The two rare Bob Dylan songs in which he doesn’t sing lyrics
As one of the most influential singular artists of the 20th century, Bob Dylan was undoubtedly blessed with instrumental capabilities, but it was his words that won our hearts. Following an adolescent attachment to 1950s rock ‘n’ roll, Dylan began to favour the more word-dense and expressive realm of folk music. While many folk artists turned Dylan’s head, none quite equalled the life-changing impact of Woody Guthrie.
Dylan’s affection for Guthrie and the wider folk scene led him to New York City in January 1961, following a college dropout and a few run-ins with his father, who urged a prudent, traditional career path.
Having met his hero, Guthrie, who was sadly bed-bound with the debilitating congenital Huntington’s disease, Dylan set about the New York folk circuit. His unique approach to the harmonica drew in the ears early on, but when he emerged from the comfort of covers, Dylan’s fans became entranced by his lyrical prowess.
After his rise to fame and glory as America’s most celebrated protest singer, Dylan looked to shirk this uncomfortable label in search of something novel. In the mid-1960s, he became well acquainted with Allen Ginsberg and duly wove palpable Beat Generation influences into his lyrical structures. This came around the same time Dylan famously irked a gaggle of folk purists by “going electric” at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.
Following Dylan’s most impactful run in the 1960s, he has remained a prolific and relevant artist, never failing to bring us captivating lyrical art. In 2016, in recognition of his deeply poetic service to music, Dylan was honoured with the Nobel Prize in Literature. With this in mind, it isn’t easy to imagine a Dylan song where he doesn’t give his voice to poignant words, but it has happened twice.
Both of these anomalies appear in Dylan’s 1970 album, Self Portrait. Firstly, the album’s opener, ‘All the Tired Horses’, is completely void of any vocals from Dylan. Instead, we hear a female choir repeating the words “All the tired horses in the sun/How am I supposed to get any riding done?” throughout the three-minute track.
Later in the double album comes a track titled ‘Wigwam’. The caveat to this track is that we do hear Dylan’s voice, but rather than singing in his usual style of meaningful and poetic verse, he simply undulates his voice with the brass instrumentals: “La-da-da-di-la’.
Listen to the two rare Bob Dylan tracks below.
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.