Which is the better Bob Dylan song cover, the Stones’ “Like a Rolling Stone” or Hendrix’s “All Along The Watchtower”?
Apples and oranges. The Stones did a “cover.” Hendrix did an entirely different song that happened to share a melody and lyrics.
However, negative points for Jagger’s harmonica.
I’m with kunilou. Hendrix did the definitive, iconic and contemporary version of Watchtower (though the original really is not bad), so good that Dylan quickly adapted the arrangement and plays it until today (and he almost always plays Watchtower on every concert). The Stones probably did Rolling Stone 30 years later after having been asked umpteen times to do the song about “them”. It was a gimmick. Good recording, no doubt, but not comparable. There are tons of Dylan covers more important than theirs.
Hendrix’s Watchtower is pretty unbeatable. Today, Dylan plays that song in the Hendrix style.
He’s done it since the 1974 tour with the Band.
ETA: Dylan and Hendrix were two musicians with a lot of mutual respect for each other. They both adored the other, though I think they’ve never met.
I agree there’s no comparison. The Stones sang Dylan’s song, Hendrix transformed it and brought it to another level.
All Hendrix, not even close.
Christ, I had no idea the Stones covered “Like a Rolling Stone.” When did this happen? What album?
Shouldn’t Mick have sang “like ME!”?
You’ve reminded me of one of the funniest “letters to the editor” in the old National Lampoon, back in the ‘70s when it was funny:
“Sometimes, late at night, I sing along to David Bowie’s ‘Young Americans,’ and when he gets to the line ‘Do you remember President Nixon,’ I go ‘Do you remember…me?’”
— Richard Nixon
San Clemente, CA
1995 on Stripped, an album of mostly old re-recorded “unplugged” songs. The “Like A Rolling Stone” cover" was alive recording from Amsterdam’s Paradiso.
LIVE
I’d pick Hendrix over The Stones, but my all-time favorite Watchtower cover is by Michael Hedges.
Thanks, boys.