck had produced.

But the thing was I already had it. On cassette tape. I think I copied it from someone else who bought it. RIpping off the artists, though I didn’t really have that level of  awareness at the time,  even tho I  was a grown-up.

So I had it on cassette and opted to go with this Los Lobos CD that I’d had my eye on: Kiko, one of my early CD purchases.

I started  to kick myself later thinking I should have bought the Kinney disc, scooped up the REM discs and ask Peter to  sign them for me.

But I never was much for that kind of thing. In the end I bought Kiko and was on my way.  Great band,  saw them at the Marin County Fair north of SF years later.

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Dion– 523, 522

ALBUMS: Dion and the Belmonts 24 Original Classics (1984); Dion (1968)

MVC Rating: Classics 4.5/$$$; Dion 4.0/$$

If you are going to cover Purple Haze by Jimi Hendrix you better do it like Dion did it by totally deconstructing, making it virtually unrecognizable from the original.

He made it a slow smoldering, jazzy nightclub song : . ‘Excuse me while I kiss the sky’ he sings slowly, quietly, dragging the words out, and the line dissolves into flute, be-bop scats and an ethereal echo effects.

You may not like this treatment, click on link  above  to hear, but if he tried to do it like Hendrix, it would surely be a fiasco. On that song I give kudos for the creative arrangement.

Now  on to the songs he was known for. Dion came out of the doo-wop New York City scene, where you got up a group of friends in the neighborhood and sang on the porch or stoop.

He hooked up with Bronx buddies: Fred Milano, Angelo D’Aleo, and Carlo Mastrangelo.

And of course  you snapped your fingers as your voices — being the main musical instruments — blended in perfect harmony. Dion came from that scene and –became one the top singers in the era of the late 1950s after Elvis went into the Army and before the Beatles and British invasion.

Songs like Runaround Sue, which is addressing presumably an ex-girlfriend in a non-complimentary way:

People let me put you wise– Sue goes out with other guys

In the Wanderer, Dion is the macho loverboy who has goes from town to town loving and leaving them.

Oh well, there’s Flo on my left and then there’s Mary on my right
And Janie is the girl well that I’ll be with tonight
And when she asks me, which one I love the best?
I tear open my shirt and I show “Rosie” on my chest

Dion had lots of hits both as a front man for a band, (the Belmonts) and by himself. But the street corner dude was apparently hiding a heroin habit that began in his teens. Disappearing for a while he re-emerged with a softer folksy style that brought the hit ‘Abraham, Martin and John’ about the slain leaders.

Dion had a very soulful voice and feel for the song. The two-disc compilation I have is a great place to start. But I’ve found his discography to be deep. He did great songs that are sometimes hidden on albums like Born to Be with You. Beautiful.

He also did a very personal song, that may be one of the best and honest  ‘getting sober’ songs ever done called ‘In Your Own Backyard.’ Listen to it below:

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Neil Diamond, Barbra Streisand — 525, 524

ALBUMS: Diamond ‘Beautiful Noise’; Streisand:  ‘My Name is Barbra’

MVC Rating: Barbara — 3.5/$; DIamond -3.5 –$$

This is not my cup of tea. I don’t deny their success and know they have some passionate passionate (yes 2x) fans, Barbra Streisand and  Neil Diamond.

There is nothing connecting these two selections other than I have them  in my collection.  I just thought I’d do them in the  same review given my perception of them is of two MOR balladeers with Top 40 chops and talent I appreciate — but don’t enjoy very much. I am filing them in the D’s for Diamond.

The Diamond album I bought used because the cover said it was produced by Robbie Robertson famed member of the  Band. He even plays guitar on some tracks.

Babs is a great singer. Not a fan of the song selection on this one. The Sweet Zoo song made me bite down on a leather belt until it was over.  Why Did I Choose You — well after the ‘you’ in this heard this song, he was wondering the same thing.  This was a tie-in to a TV show and it did become a Gold record (500,000 in sales.)

The Diamond album is a little better. But he reminds me too much of a perpetual Elvis in Vegas act. His Top 40 hits in the 70s are a guilty pleasure, even the inane ones (which covers about all of them).

Shilo, Sweet Caroline, Cracklin’ Rose, Song Sung Blue, and so on.

Oh and I should give props to Barbra for much  of her acting career, except I don’t know if I could stomach ‘A Star is Born’ these days without a little dramamine.

I’m counting down my 678 vinyl records before I die of brain disease.

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Difford and Tilbrook — 526

ALBUM: Difford and Tilbrook (1984)

MVC Rating:  3.5/$$

Um.

Couple of nice songs, most notably ‘Picking up the Pieces.’

‘Tears for Attention’ finally gets your attention after a dozen listens, now seems to be a very good song to me after first dismissing as slooow..

But my main reaction is how this is SO not as good as Squeeze, whom I really enjoyed, especially Argybargy and East Side Story, which I will review when I get to the S’s. Difford and Tilbrook were the core of Squeeze. The Squeeze sound is still there with this one  but there’s a lack of energy, a lack of mussels (from a shell.)

I will say though that ‘Picking up the Pieces’ I would rate in the Top 5 of all Squeeze songs.

This is one of those records I may keep out for further listens because there’s something subtle at work that may actually work with further listens. Here’s the thing: I know they can sing and I know they can write songs. I’ just asking to sing louder and write better.

Counting down my 678 vinyl records before I die of brain disease.