Tune du Jour: “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” – Bob Dylan
THE CLASH of Cover Tunes: Bad Religion vs. Robyn Hitchcock vs. Nena
VOTE, COMMENT, then LEARN FROM YOUR MISTAKES
CoverMeImpressed.com CoverMeImpressed.com CoverMeImpressed.com
You used to be so amused,
At Broccoli Man,
and the carrot for a guitar he used …
The Original
Bob Dylan:
THE CLASH of Cover Tunes
Bad Religion vs. Robyn Hitchcock vs. Nena
Bad Religion:
Robyn Hitchcock:
Nena:
SPACE
Oh the disharmony! Much like Harlan County there are no neutrals here. It is your solemn responsibility to decide which cover song prevails. In other words … Which Side Are You On?!!?
Disclaimer: Votes cast from Florida may or may not be counted.
cover me impressed 
I like this. Three very different covers of the same song. Obviously, Hitchcock’s goal was to do a rendition in Dylan’s voice; not so the other two. I enjoyed Nena’s version. I guess she started out with 99 Luftbalons in 1983, and whittled her way down over the last 33 years. She just used up the last one and it’s all over now. But I’m going with Bad Religion, one of my all-time favorite bands. They haven’t made a bad song since reforming in 1988. So I was very happy to hear this cover in their standard 3 guitars, bass and drums style. Great vocals and a guitar player that reminds me of Dubbs – What else could be better?
He plays a classic carrot-carved guitar?!!?
The moment I saw the bands who were doing the covers, I said to myself, “Dougie’s gotta pick Bad Religion”. That’s his band. Although Dougie can be unpredictable when ranking CMI covers. But not this time 🙂 And I agree. Nena did a surprisingly robust version, but Bad Religion really kicked ass on this version. Great cover. Robyn Hitchcock performed it exactly as I would have imagined they would, so zero points for creativity. Bad Religion owned this CMI today.
I picked Nena as a sentimental favorite and its 80’s sensibilities…
Bad Religion sped through a predictable, albeit very good, cover version. No problem with their four-star rendition. I’ve always like Nena’s voice and thought 99 Red Balloons was a strong song for the time. However, the covers I’ve heard her do tend to be hit or miss. This one was a frozen rope to the wall in left-center. I would not have thought she could pull off Dylan but this was a surprisingly good cover. And it came within a cat’s whisker of winning my vote. But I had to go with Robyn Hitchcock. Yes it lacked originality but Robyn covers Dylan very well (as well as Bowie and the Beatles). He does not come off as trying hard to sound like Dylan. It’s all very natural. This is Robyn’s genre. Very pleasurable cover.
As an aside I have about 10 great covers of this song. And the same could be said for many other tunes that have been presented. I cry every night, “How do I release these covers to my brethren?”. If only there were more hours in the day and days in the week …
Hitchcock’s rendition is pretty fine here. But as far as his Dylan covers go, my favorite is Tryin’ to Get to Heaven Before They Close the Door from the Spooked album.
All good versions. Hitchcock in a close call.
Speaking of Hitchcock and covers, among my all-time faves is his version of “The Bells of Rhymney”.