Some cover songs are just the original in a different font, at which point, what’s the use of that? But a select few covers have transcended their predecessors so profoundly that they’ve inspired the original artist to change how they play it live. Not many, of course. But these three managed to do that to an extent.
“All Along the Watchtower” by Jimi Hendrix
Rock and roll icon Jimi Hendrix was famously a Bob Dylan fanatic. So, it’s no wonder that his cover version of “All Along the Watchtower” paid appropriate homage to the original while also completely reinventing the composition. “All Along the Watchtower” appeared on Dylan’s 1967 album John Wesley Harding, and according to him, no one paid much attention to it. Until Hendrix put his spin on it in 1968.
Hendrix’s explosive, wailing, heavy-hitting guitar sound changed the tone of the song. “Watchtower” went from a little acoustic ditty to an electric blowout of sound. But it still retained the deeply spiritual imagery of the original lyrics. Additionally, that version subsequently influenced how Dylan played “Watchtower” live. In 1985, Dylan said, “Ever since [Jimi Hendrix] died I’ve been doing it that way,” quoted in the liner notes of the compilation Biograph. “Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it’s a tribute to him in some kind of way.”
“Just Like Heaven” by Dinosaur Jr.
The Cure’s “Just Like Heaven” was released in 1987 on the album Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me. Inspired by a trip to the seashore Robert Smith took with his future wife, Mary Poole, the single became a romantic anthem. Especially in the U.S., where it became the band’s first Top 40 hit. The sentiment of one romantic night with someone you love outweighing “1,000 hours of drudgery”, according to Smith, really struck a chord.
In 1989, Dinosaur Jr. recorded a cover version of “Just Like Heaven” that struck a particular chord with Robert Smith himself. This version was faster and had the band’s signature fuzzed-out, distorted sound. It differed from The Cure enough while also bringing something totally new to the song. “It was fantastic,” Smith said, quoted in Blender in print in 2003. “I’ve never had such a visceral reaction to a cover version before or since.”
“The Man Who Sold the World” by Nirvana
Nirvana recorded a cover of David Bowie’s 1970 track “The Man Who Sold the World” during their MTV Unplugged performance. That live cover, recorded just months before Kurt Cobain’s death, pulled so much raw emotion from the song that Bowie felt it was one of only two versions that captured the mysticism of his mental state in 1970. The other being his original, of course.
But really, the rawness of Nirvana’s stripped-back acoustic cover version moved Bowie emotionally. “It’s a very sad rendition, of course,” Bowie said in 1996 on a Dutch TV program, “Because it is so tied up with [Kurt Cobain’s] own life and death. So it takes on all these different shades for me.” The aforementioned mysticism of the original was stripped away in the cover, but was replaced by something just as otherworldly.
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