Mike Campbell’s favourite Bob Dylan song: “I felt like he was writing directly to me”
In a career that has spanned over 60 years, Bob Dylan is certainly not short of having produced his share of classic songs. From his humble beginnings on The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan to his mid-1970s excursions into a variety of folk and blues-adjacent genres all the way to present masterpieces like Rough and Rowdy Ways, each era of Dylan’s songwriting has developed at least a small handful of songs that highlight the songwriter’s way with words and melody.
Due to the sheer volume of material to choose from, picking a favourite is a near-impossible task that often requires the decider to follow their heart in the moment. There are Dylan songs for every mood and theme: love and heartbreak, war and peace, wealth and destitution. Selecting what the folk raconteur does best all comes down to personal preference. There is no right or wrong answer.
When asked by Stereogum what his favourite song was by Dylan, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell initially agreed that the task in hand was a difficult one, but in an effort to stay true to his feelings, he settled on the 1965 classic ‘Like a Rolling Stone’.
“The song was an epiphany, and I felt like he was writing directly to me and how I felt,” said Campbell. “I’ve never had that experience with any other song before or since.”
This reaction is almost certainly one that others have had to the Highway 61 Revisited cut before and can probably be applied to a wealth of other tracks in his catalogue for other listeners, but Campbell’s honest reflection on the impact the song had on him comes across like a genuine sense of awe.
He went on to reference the importance of Mike Bloomfield on the track and how he diverted from his typical blues playing to better suit Dylan’s lyrical cadence. While Bloomfield himself is responsible for shaping Dylan’s sound during this period in particular, that doesn’t take away the shine from Dylan’s own compositional and lyrical mastery, both of which are reasons why the track is often cited as one of his greatest.
Speaking further on the lyrics, Campbell says how “the character, the sneer, the sarcasm and delivery are so unique and engaging,” emphasising Dylan’s brilliance when it comes to being able to carve a complete story in the space of a few short minutes. Referencing the iconic lyrics from the song’s chorus, he goes on to say how the song “made me feel like I wasn’t alone in my plight, of having no direction home, on my own, like a complete unknown.”
Having helped Tom Petty pen some of his most beloved material, such as ‘Refugee’, and having written Don Henley’s ‘The Boys of Summer’, among others, it comes as high praise indeed to have one renowned songwriter doff his cap to another and speak of how affecting their work was to their own.
Years after hearing the song for the first time, Campbell himself went on a tour with Bob Dylan and performed the song live, which he calls “one of the greatest joys of my life”.
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