The musician Bob Dylan said could “can read anybody’s mind”
Bob Dylan must have been a tricky musician to play with. His way of thinking wasn’t linear, as he learnt early in his career that one of the best things you can do in your career is keep people guessing.
“I don’t believe you.” Arguably, four of the most iconic words in music history were Bob Dylan’s response to a heckler who called him “Judas”. The insult was hurled after Dylan went electric, a move which was revered by many, but that a lot of folk purists couldn’t stand because they felt as though Dylan was turning his back on the genre that made him famous.
When Dylan heard The Byrds play their version of his ‘Mr Tambourine Man’, he realised how good his music sounded when put over a 4/4 beat and given a bit of oomph (I think that’s the technical term). This is what helped him make the decision to go electric, as he wanted to try to replicate this sound himself.
“Bob heard us do it and said, ‘Man, you could dance to this!’” recalled Byrds bassist Chris Hillman, “It really knocked him over and he loved it.”
While a lot of people loathed Bob Dylan’s shift, the majority of people loved it. It ushered in a new age for folk music, one which saw the genre evolve and be adopted by new fans around the world. It was also a turning point for Dylan as an artist, as he learnt how effective it could be if he changed his approach to music every now and then. Arguably, Dylan has remained so relevant throughout the years because of his lack of fear to change his sound.
Dylan’s live shows remained elusive as he was constantly changing up his sound and trying new things. Paul McCartney recalls seeing him play live when he initially made the change to electric. “It was the infamous show where all the folkies thought he’d sold out. How crap is that?” he said, “It was fantastic. First half is folky, and then the second half was electric with The Band – it was the all-time concert.“
The change to electric music was one thing, but as Dylan’s career progressed, he changed his approach to songs to the extent that what he played live were essentially silhouettes of his original recordings, rather than mirror reflections of them. Watching Dylan perform live was something that Leonard Cohen recalled as “strange” but equally wonderful in an abstract and emotive way.
“In this particular case, he had his back to one half of the audience and was playing the organ, beautifully, I might say, and just running through the songs,” he said. “Some were hard to recognize. But nobody cared. That’s not what they were there for and not what I was there for […] Something else was going on, which was a celebration of some kind of genius that is so apparent and so clear and has touched people so deeply that all they need is some kind of symbolic unfolding of the event.”
Dylan kept his audiences guessing throughout his career thanks to his willingness to change his style, and while listeners might have enjoyed the anticipation, it was often hard for the musicians playing with him to keep up. Realistically, he didn’t just need session musicians; he needed artists who were able to read his mind, understand the kind of style that he was going for and fully run with it. That’s exactly what he got with Charlie Sexton, a guitarist he worked with frequently and whom he described as both versatile and a practicing psychic.
“As far a Charlie goes, he can read anybody’s mind,” said Dylan, “[He] creates songs and sings them as well, and he can play guitar to beat the band […] Charlie is good on all the songs. He’s not a show-off guitar player, although he can do that if he wants. He’s very restrained in his playing but can be explosive when he wants to be. It’s a classic style of playing. Very old school. He inhabits a song rather than attacking it. He’s always done that with me.”
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