The one musician Neil Young called “the master”
Neil Young has witnessed immense change in the music industry since he established himself as a singer-songwriter in the 1960s. Many different artists and trends have risen to prominence before disappearing over that time, but Young has been an immovable force throughout it all.
Young has never chased fame or popularity. Instead, he’s stayed true to his artistic instincts at every juncture, which continues to serve him well. Although the singer-songwriter has made plentiful mistakes along the way, there’s no album that he regrets making, even if it has aged like milk. Nevertheless, Young understands it was the right creative decision at the time.
As a result of this admirable approach that Young has consistently adopted, he’s left an indelible mark on music, similar to Bob Dylan. When the Canadian first broke free from the shackles of Buffalo Springfield to launch a solo career, he later found himself anointed as Dylan’s impossible successor.
Although they share many attributes and a stubborn attitude, they are very different breeds of singer-songwriters. While Young could have tried to replicate Dylan, he instead expressed himself freely and created a unique space of his own within the musical landscape.
That being said, Young admires Dylan greatly. Even though he’s never set out to follow in his footsteps directly, he views him as a giant of songwriting and acknowledges the significant impact his work has had on music.
When Dylan arrived in Greenwich Village in the early 1960s, he was an unknown quantity, yet, in a few short years, everybody knew his name and the depth of his talents. Dylan showed that a new way of songwriting was possible, which led to him being heralded as the voice of a generation.
Furthermore, Dylan consistently developed as a songwriter and made brave artistic moves that prevented him from being pigeonholed into a single lane. Similarly to Young’s career, not all of his endeavours have connected with the public, and the 1980s marked a low point for Dylan.
At this stage, many people had written Dylan off as yesterday’s news following a series of ill-fated projects, which led to his stock reaching a new low. However, Young never lost faith in the singer-songwriter and joined him for a run of dates in 1988 as Dylan looked to get his career back on track.
In the mind of Young, Dylan is the one artist that he admires most. During a conversation with Time in 2005, he said of his peer: “He’s the master. 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 then highlighted Dylan’s longevity as the primary reason why he views him as the master, explaining, “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.”
Meanwhile, Dylan has talked in equally favourable terms about Young and once claimed he exists in a league of his own. Speaking to Rolling Stone in 2007, the singer-songwriter positively remarked: “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 continued: “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.”
Young and Dylan have been authentic at every step of their career, making them stand out from the rest of the pack. They may have developed different sounds, but Young’s maverick intuitions make him the closest there has ever been to an heir of Dylan.
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