The writer Bob Dylan claimed could write anything: “He could just remember”
While plenty of people extol the virtues of Bob Dylan as a songwriter, it’s always been evident that there’s far more to the man than just his ability to pen a good tune.
Yes, he may have over 40 studio albums to his name throughout a sprawling back catalogue, and has had his songs covered by other artists who constantly praise him for his songwriting talents, there are other aspects to his work that cannot be ignored for how much of a part they play in defining Dylan as an artist.
In addition to being a songwriter, Dylan is a poet and a storyteller, and the fact that in addition to all of the musical accolades he’s received throughout his career, he’s also earned a Pulitzer Prize and Nobel Prize in Literature, tells you a lot more about the man than the simple fact that he’s written and recorded several acclaimed albums during an enduring career.
This ability to weave narratives into his work has been evident from the earliest stages of his career on early ‘60s releases such as The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan and Another Side of Bob Dylan, but it’s continued throughout his career with the same degree of fortitude, with newer albums such as Rough and Rowdy Ways also carrying a similar sense of storytelling mastery. This isn’t something that will ever leave Dylan; it’s simply an innate ability that he will be able to channel for the rest of his life.
However, despite his work having spanned several decades and not dwindling in quality, it’s still his earliest work that receives the most plaudits to this day. Not only was it a fruitful period for Dylan creatively, but it was an era in which a new vanguard of great American authors was beginning to emerge. While Dylan was, of course, predominantly writing in song form, plenty of the great writers from this period were the sort of figures with whom parallels can be drawn between their work and that of his songwriting.
As much as he was largely informed by the classic folk artists of the decades prior, it was in writers like Allen Ginsberg, William S Burroughs and Jack Kerouac that Dylan found a great deal of his songwriting influence, with their importance to the Beat Generation guiding his songwriting style in a particular direction. It was an exciting time for the development of fiction writing, and Dylan was acutely aware of how significant it was, even at the time.
In a later interview conducted in 1985, Dylan reflected on the writers of this period and their special ability to recall and depict certain events as though they were happening in front of them. “A lot of people have written about the ’60s in an exciting way and have told the truth,” he revealed. “The singers were just a part of it. I can’t tell them that much. Certain things I can remember very clearly. Others are a kinda blur, but where I was and what was happening I can focus in on if I’m forced to.”
Specifically, he would then go on to refer to two writers in particular who possessed this incredible talent. “Of course, there are people who can remember in vivid detail,” he proclaimed. “Ginsberg has that talent and Kerouac had that talent to a great degree. Kerouac never forgot anything, so he could write anything because he could just remember.”
While Dylan’s storytelling may have been greatly influenced by the works of Ginsberg and Kerouac, he realises that in a short space of time such as in a song, you’re limited as to how much of a story you’re able to dive into. However, with these two exceptional writers, he couldn’t help but admire their ability to flesh out a story and tell it in such vivid detail.
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