Dylan Week: The 10 Best Songs About Bob Dylan
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We start with arguably the funniest Dylan homage/parody/tribute ever, which Loudon Wainwright III wrote in honor of Dylan's 50th birthday. Among other things, he evaluates Dylans entire oeuvre ("Self Portrait?/Well, it was an interesting effort") and laments being one of Dylan's "dumb-ass kid brothers" along with Bruce Springsteen ("we still get together every week at Bruce's house"). "But I didn't start writing until '68/It was too damn daunting, you were too great/I won a whole lot of Bob Dylan imitation contests, though."
Just as Dylan had paid homage to Woody Guthrie on his first album with "Song To Woody," so Chan Marshall does to Dylan with "Song To Bobby." Throwing in some Dylan-esque inflections with her normal breathy vocals, she recounts all those times she called out to him at shows until he finally reaches out to her: "A phone call from your New York City office/You were supposedly asking to see me."
Joan Baez obviously has always had a complicated relationship with Dylan. But they were on good terms in the mid-'70s, when he invited her to join his Rolling Thunder Revue. Around that time, Baez wrote "Diamonds and Rust" about "by far the most talented crazy person I ever worked with.""Well you burst on the scene/Already a legend/The unwashed phenomenon/The original vagabond/You strayed into my arms /And there you stayed"
When David Bowie released "Song For Dylan" in 1971, it was more aspirational than anything else. In an interview with Melody Maker in 1976, he explained:"There's even a songâSong For Bob Dylanâthat laid out what I wanted to do in rock. It was at that period that I said, 'okay (Dylan) if you don't want to do it, I will.'I saw that leadership void. Even though the song isn't one of the most important on the album, it represented for me what the album was all about. If there wasn't someone who was going to use rock 'n' roll, then I'd do it."
Marc Bolanâbetter known as the lead singer and songwriter of '70s glam band T. Rexâlong called Dylan one of his main influences. And there's no doubt that he's referring to him in this song: "Bobby's alright, Bobby's alright/He's a natural born poet/he's just outta sight!"
Another homage from someone who counted Dylan among his biggest influencesâunlike T. Rex, you can really hear Dylan in the music of Syd Barrett, the one-time leader of Pink Floyd. He channels Dylan in this charming ditty:"Got the Bob Dylan blues/And the Bob Dylan Shoes/And my clothes and my hairâs in a mess/But you know I just couldnât care less"
Hardcore '80s punk band The Minutemen were obsessed with cramming history and politics into short sharp energetic bursts of songs. The verses of "Bob Dylan Wrote Propaganda Songs" seem like a parody ("Manifesto/On my window/And my fruit/Rotation"), but the choruses, duh, rock.
Belle And Sebastian paid tribute to Dylan by invoking the classic film Don't Look Back in this tune about hiding from bullies. Even better, they reference the "Subterranean Homesick Blues" cue cards in the music video below.
Country Joe And The Fish wrote one of the first songs directly about Dylan in 1970âthey were still angry that Dylan had abandoned radical causes: "I'm sick and tired of hearing your lies/takes nothin' less than the truth to get me high."
John Lennon and Dylan had an interesting relationship over the yearsâthe two were great admirers of each other, and Lennon in particular spoke very highly of Dylan...except when he didn't. "Serve Yourself," a Dakota-period demo, was a humorous dig at Dylan's born-again Christianity after the release of "Gotta Serve Somebody:" "You tell me you found Jesus. Christ!/Well that's great and he's the only one/You say you just found Buddha?/and he's sittin' on his arse in the sun?"