What is there to say about Bob Dylan that hasn’t been said before? In a career that has spanned some 50 years, he’s seen the dizzying highs and the withering lows. He’s tasted the rewards of success and the bitter sting that accompanies the fall to obscurity.
Despite his legendary status, his more recent records have fallen from their once-lofty perch, critically acclaimed but no longer the momentous albums of their predecessors. Yet his legacy is so ingrained in the social subconscious that new singer/songwriters of any weight instantly become fodder for comparison.
“To be the ‘new Bob Dylan’ is a death sentence for songwriters,” said Akron-born, California-based songwriter/singer Tim Easton.
In an effort to combat that doomed influence, Easton tried to refrain from listening to Dylan’s work — and was successful until he was in his 30s.
“I totally avoided getting into his ’70s records or really anything until I was with the right girl and she played ‘Blood On The Tracks’,” Easton said. “I guess avoiding him had a lot to do with not wanting to pay attention to something that was too close to me.”
Dylan’s influence on modern music is undeniable, though whether artists see his work as a direct influence or if it is an incidental, natural occurrence is arguable. His early songwriting opened the door to what popular music could say and, to an extent, what it could sound like.
By the ’70s, Dylan’s music was beginning to become a genre in itself. Folk blended with country and rock only grazed the surface of what Dylan was capable of. It was during this period that he began to display his musical knowledge , both American and abroad, in albums like “Desire.” That album opens with the commercially successful “Hurricane” and ends with the gypsy-esque “Sara.” In between, a number of musical styles and forms are explored. That love of music in all its forms is perhaps the most noticeable influence on modern music.
“You hear Bob today in guys like Conor Oberst and Jack White, people who have paid attention to lyrics and the history of American music,” Easton said. “They didn’t purloin his sound or phrasing, they borrowed his attitude and devotion. Just remember, when he first hit the scene, Bob Dylan was nothing but a Ramblin’ Jack Elliott imitator, and Jack was of course imitating his friend Woody [Guthrie].”
One of the truly unique things about Dylan is not his ability to affect artists half a century after his first record was released, but his influence on his contemporaries. Not long after becoming a heavy hitter in the music world, he began to shape contemporary sound.
His influence on The Beatles and The Byrds is undeniable, and where would garage rock be without Dylan’s mid-’60s tours with Hawks? Robbie Robertson’s guitar playing featured that angular, overdriven tube sound present in not only first-wave garage bands, but all of the genre’s resurgences from Billy Childish up to The Hives and into players like Ty Segall. His influence can be found in country as well, from the Outlaw scene in the ‘70s to recent songs.
“Like some Italian poet from the 15th century, wherever there are young artists like Patti Smith who are completely devoted to art, there will also be Bob Dylan,” said Dr. Bob Batchelor, professor at Kent State. (The “Tangled Up in Blue” reference there makes sense — Batchelor is the author of a number of books on pop culture and is currently writing a book about Dylan.) “His influence will never wane because anybody who comes along and is truly great will have been influenced by him; therefore the people they influence will be part of a long chain.”
Batchelor believes that Dylan’s music remains relevant because of two inter-related ideas: first, his status as an iconic figure of the 1960s, which makes his music a point of interest not only to those who experienced the famed decade firsthand, but to those attracted to its ideas and culture. The second is the hipster aspect of liking Dylan, the quintessential loner, James Dean with a guitar. Because of this, Dylan can generate new fans and energize old ones.
“Dylan is bigger than the label ‘musician’ or ‘songwriter,’ so he will endure, regardless of how styles or tastes change,” Batchelor said. “ It’s almost like Dylan is part of people’s music and life education. In other words, you can’t really understand music unless you go through a Dylan phase.”
