5 Musicians Bob Dylan Inspired: ‘I Was Steeped in Him’
Bob Dylan has been a successful musician for decades, picking up critical acclaim, awards, and even a Nobel Prize along the way. His songwriting has also inspired many other musicians, including those who rose to prominence at the same time he did. Here are five musicians who took inspiration from Dylan.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers grew as musicians after joining Bob Dylan on tour
In the 1980s, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers joined Dylan on tour as his backing band. Petty would go on to work with Dylan in The Traveling Wilburys, but he said the initial tour was an incredible learning experience for the band.
“I learned so much from Bob Dylan,” he told The Daily Telegraph in 2012. “He gave us a kind of courage that we never had, to learn something quickly and go out on stage and play it. You had to be pretty versatile because arrangements could change, keys might change, there’s just no way of knowing exactly what he wants to do each night. You really learned the value of spontaneity, of how a moment that is real in a concert is worth so much more than one you plan out.”
Robert Plant said his understanding of music shifted because of Bob Dylan
Robert Plant was a teenager when Dylan rose to prominence, and he said that hearing the American musician’s songs stunned him.
“Something happened when Dylan arrived,” Plant told The Guardian. “I had to grapple with what he was talking about. His music referenced Woody Guthrie, Richard and Mimi Farina, Reverend Gary Davis, Dave Van Ronk and all these great American artists I knew nothing about. He was absorbing the details of America and bringing it out without any reservation at all, and ignited a social conscience that is spectacular.”
Plant said he changed after hearing Dylan’s music.
“In these Anglo-Saxon lands we could only gawp, because we didn’t know about the conditions he was singing about,” he said. “Dylan was the first one to say: hello, reality. I knew that I had to get rid of the winkle-pickers and get the sandals on quick.”
Johnny Cash covered a number of his songs
Dylan was a fan of Johnny Cash, but The Man in Black may have liked Dylan more. He played The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan on repeat and even tried to seek out Dylan while in Greenwich Village.
“I had his record called Bob Dylan, and then The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, so I went down to the Village looking for Bob one night,” Cash said, per the book Cash on Cash: Interviews and Encounters With Johnny Cash. “They said that he had been there but he had gone. So I said to myself, ‘If I hang out here in the Village long enough, I’ll run into him.'”
The two musicians eventually met, and Cash was inspired to cover “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right,” “Mama, You Been On My Mind,” and “It Ain’t Me Babe.” He also collaborated with Dylan on “Girl From the North Country.”
The Beatles admitted the American artist was a massive influence
The Beatles rose to fame at roughly the same time as Dylan. When they discovered the American artist, they started listening to his songs on repeat. Dylan’s influence was clear in songs like “Norwegian Wood,” which the band freely admitted.
“We certainly got a lot from Dylan, and I know I had one of his first LPs at home before The Beatles,” Paul McCartney said on BBC Radio 2, per NME. “I used to play that quite a lot so I was steeped in him and I think your dad was too, but that was just one of the influences.”
The Byrds covered multiple songs by Bob Dylan
Dylan’s influence on the California band The Byrds is evident, mainly because they extensively covered his music. They released their version of “Mr. Tambourine Man” before Dylan released his own. They covered Dylan’s music so frequently that they were able to release a compilation album called The Byrds Play Dylan.
The influence wasn’t just one-sided, though. Dylan was reportedly so happy with their cover of “Mr. Tambourine Man” that he decided to electrify his sound.
