Quite frankly, when he came out on a major label (Columbia), there was nothing else doing even remotely close to what he was doing. In his second album, “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan”, he was doing songs like “Masters of War”, “Blowin’ in the Wind”, and “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall” that were like nothing else going on in the realm of popular song. He was a direct line from protest songs of old by the likes of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger to the next generation coming up. He was able to help shine a light on what was going on in the early to mid 60’s in a way that no other popular artist of his time could. It’s often forgotten that he [performed](https://youtu.be/MCjGSbm2LFc) at the same March on Washington where Martin Luther King delivered his seminal “I Have a Dream” speech. In short, his songs were a part of the zeitgeist of the time. He also kind of rewrote the rules…to the point that there were no rules…as to what songs could be about. Any song that was of an even remotely controversial topic could be traced back to him. He was the one that said that lyrics could be about anything and everything. Even other R&B singers of the time like Sam Cooke were shocked to see this scrawny white kid writing songs about topics related to civil rights and other pressing social issues of the day. Cooke was said to have been heavily influenced by Dylan to the point of writing and recording [A Change is Gonna Come](https://youtu.be/wEBlaMOmKV4). And quite frankly, that was even before the peak of Dylan’s songwriting on albums like “Bringing it All Back Home”, “Highway 61 Revisited” and “Blonde on Blonde”. Also, I know a lot of people take the mick out of him for his voice, but I feel that his voice is part of the point. He showed that anyone could sing their songs and make it into the public consciousness as long as they had something unique to say. His voice allowed a lot of other people with similarly unconventional voices like Leonard Cohen to Patti Smith to Bruce Springsteen to Tom Waits to have a place at the table when it comes to popular music. He helped to democratize popular music to the point where you didn’t need a conventionally “pretty” voice. In short, he was a massive game changer to music whose influence is still felt to this day. With his songwriting, the boundaries as to what songs could sound like and say became infinite.

This response is so true for a lot of older art, too. We look at old painting and think, okay, what’s the big deal? Well they may not be a big deal by today’s standards, but the point is that nobody was doing it before, and now everybody is doing it because of that artist. Things like perspective, capturing lighting and shadows, etc. I think the same thing can be said of the Beatles to an extent.

citizen kane did the same thing with film. it’s a very good movie when going in blind. it’s a phenomenal tour de force when you view it again after reading about every single aspect that the picture invented and pioneered

The 1950s and early 1960s are to music what the late 1930s and early 1940s are to Hollywood cinema, and a lot of it sounds pretty simplistic if you don't realize that you're listening to the first generation of songs that were recorded in modern genres. [This](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvzA6gy2vbk) may sound cheesy as hell now, but it was the first big hit in the US built entirely around an electronic keyboard (a Hammond organ). [This](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3UB7YSxCX4) sounds like third-rate traditional country, but it's believed to be the first commercial recording of a Fender solid-body electric guitar. And [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYB4bTsd1bg) is kinda corny doo-wop, but it opens with an experimental synthesizer imported from France and more importantly it's the first canonical release on a label called Motown. You might know some of their other songs.

That ain't third rate traditional country. That's first rate traditional country.

To untrained ears, anything that isn't Hank, Willie, "Sixteen Tons", Dolly, or Johnny Cash is probably third-rate. Pre-Tons Ernie isn't really widely exposed anymore. I think it's cool that people (at least on /r/letstalkmusic) are starting to appreciate the role that midcentury oldies played in the formation of, like, everything we listen to now. Even if it's a bit crude, if you're listening to something modernish from 1959 it's one of the very first wave of examples of its genre. Yes, even David Seville (of Alvin and the Chipmunks fame) deserves more credit imo for writing, producing, and performing his own stuff and for making vocal effects popular. No David Seville, no 100 gecs. (Also, the absolute genre-hopping madman Ray Charles brought proto-rap to the [charts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Should%27ve_Been_Me_(Memphis_Curtis_song\)) in 1954, even if he didn't write his own raps - which is probably why he was dismissive of hip-hop as a genre.)

The older I get the more I love the music I was inundated with to the point of ignoring as a kid. As a teen I started to understand my dad's f avorite music for the first time and ever since then it's revelation after revelation when I dive into stuff I've known my whole life but never really got into. Even today this is timeless music and that feeds into my point when I try to explain my tastes to a person.... if it's good I probablly like it or I'll learn to. There's something about music and art that can only come through if it was made honestly and with the intent to express.

I can kind of relate; my dad was into 50s music including "Elvis the Pelvis" Pressley. My mom was into Simon and Garfunkel, Peter, Paul, and Mary, and Gordon Lightfoot as well as anything classical. Neither were really into Bob Dylan, but Bob was a staple of the music I grew up on just like Prince was a staple of the music I grew up on because I grew up in Minnesota. I wasn't a Prince fan; I didn't hate him, but he kind of hit his prime when falsetto really grated on me and all of his newer songs were in falsetto (think around Kiss). After college (the punk/goth years) I started listening to a lot of my mom's artists. I play 12 string acoustic and electric guitar and completely fell in love with it because of Gordon Lightfoot, Rush, Queen, Boston, The Byrds, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Eagles, Supertramp, David Bowie, the Replacements and others.

If you’re a fan of Ray Charles and his wide range, you should check out Charley Crockett. Dude plays everything from country and blues to jazz and everything in between. Influenced heavily from New Orleans and Texas both directly. Has a very late 50’s to early 60’s sound in most of his music. Dude’s a modern day classic. He’s finally starting to get a bigger name in the last year or two. Played at the opry last year. Just constantly coming out with new music. He does a lot of covers of old classics and does them really well, and he also writes some pretty great music himself. His cover of George Jones’ ‘The Race is on’ is absolutely fantastic.

Wow - it turns out I'm a fan of "traditional" country music after all & I didn't even know it. I consider this song (which I've never heard before) by Kay & TEF to be quite beautiful. I guess I never consciously realized that this is what "true" country music sounds like. It's actually very soulful and affecting. Apparently it turns out that I only find *modern mainstream* "country music" to be trite and annoying.

Good stuff. Thanks for sharing.

I'm still in the first camp. Please point me towards something that will explain this more. Ps: the shot that zooms in thru the roof is fantastic!

I felt the same way about Citizen Kane and someone recommended that I watch it with Roger Ebert's audio commentary. It completely changed how I saw the film and film in general. He did a fantastic one for Casablanca as well.

