“God-given talent”: Why Bob Dylan considers Neil Young to be peerless
Bob Dylan doesn’t freely give praise. He’s also famous for keeping himself to himself, which makes it difficult for even his most loyal followers to dig deep underneath the mysterious cloak he wears for protection at all times.
Unexpectedly, Dylan recently became a late adopter of social media in his 80s, which has provided him with a platform to speak directly to those who view him as a songwriting genius. His Instagram feed is now a collage of classic performances from the artists he admires most, while he uses X to share his thoughts and feelings while on the road, such as his warm review of watching Nick Cave in Paris.
While Dylan remains tight-lipped when it comes to his personal life, music is still a topic of conversation that he’ll happily have any of the week. In 2022, he even wrote a whole book titled The Modern Philosophy of Song, which allowed him to wax lyrical about the songs that matter most to him over hundreds of pages.
Another musician with a similar obsession towards music is Neil Young, who Dylan has crossed paths with many times over the decades and holds in the highest regard as a lyricist. The pair have a long history together, and Young was seen as the possible heir to Dylan’s throne throughout the early years of his career.
After his departure from Buffalo Springfield, he soon established himself as an artist in his own right and counted Dylan as a fan. While Dylan had a problem with Young’s popular song ‘Heart of Gold’, his issue stemmed from him not writing it first, once telling Spin, “I used to hate it when it came on the radio. I always liked Neil Young, but it bothered me every time I listened to ‘Heart of Gold.’ I think it was up at number one for a long time, and I’d say, ‘Shit, that’s me. If it sounds like me, it should as well be me.”
Vitally, Young was by his side during a pivotal time in Dylan’s career in 1988 when he suffered from a bout of crippling self-doubt. They performed together on the inaugural night of the ‘Never Ending Tour’ at California’s Concord Pavilion. For that alone, Dylan will always be grateful to Young. On his 1997 album, Time Out of Mind, Dylan chose to pay homage to his friend within ‘Highlands’ when he sang, “Well, my heart’s in The Highlands, I can only get there one step at a time, I’m listening to Neil Young, I gotta turn up the sound”.
Speaking to Rolling Stone in 2007, Dylan elaborated on his love of Young: “Neil is very sincere, if nothing else. He’s sincere, and he’s got a God-given talent, with that voice of his, and the melodic strain that runs through absolutely everything he does. He could be at his most thrashy, but it’s still going to be elevated by some melody. Neil’s the only one who does that. There’s nobody in his category.”
Their relationship flows in both ways, and Young has spoken in even greater superlatives about the Greenwich Village alums. “He’s the master,” the singer-songwriter once said when discussing Dylan. “If I’d like to be anyone, it’s him. And he’s a great writer, true to his music and done what he feels is the right thing to do for years and years and years.”
Young added: “The guy has written some of the greatest poetry and put it to music in a way that it touched me, and other people have done that, but not so consistently or as intensely.”
In reality, both Dylan and Young were blessed with God-given gifts for music. However, that doesn’t make them unique. Many others have been born with similar instincts in their DNA yet failed to capitalise upon their potential, which can’t be attributed to these two singer-songwriters who changed music forever.
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