It’s All Over Now Baby Blue (Live, 1966) – The Grateful Dead

More Dead! Oh no! I’ve just been on a major kick lately.

I tend to prefer covers of Dylan songs to them being sung by Bob himself. It took me a really long time to “get” The Grateful Dead; maybe it’ll happen for me one day with Bob. I like a lot of Bob’s songs, and there’s no denying he’s a great lyricist or his importance and influence in music history. I’m just not a huge fan of the guy. I do enjoy his original rendition of “It’s All Over Now Baby Blue,” though, and I will link it below for comparison’s sake. His is, of course, a lot more folky, while The Dead give a more psychedelic sound. There are plenty of tremendous covers of this song, one by Them (Van Morrison) and another by The Animals that I will link below. I think they all have a pretty different sound and unique take on them but still retain the correct aura of the song.

I chose to feature the Dead’s 1966 rendition of the song mostly because of Pigpen‘s (Ron McKernan) vocals as well as the awesome surfy guitar Jerry is laying down. That being said, I think my favorite part is actually the keys, which are also performed by Pigpen. The early Dead can have a real garage blues band feel to it and I really dig it. It’s fun to listen to and then think about how much the evolved as a band and stylistically how much they changed, but hearing them earn their chops early on is way cool. There is also a really cool version of Otis Redding‘s “Pain in My Heart” (One of my all time favorite songs) from the same show.

Dead Audio – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bA43XI0sFqI

Bob original – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4HW33SgZlM

Them – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LviBwdfLn2Q

The Animals – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4D4Aam9FUg