Bobby Dylan and Bob Darin

In the Philosophy of Modern Song, Bob Dylan writes, “Bobby Darin could sound like anybody and sing any style. He was more flexible than anyone of his time. He could be Harry Belafonte. He could be Elvis. He could be Dion, he could be a calypso singer, he could be a blue-grass singer or a folk singer. He was a rhythm and blues singer… But here’s the thing about chameleons, if you don’t watch them changing colors they just look like an ordinary lizard. Their uniqueness lies in their transformative nature.”

Dylan could easily have been writing about himself. That excerpt comes from the book’s chapter on Darin’s “Beyond the Sea”, in which there is an image of whaling that immediately calls to mind “Moby Dick”, famously referenced by Dylan in his Nobel Lecture among books that have stayed in his imagination. Water is a symbol of dreams, and the flow of life. Dylan writes, “Onwards and onwards you go sailing over the bounding main, and off into the wild blue yonder. Sailing towards your life… you’ve been knocking about on this voyage since forever, riding on the crest of a high rippling wave, heading for a place you never heard of. You’re the skipper.”

Bobby Darin was also a songwriter. Penning songs as unlike each other as “Dream Lover”, “As Long As I’m Singing”, “18 Yellow Roses”, and “Simple Song of Freedom”, which was covered by Tim Hardin. Darin had a hit with Tim Hardin’s “If I Were a Carpenter”, which Dylan covered with The Band on The Basement Tapes. Darin also put his artistry in service of movements beyond music. He campaigned for Bobby Kennedy. Darin’s manager Steve Blauner said, “whenever they'd be on a plane together, and Bobby would come on and he'd say 'sing my favorite song' and it was ‘Blowin' in the Wind’. Bobby would take the guitar out and play it." Around this time, Darin started to go by Bob Darin, donned denim, and refused to play the hits he was famous for. Sound familiar?

Closing the chapter on “Beyond the Sea”, Dylan writes about Darin’s phrasing, once again applicable to himself. “Time and time again he’ll slip the first few words of a line upstairs into the end of the previous line. He’s very subtle and you don’t realize he’s doing this. But if he sang songs like this straight, it probably wouldn’t reach you. He’s playful. He’s a playful melodist and he doesn’t need words. He keeps it simple even when he’s singing about nothing.”