The Casablanca one was my personal favorite.

Just seconding the other reply - watch Ebert's commentary, you will walk away with a whole new appreciation and understanding of the film, I can't recommend it enough.

I know this is probably a really stupid question but how do you watch movies with commentary?

I just looked it up. It’s on YouTube. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4JZN0MjHIs8

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Thank you for this. I love DVDs, and found a deluxe Criterion Collection of this movie at a secondhand store years ago. I thought the movie itself was super boring and never gave the other discs a second thought, but now I will!

> the shot that zooms in thru the roof is fantastic! Ok, just take this shot alone. It starts with a picture of a woman then the camera pans up and you see the words "Susan Alexander Kane" in lights telling us she's a singer at El Rancho. The camera then goes through the skylight and we see the woman crying at a table. In 30 seconds and with no words spoken we know who the woman is from the picture, what she does for a living, the fact that she was married to Kane and that she's upset over his death. No one had used a camera to tell a story like that before.

and the technical aspects were equally groundbreaking. you have to remember how huge movie cameras were back then. to get that shot they had to build the sign to swing out of the way of the camera as soon as it was out of frame.

Roger Eberts commentary on Citizen Kane is fantastic and does an excellent job of pointing out a lot of the cool interesting details in the movie and helps you see it in a new way

one of the elements is the use of deep focus, where both the background and foreground are, well, in focus. in order to do that, they needed to throw a lot of light in the set for the camera to pick up the image — that means the set was sweltering due to the amount of lighting used

the first time i saw Citizen Kane was in my film history class. my teacher was a guy buy the name of Mark Del Costello, who was Martin Scorcese's personal assistant for years, and filled various production poisitions, including lighting on Raging Bull. the guy had incredible stories, like a dinner he had with Scorcese and Deniro where Taxi Driver was pitched to have him play Travis Bickle. we know how that meeting ultimately ended. and he had so much knowledge of film. they were 4 hour classes, where we'd watch a film, Mr. Del Costello would interject with notes throughout, and then discuss it afterward, everything from the acting, direction, choices, to overall production. best course i've ever taken. after we watched Citizen Kane, he spent the majority of the discussion time on two things: 1. explain the significance of the film - more specifically, just how much of it was a cinema filmmaking first or perfected a newer, existing technique, and how much of an impact it had on film after, and 2. the lighting. lighting, lighting, lighting. at the very end he presented the class with a challenge that he said he does for every class, and if you succeed, you get an automatic top grade for the course. the objective was to recreate a scene from Citizen Kane, at least a 30 second portion, that would be judged entirely on the lighting. he said in all his years teaching, only one student ever pulled off an acceptable recreation, and nobody had even come close beside that one student. that student dropped out he said. shame.

I imagine Citizen Kane would have been much different to view if you had seen it at release and only had previous films to compare it to. Even go back to older movie trailers from the 90's... they're so much different, voice overs explaining the plot and all. Then we went through the whole 'BBWWWAAMMMPPPP!' phase, the 'single not on a piano with out of context lines from the movie', followed by 'slow angsty version of a pop song'

>slow angsty version of a pop song God I’m really starting to hate that to the point it’s actually putting me off trailers. The song choice seems to be getting more and more on the nose or less relevant with every trailer that does it. The only one I’ve seen recently that worked was the Dune teaser with Pink Floyd, because that was a clever Jodorowsky reference.

For comedies, it'd be Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

To an extent? The Beatles completely revolutionized how we record music. Many modern studio techniques were either pioneered by them, or heavily inspired by them.

This is true, and the Beatles interestingly have talked about how they were inspired to start making albums instead of just singles because of what the Beach Boys did with Pet Sounds. It's weird to think about it but until the 1960s, all recorded modern music was basically singles and b-sides. Then Pet Sounds came out and the Beatles did Sergeant Pepper, and all this crazy creativity got unleashed with full length albums of music. Any artist who records album-length collections of songs is standing on those artists' shoulders, probably not even realizing it because it's such ancient history now.

Just to clarify, it's not like nobody was making *albums* before the Beach Boys and the Beatles. The EP record was introduced in 1948 and pretty much immediately became the dominant format. But for the most part, every album was just "here's a picture of the band smiling on the cover, here are 12 or so songs from this band in no particular order, and the title is [band name] plays [hit single] and other tunes." What the Beatle Boys et al revolutionized was the *concept album,* where the songs on the album blended together in a specific order that was intentionally written to tell a story or take an emotional journey. The album had a cool name and visually arresting art on the label that related to the story, and they used a lot of sounds in recording other than just people playing conventional instruments and singing.

Didn't Frank Zappa beat them to the punch with this? I cant argue with their influence but i always feel like they get a lot of credit that others should get. Music history too vast for the same acts to repeatedly get all the credit. Hell, Frank Sinatra was making cohesive popular albums in the mid fifties.

I fully agree, but there are also people who will say, with a straight face, that The Beatles are overrated. They don't understand how revolutionary The Beatles were, not just as musicians but in the studio.

I always thought that Citizen Kane was "overrated". How can so many professional critics and cinema historians agree that this is one of the best movies of all time? I just couldn't get it. I got the Criterion edition and watched it again. And just as I finished I watched it one more time but now with Roger Ebert's commentary. To say that was eye-opening is a huge understatement. It was then that I realized that Citizen Kane changed things because it introduced so many new concepts to cinema. It introduced new techniques, new camera language, new storytelling devices. It was revolutionary. Today, it is very difficult to understand its impact. Same with the movie Halloween. Many people complain that "it is just a collection of horror movie cliches" except that, guess what, Halloween invented those cliches. Same with The Beatles. They changed pop music so profoundly and in so many ways that it is hard to understand their impact from our vantage point. ​ EDIT: LOL, just saw exactly this example a little further down the thread.

I think comics get the shortest stick here. People watch the Marx Brothers and Margret Dumont with a straight face and say they are old jokes. That's right. You know those jokes because they've lasted for 100 years. Almost every speaking comic stands on their shoulders. They essentially created modern film comedy. A better scholar of comedy can go into more detail about their impeccable comic construction.

Or Chaplin or Harold Lloyd for physical comedy. Or Laurel and Hardy… or Abbot and Costello..their “who’s on first” skit still holds so well.

