 Canadian singer @-@ songwriter Gordon Lightfoot covered " Just Like Tom Thumb 's Blues " in 1965 in a version that reached number 3 on Canada 's national RPM singles chart , and number 8 on Toronto 's CHUM Chart . Other covers recorded in the 1960s include those by Barry McGuire , on his 1966 album This Precious Time , and Judy Collins , on her 1966 album In My Life . Nina Simone also covered it in 1969 on her To Love Somebody album . Nina Simone 's version differs considerably in tone from Dylan 's : while Dylan 's version is sympathetic , if sneering , towards the foolish subject , Simone 's version is an intense , first @-@ person account of illusions being crushed , until she is finally helpless in the hands of fate . 
