The Bob Dylan song that inspired Sinéad O’Connor to write
Any singer-songwriter looking to expand their craft can ask Bob Dylan for guidance. From his time shaping rock and roll in the 1960s to turning inward throughout his run in the 1970s, Dylan may be one of the few songwriters who could claim to have done it all, making songs that are indebted to the sounds of American songwriters before him while commenting on the world around him. Although his political statements might strike a nerve, Dylan always saved his hardest-hitting songs for the deep cuts.
Then again, there are many more faces to Bob Dylan than what meets the eye. Throughout every facet of his career, Dylan almost had as many career shifts during his time as David Bowie did, often toying with his audience by releasing music that was much different than anything he had written before.
Starting in the folk tradition, Dylan was initially intrigued by the sounds of artists like Woody Guthrie, looking to expand upon the sounds of American songwriting. Once the rock revolution was underway, though, Dylan wanted to see if he could beat the rockers at their own game, coming up with songs like ‘Like a Rolling Stone’, which stopped everyone dead in their tracks when they heard it.
While the 1960s saw Dylan take a hatchet to his ego on the album Self Portrait, it would be a precursor to the open-hearted songs he would write later. After a lengthy divorce from his wife Sara, Dylan channelled all of his feelings into the album Blood on the Tracks, which would become home to future classics like ‘Buckets of Rain’ and ‘Tangled Up in Blue’.
Although Dylan lays into himself most of the time, ‘Idiot Wind’ is one of the most cutthroat songs he had ever written. Spreading out over nearly eight minutes, Dylan lets out all of his aggression at his former lover, building to the line where he wonders if she even knows how to breathe without him.
Even though there’s a lot of anger in the delivery, Dylan is just as hurt in this song as anyone else, eventually turning the song back on himself, wondering if he was the idiot in the scenario. Although the song may not have had a shot at becoming a mainstream hit, a young songwriter was paying close attention to Dylan’s heartache.
When talking about the song later, Sinéad O’Connor talked about how much the song resonated with her, saying, “Bob Dylan gave me permission to be angry because of his song ‘Idiot Wind.’ None of us would like to be the person he’s talking to [in the song]. That’s why I love Bob Dylan. He’s utterly honest. He can be real f–king nasty”.
While O’Connor may have gone down a much different road creatively than what Dylan touched, it’s easy to see how the song rubbed off on her. Even on her trademark hit ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’, O’Connor is unashamed in how frustrated she is with her former lover, even if that frustration is being channelled through sorrow. More angry songs were to follow from O’Connor, but Dylan’s way with words has still resonated with anyone who has ever felt emotionally cheated.
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