The one Bob Dylan song that made John Lennon “very paranoid”
John Lennon and Bob Dylan’s relationship was almost non-existent. The American was one of the few people who didn’t bow down to the Beatle, and the power dynamic between the pair left Lennon feeling inferior to his peer. There were few creators able to dwarf the impact or legacy of The Beatles, but if the four bandmates equally shared the group’s cultural dent, then the singular, meteoric power of Dylan was naturally more imposing.
With all that said and done, it is undeniable that Lennon’s approach to songwriting dramatically changed because of Dylan’s influence. Interestingly, Dylan didn’t take this as a compliment and instead decided to fire back at the Liverpudlian by parodying him on ‘Fourth Time Around’, a song which arrived as a snide take on The Beatles’ ‘Norwegian Wood’ — and Lennon took the snipe to heart.
The Fab Four’s song was penned after Lennon’s life-altering encounter in New York with Dylan. The marijuana-fuelled evening, brokered by journalist Al Aronowitz at the singer-songwriter’s suite at the Delmonico Hotel down Park Avenue in Manhattan, arrived after The Beatles headlined the Forest Hills Tennis Stadium in Queens, and it was a moment Lennon never forgot.
For most lover of the band, it can be considered a seismic moment in their career. After this connection, the four bandmates found a new way to express themselves. they ditched the swaying pop-rock sound and looked inward for a more introspective set of songs. Dylan can, therefore, be thought of as perhaps the greatest influence on the band ever.
Unfortunately for the Beatle, the amicable relationship between the pair didn’t last forever, and it soured after Lennon attempted to emulate Dylan. The bespectacled singer once highlighted ‘You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away’ as an example of him in his “Dylan period” and added: “It’s one of those that you sing a bit sadly to yourself, ‘Here I stand, head in hand’ I’d started thinking about my own emotions.” Trying to imitate another artist is never the right way to go about your songwriting, though so many do.
Although Lennon never outwardly admitted that ‘Norwegian Wood’ was influenced by Dylan, it was a fair presumption to make by the latter. On Blonde On Blonde track ‘Fourth Time Around’, Dylan responds to Lennon’s infatuation with him by singing, “I never asked for your crutch, Now don’t ask for mine.”
Before the song was released, Dylan played it to Lennon when the two were hanging out in London, which filled him with anxiety. In a 1968 interview with Rolling Stone, the Beatle was asked about his thoughts on the thinly-veiled diss track, and he admitted it left him feeling “very paranoid”.
Lennon explained: “I was very paranoid about that. I remember he played it to me when he was in London. He said, what do you think? I said, I don’t like it. I didn’t like it and I was very paranoid. Just didn’t like what I felt I was feeling – I thought it was an out and out skit, you know, but it wasn’t. It was great. I mean he wasn’t playing any tricks on me. I was just going through the bit.”
In the same interview, Lennon also explained why Dylan had stopped being an influence on his career and said he’s become “bored” by his newer material. He added: “It’s fine, you know. I’m just a bit bored with the backing, that’s all. But he’s right what he’s doing because he usually is. I’ve only heard the ‘Landlord’ album (John Wesley Harding). I haven’t heard the acetate, I keep hearing about it. That’s something else, you know.”
Dylan has never addressed his reason for writing ‘Fourth Time Around’, but if it was to upset Lennon, it was mission accomplished. After the song’s release, his “Dylan period” abruptly ended, which could have been a coincidence, but the chances of that are slim.
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