The Bob Dylan Effect

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ThisHill2DieOn said:
Willie Nelson had a handful of these when he wrote for Sun Records, penning such songs as Patsy Cline's "Crazy." Infamously, Wilson auditioned for Sun and was told they would not record him, but wanted to hire him as a songwriter.
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Ironic since he went on to record dozens of covers.
ThisHill2DieOn said:
Another example is the excellent classic metal song from Iron Maiden, "Hallowed Be Thy Name," redone by Cradle of Filth.
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Eat shit and die, faggot.
 
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Kiwi Yuga said:
As for the topic of the thread, I am and always will be a Tom Waits fan, but his voice on his later records is an acquired taste, and many of his songs have been covered by bigger names and turned into hits. Ol' 55 covered by The Eagles, I Don't Wanna Grow Up covered by The Ramones, Downtown Train covered by Rod Stewart, and many others. Personally, I think Waits did it better every time, but I understand why mainstream audiences prefer the more palatable versions by pop singers.
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I've been a massive Waits fan since middle school, agreed about him being and acquired taste, but so much of his music fucking sucks when it's covered. Even with good instrumentation, arrangements. Without his voice, whether he's growling or doing his kinda gay nigger voice (like in the Bone Machine album), no one can do it like him. Imagine someone trying to cover pretty much any song from Real Gone, it would just suck.
 
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I only ever had to go to Super Detention one time but ours had this teacher that used to put on bob dylan and force us to sit and listen to it while we completed our punishment (in this case a whole 8 hour day of bob dylan and extra schoolwork). if you fell asleep you had to stay another day and listen to bob.

everyone called him "bob dyldo" and i heard someone stole the little radio she would put the tape into
 
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The gosling version of Cat People (Putting out Fire) is very much superior to the bowie version. TBF Bowie isn't a terrible singer but the more modern version slaps too hard, and I don't care too much for bowie in general. I didn't even know it was a cover originally.
I think the Seether version of Careless Whisper is superior but I could be biased.
Also all along the watchtower sucks. Castles made of sand is better.
 
Dave Mustaine probably falls into this category. He and Cliff basically wrote Metallica's first 3 albums, and most metalheads would say that including And Justice For All was their peak. And Justice was mostly Cliff's peak sans Dave. While I love both Megadeth and Metallica, I get that a lot of people don't like Dave's singing and prefer the slower, more melodic Metallica versions of similar songs. The Four Horsemen/Mechanix comes to mind. In this rare case, there's a 3rd version of the song from Metallica's demo that was recorded before Dave got kicked out of the band. It's Dave's version of the song with James singing.
 
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ThisHill2DieOn said:
Another example is the excellent classic metal song from Iron Maiden, "Hallowed Be Thy Name," redone by Cradle of Filth.
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Maybe it's because I was a Maiden fanboy in high school and college, but nobody who covers Iron Maiden does it justice. It always just makes me want to listen to the original.

I'll throw in most covers of KISS songs. They do have energy, it just needs better musicians playing the music.
 
Dysnomia said:
I was listening to the radio on Tuesday night and for the anniversary of Led Zeppelin II they played a few of those songs along with the old blues versions. The issue was that the original artists were not credited. Until the lawsuit this wasn't rectified. Willie Dixon was credited in later releases of Whole Lotta Love.

Robert Plant had this to say:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_Lotta_Love#Similarities_to_"You_Need_Love"



And they were probably high as fuck too. I think it's forgivable since they owned up to it and made things right. But the average kid buying a Zeppelin record in the 60s likely had no idea unless dad had some old blues records laying around. Zeppelin wasn't even the first band to do it. They were just the first to get caught.
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They made millions off of taking lyrics and melodies word by word and note by note really blatant stuff just straight theft. I still enjoy some of their music though.
 
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ThisHill2DieOn said:
a bad singer and mediocre musician who writes great songs whose written works are much better executed in more capable hands
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Do the Beatles count? Maybe Paul McCartney in particular? He and they wrote some stinkers but plenty of good songs too. In a general sense it's debatable, I wouldn't call Paul or the Beatles bad singers except for Ringo, though they were all pretty mediocre musicians. Their production is the saving grace, a lot of dumb but well-songwritten Beatles songs sound much better because of production choices.

More specifically, I'm talking about how anytime John Denver covered a Beatles song he played in their fucking faces with his acoustic guitar skills and expressive voice. He did it OFTEN. Here are two of my favs he did before he flew his stupid gay airplane into a lake and went to hell for being a violent wife beating drunk.

Firstly, his version of Mother Nature's Son is everything the song should have been.

Second, I can't stand Let it Be in its original form, it sounds so trite. But when John Denver does it solo on acoustic guitar it sounds so sincere like he's actually singing about the Virgin Mary from the heart.
 
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oldTireWater said:
OP is describing song writers. Sometimes they are good performers but they will always be known for their song writing first. Think Townes Van Zandt.

Bob Dylan isn't exactly Paul Simon but he isn't a bad singer either. He's got a weird voice. There aren't many Dylan covers that I think are better than the original. Dylan will always be known for his versions of the songs not the covers.

A shit voice does not necessarily make a shit singer. See late Tom Waites or John Prine.
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Tom Waits fitted his voice to his music. I don’t know if it’s true, but the lore was that he would regularly scream into a pillow to tear up his vocal cord.

This live performance of Bottom of the World is even better with his voice more fucked up than the cleaner album version.

Live in 2006

Album, released in 2006
 
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Vecr said:
I know he had some pretty bad songs going, did someone "fix" one of them/cover it?
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No, more the theme of the Elliot Smith songs. Specifically, Memory Lane and Somebody That I Used to Know.

I don’t think there are any elements of Tim’s songs that can be salvaged into a great tune by even the most capable of hands.
 
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ThisHill2DieOn said:
Tom Waits fitted his voice to his music. I don’t know if it’s true, but the lore was that he would regularly scream into a pillow to tear up his vocal cord.
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In his early works his voice was much cleaner. He was close to being a crooner.
 
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