“Really got to me”: Beck discusses his favourite Bob Dylan song
Early on in his career, Beck was lucky enough to receive a glowing endorsement from Bob Dylan, who called him a “young man with an incredible future”. Utilising his fascination with the songwriting troubadour, Beck too became a musician who defied easy categorisation and even paid homage to the legendary wordsmith on his coveted album Odelay.
The profound admiration went both ways, as Dylan proved in 1996 during the recording sessions for Time Out of Mind. Dylan had recently heard Odelay and became so inspired by it that he asked his fellow studio team whether they had heard it and what they thought. According to his engineer Mark Howard, the musician then apparently said, “I want to make a record the way he makes records”.
The resulting Time Out of Mind was one of Dylan’s finest records, despite the fact that it confidently and overtly represented a significant departure in his sound, which suddenly appeared much more atmospheric and moody than his earlier releases. Unlike many records at the time, Time Out of Mind took traditional styles and presented them with a raw, ambient texture and a rootsy, vintage sound.
Although many enjoyed this new sound, Beck has always been drawn to Dylan’s earlier material, specifically his Nashville recordings, including the 1969 tour de force Nashville Skyline. “Those are the ones that really got to me because I was so into country music when I was younger and hearing those records for the first time,” the singer told Mojo.
Although there are many songs he enjoys by the musical legend, the one that sits firmly atop his list is ‘Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here with You’, the album’s closing piece and the third to be released as a single after ‘I Threw It All Away’ and ‘Lay Lady Lay’. Unlike his previous love songs, ‘Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here with You’ seemed to celebrate love and romance more willingly in a more upbeat manner.
For Beck, this is what made it even more endearing. As he put it: “I always liked his kind of throwaway love songs.”
He added: “For somebody who’s a giant like him, who writes those great cinematic songs like ‘Visions Of Johanna’ that draw you into a strange world, to just toss out a good little tune…that’s an aspect of Dylan I always really appreciated.”
What is perhaps the most intriguing about ‘Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here with You’ is its simplicity. Dylan has crafted complex lyrical narratives more times than you can count. Still, this song seems so straightforward in both the musical arrangements and his vocal delivery that it almost feels impossible not to question it. Once you allow it just to be, however, that’s when it truly shines.
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