“A deep conscientious cat”: Bob Dylan on the musician who can get to your heart
Each time he sits down with a pen and paper, a guitar in his lap and a harmonica hanging out of his mouth, Bob Dylan goes for the heart. His career spans 60 years and 40 albums, but those numbers pale in comparison to the emotional impact of his output. His lyrics span nearly every facet of the human experience.
Amidst poetry and words of protest, his songs consistently come from the heart. As a result, they’ve won over the hearts of millions of others over the last six decades. Whether he’s reflecting on the state of the world around him or looking further inward, Dylan’s enduring success comes from his ability to poeticise those feelings and folklore.
From the soothing words and harmonica bends of ‘Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright’ to the gorgeous strums of ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door’, Dylan’s compositions are at once personal and universal. It’s fitting, then, that one of the songwriters Dylan admires most has proven a similar ability to get to the hearts of the many.
While Dylan was endearing himself to audiences with his all-encompassing folk, Bruce Springsteen was doing the same in the realm of rock. Expertly walking the line between everyman songwriter and singular entertainer, he’s found his way into just as many playlists and hearts as his folk peer. Lovingly dubbed The Boss, Springsteen has more than earned his nickname.
He’s also earned the admiration of Dylan, well and truly getting to the folk songwriter’s heart with a cover of ‘Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door’. “He did that song like the record,” Dylan once admitted on his website via Stereogum, “something I myself have never tried. I never even thought it was worth it.”
Springsteen took on the song during a tribute to Dylan when he was named 2015 MusiCares ‘Person of the Year’, roping in Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello to fill out his sound. Maintaining the heart in Dylan’s original but awarding it some of his own rocking style and distinctive vocals, the performance is a gorgeous homage to the 1973 track, one that even Dylan suggested pulled “all the power and spirituality and beauty out of it like no one has ever done.”
It’s a moving experience, even watching a short clip of the performance on YouTube. Springsteen’s raw vocals and gorgeously layered instrumentation evoke glorious sentimentality and spirituality with ease, somehow doing justice to the mammoth legacy of the song and its songwriter. It’s easy to see why the performance particularly affected Dylan.
Deeming Springsteen a “conscientious cat,” he concluded that he can “get to your heart, my heart anyway.” With years of performing under his belt, he certainly has honed that ability to get to the heart through song, and not just Dylan’s. Whether he’s covering folk classics or giving his own compositions life on-stage, Springsteen is known as one of the best performers of all time for a reason.
Between them, Dylan and Springsteen have created some of the most well-loved and universally poignant songs of all time, so it’s no surprise that mutual respect exists between them. Whether you prefer the faithful folk of Dylan’s original ‘Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door’, or Springsteen’s addition of guitar solos and Tom Morello, there’s no disputing the pair’s unparalleled ability to touch hearts with song.
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