In Others’ Words: Bob Dylan
In the comments section the Peoria Journal Star’s review of Bob Dylan’s recent concert in Bloomington were some idiotic remarks about him not being particularly talented or influential to other musicians both [here] and [here], so I thought I’d see what some other musicians, influential in their own right, had to say about him:
“For a songwriter, Dylan is as essential as a hammer and nails and a saw are to a carpenter.” - Tom Waits
“Dylan is so brilliant. To me, he makes William Shakespeare look like Billy Joel.” - George Harrison
“When Another Side of Bob Dylan was released Pete played it endlessly, especially the track ‘All I Really Want To Do.’ Dylan and particularly this track spurred him on with his own song writing.” - Pete Townsend’s roommate Richard Barnes, 1964
“It almost makes me furious sometimes, how good his lyrics are. You know, you aspire to things. I’m trying and trying [to write a song], and I’ll get something and I’ll say, ‘That’s pretty good,’ and then I’ll listen to Blood On the Tracks and think ‘Who the hell am I kidding? What the hell am I talking about?’” - Dave Matthews
“This man can rhyme the tick of time. The edge of pain. The what of sane.” - Johnny Cash
“There’s no concession to the fact that Dylan might be a more sophisticated singer than Whitney Houston, that he’s probably the most sophisticated singer we’ve had in a generation. Nobody is identifying our popular singers like a Matisse or Picasso. Dylan’s a Picasso - that exuberance, range, and assimilation of the whole history of music.” - Leonard Cohen
“I never showed any interest outside of the blues until I heard Bob Dylan.” - Eric Clapton
“Dylan’s an extraordinary man. I don’t know if he’s going to sell, but he has something profound to say.” - John Hammond
“Bob Dylan’s one of the greatest blues singers of the western world; ancient art, on-the-spot improvisation, mind quickness, endless variation, classical formulae, prophetic vision, mighty wind-horse.” - Allen Ginsberg
“That boy’s got a voice. Maybe he won’t make it in his writing, but he can sing it.” - Woodie Guthrie
“If Woody Guthrie set the bar for American songwriters, Bob Dylan jumped right over it. No one I know will ever come close to possessing the beauty of melody and the use of language that Dylan shares with us, with ease.” - John Mellencamp
“When I heard the first album, I thought, ‘Wow, this is terrible.’ Nobody sang like that. After a while, I loved it, but it took a little time.” - Arlo Guthrie
“It began of course with Bob Dylan, and that must have been an incredible time; I think everything that’s happened since then came from that energy.” - Shawn Colvin
“The Basement Tapes was a big influence on me, because again, it was a seamless mixing of all these American musical forms. And they were doin’ it so easily. It was like, ‘Oh, we’re just goofin’ off,’ which is why I think it worked so well.” - Dave Alvin of the Blasters and X.
“The only way to explain his contribution is by playing his songs.” - Eddie Vedder
“After he wrote those images, thousands of young kids scribbling on their pads have tried to duplicate that and nobody’s been able to. He’s influenced every songwriter in rock and roll and folk. And whether or not he was involved in social action or not, he wrote this artillery for us.” - Joan Baez
“I’m an intense Dylan fan… I think Infidels is one of the most remarkably written albums I’ve ever heard.” - Rodney Crowell
“If I had an axe on the evening at Newport when [Dylan] broke out the electric guitar, I’d have cut his cable.” - Pete Seeger
“I always wanted to do in rap what Bob Dylan did for rock, when he picked up the electric guitar and everybody booed him, and yet he just played on, and he broke down that barrier.” - Darryl McDaniels of Run-DMC
“He was no longer doing this nasally folk thing. He was screaming his songs through the rafters, and it was like thunder. It was very dynamic, very violent, and very exciting.” - Robbie Robertson
“…You couldn’t help being influenced by Dylan.” - Al Kooper
“Coming from my background of rock and heavy metal and then blues and jazz, I wasn’t really hip to folk music in general. But when I heard ‘Positively 4th Street,’ it totally blew me away. I don’t know if it’s popular, but it’s an amazing song that everyone should know about.” - Kirk Hammett, guitarist for Metallica
“I don’t think [Dylan and the Beatles] influenced me a lot. I think it was inevitable; they were so powerful that you couldn’t really escape the influence.” - Paul Simon
“Overall, Dylan’s probably my favorite of everyone. The Basement Tapes are something I can’t get enough of and all the unoffical, unreleased basement tapes too. Desire is one of my favorite records of all time.” - Jeff Tweedy of Wilco
“Now 30 years, 38 albums, and almost 500 songs later, Bob Dylan is universally recognized as one of the most powerful creative artists of our time.” - Kris Kristofferson
“Great tunes like ‘A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall,’ or ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ for that matter, or ‘Chimes of Freedom,’ taught me a whole lot of what songwriting essentially is about: a three-way marriage of melody, harmonic progression, and lyrics.” - Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead
“Dylan was a revolutionary… the way that Elvis freed your body, Dylan freed your mind.” - Bruce Springsteen
“But there’s still some people I admire and listen to who can’t be ignored. Dylan is the greatest living poet. It was interesting because I’d stopped thinking about the whole music business, making albums. I was quite fed up with it. Then I saw him recently and I thought, ‘Well, here’s somebody who’s still doing it and he’s good.’ It sort of gave me a kick in the ass.” - Van Morrison
I think I put that argument to rest, don’t ya think?
