“All-time greatest”: Anthony Kiedis on the artist no one could argue with
No genre is going to run short of great songwriters. Although not every great wordsmith is going to see the same heights as Taylor Swift these days, it’s always important to dig a little deeper beyond the charts to find out where the true voice of the people is underneath the surface. Although Anthony Kiedis never claimed to speak for his generation when performing Red Hot Chili Peppers songs, he knew that Bob Dylan had everything one should look for in a great composer.
Then again, anyone that tries to dissect the inner multitudes of a tune like ‘Hump De Bump’ really is fighting a losing battle. There are many different avenues that Red Hot Chili Peppers have gone in, but it’s hard to really look at them as a completely sincere rock and roll band when they also have tracks like ‘Special Secret Song Inside’ and ‘They’re Red Hot’ right next to ‘Otherside’ or ‘Under the Bridge’.
But Kiedis wasn’t just looking to paint with words every single time he wrote lyrics. He was a poet first and a singer second, and he could see the beauty as much in early hip-hop acts like Run-DMC as he could in modern-day poets like Patti Smith. Even by those standards, though, Dylan was in a class by himself.
If some of Mr Zimmerman’s lyrics hit home today, they were revolutionary when touching on the same subjects in the 1960s. Right in the midst of the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement, tunes like ‘Masters of War’ and ‘Blowin’ In the Wind’ are both brutal condemnations of people’s actions while also looking at the bright side of life and ways that we can rewrite history.
It’s hard to really paint a clear connection between that and the same guys that sang such sage words of wisdom like “ding dang dong dong ding dang” on ‘Around the World’, but there is some overlap if you look for it. The whole reason why rock was taken seriously in the first place was due to what Dylan did, so it wasn’t that out of the question for someone with lighthearted songs under their belt to also write from the heart by the time Kiedis started performing ‘Knock Me Down’.
While Dylan might not be Kiedis’s first choice to spin at a party or anything, he thought there was no debate that he was one of the finest writers of the modern age, telling Rolling Stone, “You really can’t argue with Bob Dylan’s music. I put him in the top 10 of all-time greatest musicians that I have ever encountered.”
Above all else, Dylan helped musicians find their voices in whatever medium they were working in. By not conforming to what the traditional pop machine wanted, Dylan’s unwillingness to compromise is what made everyone from The Byrds to John Lennon want to branch out and discover who they were outside of the traditional mainstream market.
So, really, Kiedis can say that he loves Dylan all he wants, but admiring his music is about more than just loving the sound of his sandpaper voice. Because if you have ever wanted to write a song that touches people’s hearts, there’s a good chance Dylan is a part of your playbook without you even realising it.
Never Miss A Tale
The Far Out Bob Dylan Newsletter
All the latest stories about Bob Dylan from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.