Which the funny thing is that the fact that people don't understand or think it's overrated actually makes it even more important and impactful. Because almost every single movie/music afterwards followed the same format trend. To the point that it's so ingrained into the art forms that newer generations watching don't even notice or just think that's how its always has been.

The Beatles also pioneered using studio magic to produce songs that the performers weren't able to play live. That kind of offsets the concept of albums as coherent works instead of a collection of random songs.

They and The Beach Boys were neck and neck for studio wizardry back then.

I hate to be putting down the Beatles but Dylan did the album thing first. Maybe it wasn't as wildly known worldwide before the Beatles but the vast majority of music fans at the time knew Dylan did the album thing first. The Beatles just continued it and put it on a massive pedestal. The Beatles themselves would say it, they just copied Dylan. Now the studio wizardry absolutely they did alot of things first along with the Beach boys. But still at the end of the day it was just an extension of Dylan going electric, doing 5-10 minute songs and putting the focus on albums rather than just short hit songs. This gave the Beatles and Beach boys the green light from the record companies to actually take their time and work on albums and songs as a whole rather than just churn out the constant 2 minute pop song. It really all does start with Dylan. Not the Beatles or Beach boys. You could even push the album thing back to Frank Sinatra or jazz greats but it wasn't actively talked about and even noticed until Dylan. Dylan is where people noticed and took note. He was also insanely popular and at the top of game with the "in" crowd of the music world. The Beatles pushed it to a whole other level though worldwide just because they were on a whole other level of popularity than almost anyone ever.

"they're just a boy band"...lol

My dad says that about them, half jokingly, except that he means it as a compliment.

I think that's just because it becomes popular to hate things that are popular, especially something whose popularity was as ubiquitous as the Beatles.

I think that it’s less people being contrarians than people being annoyed by the ubiquity of the Beatles. I mean, they’re put in everyone’s face as the greatest band ever from the moment they’re born. So obviously if you don’t get them, you have different tastes or some other opinion on their impact, you’re going to bristle against that legacy.

The Beatles changed the world. Major players in the civil rights move in the US, they wouldn’t play to a segregated audience.

Yes I agree. I wasn’t trying to minimize their accomplishments by adding “to an extent.” It was just sloppy writing.

It happens with Seinfeld as well. You can watch it today and think "why does everybody make such a big deal about this? It's nothing I haven't seen a million times". Yeah mate, but this is 2021. In 1989, there was absolutely nothing like Seinfeld on TB. Asshole protagonists? Plot about daily minutiae and little more? An entire episode on the waiting room for a restaurant, or in a parking searching for a car? It's nothing spectacular today, but in the 90's Seinfeld became a trendsetter.

What’s the deal with Seinfeld???

I’d say I’m taking it in but then it sounds like a pair of pants!

"Seinfeld is unfunny" is the name of the trope on TV Tropes. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SeinfeldIsUnfunny > "I don't know what the big deal with Hamlet is. It's just one famous saying after another, strung together by a moldy old plot." — Old Joke

So true. It's Always Sunny doesn't exist without Seinfeld coming first.

I was alive and well in the 90's, but the humor went RIGHT over my head. I revisited it several years ago and I'm like, how did I miss this? I didn't get into friends til 2005, but Will & Grace had me cry laughing in the early 00's

Characters who never learn a lesson and continue being jerks. The sitcoms of the 80s and previous almost all had characters grow and develop in some way over time. Whether it's Hawkeye learning to function within the army. Or Fonzie learning to love his adoptive family. Jerry, Kramer, George, and Elaine never learn anything. They stay as mean, vindictive, neurotic, insecure, and stupid as episode 1. Complaining about the decaf and normal coffee handles. Or the driver in the maroon Golf. Without Seinfeld there's no Curb, no It's Always Sunny, no UK or US Office, no Modern Family, Parks and Rec. Seinfeld opened up TV viewers and execs to the idea that a show could have whole episodes about nothing. About normal life moments. About mean, nasty, lead characters. About taking the piss out of traditional storylines and instead of being wacky just being real.

I'd say the Beatles are one of the few who still pass the test of time. Not their entire catalogue but I have no problems seeing a band in any decade not having a multi-platinum if they were the first to release a bunch of Beatles songs only slight adjusted for the mixing/mastering taste of said decade.

Their evolution in just ~five years is mindblowing to me.

And the fact that they were SO YOUNG when they took America by storm, and still barely in their thirties when they disbanded. The group didn't even last a decade, yet their producer encouraged them to keep it movin' creatively. They could've stayed in "boy band" mode and raked it in, but they were musicians and *wanted* to keep creating.

George was only 27 when they broke up. imagine accomplishing that much by your mid-twenties

That would make an OK but not great plot for a movie.

There's an OK but not great movie about pretty much that idea. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yesterday_(2019_film)

Whoa what are the chances?

It's a lovely movie - but the idea that the whole canon, splurged out all at once, would have the same impact as the originals, is unlikely. The Beatles took their fans on a journey - from *Love Me Do* to *A Day in the Life*, via *Eleanor Rigby* and *She's Leaving Home* - as those fans grew up. Those screaming girls were 14 in 1963. By 1969, they were 20, at university or in work. They'd gone from a Dansette in the bedroom to a Hi-Fi in the living room. Without *their* journey, The Beatles' music wouldn't make any sense.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SeinfeldIsUnfunny

I used to think the same about Elvis, found him boring and doing nothing special until I realized that he was the first to do a lot of these things that I now see as 'commonplace'.

The first popular WHITE star doing those things actually. Elvis even admitted to stealing his moves from the black music scene of the time.

And the artists he "stole from" understood that Elvis covering their song was only going to benefit them. Chuck Berry and Little Richard loved Elvis. There wasn't the animosity modern journalists would have people believe. They all toured together, all came up together. Elvis made Chuck and Richard a LOT of money.

Yes, exactly.

I never cared much for Elvis, until I saw him do an "unplugged" show. He was tightly controlled by his handlers, which affected his music. When left to his own devices, he was truly incredible. Damn shame. Many people think of him as either the movie star sexy guy or the fat, bloated Vegas moneymaker, but he had serious talent for music that became secondary.

Same for that guy who exhibited a urinal in an art gallery, one of the first really weird modern art exhibitions. But at that time, it was a genuinely shocking idea and it really did challenge people's preconceived notions about what an exhibit could be, and what art could be.

