The artist Bob Dylan said got more out of his song than he ever could: “I would have never”
Some artists use incredibly complex chord structures and melodies to create songs that sound entirely unique. Then, you have other artists who take the first chords most people ever learn on guitar and use them to create something deeply personal and unique that nobody else could ever replicate. Bob Dylan and The Beatles are prime examples of these kinds of artists.
When Graham Nash was talking about The Beatles song ‘A Day In The Life’, he touched upon how groundbreaking the band were in their exploration of different sounds using standard chord structures. “Their incredible simplicity and their incredible melodic structure is stunning to this day,” he said, “With all due respect, within this western scale of music, there’s what? Twelve notes? Are you kidding me? The Beatles were unbelievable, and I think we all knew it.”
Bob Dylan was similar in this sense. His songs are considered timeless and, to this day, are talked about as classics because of how much the rhythm and melody that he writes resonate with people. However, if you break these songs down technically, Bob Dylan isn’t reinventing the wheel; the chords he uses and the ways he plays are all pretty standard.
It was his words and the way he sang them that really stood out to people. If you pair amazing lyrics with relatively simple chords, it won’t be a surprise to hear that many different people are keen on covering your music. Bob Dylan remains one of the most covered artists in the world, with people from different genres chipping in and adding their spin to his songs.
Of course, Bob Dylan remains notoriously hard to please, which means there are a lot of his covers that he doesn’t like. This could be because of the fact that the people playing them don’t do the song justice, or he doesn’t see any truth behind the song being sung.
Alternatively, many people have sung his songs and done Dylan proud, as they show him inflexions, rhythm, and melody that he might not have initially thought of himself. This happened when Billy Joel covered his song ‘Make You Feel My Love’, which Dylan was particularly impressed with.
“ Billy Joel’s a very dynamic artist and he can hear things in a song because he’s also a songwriter,” said Dylan, “He managed to probably convey that song in a different way than me. Nevertheless, he got something out of that song I would have never dreamed of myself. That’s what happens when you write a song, somebody can definitely interpret it a different way than the person who wrote it.”
Dylan’s right; if there is one thing that can be said about Billy Joel, he’s an exceptional songwriter. As such, when he listens to a song, he doesn’t just hear it but develops an understanding of it and can use that understanding to bring out other aspects in a track that otherwise might have remained hidden. This is the power of a great songwriter covering the work of an equally exceptional songwriter.
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