The way I think about the blues, comes from what I learned from Big Joe Williams. The blues is more than something to sit home and arrange. What made the real blues singers so great is that they were able to state all the problems they had; but at the same time, they were standing outside of them and could look at them. And in that way, they had them beat. What’s depressing today is that many young singers are trying to get inside the blues, forgetting that those older singers used them to get outside their troubles.
-Bob Dylan (The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan Liner Notes – 1963)
Joseph Lee “Big Joe” Williams (October 16, 1903 – December 17, 1982) was an American Delta blues guitarist, singer and songwriter, notable for the distinctive sound of his nine-string guitar. Performing over four decades, he recorded the songs “Baby Please Don’t Go”, “Crawlin’ King Snake” and “Peach Orchard Mama”, among many others.
Alright! It’s my great honor right now to welcome a man to the stage who needs no introduction at all. One of the great songwriters and performers of the modern day. Ladies and gentlemen — Paul Simon!
-Bob Dylan (July 24, 1999)
Paul Frederic Simon (born October 13, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter and actor. Simon’s musical career has spanned seven decades with his fame and commercial success beginning as half of the duo Simon & Garfunkel (originally known as Tom & Jerry), formed in 1956 with Art Garfunkel. Simon was responsible for writing nearly all of the pair’s songs including three that reached number one on the U.S. singles charts: “The Sound of Silence”, “Mrs. Robinson”, and “Bridge over Troubled Water”.
Prine’s stuff is pure Proustian existentialism. Midwestern mindtrips to the nth degree. And he writes beautiful songs. I remember when Kris Kristofferson first brought him on the scene. All that stuff about Sam Stone the soldier junky daddy and Donald and Lydia, where people make love from ten miles away. Nobody but Prine could write like that. If I had to pick one song of his, it might be Lake Marie. I don’t remember what album that’s on.
-Bob Dylan (to Bill Flanagan in 2009)
John Prine (born October 10, 1946) is an American country folk singer-songwriter. He has been active as a composer, recording artist, and live performer since the early 1970s, and is known for an often humorous style of country music that has elements of protest and social commentary.
Bob [Dylan] was on 60 Minutes a few years ago and he said that there was a time in his life when he was ‘doing magic’, like something was passing through him and he said ‘I could do it then but I can’t do it now, It’s a courageous, brilliant and generous of him to say that and why should you have to do it again. It doesn’t have to be done twice for me. But he could be speaking for everyone when he says, ‘you can do it once, you don’t have to do it again’.
-Jackson Browne (to Ben Walsh (Independent) – November 2015)
Clyde Jackson Browne (born October 9, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter and musician who has sold over 18 million albums in the United States. Coming to prominence in the 1970s, Browne has written and recorded songs such as “These Days“, “The Pretender“, “Running on Empty“, “Lawyers in Love“, “Doctor My Eyes“, “Take It Easy“, “For a Rocker“, and “Somebody’s Baby“. In 2004, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, and given an honorary doctorate of music by Occidental College in Los Angeles, California. In 2015, Rolling Stone ranked him as 37th in its list of the “100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time“.
KL: Do you see any bands of merit on the scene today? What about U2? They’re friends of yours, aren’t they?
Bob Dylan: Yeah, U2 will probably be around years from now. John Cougar Mellencamp, he’ll be around as long as anybody will be.….
-Bob Dylan to Kurt Loder (October 1987)
John J. Mellencamp (born October 7, 1951), previously known as Johnny Cougar, John Cougar, and John Cougar Mellencamp, is an American musician, singer-songwriter, painter, and actor. He is known for his catchy, populist brand of heartland rock, which emphasizes traditional instrumentation.