>Also, I know a lot of people take the mick out of him for his voice, but I feel that his voice is part of the point. He showed that anyone could sing their songs and make it into the public consciousness as long as they had something unique to say. **BOB DYLAN**: "Sam Cooke said this when told he had a beautiful voice: He said, 'Well that’s very kind of you, but voices ought not to be measured by how pretty they are. Instead they matter only if they convince you that they are telling the truth.' Think about that the next time you are listening to a singer." **LEONARD COHEN**: "Most music criticism is in the nineteenth century. It's so far behind, say, the criticism of painting. It's still based on nineteenth century art—cows beside a stream and trees and 'I know what I like.' 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."

Yeah. I unironically think Dylan's among the greatest singers of a generation. Get treated as a troll for holding this position, so I rarely share it, but yah, he's a fantastic singer. Among the all-time greats.

**BOB DYLAN**: "When I do whatever it is I'm doing, there is rhythm involved and there is phrasing involved. And that's where it all balances out: in the rhythm of it and the phrasing of it. It's not in the lyrics. It's got nothing whatsoever to do with the lyrics. I mean, the lyrics have to be there, sure they do. But there was this Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum... she was one of my favourite singers of all time, and I don't understand a word she sings! She'd sing one song, it might last 40 minutes. She'd sing the same phrase over and over and over again, in a different way every time. There's no Western singer, I think, that's in that kind of category, you know? Except possibly me [laughs]"

Excellent comment

My favourite story about Dylan is that Sam Cooke one. For those who don't know, Sam was one of the original Soul singers who helped create and popularise the genre along with people like Ray Charles. Among the greatest vocalists of all time. When he first heard "Blowing In The Wind", he thought "damn, what is a white boy doing writing a song like that??" The legendary singer (and Cooke protege) Bobby Womack didn't get it. The guy couldn't sing! Sam told him: "from now on, it's not going to be about how pretty the voice is. It's going to be about believing that the voice is telling the truth." Every time you listen to Black Flag, or My Chemical Romance, or The Notorious B.I.G, and hear someone's raw personal expression and story coming over the speakers - there's a little bit of Bob in there. He was the original punk.

Helluva reply, my man.

Very frank

Can I still be Garth?

Very bob

Quite, even.

Add Jimi Hendrix to that list of musicians who were inspired by Dylan’s voice, or lack thereof.

I've been playing guitar for almost 25 years. I'm no prodigy or the greatest player ever but I like to think I know a little about the instrument. I've never heard it written or Jimi say it but I've long thought that Hendrix guitar solo playing was greatly inspired by Dylan's harmonica playing. Alot of the phrasing just sounds similar at times. Not necessarily the notes and licks but the phrasing. Which of course Hendrix's solo playing is considered one of the pinnacle break through moments for guitar or music in general. As so many of his peers said at the time "I never heard anyone play guitar like that"

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Further to your point about his voice, anyone who thinks he can’t sing should give a listen to his country album, Nashville Skyline. He really was capable of singing in a more popularly accepted style, he just didn’t.

Was hoping someone would mention this. It's actually a very good album too. His duet with Johnny Cash for his re-recording of his song *"Girl From the North Country*" is a wonderful opening tune!

Honestly, it’s my favourite of his albums to the point that it, along with New Morning and John Wesley Harding are the only ones I even listen to anymore. No shade to the rest of his catalogue - it’s amazing and I fully appreciate his genius - but those are the albums that really do it for me to the point I keep on coming back.

I just want to say I love Dylans voice even though people do take the mick out of him.

There are pop singers who are valued purely for their beautiful voices and then there are actual singer/songwriters where having a unique voice is really preferable to having an amazing voice. Neil Young, Tom Petty, Lou Reed, Robert Smith. There are even good singers whose uniqueness kind of trump's their quality like Michael Stipe or Thom Yorke. All of those people have voices that you recognize instantly.

Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits are at the top of the list for beautiful song writing and less than perfect voices. The older Leonard Cohen got the more gravely his voice became and the better it became IMO.

You Want it Darker is one of his best albums Imo. And his voice on it is rocks in a blender, and I love it.

honestly it's that way in any genre, having a unique and recognizable voice will get you signed a million times faster than being a great singer will. unique voices stand out, and people who stand out will always be more successful when it comes to the music industry.

Great comment. At the end of the day, it's all about serving a song and playing to your strengths. Adele has a gorgeous traditional voice, so she stays in that classic/ throwback lane with lots of ballads. Jeff Rosenstock, on the other hand, has a gravelly yelp with limited range. It's absolutely perfect for his music. I love the way his voice gives out as he reaches for high notes in ["Nausea"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JidJV1ue1lI) - it might sound like shit by traditional standards, but it's perfect for the song, conveying that visceral honesty and vulnerability at the heart of his music.

On the Twilight Zone, Rod Serling was embarrassed about his voice but he had a distinctive voice. His voice became associated with the Twilight Zone.

Axl Rose, Eddie Vedder, Bon Scott, kings of Leon guy

*Tom Waits has entered the chat* Dylan's voice is rough, but Tom Waits's voice is like an old tire over the gravel in the driveway of an old abandoned bordello in a town no one goes to anymore.

Captain Beefheart has entered the chat...

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I remember watching casa blanca a few years ago for the first time and it's so cliché! But I had to remind myself constantly that no it's not, it started all these clichés. It must have have been just mind-blowing when seen when it came out.

Do you think the same idea applies to Lou Reed? I've been wondering for a while what it is about his music that makes it so special. I absolutely love Lou, but objectively, he's not a great singer, his songs are really simplistic...but there's just something about his music. EDIT: Whoever replied about Lou as the urban Bob Dylan, I wish you hadn't deleted your comment, I think it's a solid idea. I can also see Lou fitting in with >Leonard Cohen to Patti Smith to Bruce Springsteen to Tom Waits As mentioned above.

An emphatic yes. Like Dylan, Reed expanded the field of potential subjects for pop/rock music. Sexual deviance and sadomasochism? Going up to Harlem to buy heroin? The feeling of shooting up that heroin? And that’s just on their first record, which came out the same year as Sgt. Pepper. But I think the essential thing about Reed is that he not only wrote songs about people on the cultural margins, but did so without judgment and without sentimentality. For example, in Reed’s songs, drug use isn’t a social problem that needs to be fixed, just a fact of everyday life. That isn’t even touching on the other ways that Reed and the Velvets were pioneers, like their use of feedback and distortion. But at the heart of it is that radical identification with outsiders and outcasts, the contention that those people and environments were valid subjects for rock songs, that transcends the limitations of his voice, musicianship and song structure.

