The artist Bob Dylan wanted to record his songs: “One of my favourite groups of all time”
Any songwriter will want to get their compositions to the broadest audience possible. Even if you’re not the one who ends up singing the track, having someone else hit that home run is usually enough for people to be satisfied once the royalty checks start rolling in. Before Bob Dylan took over the world as one of the biggest songwriters in the world, he always thought that his songs would work when sung by The Staples Singers.
At the same time, the phrase “no one sings a song better than its composer” is usually fairly apt when it comes to Dylan. His voice is definitely an acquired taste for some people, but the mix of sarcasm, wit, and open-hearted kindness in his songs is something that only he can deliver half the time.
Everything Dylan sang came from his soul, but The Staples Singers knew that type of performance like the back of their hand. Regardless of how many hits they had making traditional love songs, the lion’s share of their tracks felt like more than just a typical romance. This was a matter of life and death whenever they sang, and if they brought that same punch to ‘The Times They Are A-Changin’’, it would have made for a much different piece.
Although Woody Guthrie was the template for Dylan, he knew that the Staples Singers had the power to make his works take flight, telling MusicCares, “They were one of my favorite groups of all time. I met them all in ’62 or ’63. They heard my songs live, and Pervis [Staples] wanted to record three or four of them and he did with the Staples Singers. They were the type of artists that I wanted recording my songs.”
In fact, Dylan always seemed to have one foot slowly trailing back into soul music half the time. If you look at the kind of singers he idolised, hearing him praise everyone from Little Richard to Ray Charles saw him focusing more on the character in someone’s voice rather than the power half the time.
Even though Dylan might tell you that he could never have sung like the Staples Singers, that didn’t mean he couldn’t carve himself into that kind of singer. Looking at where he went throughout his golden years in the 1960s, Dylan kept twisting his voice into different shapes depending on the narrative that he was writing, either spitting out venom on ‘Like A Rolling Stone’ or sounding like the ghost of Christmas past on ‘Ballad of a Thin Man’.
Dylan also inadvertently picked up a few of that signature teardrop in his voice as he honed his craft. When listening to an album like Blood on the Tracks, Dylan seemed to harness the power in his voice, going for those soaring high notes on ‘Idiot Wind’ much like the Staples Singers would on their own hits.
Considering how much Dylan put into his craft, it wasn’t like he was looking to be that kind of folk-rock superstar for the rest of his life. He could appreciate all types of music, and if the Staples Singers decided to cover his music, it was just continuing the age-old tradition of songs being passed on through different generations and lifestyles.
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.