"I sat there and I listened to him and I said, 'Well, shit, I can sing better than that.' Then it penetrated to me what he was singing. I listened to the words. Then I thought seriously about just quitting the business and taking up another line of work. I knew I couldn’t match that...."
Wrote David Crosby, one of 80 artists quoted in the "80 Artists Pick Their Favorite Bob Dylan Song For His 80th Birthday" (Stereogum, 2021).
"Bob never really did anything musically sophisticated. It was the words. He’s friendly, but he’s not out front. He doesn’t let you in. You’ll say, 'Bob, where do you live?' And he’ll say, 'Well, you’re looking at a man that has no home.' He’d be telling you about life instead of telling you he lived in Malibu. He’s not an easy guy. To this day, he’s not an easy guy. He doesn’t welcome you in with open arms and show you who Bob is. He likes being mysterious. He likes being oblique. And he’s smart enough to pull it off. He’s a very interesting guy to be friends with. Very interesting."
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Our ice maker makes a rumbling sound when it drops a new tray of cubes. It warms my heart every time. Sometimes I announce, “The ice maker is working.”
Why am I telling you this? Because I, like Bob Dylan, am oblique. It’s what makes me great and makes other humans look for a different line of work. Plus, we’ve had ice maker issues on two refrigerators so I’ve been traumatized.
Margo Price:
"The poem keeps rolling and rambling and it becomes apparent that he’s searching for an answer, the remedy, meaning of existence. But the trail abruptly slams into a fork in the road when he’s looking for God. He suggests you can either go to the Grand Canyon at Sundown or Brooklyn State Hospital where his hero Woody Guthrie was laying, dying in bed. And what do these two things represent? They represent inspiration in two different ways which Bob took with him and became. He is to me, as Woody is to him. A lighthouse, a beacon. He is the man with a million minds."
I kept looking for a "As told to.." label at the bottom, but found none. Did Ms. Price really write all this about Dylan? If so, she truly must like him.
Dylan is a writer and social commentator, not a singer.
I thought everyone knew that...
We call that last bit a humble brag. Bob was so mysterious only someone as special as David could become his friend.
An impossible task.
(But if one must be forced to perform the impossible: 'Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right')
What an honest and touching reminiscing from the late David C.
>Joe Smith said...
Dylan is a writer and social commentator, not a singer.
I thought everyone knew that...<
Ahh, the inevitable, ever-penetrating "Dylan can't sing" comment. And it took three whole posts to get to it this time!
One question, Joe Smith: Tom Waites, Joe Cocker, and Steve Earle - very popular performers who sing for a living - are they singers?
Bob Dylan is the ChatGPT of folk-rock.
Dylan is a writer and social commentator, not a singer.
I thought everyone knew that...
Dylan is an unusual singer with an unusual voice, and I expect a lot of people think they can sing better than he can.
Having an unusual voice is not necessarily the end of the world. A lot of us like novelty and originality! Dylan's got a unique voice, and he's not afraid to use it.
If he was a truly bad singer, no one would pay to hear his beautiful words mangled by that bad voice. And Dylan would have had to find a career as a songwriter, which is also a thing.
If you need an example of amazing Dylan singing...
Tangled Up in Blue
People cover Dylan all the time, of course, but he has multiple songs where the best version is the one he sang.
Lately, I've noticed frequent prominent expression of the opinion that Bob Dylan is not merely a good singer, but that he is the best singer.
It sounds as though Crosby had that opinion. At first, he thought 'Well, shit, I can sing better than that.' But then he arrived at the opinion that he "couldn’t match that."
When CDs really hit, I was 30. Suddenly, a lot of music I had read or heard about was widely available. I first heard stuff by Skip James, Charlie Patton, the Carter Family and others. As soon as I heard that stuff and the music that's on the Anthology of American Folk Music or a later comp, Goodbye Babylon, I knew who Dylan had patterned his singing after. Many of those singers weren't good if you think of singing as something done on Broadway or by someone like Perry Como (not knocking him). James Brown was not a traditionally "good" singer. Neither were plenty of other singers in popular music. Dylan has had several singing voices and they served whatever goal he had at the time.