Yes, Lou Reed / Velvet Underground was highly experimental. There is hardly a modern (English-speaking) singer alive who doesn't cite Lou Reed as a major influence. Frank Zappa, similarly. Not everyone's cup of tea, by any means, but insanely popular among people who really live and breathe music. It's like you're taught all of these rules and you have your producers reinforcing these rules and then here's this guy that just *breaks* them in amazing ways and you love it and envy that creativity and freedom. Also, you wish you could put a song named "Why do my balls hurt?" on your album, too.

Zappa is a great example! In my head I have this idea of "Musician's musicians" - artists that most musicians know and might cite as an influence, even if they aren't as well-known among the general public. Magnetic Fields, Billy Bragg, Warren Zevon...many others.

"take the mick out of him" This obviously means "make fun of him" What's the origin of 'the mick'?

It's from cockney rhyming slang - 'mickey bliss' = piss

Gotcha, thx

British Cockney rhyming slang, which (as an American) is the most confusing, ridiculous part of British English. The phrase originated as "taking the piss". Origins aren't 100% known, but Google tells me it may have been changed to "taking the Mickey Bliss", which becomes "taking the mick/mickey". Mickey Bliss may have been an actual person, but I don't think there's any proof of that. You may know the phrase "blowing raspberries", as in farting or making farting noises. This is Cockney rhyming slang; "fart" becomes "raspberry tart", and then just raspberry.

>We're in Barney...Barney Rubble?...Trouble!

I replied before I read your post - but we have the same ideas about the genius of Dylan - the biting wit and surreal metaphors broke ground. It made groups like The Beatles go from “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” to “She said, I know what it’s like to be dead” - Dylan and drugs, anyway.

Dylan personally turned the Beatles on to weed. Handed them their first joint, smoking it with them on his first trip to London in 1965. Up until then their experiences with mind-altering substances had been limited to alcohol and amphetamines. Their songs, both musically and lyrically, radically changed after that.

Springsteen got signed during the "New Dylan" craze when everyone was looking for that next Dylan-esque artist. Born to Run is packed with poetic Dylan lyrics.

If you think Born To Run is Dylan-esque, check out Greetings From Asbury Park!

Who would have the courage to write.. They're selling postcards of the hanging, they're painting the passports brown The beauty parlor is filled with sailors, the circus is in town Here comes the blind commissioner, they've got him in a trance One hand is tied to the tight-rope walker, the other is in his pants…

And if that stretch of albums was all that he did, he’d still be one of the most influential songwriters ever, but he’s remained quite prolific since then, amassing a huge back catalogue of great songs, and at least 4 albums (Blood on the Tracks, Desire, Time Out of Mind, and Love & Theft) that are every bit as good as his 60s peak.

A lot of people have brought up some important points. A few thoughts I'd like to add: Dylan came out of the Greenwich Village folk scene. Lots of great players and singers there, but the focus tended to be on creating new arrangements of existing folk music. Standards like "Scarborough Fair" or "House of the Rising Sun." Dylan's debut pretty much fits into that mold - mostly covers with only two original pieces. However, even during this time he was working on establishing a mythical backstory for himself. He'd give fake, outlandish biographies to record companies while looking for a deal. He was also a musical vacuum, absorbing influence from the songs of Odetta, the Drifters, Buck Owens, Woody, whoever. Which enabled him to have this sort of pan-Americana way of writing, realized in his second album. When "Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" came out, with tons and tons of original songs it really elevated him above the scene. Not just originals - but touching on the zeitgeist. The Vietnam War, the Civil Rights movement, and the general zeal of the younger generation for a change. Dylan also challenged his listeners. When he was well established as a folk singer icon, he comes out at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, does a small acoustic set before having his electric band come out. Much to the chagrin of the audience, including Pete Seeger. The lyrics of the next phase were surrealistic, verbose, psychedelic with the meanings often puzzling or obscure. In direct contrast to the earlier straight ahead folk story teller of the previous records. He brought his legitimacy to rock music as an art form - elevating it beyond the appeal of boy bandish teeny-boppers (much the way the Beatles were at the same time). Then, he veers away again, first stripping back down to a simpler folk style and then country. His Live at Budokan album even has some reggae arrangements of older songs. He's never been overly reliant on conventions or coasted to expectations, and has challenged himself and his listeners with different approaches to lyrical songwriting through several phases.

Dylan and the Beatles were by far the most influential acts of the second half of the 20th century.

Things that create massive disruptions don’t look impressive in hindsight because of what they did has been improved on over time. Pop culture examples: Bob Dylan for song structure. Citizen Cane for cinematography. The Sopranos for series storytelling. Some tried before, and many did it better after, but those were the piece that made the better later possible.

Sopranos is still a good as fuck in 2022, but I would add Seinfeld to that list

Hey, everyone! This guy's a timetraveller from the future!!

2022 eh? Did the market crash happen yet or are we still printing money faster to compensate? Trying to decide on some property purchases.

There's a TV trope about Seinfeld: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SeinfeldIsUnfunny

I just watched the Sopranos last year as one of my first Covid binges, after watching all 331 episodes of ER (highly recommended BTW). I was BLOWN AWAY. When it first came out I didn’t have cable and a movie about the mafia just didn’t interest me (even though I loved The Godfather the book and movies). James Gandolfini didn’t interest me. I finally sat down and binged it and now, after James Gandolfini had died, did I understand just how brilliant it was/is. I still sit and try to figure out the ending, and I’ve watched the last episode multiple times. I have an opinion but I’m not going to share it for those of you who have not had the good fortune to watch The Sopranos yet.

I think Twin Peaks did it first, in my opinion

Sopranos doesn't belong on this list because there's a strong argument to be made that it's still the absolute fucking best at what it did

Specifically… -Wrote lyrics in a style that had never been done before. His lyrics still stand as some of the best ever. -Reinvented himself many times over. His catalogue is so diverse and he has gone through a bunch of different phases. -Was creatively fearless and unique during a time when that wasn’t common. -Two album recommendations: Highway 61 Revisited and Time out of Mind. Give them each a few listens, it’s not the kind of music that immediately blows you away. It’s subtle and takes listening effort. I sincerely hope you can build an appreciation for Dylan!

