The 16 artists Bob Dylan thinks everyone should listen to
Bob Dylan receiving praise for his unrivalled contributions to music is commonplace, but his granting his seal of approval, in return, is another story.
Certainly, the songwriting tradition alone would not stand as it does without the influence of Dylan’s vast songbook, and every musician to follow in his wake, whether they be another folk singer or coming from another genre entirely, would, in some way, be impacted by the way that he writes.
For the last six decades, Dylan has continued to reassert his stature as one of music’s greatest singer-songwriters, his work synonymous with the cultural times. Standing in a league of his own, it would not be surprising to think that he would not give much thought to the music of today, but in fact, he has some select favourites that resonate among the overwhelm of popular music today.
Speaking with The Wall Street Journal in 2022 (then 81 years old), Dylan expanded on how ‘new’ music (from new artists, or new to him) finds him, rather than him seeking it out, “mostly by accident, by chance”.
He added, “If I go looking for something, I usually don’t find it. In fact, I never find it. I walk into things intuitively when I’m most likely not looking for anything… Performers and songwriters recommend things to me. Others, I just wake up, and they’re there.”
“The Oasis brothers,” as Dylan referred to Liam and Noel Gallagher, are the first on his list: “I like them both,” he asserted. He also noted the artists that he has ventured to see live: he saw Metallica twice, and “made special efforts” to watch Jack White and Alex Turner in concert, as well. Finally, he named Zach Deputy, a multi-instrumentalist and songwriter from Savannah, Georgia. “I’ve discovered him lately. He’s a one-man show like Ed Sheeran,” Dylan described, “but he sits down when he plays”.
He then presented a list of favourites, ranging from the rock duo Royal Blood to Eminem, “Anybody with a feeling for words and language,” he enthused, “Anybody whose vision parallels mine”.
The one modern song that Dylan expands on is something of a surprising pick: Duff McKagan’s ‘Chip Away’, from his 2019 solo album, Tenderness. He described the song as having “profound meaning for me. It’s a graphic song. Chip away, chip away, like Michelangelo, breaking up solid marble stone to discover the form of King David inside. He didn’t build him from the ground up; he chipped away the stone until he discovered the king.”
Dylan likened McKagan’s story to his own, admitting, “I overwrite something, then I chip away lines and phrases until I get to the real thing”, and acknowledging the production stylings of Shooter Jennings, he surmised, “It’s a great song”. The legend’s praise was met with shock from McKagan, who heard about Dylan’s comments through text messages from friends, including Axl Rose.
“I was a little stunned because…Bob Dylan?!” McKagan told Classic Rock, “I don’t know him, so for me to be recognised by him as a songwriter was great. I’m still a little blown away”. As a ‘thank you’, he sent Dylan a deluxe edition of the Tenderness album with a handwritten note that read, “Thank you very much for your kind words, here’s my record. And if you ever want to write a song together…”
Spanning across genres and time, Dylan’s selected favourites signal a constant curiosity for the music of today, finding niches of songwriting and sound that, in his words, shared a common vision with his own. After all, had Dylan not idolised musicians, himself, he would not have become the singer-songwriter we revere him as today. See the full list of Dylan’s favourites below.
Bob Dylan’s 16 favourite artists that you should listen to:
- Oasis
- Julian Casablancas
- The Klaxons
- Grace Potter
- Metallica
- Jack White
- Alex Turner
- Zach Deputy
- Royal Blood
- Celeste
- Rag and Bone Man
- Wu-Tang
- Eminem
- Nick Cave
- Leonard Cohen
- Duff McKagan
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