David Crosby felt underwhelmed watching Bob Dylan for the first time: “What’s all the fuss about?”
When Bob Dylan emerged and established a name for himself in the Greenwich Village folk scene, a sense of mystique quickly built around him. At that moment, he was an anomaly on the circuit, but soon enough, musicians from Manhattan to Manchester were inspired by his gift.
Like Dylan, David Crosby had moved to New York to conquer his dreams. The late singer-songwriter was born and raised in California, but it wasn’t the epicentre of the music industry. Therefore, along with his collaborator Terry Callier, Crosby had stints living in Chicago and Greenwich Village. However, unlike Dylan, he didn’t win a recording contract.
Nevertheless, the experience of being around like-minded creatives was a positive one and enhanced his artistry. He was far from the finished article, but the opportunity to perform in coffee houses and immerse himself in a subculture that would change the musical landscape’s fabric was tantalising.
Dylan was at the heart of the musical scene, and Crosby had heard a lot of talk about his talent before he’d even heard a note of music. Therefore, as it was impossible to seek out Dylan’s work outside of a venue, he took it upon himself to sneak into a show and see whether the singer-songwriter lived up to the hype.
At this stage, he only had word-of-mouth buzz to judge Dylan off, but he amended this by watching the singer-songwriter perform one of his now-iconic shows in Greenwich Village. However, Crosby left the performance confused and didn’t understand why Dylan had become the most-talked-about artist.
Crosby later recalled to Rolling Stone: “He was the archetype. He was mysterious. He was extremely fucking good at what he did. When he started out, he was reasonably good-looking. He was completely different from anyone.”
He continued: “I remember the first time I saw him at Gerde’s Folk City, I snuck in because I didn’t have the money to buy a ticket, and I listened to him, and I thought, ‘Well fuck, I can sing better than that. What’s all the fuss about?’ And then, I started listening to the words.”
It wasn’t until Dylan started releasing music and he could appreciate his poetic wisdom that Crosby finally comprehended why he existed in a league of his own. From then on, his appreciation of Dylan was sky-high, and the two became close friends.
Crosby was also impressed by Dylan’s approach to creativity, telling Uncut in 2015: “Dylan used to get up in the morning, straight, cup of coffee, sit down at the typewriter – he had a work ethic, which seems like something crazy to say about him. I mean, talk about crazy as a fruit bat! Bob loves to screw with your mind.”
Crosby’s lukewarm reaction to watching Dylan perform for the first time shows that the best art isn’t always the most immediate, and often, it takes a significant amount of rumination to appreciate the most powerful music.
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