Why Bob Dylan Matters, To Me

I listen to Bob Dylan every day on shuffle. Though songs hit me differently on different days, I ultimately always smile and marvel. There is an undercurrent to everything he does that is, for lack of a better description, a positive force. He seems to inhabit that blues idiom that no matter how bad things are, they could always be worse, and at the end of the day sometimes all you can do is laugh.

He is a very funny person! Yet there is also a deep introspection, a searching, sometimes rage or hurt, but never sadness. Sad is not a word I would use to describe his music. It could even be apocalyptic. As Erin Callahan noted in The Power and Politics of Bob Dylan’s Live Performances, he said, “well after the apocalypse there will be something else.” It is never over with Dylan. He is in perpetual motion, and it is simply beautiful.

I love the way he sings. His phrasing is so intoxicating, and he has an extremely expressive voice. Couple that with the extraordinary musicians he surrounds himself with and it makes for incredible listening. They are all fabulous. You are not just getting him, there is The Band, Joan Baez, Jim Keltner, Clydie King, Sly and Robbie, The Heartbreakers, Grateful Dead, Tony Garnier, Charlie Sexton, and the list goes on.

He is a fan of music and is a knowledgeable historian on it as well. He is amazing at taking songs written by others and making them his own. He is so eclectic with his choices that you can go to him for any type of music. I connect with his artistic instinct. I can hear a song by another artist, but then he will do something with it that stops me in my tracks.

There are many wonderful versions of his songs by other artists, which is a testament to his craft. He has built songs that will last. When he changes up his own songs, I am in awe of how malleable they are. Dylan is like a cicada to me. About every seventeen years he hits a phase that contains a few more of my favorites than other periods. 1963-65, 80-83, 97-2001, and 2020+. Rough and Rowdy Ways is a remarkable album, and The Tour is equally, if not more astounding. 

I saw a sensational show in the fall of 2019, and the trend continued in 2021, 2023, and 2024. The first time I saw him do “False Prophet” with such swagger, it made me cry. If that sounds like a strange song for such a reaction, it was actually the sight of him that did it. His pose to me seemed to be straight out of 1966. Sitting in the front row and hearing him debut “Footlights” in Boston was magical. When he came out from behind the piano at the end of the show and was ten feet away from me, he just looked magnificent, soaking in the adulation. His harp playing last month on “Shooting Star” moved me to tears. Now it was sound that had put me outside of time.

If I ever meet the man, I will say “Mr. Bob”, like how he said “Mr. Frank” at Sinatra’s 80th birthday. I would not address him as Dylan, because that is not a person, that is his creation. He is Bob, and since I do not know him personally but do want to acknowledge him as a person and not just an artist, “Mr. Bob” seems like a nice compromise. I would just say, “Thank you for doing what you do, and sharing your gifts with all of us.” I like to show people appreciation, and thinking about the person versus the artist, I would want to convey that I know the art he makes comes at a cost to him. I feel blessed to exist on the planet at the same as Bob Dylan.