It's interesting to think about harmony. The ability of one singer to unite with another singer in perfect harmony is really incredible. It makes us think of religious concepts like marriage, when two people "unite as one."
Bob Dylan is such a unique singer, I would suggest that a harmony would be very hard for him. He's a strong individualist. I'm not an expert on his music, but I suspect a perfect harmony is going to be out of his range.
It would be interesting to hear Bob Dylan and David Crosby sing a harmony together, but I wouldn't pay for that experience. (Or spend two hours listening to it!)
Paul Simon used to be furious at people who disparaged Art Garfunkel, who was outstanding at harmony.
Simon was the writer and is an amazing soloist. So naturally people think he's way more important than Garfunkel. But harmony is tough, I think. And I would suggest Garfunkel was one of the best in the world at it.
And when harmonies rock, they're truly amazing. I prefer the harmony on this song to the original version by Neil Diamond.
"When we played “Tambourine Man” for him, you could hear the gears going in his head, man. He was watching intensely. He went straight out and got himself an electric band."
Namely, Bloomfield.
People CAN sing better than Dylan. I like Peter paul and mary's version of his songs much better than Dylan's version.
WHat does Crosby mean by "singer"? maybe he means that Dylan writes songs that fit his voice better than anyone else. Or maybe he's talking about the whole package: Singer = writer+ voice.
How often does Dylan "cover" other people's songs? ANd how popular are those covers?
"Yes, I wish that for just one time
You could stand inside my shoes
You’d know what a drag it is
To see you"
One question, Joe Smith: Tom Waites, Joe Cocker, and Steve Earle - very popular performers who sing for a living - are they singers?
Tom Waites is a raconteur set to music; he is a good singer in that he can make his voice do exactly what he wants it to. Joe Cocker is more of a true singer, but has a similar command over his voice. Steve Earle is a good singer in a more traditional sense, not sure why he was included in this list. I would add people like Mick Jagger, who has a very charismatic voice but isn't particularly adept at singing in tune, as a more appropriate inclusion.
A fair question is whether Dylan means to sing that way or if that is simply the best he can do.
"Lately, I've noticed frequent prominent expression of the opinion that Bob Dylan is not merely a good singer, but that he is the best singer.
It sounds as though Crosby had that opinion. At first, he thought 'Well, shit, I can sing better than that.' But then he arrived at the opinion that he 'couldn’t match that.'"
From the context, I infer Crosby was referring to Dylan's lyrics.
Bob, like David, was an entertainer. And damned good ones.
Aside:
At a Bob concert 30 years ago my sig other's 12 year old turned to us and said: "You guys must have been drugs back in the day"
Ann Althouse said "It sounds as though Crosby had that opinion. At first, he thought 'Well, shit, I can sing better than that.' But then he arrived at the opinion that he "couldn’t match that."
I think you may be misinterpreting this, I think what Crosby "couldn't match" was the writing. And he was probably right, not many can match Bob Dylan when it comes to writing. As late as 2018 (in the documentary "Echoes from the Canyon") Crosby was raving about Dylan's lyrics. I doubt Crosby was conceding that Dylan was a better singer than him. And thank God Crosby didn't give it up and go into another line of work.
I am a big fan of the groups Crosby was in, Dylan not so much. Happy David didn’t hang it up and become a plumber.
You may not like Dylan's voice, but that doesn't change the fact that he is a truly great singer. He can sing clean and pretty if wants to - he proved that with Nashville Skyline and other albums around that time. But singing clean and pretty didn't suite what he wanted to with his songs most of the time. There are plenty of singers that are more technically proficient, but none could put across the attitude and emotion that Dylan does in songs like "Like a Rolling Stone", "Positively 4th Street" and all the songs on his great three album mid-sixties run. Plenty of artist tried and all came up short.
