The 5 Best Covers: "I Shall Be Released" by Bob Dylan

"I see my light come shining..." is one of the most famous opening lines in gospel folk rock. Bob Dylan opens the chorus to his great song with this incredible line. Now, please don't be fooled as there are two versions of this song. There is one that appears on the Greatest Hits Vol. 2 and there is one, which is slightly more famous that appears on the Bootleg Vol. 11: The Raw Basement Tapes. The one on the Raw Basement Tapes is the one that people normally cover.

The song is supposed to be about redeemed prisoners, as many have analysed and even Clinton Heylin agrees with the general public, which is surprising. The song has been covered so many times that it was getting difficult to choose which five I would use. I initially thought about covering ten, but seeing as I already started this thing with five covers, I choose to continue with five.

Obviously, there is a massive theme of freedom that underlines this song and well, it is really Bob Dylan going back to his 60s days in which he longs for that freedom, I think it's probably supposed to be some sort of anthem to either becoming free or the fact that he's about to be free. I hate theorising on what the song's supposed to be about but, I do love this song. I will tell you now that the version that appears on the Raw Basement Tapes is so much better than the one on the Greatest Hits CD as it has more of a gospel feel to it.

Something that won't be included on this list, though I like it a lot, is Elvis's 45 second introduction of "I Shall Be Released" for one of his concerts. It was really good but he only sings the chorus twice. I hope you take a look at it though. I really like it because of the really stripped feeling it gives. Elvis Presley can sing without backing music and for the first chorus that's what he does. It sounds pretty awesome.

Well, now we're going to go through the top five covers of one of Bob Dylan's greatest songs, "I Shall Be Released."

Joan Baez's version comes in at number five because I think she loses the point of the song. Her vocals are far too high for me to actually make it through the whole song in one sitting. The singing is too monotonous and well, as much as I do think Joan Baez is a good vocalist, this song really wasn't for her.

I think the backing music is pretty good though, she doesn't really change very much from Bob Dylan's original version—but the song itself has life and sound. My only real criticism is that the vocals sound too perfected and too monotonous for a song like this. This song requires movement and passion - I just don't think she did with this the same thing she did when covering Bob Dylan's "I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine"—which was a lot better. She could have put more effort in.

The Band's version of this song is very good, but again it wasn't amazing—but they are up against Bob Dylan here, so they aren't gonna match entirely. I like the way the song is sung because there's intonation and a clear passion there. It really does make you feel the song. The only thing I am concerned about is the overall sound being a bit strange to listen to if you haven't heard the song before.

With Bob Dylan's version, the sound isn't really as weird, I don't really know how to describe it, but it's almost too stripped of the things that Joan Baez adds into her version. The Band almost got it right, the vocals were good, the backing music is thoroughly average and the overall sound is strange but again, it is okay. Listening to the Band's version though requires you to listen to it a few times to appreciate it. I mean, that's really the only reason it's so low on the list for me.

There are few people that have the vocal talents of Joe Cocker and well, the reason he beat the Band to the third spot is because of those vocals. I think he really did this song a bit of justice. Though the song itself is a bit too slow and ends up having the speed the chorus up. Like the Band's version it takes a couple of listens to appreciate it.

I don't really like the way the chorus is done because I feel like there's too much there and you can't really hear the vocals as much as you'd like. Though, the slightly electric gospel sound makes up for that. It's a good cover, but not the best one. I think it is a very good attempt and the vocals are polished for the song. He does have some very good vocal chords and this cover has gone slightly under-appreciated for a long time.

I really do enjoy this version of the song and that's not just because I like the Zac Brown Band. This version of the song offers a different sound and you can really put their own tune to the song. There's a real personality in this cover, even though it's a live cover—I still enjoy what they do with it. They add in instruments like brass ones and they still manage to make the vocals the main thing about the song. It takes a while to get started but I am convinced that this is one of the better covers out there.

I don't mind that they use electric instruments for this at all because it works with their cover of the song. Again, it's not as good as Bob Dylan's or even whatever is at number one. But this cover is a very Zac Brown Band cover of the song, they've taken it and done something different, which I can't really say about some of the covers out there. Let's just put it this way, the Tom Robinson Band got the damn words wrong.

Nina Simone's cover of this song is by far one of the best, if not the best cover of this song I have ever heard. To be honest, it is ever so slightly better than Bob Dylan's and I rarely say that. I think that this version is far more gospel and bluesy than a lot of the covers - it portrays that really well since that is the actual atmosphere of the song.

I also believe that Nina Simone's voice is well-fitted to the song, having the amount of intonation required to sing it. It is a beautiful cover of the song and yes, she has done other covers of Bob Dylan's songs as well and they are just as good. We covered her version of "The Times They Are a-Changin'" on one of these shorter articles—but I have to say that this one is my own personal favourite.

Conclusion

I love listening to other people cover Bob Dylan's songs and then thinking about what they did to the song, how did they keep the core things the same and yet made it their own. Unfortunately, there are some people who just try to copy him and don't bring anything new to it, but there are some people—like Nina Simone—who bring an incredible amount of talent to it. I hope you enjoyed reading this article and listen to all the versions I have offered here today.