A yodelling inspiration: The singer Bob Dylan thought was “the best songwriter”
There aren’t many songwriters who can hope to touch the legacy of Bob Dylan. Although Dylan would happily tell you that he wasn’t doing anything that any other songwriter could have done, his way with words has been influencing generations of musicians who wanted to scream out their frustrations about the world around them. There was a lighthearted side to Dylan that not many saw, and for his money, his message songs didn’t have anything on what Hank Williams did.
When looking at the biggest names in music, Dylan was cribbing from, it normally came back to folk music rather than country. Throughout his time in the spotlight, Dylan was known to have a bit of a musical obsession with Woody Guthrie, and it’s not hard to see why. On his first album, Guthrie’s influence is spilling out of Dylan, especially since he had hardly gotten that nasal cadence in his voice that some love and some still tolerate.
Williams was a bit of a different beast, though. While acts like Johnny Cash fall under the umbrella of ‘country artists it’s okay for rockers to like’, Williams was the ultimate version of what people think of when they think of hillbilly music. From his trademark yodelling to his odes to heartache, Williams painted the picture of the American South for a lot of people who were just getting used to seeing the heartland of America.
Whereas most people saw just another singer-songwriter, Dylan saw another storyteller he could learn from. If Guthrie spoke to the people about the freedom they could all have if they banded together, Williams spoke like an average Joe at the other end of the bar, happy to tell his tale of heartache on tracks like ‘Your Cheatin’ Heart’.
Even though Dylan shouted Guthrie’s praises all the time, he admitted that Williams might have equalled his idol in some respects, telling Paul Zollo, “To me, Hank Williams is still the best songwriter. Hank Williams never wrote ‘This Land Is Your Land’. But it’s not shocking for me to think of Hank Williams singing ’Pastures of Plenty’ or Woody Guthrie singing ‘Cheatin’ Heart’. So in a lot of ways, those two writers are similar”.
Both artists might have taught Dylan the importance of being original, but you can hear bits and pieces of them in every song he sang, if just in different periods. The 1960s may have been the version of Dylan that will be written into the history books for years to come, but many people forget how much country seeped into his sound towards the end of that decade.
Maybe it was his love of Williams, but it’s hard not to think of an album like New Morning as being indebted to the country legend’s tradition of songs, especially considering the lyrics that are standalone stories of heartache just like on ‘Why Don’t You Love Me’ from years before.
When Dylan praises someone, the rock world listens, and Williams’ name has still been carried on in the rock world. Outside of the occasional joke like Red Hot Chili Peppers trying to cover him, it’s easy to hear the country influence in some of George Harrison’s greatest solo work, as well as the more pointed songs that Beck put out towards the beginning of the 2000s on Sea Change.
Williams might still be considered one of the relics of the country world to a lot of people, but it’s not always about the legacy that defines you. It’s about how many people continue to play your songs after you’re gone, and if the songs are enough to get high praise from Dylan, you’ve hit a pretty major nerve.
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