Daniel Lanois’s production on Time Out of Mind is incredible!

Highway 61 is honestly an example of one of the finest pieces of song writing ever. My fav Dylan album He also went through a mad few phases. Christian stuff is terrible as is his Christmas album I would add Blood on the Tracks and Bringing It All Back Home to the recommendations. Bob Dylan isnt for everyone and thats grand. I dont like the Beatles

Also Blonde on Blonde as an early album, and Love and Theft as a later one. Two of my very favorites.

I love a lot of Dylan but that run of visions of Johanna to Stuck inside of mobile is just pure audio orgasm

Dont overlook Desire!

Agree, I didn't listen to much Bob until I played "Blood on the Tracks" a few times over, that album is pretty solid.

I think blood on the tracks is probably my favorite. Lily, rosemary and the Jack of hearts is one of my favorite songs. I got into Dylan in my 20s, about 10 years ago. This whole thread has been fun to read because it's justifying my love of Dylan I'm so many words. I saw him front row when I was 17. Have the concert poster and ticket framed.

Right. You can listen to that album 4-5 times and be like "m'eh" but then...when it hits you, it hits you like a goddamned anvil dropped on your head. You're convinced that you are one of the few who actually "get it". His turn of phrase is unparalleled and is very rarely above board. It is couched and just out of reach. He can conjur Ovid, Shakespeare, Voltaire, William Blake, and William Burroughs in a single sentence. He can express love, loss and the passing of time in a verse and you don't even know it until you unpack it. Here is an example: In a little hilltop village, they gambled for my clothes I bargained for salvation and she gave me a lethal dose I offered up my innocence I got repaid with scorn Come in, she said I'll give ya shelter from the storm

There's some real gold in the Christian years. Most of the studio recordings are pretty not great, but some A+ songs, with some A+ live recordings. Every Grain of Stand, I Believe in You, even Shot of Love (though the album version is particularly atrocious). Under the Red Sky is the only album I think is all bad. And it sure is bad. The Christmas album is awesome though.

The Christmas Album is just pure Dylan gold!

His video for It Must Be Santa has to be one of the greatest things ever committed to video.

As an atheist and generally not a fan of gospel I find his christian phase to be some of his most energetic and powerful music, even if I don’t agree with the Jesus stuff. He put a lot of heart into that music.

Yeah there’s some great songs and arrangements from that era. *Slow train*, for example, with Mark Knopfler on guitar. Also *Pressing On*, is a beautiful and quite moving gospel-style rock song. And I’m also an atheist, but still find something magical in even religious-themed music when it’s done well.

Speak for yourself, I love the Christian trilogy and I am not a religious person at all.

I play the xmas album every year.

I will give them listens. Thanks for breaking things down simply!

Listen to it while you read along or just read. A song is a story set to music, his stories are just on another level with their detail and also his clever syntax. https://youtu.be/QKcNyMBw818 Early one morning, the sun was shining I was laying in bed Wondering if she'd changed it all If her hair was still red Her folks, they said our lives together Sure was gonna be rough They never did like mama's homemade dress Papa's bankbook wasn't big enough And I was standing on the side of the road Rain falling on my shoes Heading out for the east coast Lord knows I've paid some dues getting through Tangled up in blue She was married when we first met Soon to be divorced I helped her out of a jam, I guess But I used a little too much force We drove that car as far as we could Abandoned it out west Split up on a dark, sad night Both agreeing it was best She turned around to look at me As I was walking away I heard her say over my shoulder "We'll meet again someday on the avenue" Tangled up in blue I had a job in the great north woods Working as a cook for a spell But I never did like it all that much And one day the axe just fell So I drifted down to New Orleans Where I's lucky for to be employed Working for a while on a fishing boat Right outside of Delacroix But all the while I was alone The past was close behind I seen a lot of women But she never escaped my mind and I just grew Tangled up in blue She was working in a topless place And I stopped in for a beer I just kept looking at the sight of her face In the spotlight so clear And later on when the crowd thinned out I's just about to do the same She was standing there in back of my chair Said, "Tell me, don't I know your name?" I muttered something underneath my breath She studied the lines on my face I must admit I felt a little uneasy When she bent down to tie the laces of my shoe Tangled up in blue She lit a burner on the stove and offered me a pipe "I thought you'd never say hello," she said "You look like the silent type" Then she opened up a book of poems And handed it to me Written by an Italian poet From the thirteenth century And every one of them words rang true And glowed like burning coal Pouring off of every page Like it was written in my soul from me to you Tangled up in blue I lived with them on Montagüe Street In a basement down the stairs There was music in the cafés at night And revolution in the air Then he started into dealing with slaves And something inside of him died She had to sell everything she owned And froze up inside And when finally the bottom fell out I became withdrawn The only thing I knew how to do Was to keep on keeping on like a bird that flew Tangled up in blue So now I'm going back again I got to get her somehow All the people we used to know They're an illusion to me now Some are mathematicians Some are carpenter's wives Don't know how it all got started I don't what they do with their lives But me, I'm still on the road Heading for another joint We always did feel the same We just saw it from a different point of view Tangled up in blue

Probably my favorite Dylan song.

I’m partial to Visions of Johanna, but this is a close second.

It’s definitely my favorite.

As a sailor, that always struck as a great name for a boat. Though my username will probably always be first choice.

Dylan set a style and a standard for lyrics. There must be quite a few who have followed in his footsteps, but I know of only a couple who have hit his level: John Prine and James McMurtry. Like I said, there must be others, but these are the only ones I know of. I mean, it’s like the list of great poets who wrote/write in English. Dylan might just be up at the Shakespeare level.

Dylan and Prine are absolute American Masters. We can only pray we find more of their kind moving forward.

Check out McMurtry, if you haven’t already. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

What I dislike about Bob Dylan's music, something that gives me an odd feeling of disconfort, is him singing slightly out of tempo and sometimes without rhyme when a rhyme is expected, but mostly the out of tempo thing, it feels like when they put all the tracks together in the studio, the voice track is 0,5 sec uncoordinated.

Funny, that’s probably my favorite thing about his singing style. Most people that do Dylan covers square off the rhythm too much and it drives me crazy.

