Every version I like of this song has been going through my head all day and a certain bummer anniversary is coming up so it's probably going to continue to idle in my brain for another week. First up, The Band. Oh boy, Eric Clapton is the worst. Skip past him. I do not know if this Bulgarian bootleg is of The Grammys or what but it is live and good and Levon Helm + Rick Danko are crushing it 25 years after The Last Waltz.
Here is the plain version if your computer loads slow as molasses and you need the semi-OG Cahoots version.
Then Elliott Smith (and Sam C.!) are doing it back in the 90s.
I am staunchly in favor of covers. I love them. I love when musicians I love do covers of songs I love. It validates your love of an artist through a mutuality of taste; it's like the best sort of present from the best kind of boyfriend/girlfriend. The ones that are true surprises and exactly what you wanted but did not know you wanted. Not the kind of gift you mention wanting and then get, but them knowing you so well and extrapolating your likes, your inner (corny) essence, into something beyond your own (generally pretty low) expectations. It's actually a double gift because you're getting the gift of being understanding too. Whoa, double rainbow all the way.
They feel very rare these kinds of gifts. Even if rock stars are strangers, them doing a cover of a song you love feels like a sliver of that perfect gift feeling. And if on top of all that pent-up love for covers, you go and make it a Bob Dylan cover well fuck me, I'm plotzed.
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