The Bob Dylan album MJ Lenderman has listened to the most: “It always gets me”
Bob Dylan has had a weird old career. One minute, he’s one of the most mysterious, legendary figures in rock history. The one true poet to ever sling on a Stratocaster. Who did for pop music what Jean-Luc Godard did for cinema. The next, he’s that boomer with the voice of a Dalek.
One might think that’s just how longevity works. That one is never in vogue all the time, especially after half a century in the spotlight, but for Bob, it’s kind of always been the case. Even in his 1960s pomp, he slid in and out of fashion more regularly than a centre parting, always beating his own drum.
To many musicians of the moment, this makes him something of a kindred spirit. It’s probably why Dylan’s currently enjoying one of his most prolonged periods of coolness in a good long while. After all, you don’t get a musician as on the pulse as MJ Lenderman singing not just your praises, but your actual lyrics for nothing! Lenderman’s 2023 single ‘Knockin’’ quotes the Freewheelin’ one’s ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door’ by name, and his track ‘Rudolph’ finds him pondering “How many roads must a man walk down” in a very familiar way.
In an interview with this very website, Lenderman talked through his favourite Dylan records. In true hipster style, ignored yer Highway 61s and yer Blonde on Blondes for one that, sing it with me now, “you probably haven’t heard of before”. Saving his praise for 1974’s lesser spotted ‘Planet Waves’, probably most notable for having not one but two versions of one of Dylan’s finest moments, ‘Forever Young’. Ever the contrarian, though, Lenderman came to it the opposite way to most, telling Far Out, “That CD was in the car one day, and I found out it was The Band playing with Dylan on that record.”
It’s true. Lenderman was a huge fan of The Band before he ever delved deep into the Bobfather’s work. However, if you are into the work of the most American-Canadians since Joni Mitchell, you’ll find plenty to love on Planet Waves. Spontaneous and loose without ever feeling sloppy, you can hear the tendrils of Robertson and co’s influence all over Lenderman’s work, even in his time as guitarist for fellow country rockers Wednesday.
However, he soon found himself taken by Dylan’s songwriting, as all people in music must at some point. Operating as the rite of passage it seemingly is. There are some choice cuts on Planet Waves, the aforementioned ‘Forever Young’, ‘Dirge’, ‘On A Night Like This’, but one stuck out particularly for Lenderman. Namely, the mournful roots howl of ‘Going, Going, Gone,’ which operates as the set-up for the emotional gut punch of the following year’s Blood on the Tracks. Of the tune, Lenderman said, “I think the melody is just so emotional, it always gets me.”
Maybe that’s the key to it. In the end, there’s no great secret to longevity. Just trust in your craft. Yes, there will be times when admitting to liking your music will be like admitting to liking brussels sprouts before Christmas. Younger generations will always surprise you, though, and if the craft’s there, like it is on Planet Waves, the right people will always find it and do something amazing with it.
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