Five icons who hate Bob Dylan: “Suck a dick”
The genius of Bob Dylan is undoubted. His ability to tell some of the greatest stories of all time, all wrapped within the confines of a song, has led the legendary musician to be essentially deified and culminated in his being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016.
The very fact that the Nobel committee considered Dylan for that title goes to show that his works transcend music altogether and become true poetry and genuine art. Dylan has written some of the best lines in music throughout his astonishing career, which is remarkably still going strong even today.
However, it’s also true that Dylan is not for everyone. For starters, his back catalogue is vast, and it’s often difficult to find where to start; for this reason alone, it can be hard to get into Dylan in the first place. Then there is the music itself, often whiny, sometimes lacking the musical finesse of some of his contemporaries.
While the best of us often find it hard with Dylan, there have also been a number of his fellow musicians and artists who have not only expressed a distaste for Dylan but an outright hatred for him. So from David Crosby to Kurt Vonnegut, let’s point the finger.
Five artists who hate Bob Dylan:
Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell’s music was often compared to Dylan’s in that they were both acoustically driven and featured poignant, perhaps confessional, lyrics. However, Mitchell was utterly frustrated with her name being uttered in the same breath as her contemporary. “We are like night and day, [Dylan] and I,” she once said. “Bob is not authentic at all. He’s a plagiarist, and his name and voice are fake. Everything about Bob is a deception.”
Cruel words, indeed. Mitchell also once claimed that Dylan’s breath stunk but drove her hatred for him home when she said in 2013, “Musically, Dylan’s not very gifted; he’s borrowed his voice from old hillbillies. He’s got a lot of borrowed things. He’s not a great guitar player. He’s invented a character to deliver his songs; it’s a mask of sorts”. Ouch.
While the two would somewhat reconcile over the years, we’d imagine that very few songwriters would get over
David Crosby
It’s fair to say that David Crosby might not have had half the career he did if it were not for Dylan. After all, Dylan set the tone for rock folk throughout the 1960s. Still, that didn’t stop Crosby from expressing his annoyance at Dylan’s standoffish and rude behaviour.
“He doesn’t let you in,” Crosby said. “You’ll say, ‘Bob, where do you live?’ And he’ll say, ‘Well, you’re looking at a man that has no home.’ He’s not an easy guy. To this day, he’s not an easy guy. He doesn’t welcome you in with open arms and show you who Bob is.”
It should be noted that, during his lifetime, Crosby was very happy to badmouth anybody, including many members of his own band. But there’s a good chance that his feelings about Dylan came from a very real place.
Liam Gallagher
Other than the Beatles, who does Liam Gallagher actually like? Well, one thing’s for certain, he is no fan of Dylan’s. Back in 2011, Gallagher, in typical Gallagher style, claimed of Dylan, “He’s a bit of a miserable cunt as far as I’m concerned.”
The Oasis singer did admit to liking ‘Lay Lady Lay’, but stopped short of “going nuts for him” as, admittedly, many Dylan fans are wont to do. “But he doesn’t really do it for me,” Gallagher said. “All those fuckers playing their greatest hits are shitbags.” That final comment makes us wonder how Gallagher might feel about himself should Oasis ever reform.
There’s a theme occurring, and that is one which sees one of the greatest lyricists of all time catch strays from songwriters who dream of being half as god as him.
Chris Frantz
Talking Heads drummer is not a fan of Dylan’s on a personal basis, as there appears to be some serious hangover from Dylan being rather rude to a friend of Frantz. After Dylan released his The Philosophy of Modern Song, Frantz told Dylan to “suck a dick” after claiming that Elvis Costello and the Attractions were better than any of their contemporaries.
Frantz said, “I love Bob Dylan’s new book The Philosophy Of Modern Song, but I have one little bone to pick with the author when he writes ‘Elvis Costello and the Attractions were a better band than any of their contemporaries. Light years better.’ With all due respect to the Attractions and to drummer Pete Thomas in particular, I’d like to say to Bob something he once said to a buddy of mine. ‘Suck a dick’.”
Frantz has a habit of becoming combative with singers; he found it hard to deal with the ego of his own frontman, David Byrne, but it seems this particular gripe comes from being seen as lesser.
Kurt Vonnegut
Yet Dylan did not just wind up his fellow musicians; he also looks to have wound up some of the greatest literary names along the way, too, particularly Slaughterhouse-Five author Kurt Vonnegut. Vonnegut was once asked about his musical taste and had no kind words to say about Dylan.
“I hate rap. The Beatles have made a substantial contribution,” Vonnegut said. “Bob Dylan, however, is the worst poet alive. He can maybe get one good line in a song, and the rest is gibberish.” Stinging words from the novelist there, and perhaps just a touch too vitriolic to say he is the “worst poet” alive. Sure, as shown above, Dylan is not everyone’s cup of tea, but perhaps Vonnegut was showing a shade of jealousy there.
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