“The best ballad singer” ever, according to Bob Dylan
Aside from The Beatles, the most vital modern musician of the modern era has to be Bob Dylan. It is simply undeniable, the great troubador’s songs are worthy enough to earn him the title, but when you recognise his cultural impact, it is impossible to deny.
In his time, the Duluth native has embarked on a sonic odyssey like no other. Having started his career as a protest songwriter of era-defining proportions before continuing to develop his craft, Dylan explored everything from gospel to hard rock, with the music supported by a poetic skill as distinctive as they comes.
Whether it be The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, Bringing It All Back Home, Blonde on Blonde, or Blood on the Tracks, the highlights of Dylan’s career are numerous, with his oeuvre marked out by the consistent level of quality it has. Despite having a couple of well-known artistic flubs, the songwriter has managed to keep going and produce art of genuine value, even now well into old age.
Take his 2020 single, ‘Murder Most Foul’, for instance. The song is undoubtedly one of the most impactful numbers he’s ever released, with Dylan taking listeners on a trip down memory lane, touching on many historic moments of popular culture, including the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. He also references many songs, including those by himself, Tom Jones, Jimi Hendrix, and even Arcade Fire.
A brilliant track in many ways, it was also a reminder that, before all else, Dylan is a lover of great music in all its forms. It says everything that, throughout his career, the American musician has continued to surprise fans by outlining his fandom of everyone from Pink Floyd to Britpop staples, Stereophonics.
But it speaks to one of Dylan’s artistic blind spots that some of his most beloved artists share a similarly soulful voice. While Dylan’s prowess as a songwriter is hard to deny, he has rarely been seen as a gifted singer. But when asked for a selection of his favourite performers, he was keen to shed light on one singer in particular.
Owing to a lifetime in the music industry and a natural predilection for good music, Dylan knows his stuff. For this reason, he has been asked many times to provide his opinion on various subjects. When speaking to The Telegraph in 2016, he listed his 25 musical heroes, and amongst them were a range of familiar faces, as well as more niche ones for people outside of Dylan’s generations.
In this interview, Dylan outlined his love for the Irish folk group, The Clancy Brothers, who were most popular in the 1960s. Active from 1956 to 1998, the band were so successful in their area that they are credited with popularising traditional Irish music in America and revitalising it in their home country, which prompted a boom that spawned the likes of The Dubliners and The Wolfe Tones.
The Clancy Brothers made such an impact on Bob Dylan that he told The Telegraph that one of the band members, Liam Clancy, was “the best ballad singer I ever heard in my life”. Dylan also left his mark on the Irish group, too. In his 2002 autobiography, Memoirs of an Irish Troubador, Liam Clancy recalled that Dylan was a restless youth who seemed to appear everywhere they played. Despite constantly following them around, they liked him, so they didn’t mind.
Listen to The Clancy Brothers in action below.
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