3 Stunning Covers of Bob Dylan That Nina Simone Nailed

Nina Simone and Bob Dylan were, in a way, two sides of the same coin. They were both people who used music as a form of activism and political commentary. They were both talented songwriters who dabbled in folk and gospel. It makes sense that Simone would cover a Dylan track or two during her heyday, and some of those covers even rival the original version recorded by the Bard himself. Let’s look at just a few, shall we?

Videos by American Songwriter

“I Shall Be Released”

Nina Simon debuted this Bob Dylan cover on her 1969 album To Love Somebody. Plenty of people have covered this song, but no one did it quite like Simone did. The notes she hits on this song are incredible, and the jazz vibe of it all suits the subject matter of the song. And, as always, Simone made it sound like it was easy.

“Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues”

Some might consider “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues” to be a bit of a Bob Dylan deep cut. This tune was one of many solid songs from the 1965 album Highway 61 Revisited, but it has historically been overshadowed in favor of tracks like “Desolation Row” and “Like A Rolling Stone”.

When Simone covered it for her above-mentioned album, it even impressed the famously hard-to-impress Dylan himself. He even once said that she “was an artist I definitely looked up to” in 2015. She also apparently learned most of his songs from Dylan himself during a dressing room visit. He described her as “dynamite,” and that’s a definitely fitting label for her cover of “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues”.

“The Times They Are A-Changin’”

This Bob Dylan classic is another tune that has been covered by plenty of Dylan’s contemporaries, including Nina Simone. Another gorgeous Dylan cover from To Love Somebody, this might be one of Simone’s most sincere and memorable songs of her career. No ordinary artist can take a stripped-down folk song and turn it into something of an enormous production. 

While this song might not be her best cover of Dylan, it’s up there on the list. Few artists were as solid a performer as Simone was, and this version of Bob Dylan’s 1965 classic is one for the books.

Photo of Bob Dylan via PL Gould; Nina Simone via Tom Copi/Michael Ochs Archives