The musician Bob Dylan could never dream of playing like: “A dynamic artist”

Posted On December 14, 2025December 14, 2025

Many songwriters would kill to have the same level of recognition as Bob Dylan, or at the very least, to know that they had the same talent for penning a timeless song as the folk singer has always possessed.

Since the early 1960s, Dylan has consistently demonstrated his knack for being able to conjure up arresting songs that continue in the folk tradition, telling ripping yarns through simplistic verse and captivating audiences all over the world. While his songs don’t always have a sense of musical complexity to them, you can always guarantee that on a lyrical level, he’ll be at the top of his game.

On the other hand, many critics of Dylan’s have questioned his vocal ability, whereby he often only teases out the most rudimentary melodies as a result of his limited vocal range, and others will try to argue that his guitar and harmonica playing leave a lot to be desired. This is all very well if you’re after something that is a little more flamboyant, but in Dylan’s case, the simplicity is where the charm has always been derived from, and there are few songwriters who can match him in this regard.

However, Dylan himself has never been one to gloat about his numerous accolades and accomplishments, and despite having accrued a devoted fanbase across the globe over the course of his six-decade career, he retains a sense of modesty when it comes to acknowledging his own brilliance.

Seemingly, he’d much rather talk up other artists and songwriters for their abilities, especially those who he believes are capable of doing the things he’s unable to do himself. Often, Dylan’s songs have been covered by other artists, whom he frequently believes to have improved upon the versions he originally composed, and when he’s offered songs of his out to other artists, he’s often deliberately chosen them on account of the fact that he thinks they have something special about them.

In the case of ‘Make You Feel My Love’, a track from his 1997 album, Time Out of Mind, he wrote it and initially passed it on to Billy Joel for him to record, with him releasing it first as part of his greatest hits compilation album earlier in the same year. When asked by Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet in 2000 about why he specifically chose Joel to record the track before releasing his own version of the song, he replied in typically short fashion, but succinctly shone a light upon the virtues in Joel’s artistry that he believed made him the perfect candidate to perform it.

“Billy Joel is a dynamic artist,” Dylan claimed. “He can hear things in a song, because he’s also a songwriter, and can do something that I couldn’t even dream was there.” While Joel certainly does make Dylan’s song more elaborate, there’s still plenty of charm in Dylan’s version, where he’s clearly stripped things down to the bare essentials in order for it to still work on a fundamental level.

The song itself has managed to land a rare position in music history, being one of the few songs to have turned into a ‘standard’ during the 21st century, with over 400 artists having chosen to cover the song since Joel first gave his interpretation. While some have kept the arrangement stark like Dylan’s first draft, it’s a masterful song regardless, and one that could only have ever existed with Dylan’s genius in the first place.

As for Dylan’s opinion of Joel, there’s nothing wrong with him proclaiming that he wishes he had the ability to perform like him, but it would probably sully the entire charm of Dylan’s simplicity, and the two are best regarded as two equally talented artists that exist as the yin and yang to one another.

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