The fateful first words Bob Dylan ever said on stage in New York
If many moments in music hadn’t happened, the current musical landscape wouldn’t look all that different. A lot of ideas don’t change music; they contribute towards it, sure, but they don’t definitively transform it. That being said, some moments do alter music forever, and if they didn’t happen, then the way music looks and sounds today would likely be very different. These instances include John Lennon and Paul McCartney meeting one another, Sugarhill Gang getting a top 40 single, and Bob Dylan taking to the stage for the first time.
Bob Dylan’s influence on music doesn’t just start and stop at the kind of music he made. Bob Dylan is an icon in the world of sound, style and life in general. He didn’t just give people new music they could listen to; he gave them a different idea of what music could achieve.
A lot of people see pursuing a career in music as a risky move. There is no guarantee of success, and even successful people struggle a lot of the time as they need to continue creating exciting sounds, living on the road and having no guarantee that those who are fans will continue to do so. All logic had left Bob Dylan’s head when he decided to pursue becoming a musician, though, and instead, all that drove him was one man, his idol in every sense of the word: Woody Guthrie.
Woody Guthrie was a singer and songwriter from America who embodied the kind of style of music that Dylan would go on to champion. His sound was inherently folk, and he wasn’t afraid to talk about American socialism and the American way of life throughout. It’s no surprise that Dylan was a huge fan of Guthrie. In fact, he loved his music so much that he pursued his own sound because of it.
One night, on a cold evening in January, Dylan decided to drop out of college to follow in his hero’s footsteps. This meant leaving Minnesota and hopping on the next bus to New York. When he eventually arrived, he found a bar doing an open mic night, so he decided to give it a go. Little did those in the bar that night know they were about to watch someone who would be responsible for changing the shape of music forever.
When he went on stage for the first time, he walked up to the mic, guitar over his shoulder, and said, “[I’ve] been travellin’ the country, followin’ in Woody Guthrie’s footsteps.” Dylan had a clear idol in his mind when he started making music, so it only makes sense that he should mention that idol the minute he took to the stage.
Dylan eventually got to perform for Guthrie. Guthrie wasn’t well at the time as his health had deteriorated massively thanks to Huntington’s disease, but he never lost his sense of humour. When Dylan had finished, Guthrie handed him a card that read, “I ain’t dead yet.”
It’s always a good thing when an artist isn’t afraid to acknowledge their influences, as without them, that musician wouldn’t have gone down the path they went down. Dylan was always happy to tell the world his love of Guthrie, not only on stage, but he also wrote the track ‘Song to Woody’, which went on his debut album. Those first words on stage reflected what had brought Dylan to that moment, and the rest is history.
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