Coach Key plays the guitar?

Northeast Stinger

Helluva Engineer
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11,130
All along the watchtower - Jimmy Hendrix is the only right answer
That’s a popular answer.

But as a Dylan-a-file I can say that it’s not better just a comparable and very good version. Hendrix makes it a different song.

Dylan loved Hendrix’s version but the John Wesley Harding album was a landmark in music history. It marked a shift back to a pared down sound with Americana roots. The Beatles and Rolling Stones were still doing psychedelic rock (nothing wrong with that) but Dylan wrenched the entire rock world in a different direction after this release.

Hendrix, though, was always going to do Hendrix, writing and playing his music while on heroic doses of LSD. Thus his musical template and color tones were always going to have that magical ear candy.

I find that most people who prefer the Hendrix version probably had not heard Dylan’s original more than a few times at most. If you had absorbed hundreds of listenings to the Dylan original before hearing Hendrix you might have a variety of actions, including “this is really exciting” and “Hendrix captures the mystery of this song.” Hendrix loved Dylan and he was his artist of choice whenever he put on an album. Hendrix does right by Dylan, even understanding narratives that are non-linear, a technique Dylan popularized and which later influenced dozens of movies.

To be fair, Dylan liked Hendrix’s version better than his own but, if you know Dylan, he was surprisingly humble about other good artists and frequently praised their covers of his music.
 

slugboy

Moderator
Staff member
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Tennessee Whiskey - Chris Stapleton nailed it. It's originally a David Allen Coe song...park that one in the back of your head for trivia. Your welcome.

Hallelujah has been over-covered, but I think Jeff Buckley’s is the best (it’s a Cohen song)




The Sundays cover of Wild Horses is better than the Stones (sacrilege, but I’m sticking with it)

 
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