Bob Dylan: his voice isn’t for everyone, but you can’t deny his songwriting ability. In his six decades of making music, he’s been covered by a huge range of artists, including Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Vedder, Stevie Wonder, Heart with Layne Staley, U2, Elvis Presley, Tim Armstrong of Rancid, Silversun Pickups, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers and many more. There’s a reason why he recently sold his music publishing for a rumored nine-figure deal.
With that in mind, we thought we’d celebrate his 80th birthday with a list of the best versions of his 80 best songs. So, it’s a mix Dylan’s versions, and a few of his live performances as well and lots of covers by the aforementioned artists.
And yes, we know that some Dylanologists will be mad that some of the “classics” are missing (we just don’t love “Just Like A Woman” or “Mr. Tamborine Man” as much as everyone else). We love some of the material from the second half of his career as much as the music from his more celebrated first half. We love the covers, and we gave them extra points in some cases for introducing his music to younger generations. And with that, let’s start with number eighty.
