Three songs that were written to mock Bob Dylan
There hasn’t been any classic rock star whose words have been picked apart more than Bob Dylan. Throughout his career, Mr Zimmerman’s way with a pen has been looked over as if it’s historical history, from his countless protest songs to his story-driven songs interpreted by fellow legends like Jimi Hendrix. For all of the great music that Dylan has made, though, there are just as many detractors looking to take a few swipes at him.
As Dylan inspired millions with his cutthroat approach to songwriting, John Lennon paid close attention throughout his career, often using Dylan as the main inspiration behind Beatles classics like ‘You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away’. Once he and Dylan became friends, Lennon would occasionally find himself taking swipes at the rockstar poet.
After Dylan made a pass at Lennon by knicking the chord progression of ‘Norwegian Wood’ for ‘4th Time Around’, Lennon lobbed the ball back at various times during his solo career. As Dylan spiritually awakened and embraced Christianity on albums like Slow Train Coming, his song ‘Gotta Serve Somebody’ was met with Lennon’s ‘Serve Yourself’, meant as a cheeky retort to Dylan’s faith.
Even though Dylan had the admiration of plenty of rock lyricists, one of his contemporaries in the New York folk scene was at the other end of the spectrum. Whereas Dylan could come off as witty, Paul Simon always came off as sincere when writing songs as part of Simon and Garfunkel. Between their hits like ‘The Sound of Silence’, Simon made a rip of Dylan on ‘A Simple Desultory Philippic’.
Aside from the hilarity of the title, Simon takes on every Dylan mannerism he can think of, from the nasal drawl in his voice to talking about how cool he is because he listens to the hot new rock artists that are about to change the world. There are even a few bits of social commentary, with Simon using the pastiche to criticise people who claim to be well-read despite only paying attention to acts like Dylan instead of his predecessors like Dylan Thomas.
As Dylan fought off the millions of artists trying to knick his style in the ‘60s, things began to dissipate once the ‘70s came to pass, with Dylan taking a leave of absence from the spotlight for a while. That didn’t mean that songs “inspired” by him didn’t go away. As Gerry Rafferty was making his first stabs at songwriting with Stealers Wheel, their first hit ‘Stuck in the Middle With You’ is one of the more obvious Dylan riffs ever made.
Featuring a smooth acoustic guitar, the vocals are as esoteric as Dylan haters claimed them to be, talking about elements as simple as wondering how he gets down the stairs and evoking characters like The Joker just like Dylan did on ‘All Along the Watchtower’. While most artists tried their best to have their own Dylan songs, Dylan himself was already progressing.
For the next few years, Dylan constantly switched up his lyrical style, getting introspective on songs like ‘Tangled Up in Blue’ and trying to give his audience a new view of him with every word that fell out of his mouth. As much as Dylan’s acolytes might have wanted his success, they forgot the one lesson at the heart of every Dylan song. Though his style might be easy to mimic, what audiences come to Dylan records for is a reflection of the person behind the song.
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