“I love Bruce like a brother. He’s a powerful performer, unlike anybody. I care about him deeply.”
– Bob Dylan
“The first time that I heard Bob Dylan I was in the car with my mother, and we were listening to, I think, maybe WMCA, and on came that snare shot that sounded like somebody kicked open the door to your mind, from ‘Like a Rolling Stone.'”
– Bruce Springsteen
Bootleg that collected some of Springsteen’s Dylan interpretations
Bruce Springsteen was once called the “New Dylan” back in the early 1970’s. Springsteen escaped that tag to become a major rock star in his own right. Bob Dylan has been a major influence (among several others) and Springsteen has sung many of his songs. I have picked some of them for this post.
Bruce Springsteen inducts Bob Dylan into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the 1988 Hall of Fame Inductions.
Elvis Costello once did a three-night solo acoustic support opening for Bob Dylan in March 1995 at Brixton Academy, London, England. And there is a quite good bootleg from those sets. Elvis is clearly a Dylan fan and has played his songs on several occasions.
He is also part of that new project; Elvis Costello, Marcus Mumford, T Bone Burnett and My Morning Jacket’s Jim James is working on unfinished “Dylan album”. The collective are composing music to Dylan’s original lyrics, written around the time of his late-60s Basement Tapes. It is kind of in the same vein as Billy Bragg and Wilco’s Mermaid Avenue albums.
Rodney Crowell plays Bob Dylan – Happy Birthday Mr. Crowell!
Rodney Crowell (born August 7, 1950) is an American musician, known primarily for his work as a singer and songwriter in country music. Crowell has had five number one singles on Hot Country Songs, all from his 1988 album Diamonds & Dirt. He has also written songs and produced for other artists. He was influenced by songwriters Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt. Crowell played guitar and sang for three years in Emmylou Harris’ “Hot Band”.
He is one of my favourite artists, no matter what genre we’re talking about. I saw him with Emmylou Harris a few weeks ago, one of the best concerts I’ve seen this year! He doesn’t get the recognition he deserves, he is one of the finest songwriters around today.
From his album, The Outsider (2005) with Emmylou, Shelter from the storm:
)