The singer Billy Joel said no one can compare to: “He changed everything”
Everyone has their own reasons for adoring a particular artist, and while an unusual vocal style may be off-putting for some, for Billy Joel, it was exactly what turned him on to his idol.
While Joel himself has what most would consider to be a more conventional vocal delivery, using his range as a perfect accompaniment for his gorgeous piano playing and intricate songwriting, what he looks for in other artists is a unique, defining feature that grabs him in an instant and creates a sense of intrigue as to how they managed to develop their signature sound.
A perfect example of this is Bob Dylan, whose nasally wails are the stumbling block for many people being able to fully appreciate his work. Even though the songwriting is of an exemplary standard, a lot of people are turned off by the fact that his definition of a tune is something that he can carry with a lot of conviction, yet very little actual precision.
People often want to hear a beautiful voice, especially when there’s little musical accompaniment to fall back on. With Dylan’s early work mostly consisting of just him, a guitar, and the occasional harmonica, he couldn’t hide the fact that his voice strayed in and out of melodicism, and for a lot of fussier listeners, this wasn’t what they wanted to hear.
However, for Joel, this was what made Dylan such an exciting prospect, because there was nobody else who sounded like him when he first emerged onto the scene in the 1960s, and for the young Joel, it flicked a switch in his brain that made him curious to explore more music of the same ilk.
Speaking in 2016 to SiriusXM, Joel explained how he first came across Dylan, and how he was immediately floored by his singular style, and while he acknowledged that it wasn’t necessarily something that would be for everyone, he realised that the power of his songwriting was what helped him get beyond the initial shock of his vocal rawness, and that he learned to love it in the years after.
“Dylan is just so titanic,” Joel argued. “It’s very hard to compare anything else to Bob Dylan, because he’s iconic. He changed everything, and I remember when I first heard him, I said: ‘What’s with this guy’s voice?’ He was a folk singer, and you’ve got to give folk singers a little bit of leeway when they don’t sing beautifully.”
He continued by giving an anecdote of his first encounter with Dylan’s music: “I went to see him in New York, I think it was the Town Hall or something like that, and he came on stage with the harmonica holder around his neck. I thought, ‘What’s up with that, is it whiplash?’ I had never seen one of those before, and when he started to sing, I was pretty positive he’d been in a car accident.”
While he may have thought of it as an unusual quirk of his style, Joel was able to recognise that Dylan was an unparalleled talent, and someone whose uniqueness would take him a long way in music. It’s safe to say that despite his initial confusion, he couldn’t have been more accurate in his perception.
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