Bob Dylan Brief Analysis & Opinion
I’m still listening to Bob Dylan after having posted before that I wanted to learn more about his music. So far I have a couple of hours under my belt. I figured I had to check out Bob Dylan since one of my favorite songs, Mr. Jones by the Counting Crows mentions “I want to meet Bob Dylan” and the movie Anchor Man starring Will Ferrel starts with the quote “Bob Dylan once said ‘The Times They Are A-Changin’”. Granted these are not the best reasons to get into Bob Dylan, but it was enough of a catalyst for me to finally give Mr. Dylan a chance.
My initial response to his music was surprise. First from the amount of songs that other artists have covered in their own way. Here’s a small list from what I can recognize:
- All Along The Watchtower was covered by Jimi Hendrix
- Forever Young was covered by Rod Stewart
- Mr. Tambourine Man was covered by The Byrds
- Knockin’ on Heavens Door was covered by Guns N’ Roses
Mind you that these are just songs I recognize from a quick iTunes search. Lord knows how many more songs have been covered by other artists.
My second surprise was at the general lack of finishing the songs have. I had to make sure I didn’t have some odd version of a pre-recording or a live session. The quality is a bit rough. Dylan’s voice is raspy and seemingly untrained and the instruments, although well played, also display a sort of lack of quality recording. Having said that, all the songs are diamonds in the rough. To me Dylan’s ability to develop the “root” of the song is what makes him great. For examples let’s take two of the previously mentioned songs.
Mr. Tambourine Man (currently my favorite song thus far) in its original version is a carefree jingle of music, guitars, harmonica and not much more. But the “root” or “core” of the song was near perfect. The Byrds polished the song enough to make it an amazingly popular single.
Knockin’ on Heavens Door was a song I always liked from Guns N’ Roses and I was shocked to learn it was a Bob Dylan song. Hearing the original 2:30+ minute song illustrates how Guns N’ Roses had little to do to get a single from this one. Granted Slash’s solos and Axel’s screeching never hurts and made it unique.
The only song from the above list that was perhaps improved (in my opinion) is Forever Young. I can see the purity of the original and they beauty of it. But Dylans vocals on the “high” parts are kind of hard to ignore (but with every listen of the song it gets better, so I may think differently later on). The arrangement of the cover by Rod Stewart is incredibly well done. It fine-tuned the original gem into a super song. This further demonstrates Dylan’s ability to create such a great “root” of a song to allow for such diverse applications. Kudos to the producers of the covers as well.
While I wouldn’t consider Bob Dylan my favorite singer and/or songwriter, he’s definitely high up on my list now. You have to admire and respect what this man has been able to accomplish. If you haven’t given him a chance, I recommend you do. It never hurts to expand your musical horizon.
Filed by tony at February 28th, 2008 under Music
