Bob Dylan’s Reaction to All the Covers of ‘Make You Feel My Love’
Bob Dylan’s success as a songwriter has inspired a rush of covers from other artists. While many artists tackle his most well-known songs, a more overlooked tune has become one of Dylan’s most-covered songs. “Make You Feel My Love,” which Dylan released in 1997, has been covered by hundreds of artists. He shared how he felt about all the takes on his song.
The musician appreciates songwriters but doesn’t fault people who don’t write
Dylan has been a prolific songwriter since the 1960s, even earning a Nobel Prize in Literature for his writing. While it’s an integral part of his process, he doesn’t think everyone has to both sing and write.
“There’s a lot of great singers who write weak songs and a lot of great songwriters who don’t sing,” he said in a 2017 interview on his official site. “Trouble for them is they don’t have the outlets we used to have — nowhere to place these songs, no movies, no radio shows, TV variety shows, recording sessions, programs that were always calling for songs. So they have to sing them themselves. Songwriters have to have a reason to write songs, there has to be some purpose to performing it too. And sometimes it doesn’t connect.”
He also doesn’t fault people who don’t write music.
“If you can write your own songs, that’s ideal, but nobody will fault you if you don’t,” he said. “Barbra Streisand and Tom Jones don’t.”
Many artists have covered ‘Make You Feel My Love,’ and Bob Dylan shared how he felt about that
Dylan released “Make You Feel My Love” on his Time Out of Mind album in 1997. Since then, well over 400 artists have covered it. Billy Joel was actually the first artist to release the Dylan-penned song, with Dylan’s own version coming out a month later. Per Rolling Stone, Adele, Garth Brooks, Neil Diamond, Boy George, and Kelly Clarkson, among others, have covered the song.
“In a way, it’s like ‘Lay Lady Lay,'” a source close to Dylan said. “It’s a straightforward lyric and a very singable melody.”
Michael Bolton, who frequently covers the song, said it always gets a strong response from the audience.
“It makes people feel good, and they give it up at the end [of] the song,” he explained. “It’s the audience’s response to the song that turns it all around.”
Dylan, who is notoriously prickly, responded very warmly to the covers. When asked if any of them knocked him out, he replied, “Yeah, one after the other, they all did.”
Adele shared why she decided to cover Bob Dylan’s ‘Make You Feel My Love’
Adele, whose cover of “Make You Feel My Love” is one of the better-known versions, explained what drew her to the song.
“I heard that song and I read the lyrics and they’re the most beautiful lyrics I’ve ever read or heard or sung,” she said. “And they kind of summed up everything I’m trying to write in my songs about how I felt. It’s such a beautiful song.”
