Battle of the Covers: Wagon Wheel (Request)

"Dusty Ventures" (dustyventures)
09/17/2014 at 12:30 • Filed to: Battle of the Covers, BOTC, Musiclopnik, Damn you Arch Duke

As the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! continues it's close fight we also return to regular service, and with it a return to an Arch Duke request. Today's request from Dukey is the Bob Dylan classic "Wagon Wheel."

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In !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! we took on Bonnie Tyler's "Holding Out for a Hero," a classic originally written for the movie Footloose, and, well, it was never even close. German Acapella metal group took an early lead and never looked back, taking a full 61% of the votes. The nearest competitor was Emerald Sun with only two votes. The battle for the worst was similarly one-sided, as Joss Stone took an early lead and held it to the finish, ultimately beating the late charge of Ella Mae Bowen by two votes. Surprisingly the two covers that were written for Shrek 2 (Jennifer Saunders and Frou Frou) were never real contenders for worst, despite being associated with Shrek 2.

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"Wagon Wheel" may have one of the most interesting origin stories we've encountered yet, and is yet another song that blurs the line between "original" and "cover" (thanks for that, Arch Duke). The original song by Bob Dylan is actually incomplete and was never officially released. During a jam session for the Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid soundtrack album Bob picked up a guitar and performed a track that was melody, chorus, and a couple incomprehensible mumbled verses (this is Bob Dylan after all). And officially that was that. It wasn't so much a song as it was a sketch, a little something Bob did in the studio for the hell of it, never meant to see the light of day. And it never would have if not for a bootleg release of the session.

Nearly two decades later a high school kid named Chris Fuqua would come across the bootleg on a trip to London, purchase it, bring it back to the states, and hand it off to his friend Ketch Secor. The Dylan-obsessed Secor listened to it endlessly, and, when he formed the band Old Crow Medicine Show he wrote some verses and began performing it at live concerts. Finally, after a decade Secor looked into gaining the copyright so he could release a studio version. During the search he found out that Bob Dylan attributed the phrase "rock me, mama" to Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, who in turn picked it up from a Big Bill Broonzy recording. Effectively Wagon Wheel was a song that took 85 years to finally be completed. Since much of the song came from Dylan's recording, but the verses were the work of Secor, the two signed a co-writing agreement and shared the copyright to the finally finished song in a 50-50 split. And all of this is why the song was the hardest yet for me to decide what was the original and what was the cover. Damn you, Arch Duke.

Old Crow Medicine Show - (2004)

Against Me! - (2005)

Jeremy McComb - (2007)

Mumford and Sons - (2010)

Nathan Carter - (2012)

Chad Brownlee - (2012)

Darius Rucker - (2013)

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LEST YE FORGET! If you want to check back on the results of previous rounds, or see what covers are coming in future rounds, there is now a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! with past rounds and the upcoming battle schedule.

AND THE BONUS GAME! IDENTIFY THE FOUR ARTISTS IN THE "FIGHT" IMAGE AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE! BONUS POINTS IF YOU CAN DO IT WITHOUT THE GOOGLES!

DISCUSSION (7)

Eli's Got 2 > Dusty Ventures
09/17/2014 at 12:40

Two really great covers, here. It was hard.

Nibbles > Dusty Ventures
09/17/2014 at 12:41

Kinja'd!!!

I can't remember if this one is Hootie or The Blowfish.

Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire > Dusty Ventures
09/17/2014 at 21:41

Fuckers who don't vote for Against Me! for the best can get out. Also, Old Crow is the original here as they actually completed the song. Bob Dylan only laid the ground work.

Dusty Ventures > Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire
09/17/2014 at 21:47

You keep choosing covers with fuzzy origins. This is all your fault.

Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire > Dusty Ventures
09/17/2014 at 21:54

This might be due to my own fuzzy origins.

Just be glad I didn't suggest, "Summertime Blues" although that would be a good one.

Chuck 2(O=[][]=O)2 > Dusty Ventures
09/17/2014 at 22:26

I went for Old Crow mainly because it's the one I was introduced to first. But, unlike most of these battles, they were all pretty good. There's usually at least one or two horrible versions. For WW, there might be ones that I don't particularly like, but still respect. And I'm not even a big country fan, but I would be just fine listening to most of these covers.

Dusty Ventures > Chuck 2(O=[][]=O)2
09/17/2014 at 22:57

I'm so "not a country fan" that until I started making the battle I'd never heard any version of Wagon Wheel, so they were all equally new to me. Personally I liked Against Me's version best, because I tend to like that "a man and his acoustic" kind of sound (or "a woman and her acoustic" ). Jeremy McComb's was the weakest to me, because it sounded "too country" to me. Like they tried to make it fit the stereotypical sound of today's country music genre, instead of just trying to make a good song. But overall yes, I agree these are some of the strongest covers we've had and none are truly terrible.