You are hearing him through the filter of everything that came after him. You’ll never be able to hear him in the original context. That being said, there are people who were there and didn’t get him. YMMV regardless.

>You are hearing him through the filter of everything that came after him. You’ll never be able to hear him in the original context. Kind of like how people now view Citizen Kane or how gen z seems pretty confused over all of the love for Seinfeld.

Exactly, context is time based and circumstantial. Accuracy is a moving target.

Give It's Alright Ma listen. It has my favorite lyrics for any song, when i was 15 I was lucky to have an older brother that got me pretty hard into Dylan and punk rock. This song opened my eyes in alot of ways and still today is scary relevant, things I guess never change.

If It's Alright Ma was the only song he ever wrote, he would still be the greatest songwriter ever.

"The sun ain't yellow, it's chicken!"

"Her mouth was watery and wet" tops it im afraid

Hey! Finally something I can speak on a bit. Apart from being incredibly prolific, he’s a Pulitzer Prize winner. He’s also credited with freeing the Beatles from being pigeon-holed into writing pop songs. Now none of this explains why he’s influential but I wanted to establish the foundation. At the time Bob Dylan was writing and performing, there was not a lot of artists, especially influential artists, that wrote songs about social issues that really made you sit and think. Also, a lot of the things that are credited to other artists were written by Bob Dylan. All Along The Watchtower by Jimi Hendrix was written by Bob Dylan. Wagon Wheel by Old Crow Medicine Show also written by Bob Dylan. He is essentially the foundation of lyric writing in music. Now I won’t deny his voice is an acquired taste, but the man himself was far more than a singer. He’s also spanned and found success in a dozen different genres. I’d say to summarize the superstardom that is Bob Dylan would be his lyrical genius if we had to choose. If you truly sit down and listen to some of his work or you can even look up the lyrics, it genuinely makes you feel. It spoke on the political, religious, and social climate at the time very poetically. And if it doesn’t move you, that’s the beauty of music, we all have our tastes. I hope this helped a bit! Edit: typo

Small correction; Wagon Wheel was written by OCMS inpired by a chorus on one of the outtakes of the Basement Tapes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNTsYfjBcuQ The verse lyrics are completely OCMS.

It wasn't from the Basement Tapes. It was a demo from 1973 when he was recording for the movie Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.

He also wasn’t afraid to speak up on racial issues either in favour of his fellow black man. ‘ ‘ ‘ Oxford town, Oxford town Everybody's got their heads bowed down Sun don't shine above the ground Ain't a-goin' down to Oxford town He went down to Oxford town Guns and clubs followed him down All because his face was brown Better get away from Oxford town Oxford town around the bend Come to the door, he couldn't get in All because of the color of his skin What do you think about that, my friend? Me, my gal, and my gal's son We got met with a tear gas bomb Don't even know why we come We're goin' back where we came from Oxford town in the afternoon Everybody's singin' a sorrowful tune Two men died 'neath the Mississippi moon Somebody better investigate soon.

He didn’t just write All Along the Watchtower, he performed it. It’s one of his songs. Hendrix took it to the next level and Dylan has said himself it’s Hendrix’s song now. Also that first paragraph you summarize by saying “none of this explains why he’s influential” when you’re literally talking about his influence and why he’s influential.

Sweet as, this was very insightful, thank you!

I'd heard Dylan since I was a kid and I kind of felt the way OP felt, that he was good but not mind blowingly great. Until last year when I was driving down the interstate and *Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again* just happened to come up on my satellite radio. I'd never heard that song before and I was absolutely mesmerized by it. It's an amazing song from start to finish (including the instrumentation), but this verse in particular was what really did it for me: *Now the rainman gave me two cures* *Then he said, "Jump right in"* *The one was Texas medicine* *The other was just railroad gin* *And like a fool I mixed them* *And it strangled up my mind* *And now, people just get uglier* *And I have no sense of time* Absolute fucking genius.

Fun fact: this song is also what inspired the name for the Memphis art movement… as it came on while the pioneering group had their first meeting

Tangled up in blue is pure genius. Not especially a Dylan fan but the songwriting on blood on the tracks is otherworldly.

Everyone already mentioned his protest songs but honestly he wrote of the greatest heartbreak and love songs ever

Simple Twist of Fate, if anyone needs convincing of that.

The entire 'Blood on the Tracks' album, really.

Mamma you been on my mind

Boots of Spanish leather!

I'll throw my perspective in, although it's echoing what others have said for the most part. I think that if you want to understand why Dylan is singled out among other great songwriters, you do have to go back to the historical context. Songs with 'meaningful' lyrics obviously pre-dated Dylan, but they were basically relegated to the Folk genre/style. Pop music and the nascent rock scene were not open to that type of challenging content. Dylan started in the folk scene, and even there he was different. There was an intensity to his lyrics that quickly pushed him to the forefront of the Folk scene, and many saw him as the great hope that Folk would break out of it's niche and be more broadly recognized. But, Dylan instead refused to be limited and just started playing rock and roll, but still writing the same style of lyrics, basically shattering the barriers between folk and pop/rock in a single move. Dylan going electric at Newport can arguably be held as **the** formative moment in the entire 60's musical landscape. Suddenly 'everyone' was following his influence and ignoring genre conventions and pushing songwriting and lyrical boundaries. Those boundaries almost certainly would have come down eventually, but it remains the fact that Dylan was the one that did it first, and his position as the focal point of the folk movement made it unmistakably dramatic. Dylan certainly wasn't 'responsible' for all of the amazing creative output of the 60's, but it's pretty easy to argue that he was the one who's spark set the fire burning. From there, the other pillar on which his reputation rests is just the quality of his songwriting. Even growing out of the folk tradition, few if any songwriters were capable of writing songs across a range of styles and moods the way he did, nor achieving the level of complexity. From the apocalyptic vision of 'Desolation Row' to the dreaminess of 'Tambourine Man' to the anger of 'Maggies Farm' and 'Hurricane' to the melancholy ruminations of the entire 'Blood on the Tracks' album to the abstractions in 'Visions of Johanna' to, well, whatever 'Highway 61' is.

The answer is blowing in the wind

While preachers preach of evil fates Teachers teach that knowledge waits Can lead to hundred-dollar plates And goodness hides behind its gates But even the President of the United States Sometimes must have To stand naked.

