Today is the Feast day of St. John the Apostle, the presumed author not only of the Gospel of John, but also of the epistles of 1, 2 and 3 John and Revelation. In addition to inspiring the work of many an end-times fanatic, the last of these books also was the inspiration for Blind Willie Johnson’s song “John the Revelator,” which in turn inspired a multitude of covers.
In honor of St. John the Revelator, we feature the original song and three covers of it here…
Which version of the song is your favorite?
(Mine is Son House’s cover)
[ Blind Willie Johnson ] [ Son House ]
[ Phil Keaggy ] [ Nick Cave ]
Nick Cave: [ [easyazon_link asin=”B00K5X6PB0″ locale=”US” new_window=”default” nofollow=”default” tag=”douloschristo-20″ add_to_cart=”default” cloaking=”default” localization=”default” popups=”default”]Buy the MP3[/easyazon_link] ]
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Are there other covers of “John the Revelator” that we should have included here?
C. Christopher Smith is the founding editor of The Englewood Review of Books. He is also author of a number of books, including most recently How the Body of Christ Talks: Recovering the Practice of Conversation in the Church (Brazos Press, 2019). Connect with him online at: C-Christopher-Smith.com
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Yeah. Its the Son House one.
I’m actually a big fan of John Mellencamp’s version.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sL-WOYCdJSU
I enjoyed them all but I’m going with Phil. This is one song, though, where his electric performances really outshine his acoustic versions. Just Google it and see what I mean.
I agree totally with Robert. The Crimson and Blue version is one of my favorite songs of all time.
I like Shawn James’ cover: http://shawnjamessoul.bandcamp.com/track/john-the-revelator-son-house
I like each version, but really like the grittiness of Blind Willie Johnson’s and There just isn’t anything by Nick Cave I don’t like, so there’s that. Great guitar work by Phil Keaggy as one would expect, but it feels just a little too, I don’t know, it just too… it’s good but ya. I discovered there’s many covers of this, been listening to them on Spotify today. Also, I’m wondering where Depeche Mode’s John the Revelator fits in here, it’s not a cover, but I’m pretty sure it is written with this song in mind.