Bob Dylan on how Judy Garland pushed herself too far, and why he’d never follow
Let’s be honest, Bob Dylan has never really been a singer.
Even when he first broke out, and his voice was as clean and fresh as it was ever going to be, there was still a croakiness to it. By the time he was getting old, even that voice was unrecognisable under all the frogs stacked up in his throat, but of course that was never the point.
Especially at the start, Dylan wasn’t on stage to sound pretty when he was, at first, deeply passionate about saying something impactful. His voice sounded its best back when he was delivering protest song after protest song, joining Joan Baez at the marches, and devoting his music career to sending messages to the big guys at the top of the world. However, back then, the whole point wasn’t how he sounded, but what he was saying.
When that changed, and he turned his back on protest music, his voice changed too, and rapidly. As the 1970s and even the 1980s rolled in, Dylan sounded completely different, and I mean completely. If someone listened blind with no knowledge of the man, they would definitely believe that ‘Blowin In the Wind’ and ‘Make You Feel My Love’ were sung by two completely separate people, and it only kept on changing further, raising genuine confusion about who on earth is singing on Modern Times in 2006, or how that voice somehow sounds younger and better in 2020, on Rough and Rowdy Ways.
I’d call it a mystery, but it really isn’t. Dylan’s voice changed because he never tried to preserve it. Years of touring, smoking and drinking took their toll, and of course, age plays a part too. But more than anything, his voice evolved because he did nothing to prevent it from doing so. He has never seen vocal perfection as his responsibility. Dylan could have carefully protected his voice to ensure every performance, past and present, sounded flawless. The simple truth is that he chose not to, perhaps aware of the pressure and damage that kind of pursuit can bring.
“There’s something at the back of your mind that says, ‘I’m not giving you a 100 per cent. I’m not giving anybody a 100 per cent,” he said as he’s more than aware there’s miles more effort he could give.
However, he’s seen too many cautionary tales about exactly that. “I’m not gonna give it all. I’m not Judy Garland, who’s gonna die onstage in front of a thousand clowns. If we’ve learned anything, we should have learned that,” he said, referencing the iconic actor and singer whose exploitation in her younger life in the entertainment industry had led to lifelong addictions and struggles that would eventually take her life at 47. It was a slow suicide live on stage, and Dylan, like the rest of the world, watched, but he vowed not to let that happen to him.
Perhaps that’s another reason why he abandoned the folk world that he felt was smothering him, but mostly, it’s a reason why the audience will simply get what they’re given when it comes to his singing. “I’m gonna give you this much, and this much is gonna have to do,” he declared plainly.
That does come with confidence, though, as by now, he trusts that even his 60 per cent effort is still worth it, adding, “I’m good at what I do. I can afford to give you this much and still be as good as, if not better than, the guy over across the street.”
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