There are so many songs in his catalogue that only Dylan could pull off because they are so hard to do. Listen to his version "Sign on the Window". Imagine some operatic tenor giving it a go. It wouldn't work. Someone above mentioned "Tangled up Blue". When Dylan sings it every one of the words ring true and glow like burning coals. When others sing it, it's a vanilla sundae.
Because of Dylan's distinctive voice, most don't realize how varied his singing style has changed over the years. For a deep dive on this subject, here's a University of Chicago lecture, titled, "Here's Your Throat Back, Thanks for the Loan: On Dylan's Voices"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qf7RGph3buc&t=1323s
The article the Crosby quote was plucked from is more interesting than I expected. Barely a handful of people picked Protest Bob songs, and four different people went for “Murder Most Foul.” Although only David Byrne shares my opinion that it’s hilarious (on purpose). An attractive young lady named Samia picked “Leopard Skin Pill Box Hat” and especially admires the line “You know it balances on your head just like a mattress balances on a bottle of wine.” You give me some hope for the future, Miss.
"To dance beneath the diamond sky, with one hand waving free..."
Crosby was right. That one line was going to hook you, if any Dylan could.
"At first, he thought 'Well, shit, I can sing better than that.' But then he arrived at the opinion that he "couldn’t match that."
Put me down with the commenters that think the reference was to lyrics, not singing.
How often does Dylan "cover" other people's songs? ANd how popular are those covers?
Quite often. Before his last original album, he did three albums covering Frank Sinatra songs. Not my cup of tea, but they were well received.
In the mid-nineties he did two cover albums of old blues songs. Both were very good, with "World Gone Wrong" the better.
Bob Dylan is such a unique singer, I would suggest that a harmony would be very hard for him.
Cmon Man! Get some Traveling Wilburies and listen. He and Tom Petty (who with the Heartbreakers toured as Dylan's backing band in the late '80's) sound great together. Petty was also underrated but had a great range of emotion to his voice and precise pitch. His early work has been accused of sounding too much like Dylan. Oh and he and Bob wrote "Stop Jamming Me" together too, on which they sang together for a Petty solo album.
'One question, Joe Smith: Tom Waites, Joe Cocker, and Steve Earle - very popular performers who sing for a living - are they singers?'
Sanctimonious much?
No, they aren't especially good, but they have an audience for 'reasons.'
Cocker is the best of that bunch.
Dylan has NEVER been known as a great singer in the classical sense.
Get over yourself.
'Dylan is an unusual singer with an unusual voice, and I expect a lot of people think they can sing better than he can.'
I'm sorry, but in the studio he is mostly fine.
But I have heard live performances where he has rocks in his mouth.
His mother wouldn't be able to understand him.
The only reason the audience does is because they know the lyrics...
In honor of Crosby, I am getting my hair cut tomorrow. Yeah, it is getting kind of long.
I was just watching No Direction Home, on Criterion.
"You're misquoting me!" - Dylan
"I'm not misquoting you, I'm interpreting you!" - Reporter
Nothing ever changes.
"I am just a good singer as Caruso, but you have to listen carefully.' - Bob Dylan.
>'One question, Joe Smith: Tom Waites, Joe Cocker, and Steve Earle - very popular performers who sing for a living - are they singers?'
Joe Smith said...
Sanctimonious much?
No, they aren't especially good, but they have an audience for 'reasons.'
Cocker is the best of that bunch.<
It appears that you don't know what 'sanctimonious' means.
Please note that I didn't ask you whether or not they were especially good - or which of them is the best. You're quite confused.
oh Mike nails me at 2:48!
that's a great harmony
Arguing about voices is right up there with arguing about coffee. "I can't believe that other people like the coffee I don't like! They are getting robbed!"
And when harmonies rock, they're truly amazing. I prefer the harmony on this song to the original version by Neil Diamond.
Originally by John Denver. Love that sappy tune, used to sing my kids to sleep to that. Always preferred the PPM version.
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