― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Sunday, 10 July 2005 20:17 (eighteen years ago) link
― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Sunday, 10 July 2005 20:18 (eighteen years ago) link
Dylan wins by a mile.
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Sunday, 10 July 2005 20:27 (eighteen years ago) link
― Orbit (Orbit), Sunday, 10 July 2005 20:37 (eighteen years ago) link
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Sunday, 10 July 2005 20:40 (eighteen years ago) link
i like dylan's slightly more. the byrds' version is as pristine and beautiful as their other hits, but dylan's performance is extraordinary. it's one of his ugliest-sounding vocals - he practically belches a few lines - but he really conveys the 'trip' of the song in a way that the byrds don't even try to.
― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Monday, 11 July 2005 05:13 (eighteen years ago) link
(cue a million weirdos telling me i am a fool and that that is a MYTH.)
― Ian John50n (orion), Monday, 11 July 2005 15:06 (eighteen years ago) link
― Doctor Casino (Doctor Casino), Friday, 26 May 2006 03:37 (seventeen years ago) link
― Carlos Keith (Buck_Wilde), Friday, 26 May 2006 06:23 (seventeen years ago) link
― smartypants (smartypants), Friday, 2 June 2006 01:00 (seventeen years ago) link
Byrds' 'Lay Lady Lay' is elemental, that harpsichord-esque guitar seems to scan broad circles high above a stationary earth as the sun soaks the pristine innocence of a 60's I never lived in
Others I give to the Byrds: Bells Of Rhymney, All I Really Wanna Do
Dylan wins Chimes Of Freedom and Mr Tambourine Man
FITE!
― oh shit sorry another useless post (acoleuthic), Saturday, 13 March 2010 21:27 (fourteen years ago) link
(For those of you who thought you had me nailed, I was BROUGHT UP on this stuff + a lot of American rock, and this debate is quite an interesting one to me)
― oh shit sorry another useless post (acoleuthic), Saturday, 13 March 2010 21:32 (fourteen years ago) link
love them both -- my fave version might be Dylan live in 1966. Who else has done this song (aside from Shatner)?
― tylerw, Saturday, 13 March 2010 21:35 (fourteen years ago) link
this thread makes me so mad. geir should be banned from the internets. maybe someone should take him for a walk or something.
i was right seven years ago.
― by another name (amateurist), Friday, 2 July 2010 15:58 (thirteen years ago) link
byrds acoustic version of "tambourine man" on that Royal Albert Hall live disc is pretty ace. kind of splits the diff betw. the original byrds version and dylan. i think it's just mcguinn and clarence white.
― tylerw, Friday, 2 July 2010 16:03 (thirteen years ago) link
i need to hear that! thanks.
― by another name (amateurist), Saturday, 3 July 2010 00:52 (thirteen years ago) link
never dylan, ever
― spud called maris (darraghmac), Monday, 8 May 2017 22:49 (six years ago) link
My gushing about Dylan upthread still sells his version short. This was such a critical song and critical recording for me as a teenager. Twenty years on and I can still remember being in my bedroom listening to my parents' copy of Greatest Hits in the morning before school and being so drawn into this thing, it sounded like nothing I'd heard before.
The cuts for length by the Byrds are understandable given their goals but they cripple the song - not so much the specific lyrics they leave out, but simply the idea of making this song into a diverting 2:18 pleasantry. Sonically it was just as much of a bombshell but it totally loses the unhurried sense of Dylan's, which perfectly fits the narrative of the hazy, pleasantly-bleary, maybe-a-dream morning drift in the tambourine man's wake.
― ✓ (Doctor Casino), Monday, 8 May 2017 23:08 (six years ago) link
the thing about the byrds version is that, as good a recording as it is, it could basically be any song. it doesn't even really feel like the same composition as dylan's song. i like the byrds track because i like basically everything they did in that era, but the quips way upthread about dylan's song being a "demo" for the byrds version are so far off it's ridiculous.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Monday, 8 May 2017 23:19 (six years ago) link
i'd contrast that w/ hendrix's "all along the watchtower" where hendrix really seems to be determined to get across the dread and terror in dylan's song, despite how different his version sounds from the original.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Monday, 8 May 2017 23:20 (six years ago) link
deems otm
― Punnet of the Grapes (Tom D.), Tuesday, 9 May 2017 00:26 (six years ago) link
Dylan's versions of his songs are better than the covers in nearly ever case, but especially this one
― Treeship, Tuesday, 9 May 2017 00:39 (six years ago) link
the fact that geir preferred the byrds version makes me think that the superiority of the dylan version ought to be an official fact, like put it in the britannica or something
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Tuesday, 9 May 2017 00:42 (six years ago) link
dylan's tambourine man is a song, the byrds tambouring man is a record
― brimstead, Tuesday, 9 May 2017 00:48 (six years ago) link
Not trying to duck the question--I think they're both incredible, as are these clips.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeP4FFr88SQhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUSeJtqHIKE
I only barely think of them as the same song anymore.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 9 May 2017 00:50 (six years ago) link