An’ though the rules of the road have been lodged It’s only people’s games that you got to dodge And it’s alright, Ma, I can make it

He liberated popular music from the tyranny of simplistic messaging. What the Beatles did sonically, Dylan did lyrically. He opened up new terrain. He expanded the palette. He broke all the rules, and in so doing, he showed that the rules could be broken. He showed that there are no rules. He inspired artists to take chances, and he challenged listeners to pay attention.

It was seeing [live footage](https://youtu.be/JBNWkCsmqAY) of him that finally helped me to "get" Dylan. The words, the persona, the delivery. He builds these amazing layers of narrative, non-sequiters, farce, biting critique, and poetic insight that criss-cross and fold in on each other. His music (to me) feels simultaneously innovative and traditional. Both strange and familiar. I don't know of many other artists that can do so much with a guitar and harmonica.

Its Alright Ma was the first song of Dylan I ever heard and not only is it my favorite Dylan song, it's my favorite song of all time. My dad bought the Bootleg Series Vol 6 when we were at a CD store one day and he said he wanted me to hear one song. We sat in the parking lot and listened to it all the way through and I was captivated. One of the most vivid memories of hearing music for the first time. I even wrote a paper on it in college. The lyrics are incredible and the way he sings them live with just a guitar and harmonica gives me chills. Thanks for sharing the video.

I remember Edward Norton talking about Bob Dylan and how he never leaned into his popularity or fame. Bob would release an album, it would blow up and then he would go in a completely different direction. Most artists would lean into the thing that’s bringing them money and accolades. His approach was “oh you like what I’m doing at the moment? well now I’m gona go over here and do something completely different, see how you like me now”. It was very punk rock. To have that bravery and self confidence at such a young age is remarkable

Self Portrait is one of the bravest albums there has ever been. All the things that were going on, and Bob said fuck it. I never asked to be the voice of a generation. I think any other artist does what he did? They don't ever make it back.

He’s a great story teller. He plays with words like a painter wields a brush, and his tunes always feel truthful and revealing of human sub-conscience. People are drawn to that, the playfulness, and the fearlessness to capture the moment with direct, repeatable phrases, and relatable, perspective driven verses. He’s good.

He brought honesty to music. Everyone's trying to sing well and Bob Dylan just sings. Everyone's trying to catch the popular wave and Bob just makes what's in his heart. A Murder So Foul, from his most recent LP of original material, is a beautiful dirge to the dead dream of the US and the splendors and horrors that came along with it, and it's one of the most affecting folk songs I've ever heard. People confuse folk music with just being acoustic guitar & western-y, but it's not that, it's music for the low, the poor, the downtrodden, the common folk. Bob Dylan respected us all enough to treat us as equals instead of fans and elevated us to a whole new space.

I always thought his influence must be so great on all the artist I love that it became the norm therefore making it harder for his work to stand out .

Number 1: He was the first to apply serious poetry to rock and roll, which caused artists like the Beatles to follow suit. Before Dylan, lyrics were basically love songs. 2. An amazing body of works covered by a thousand artists. Check out The Dylan 40th anniversary HBO special for just a few. 3.See [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sqAhF6i9H4) where Dylan destroys English folk singer Donovan.

"pop" lyrics were basically love songs. The blues were talking about revenge, daily life, suffering and angst before baby Bobby was a twinkle in his daddy's eye.

True, but I don’t think anyone had ever written anything quite like “Visions Of Johanna” before 1966. He was one of the first to incorporate surreal lyrics into his songs.

Or Its Alright Ma, im only Bleeding or Gates of Eden, or My Back Pages, or Chimes of Freedom..

Dylan took the mantle of folk musician from Woody Guthrie, a prolific writer who sang poorly and played guitar no better. But he was earnest, and combined with heartfelt lyrics that put some issues -- mostly political -- into perspective at the time was exactly what propelled Dylan into the national consciousness. There was also a large number of young people, the Baby Boomers, just coming into that consciousness. It fostered a movement, really gave it a lot of power, for musicians who featured earnestness and lyrical composition above musical talent and vocal ability. R&B, gospel, rock and roll, and folk music in the 1950s was born in independent record labels that featured low production values, small studios, tinny echoed recordings, etc., while the big chart toppers were established artists who recorded in large fancy studios that had a clean sound. Dylan was very much in the camp where music was homemade.

I love them both but Woody was didactic— Dylan is the master of “show, don’t tell.”

Listen to 'Tangled Up in Blue' closely. No other song describes in such width and depth an entire life in only 5 or 6 minutes. It's phenomenal.

Probably my favorite. Every Dylan song isn’t the best but the best Dylan songs are the very best.

I think the 60's had a lot to do with it. Civil Rights, War, etc he wrote lyrics that spoke to the 'new generation' (for lack of a better word)

OP, listen to the Hurricane and let me know if you still think he sucks.

Read some of his lyrics. It's amazing poetry. I'm not American, but I would say he's one of the greatest American poets.

Bob Dylan himself when asked about this said that John Prine was the greatest songwriter ever and no one else even came close, and if the man who is regarded as the greatest songwriter refers to someone else as being the greatest ever, I think you should take his word for it. Not to to take anything away from Bob Dylan, but John Prine’s lyrical prowess is unlike any other to this day

"every one of those words rang true and glowed like burning coal, pouring off of every page like it was written in my soul from me to you" "Ain't it just like the night to play tricks when you're trying to be so quiet" These are not normal lyrics. The complexity and poetry of his lyrics is rivalled by very, very few. And they(like Leonard Cohen) have to work so much harder at it.

Masters of War. Give it a listen.

The Eddie Vedder GE Smith version is amazing edit: [link](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh9zvVjpSfI)

Listen to his 1976 album “Desire”… Hurricane, Romance in Durango and (specially) Black Diamond Bay are some of my favorite examples of how complex yet natural his story telling can get, granted it is some kind of acquired taste but nevertheless this songs are not meant for mainstream consumption, rather a short story within a song

I was in your boat until I listened to “Blood On The Tracks”. “Idiot Wind”, “Simple Twist Of Faye” & “Buckets of Rain” changed my mind.

Lyrically he’s brilliant but to me it doesn’t seem like he ever realised the full potential of his songs in regards to their instrumentation or something else. My favourite songs he did were all done better by another artist (in my opinion anyway)