The Beatle who made Bob Dylan leave the room: ““He’s about the only one that I am in awe of”
Giants in their respective genres around the same time, The Beatles and Bob Dylan were bound to cross paths. Their first meeting has become a well-told tale, as the folk legend introduced the Fab Four to marijuana, prompting an obsession not only with the drug but with the songwriting prowess of Dylan.
While the Liverpudlian band were open about their admiration for the songwriter, often crediting him as having a huge impact on their musical style, Dylan was less expressive about his respect for the Beatles. He certainly was a fan of the band, and his love for George Harrison even spawned a classic collaboration, but he sometimes preferred to keep his compliments to himself.
Their influence on one another ultimately ran both ways. While The Beatles absorbed Dylan’s lyrical sophistication during the mid-1960s, Dylan also embraced the possibilities of electric rock, creating a creative exchange that helped redefine the direction of popular music and blurred the boundaries between folk and rock.
Though he definitely held some admiration for his rock and roll peers, as he has since been more willing to admit, Dylan reportedly couldn’t stay in the same room as Paul McCartney when he was playing. As Pennebaker recalled in The Ballad of Bob Dylan: A Portrait, he had formed a mutual respect with his songwriting partner John Lennon but struggled to get behind McCartney initially.
“John just loved him,” Pennebaker recalled, “And vice versa. They adored each other. And the rest of the Beatles? Paul would come in and play something and Dylan would get up and walk out of the room.” It’s a bold move, one that only Dylan could get away with, but the beloved songwriter has since become more appreciative of McCartney’s musical talents.
Dylan is no longer prompted to leave the room when he hears McCartney’s music; rather, he is in amazement of it, as he more recently shared with Rolling Stone. “I’m in awe of Paul McCartney,” he declared, “He’s about the only one that I am in awe of. But I’m in awe of him.”
Dylan’s change in attitude also reflected the sheer consistency of McCartney’s career. Rather than admiring a single song or album, he praised the Beatle’s seemingly endless ability to produce memorable melodies across multiple decades, something few songwriters have managed at such a high level.
It’s a stark contrast to his earlier actions, marking McCartney out as one of few artists to stun him. He seems particularly impressed by the longevity of the Beatle’s talent, enthusing, “He can do it all and he’s never let up, you know. He’s got the gift for melody, he’s got the rhythm. He can play any instrument. He can scream and shout as good as anybody and he can sing the ballad as good as anybody…”
It’s an opinion that most people are more willing to share, as McCartney is widely considered to be one of the greatest songwriters of all time, but it’s still a funny image to picture Dylan leaving the room as he sits down at the piano.
Whether Pennebaker’s recollection reflected artistic rivalry, personal taste or simply Dylan’s famously unpredictable personality, it makes his later praise all the more striking. For one of songwriting’s greatest iconoclasts to admit he was “in awe” of McCartney carries enormous weight, serving as a reminder that even musical giants occasionally find themselves admiring another’s gifts from the sidelines.
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