The aspect of Bob Dylan’s music that left David Bowie truly “speechless”
From the onset of his career until the end, David Bowie had a more eclectic taste than most. While this love of sonics in all their forms opened his mind when he was young, it would also underpin all his creative experiments moving forward. It was what allowed him to dip his toes into the creative well and fish out a myriad of gems of different hues.
Whether it be jazz, rock, or the avant-garde, Bowie’s kaleidoscopic list of artistic references was so extensive that although he tried his hardest to keep up with the rock standards of the 1960s, when music became much less linear, and genres started opening up in the early 1970s, he found himself on a much stronger footing. This was the prime time for him to metamorphose from the unknown David Bowie into the one who was at the cutting edge of culture.
After a handful of flops in 1969, Bowie released the astute hit ‘Space Oddity’, a track which tapped into the collective consciousness and its obsession with the space race. This gave him the leg up he had long desired when desperately trying to break into the major leagues and emulate the heights of his British heroes, such as The Beatles and Pink Floyd. Following its success, he hunkered down and honed his work for the new post-1960s era.
The Man Who Sold the World and Hunky Dory then continued pushing him forward at the start of the new decade. Then, his 1972 album, Ziggy Stardust, was released at just the right time. It became a staple of the emergent glam-rock genre, and after this long metamorphosis, David Bowie, the icon, had arrived. Telling the tale of the titular, androgynous and bisexual rock star who is sent to Earth to stop the apocalypse, it not only tapped into space age themes once again but also the era’s fascination with rockstars, with Ziggy suffering a tremendous fall from grace due to his ego. This aspect was inspired by numerous famous figures, including Vince Taylor, but also seemingly referred to significant losses to excess, such as Jim Morrison and others.
It wasn’t just that, either. Drawing upon the proto-punk music of Iggy Pop and The Velvet Underground, the record had a gritty edge, perfect for the dilapidated but happening London it was written in. It was also deeply transgressive, discussing drugs, sex, and politics in a record that was perfect for a counterculture that had shifted with the times.
While that was the start of David Bowie’s illustrious career and has long been deemed as his masterpiece due to it closely mirroring the essence of the era, it was also the start of him so cleverly drawing upon his influences to create an artistic potpourri extracted from his own context. Whether it be Station to Station, Low or Let’s Dance, many classic albums in the coming years would stitch together the influence of his favourite music into something fresh, entirely of his own.
Although Bowie moved through many eras and sounds and drew upon the work of arguably a greater number of musicians than any other, one man whose spirit would constantly crop up in his art was Bob Dylan. After all, ‘The Bard’ was the definitive mouthpiece of his generation, the first to fuse social commentary and black comedy. His gradually surreal wordplay and accomplished music impacted everyone from Bowie to John Lennon.
This stylistic relation to Dylan wasn’t incidental either. Bowie was open about his love of the Duluth legend. Known to heap praise on Dylan’s creative supremity when live, he also said in 1997 that his words were so good they left him “speechless”.
He said: “His albums have a great class to them, even those albums where he is actually playing songs of long-dead blues singers. His writing, his song texts, leave me speechless.“
Whether it was Ziggy Stardust or the poetic swansong that was Blackstar, it’s evident that the David Bowie that fans loved for decades was greatly indebted to the work of Bob Dylan. He formed the foundation of his lyrical prowess. He even wrote a song explicitly dedicated to him.
Never Miss A Tale
The Far Out Bob Dylan Newsletter
All the latest stories about Bob Dylan from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.