Original vs. Cover: Forever Young

[jmt225]

Bob Dylan


Joan Baez


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I've been a fan of Bob Dylan since I was young. Not a hardcore fan, but my mom loved his music and on road trips and what not, his stuff would be blaring out the speakers of her car. However, while I'm sure I heard this song from him at some point during that time, it never stuck with me like a lot of other of Bob Dylan's work.

Fast forward to a couple of years ago, I buy a bootleg DVD set of The Wonder Years. Now, if you've ever watched The Wonder Years, then you know there's a bunch of great music all throughout the series. And every so often I would hear a song, write the lyrics down and then do a search of Google to find it because I liked what I was hearing so much. And that was the case in this situation. At the end of an absolutely terrific episode titled 'Private Butthead', which was about Kevin's father stopping Wayne from joining the Army, plays this wonderful cover of "Forever Young" by Joan Baez. Like I had done with many other songs throughout the season, I wrote down some of the lyrics, did a Google search, and finally found what I was looking for. However, I also found Bob Dylan's version as well, and I ended up loving that original version almost as much as the Baez cover. Almost. Why do I like Baez's more? It's really hard to answer that. Her voice is just so beautiful that I think the tone of the song fits her better more so than it does Dylan, but that's all I can really think of as to why I feel that way.

 

[Mr. TM]

I had never heard the Baez version until now, and I have to admit, it does nothing for me. The first time I heard this song, well more like a version of this song was Rod Stewart's version, which is not a true cover, more like a recreation of the original. I did not hear the Bob Dylan version until quite some time afterwards. So if I were to pick an version, I would pick the Stewart version. But of the two, defiantly Bob Dylan's.