The Truth Behind the Alleged “One-Sided” Relationship Between John Lennon and Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan had a big creative impact on John Lennon, particularly after The Beatles got to hear The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan for the first time in 1963. Lennon and Paul McCartney realized that pop music could be so much more than what was being manufactured at the time. Folk and poetry had their places in pop, and that notion led them to do a bit of creative soul-searching.
The result of that influence was “I’m A Loser” from the 1964 album Beatles For Sale, which was primarily written by Lennon.
“Instead of projecting myself into a situation, I would try to express what I felt about myself,” said Lennon of the writing process for the song. “I think it was [Bob] Dylan who helped me realize that.”
But was the relationship that one-sided? There’s some (tepid) evidence to support that Dylan was as influenced by The Beatles as Lennon was influenced by him. However, Dylan’s response to Lennon’s admiration of him wasn’t exactly… great. He would go on to write “Fourth Time Around” as a response to Lennon’s “Norwegian Wood”, and it was more or less an attempt to make fun of the Beatle.
Bob Dylan had a big creative impact on John Lennon, particularly after The Beatles got to hear The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan for the first time in 1963. Lennon and Paul McCartney realized that pop music could be so much more than what was being manufactured at the time. Folk and poetry had their places in pop, and that notion led them to do a bit of creative soul-searching.
The result of that influence was “I’m A Loser” from the 1964 album Beatles For Sale, which was primarily written by Lennon.
“Instead of projecting myself into a situation, I would try to express what I felt about myself,” said Lennon of the writing process for the song. “I think it was [Bob] Dylan who helped me realize that.”
Source: americansongwriter.com/Em Casalena
