John Lennon Said He and Bob Dylan Were ‘Uptight’ Around Each Other

John Lennon and Bob Dylan were some of the biggest names in music in the 1960s, so it’s no surprise that their paths crossed. They became friendly, with each expressing admiration for the other’s work. Lennon was particularly reverent of Dylan, but he admitted that they both seemed uptight whenever they were together. Still, he said they dealt with this to spend time together. 

John Lennon was a fan of Bob Dylan as a musician 

When Dylan traveled to England in 1965, The Beatles took notice. Lennon predicted that the American artist would do well in the country, though perhaps not as well as The Beatles.

“The first time you hear Dylan you think you’re the first to discover him,” Lennon said, per the book No Direction Home: The Life and Music of Bob Dylan by Robert Shelton. “But quite a lot of people have discovered him before us … I think Bob Dylan’s music will grow steadily in this country, but I can’t see him becoming the new craze.”

Lennon joked that his band was eternally grateful to Dylan.

“I always saw him when he was in London,” he told Rolling Stone in 1968. “He first turned us on in New York actually. He thought ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’ – when it goes ‘I can’t hide’ – he thought we were singing ‘I get high’ – so he turns up with Al Aronowitz and turns us on, and we had the biggest laugh all night – forever. Fantastic. We’ve got a lot to thank him for.”

The two men became friends, but they were uptight around each other

Dylan visited Lennon’s home when he was in England, and the two began spending more time together. By 1968, though, Lennon said he rarely saw the American musician. He’d taken a step back from the public eye after a motorcycle accident and was quietly residing in Woodstock, New York.

“No, cause he’s living his cozy little life, doing that bit,” Lennon said. “If I was in New York, he’d be the person I’d most like to see.”

Lennon explained that early meetings between the two of them weren’t always comfortable, but he felt that he’d grown enough to have better conversations with Dylan.

“I’ve grown up enough to communicate with him,” he said. “Both of us were always uptight, you know, and of course I wouldn’t know whether he was uptight, because I was so uptight, and then when he wasn’t uptight, I was – all that bit. But we just sat it out because we just liked being together.”

John Lennon said he and Bob Dylan were also disorganized

Lennon believed that he and Dylan were also alike in their disorganization. He explained that they’d tried to record music together, but hadn’t been able to make it happen.

“We played a few records and talked,” Lennon said. “He’s an interesting bloke with some good ideas. We swapped addresses and said we’d exchange ideas for songs, but it never happened. He said he sent me things, but he got the address wrong and it never arrived. Maybe that’s why we get on well — we’re both pretty disorganized blokes.”