The songs Bob Dylan leaned on for his biggest hits
Few artists have possessed such pure artistry as Bob Dylan, whose career as a singer-songwriter has led him to be considered one of music’s guiding lights and most important voices. Emerging in the folk revival of the 1960s, Dylan became a key figure in the Greenwich Village scene, releasing his self-titled debut album in 1962.
It didn’t take long for Dylan to gain widespread attention, thanks to his distinctive voice and poignant lyricism. He was significantly inspired by Woody Guthrie, relocating to New York in 1961 to visit his musical hero, who was dying in the hospital.
His influence was so profound that Dylan wrote his first song as a tribute to Guthrie, ‘Song to Woody’. He explained: “I just wanted a song to sing, and there came a certain point where I couldn’t sing anything, I had to write what I wanted to sing because what I wanted to sing nobody else was writing, I couldn’t find that song someplace. If I could’ve, I probably wouldn’t have ever started writing.”
However, Dylan needed a little help when composing his first song, so he looked to Guthrie’s ‘1913 Massacre’ for inspiration. Released in 1944, it takes the form of a protest song about a miner’s strike. Dylan used the song’s melody as the basis for his own track. Additionally, he paraphrased the line “we come with the dust and we go with the wind” from Guthrie’s ‘Pastures of Plenty’, which is reflected in the line “that come with the dust and are gone with the wind”.
Dylan also looked to the folk standard ‘Scarborough Fair’, which was eventually made popular by Simon and Garfunkel. The track has its roots in a traditional folk piece called ‘The Elfin Knight’, from the 1600s. For Dylan, a trip to England opened his eyes (and ears) to a new collection of traditional songs, and ‘Scarborough Fair’ subsequently informed two of his original compositions – ‘Girl From the North Country’ and ‘Boots of Spanish Leather’. Besides using the song as structural and melodic inspiration, the former also borrows the lyric, “Remember me to one who lives there, she once was a true love of mine”.
However, Dylan didn’t limit his influences to other country and folk artists. He also admired rock and roll artists like Gene Vincent, a rockabilly pioneer, taking inspiration from his song ‘Baby Blue’ when writing his iconic 1965 song, ‘It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue’. Referring to Vincent’s 1958 track, Dylan said, “I had carried that song around in my head for a long time, and I remember that when I was writing it, I’d remembered a Gene Vincent song. It had always been one of my favourites. […] It was one of the songs I used to sing back in high school. Of course, I was singing about a different Baby Blue.”
Additionally, another one of Dylan’s most well-known songs, ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’, was shaped by the sound of Chuck Berry’s ‘Too Much Monkey Business’, released in 1956 before appearing on his record After School Session. Dylan has also cited scat songs from the 1940s as a source of inspiration for the popular Bringing It All Back Home cut.
Thus, it’s clear that Dylan’s work wouldn’t have taken the form it has if not for the influence of other artists and traditional folk songs. Following the folk tradition of passing down songs and placing them in a constantly evolving cycle, Dylan’s work bears a rich history that also possesses great individuality.
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