Dylan on The Beatles

The first meeting between The Beatles and Bob Dylan took place in a room at the Delmonico Hotel in New York on Friday, 28 August 1964.

At this point, The Beatles were the hottest property in the world. Their record sales dwarfed those of Dylan, who was a comparatively minor star.

In terms of musical influence, the relationship was inverse. Paul McCartney, the Beatles' songwriter, least obviously in thrall to Bob, describes the guru-master relationship:

He was our idol... I could feel myself climbing a spiral walkway as I was talking to Dylan. I felt like I was figuring it all out, the meaning of life.

Bob cools

The adulation was not reciprocal. Though Dylan initially admired the energy and creativity of The Beatles, he did not see them as a primary influence. In 1966, he even  hinted that Lennon and McCartney were overpraised:

If you go into the Library of Congress, you can find a lot better than that. There are millions of songs like ‘Michelle’ and ‘Yesterday’ written in Tin Pan Alley. 

Later, Bob changed his tune again. Or rather, he changed Paul’s most famous one. In 1970, he recorded an impromptu version of Yesterday, with his Beatles bestie, George Harrison, playing guitar. 

Don't like you either

Meanwhile, John Lennon had declared that he wasn't that keen on Dylan after all. One charge was that Bob was inauthentic - Lennon expressed disapproval of the name change from Zimmerman to Dylan. 

He was also put out that his former hero had spent his formative years helping in his dad's shop rather than riding that freight train. Most of all, though, he objected to being insulted on vinyl.

The song that stung was 4th Time Around on Blonde on Blonde (1966). It contained a line, “I never asked for your crutch, now don’t ask for mine.” 

Lennon later told Rolling Stone. “I was very paranoid about that. I remember he played it to me when he was in London. He said, 'What do you think?' I said 'I don’t like it."

He was also keen to correct a false impression/rewrite the past

“I stopped listening to Dylan with both ears after Highway 64 [sic] and Blonde on Blonde, and even then, it was because George would sit me down and make me listen.”

Times They Are A-Changing (again)

Over the decades, Bob mellowed. In 2007, he cleared up previous misunderstandings. 

John Lennon? Best singer you'll ever hear. Paul McCartney? What can't that guy do?  And Peace and Love to my old friend Ringo...

When Bob Met John and Paul: How Dylan influenced The Beatles