October 23rd, 2007 at 9:16 am
Um… they are all old enough to be my parents?
I agree that Dylan is an influence… but is he still relevant today? Who are the young artists today who find him to be a key influence, aside from his son?
October 23rd, 2007 at 9:30 am
Makhno is an idiot. A pure unadulterated idiot.
October 23rd, 2007 at 9:49 am
Define “young artists” . I am sure that the current crop of disney bubble gum pop McMusicians are not influenced by much. Young musicians of which there are plenty would most likely surprise you when they talk about who may have influenced them, certainly the people that influenced them were most likely influenced by dylan. The six degrees of Bob Dylan as it were. Is Bob relevant? Robert Johnson died in 1938 yet was a driving influence in rock and roll many years later, at least to some of the absolute best musicians. It is still the same way with Dylan and others, check out a local band like Waterstreet sometime and you will see young very talented musicians so obviously influenced by Dylan and others from that era, and these kids are not out of college yet.
October 23rd, 2007 at 9:50 am
It’s a continuum. As in most things in life, musicians build on previous musicians. In the same way Dylan was influenced by many, he influenced many, who will in turn influence the next wave.
BUT, Dylan is an exception in that his works are still relevant and will continue to be. Most don’t, but some musicians works live forever.
October 23rd, 2007 at 9:56 am
No need to call names, George. How about answering Mahnko’s question? Check out the soundtrack of “I’m Not There”- mostly very young, very hip artists. Jack White recently said “I have three fathers: God, my biological father, and Bob Dylan.” I’m sure there are more examples, but hopefully this is sufficient to answer the charge.
October 23rd, 2007 at 11:37 am
Check out the tracklisting to “Listen to Bob Dylan”. All very young artists, most of whom appeal primarily to the emo scene that’s so popular with the kids these days, all covering Bob Dylan and encouraging their fans to listen to him.
Recently as Azor pointed out there’s the “I’m Not There” soundtrack which has some incredibly talented musicians (Sufjan Stevens, Iron & Wine, Jim James of My Morning Jacket, Jeff Tweedy, Cat Power) covering Dylan. And many of them are young!
October 23rd, 2007 at 12:20 pm
Mahkno is typical of someone who thinks they listen…to music. Most likely he has not heard “Modern Times” or anything of Dylan’s previous 10 years…
October 23rd, 2007 at 2:54 pm
o well the man just keeps rollin’ along don’t he
October 23rd, 2007 at 3:43 pm
May I suggest a couple of compilations of recent vinage,
one called Paupers, Peasants, Princes & Kings - The Songs of Bob Dylan.
And another called, Listen To Bob Dylan - a tribute.
Both are compilations of Dylan songs by young artists such as Jason Mraz, James Blunt, Steel Train, Limbeck, David Moore, Rachael Cantu, and The Casul Lean, among many others.
October 24th, 2007 at 6:34 am
Mahkno just doesnt get it,and thats fine,,,I mean who cares! I’m old enogh o probably to be his’S /her *S grandad ,and all I know is Marknos great grand children will hear the name BOB DYLAN !
October 24th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
Part of the problem today is that the music industry isn’t much interested in developing artists who’ll have the opportunity to make a lasting impression. It’s all about selling a million units now; if an artist cannot do that, the label moves on to the “next big thing.” There are exceptions, of course, but that’s why Dylan and Hendrix and Jagger and Janis Joplin and other 60s-70s icons resonate so much with kids today—today’s younger music listeners don’t have similar contemporary heroes.
October 24th, 2007 at 5:50 pm
Nuttin’ but luv for Bob but……
October 25th, 2007 at 7:05 am
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October 25th, 2007 at 7:57 pm
I was at a Dylan concert in the Berkshires 06. I had done 3 that year and three the year before.
Half the audience was young, many weren’t drinking age.
One conversation stood out with a 17 year old who asked if I was there in the beginning. You mean like 1962 and 63. He said yeah. Sure was and recognized I was facing a change in the way it was done right off the bat. I asked him why he like Dylan - said Dylan was for young people, too awesome for words.
Saying Dylan isn’t relevant is like saying we just got here with no history.
October 25th, 2007 at 9:23 pm
Well put.
October 26th, 2007 at 8:28 pm
Comedian Jerry Seinfeld, reflecting on his days in high school, said something to the effect that he was never among the “in crowd”; rather, he would seek out some intelligent outsider kid and hang around with him/her.For over four decades, Bob Dylan has served metaphorically some millions of bodies as that intelligent outsider kid, and will continue to offer shelter from the adolescent and post-adolescent storm for generations to come - a note of influence that would play even in Peoria.
October 30th, 2007 at 8:07 am
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