Bob Dylan talks about John Lennon

Bob Dylan talking about John Lennon over the years [a composite from various interviews]

I dig John. As a writer, a singer, and a Beatle. There are very few people I dig every time I meet them, but him I dig. He doesn’t take things so seriously as so many guys do. I always love to see John. Always. He’s a wonderful fellow... and I always like to see him. We played some stuff into a tape recorder but I don’t know what happened to it. I can remember playing it and the recorder was on. I don’t remember anything about the song.

John Lennon and I came down to the Village early one morning. They wouldn’t let us in The Figaro or The Hip Bagel or The Feenjon.

John has taken poetics pretty far in popular music. A lot of his work is overlooked, but if you examine it, you’ll find key expressions that have never been said before to push across his point of view. Things that are symbolic of some inner reality and probably will never be said again. As for Lennon, well, I was encouraged by his book [In His Own Write]. I don’t write those kind of songs John Lennon wrote. I never wrote those kind of songs... “Imagine”. I never liked that song, I mean I know it was a good song... he wrote one song, one of my favorites, really, don’t ask me why is “Mother”, but I don’t kind of figure out why. “Mother” ‘Mother you had me, I [never] had you’, that’s a very personal kind of song... It hits somebody in a special kind of way... I can’t even relate to it.

What lasts for me in that is the songs he left. There are some that jump out of me more than others; “Nowhere Man”. . He was doing it all the way, you know. He was talented as a musician which you don’t see... It’s just like another one of those things... People don’t give him credit for saying something that takes over... It’s like personality takes over at a certain point. To me, he could play and he sang great. And he had the attitude of course. You know, it’s hard to separate what he did as a Beatle, because the attitude was there that he had. To me it was the same attitude earlier on before he did the primal therapy thing and came out. To me, he was always a musician first. Like, to me, his version of “Stand By Me” is the version regardless of the song’s been done so many times, but his was better than the original.

All his stuff was like that. It had an attack to it, you know, that is very rare. Of course, when he put his own thing behind it, it was quite overwhelming. With his “Working Class Hero” –type thing and “Instant Karma” kind of thing... To me, it was all just a... you know, you could hear it all there with “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” but then of course, the harmonies and that stuff had kind of deluded a lot of it. But if you’re asking me how he is perceived, to me he is perceived first and foremost as a musician. And he had an amazing sense of melody, and lyrically he was no slouch, either.

One of my old drummers, he used to play me a tape where he was like spoofing “Serve Somebody” or something like that. It didn’t bother me, it intrigued me. Why would it effect him such a way? Like who cares? It was just a song. He was very quick witted, Like a lot of those English guys were just so sharp for sure. He was true to his work and his cause. He played his heart out.

I like to wonder about some of these people who elevated John Lennon to such a mega-god as if when he was alive they were always on his side. I wonder who they think he was singing to when he sang ‘just give me some truth. ‘ Everything is just too commercial, like a sprawling octopus, too much part of the system. Sometimes you feel like you’re walking around in that movie Invasion Of The Body Snatchers and you wonder if it’s got you yet.

In the big picture, on the big stage, I’m not too sure, to take yourself seriously or to take seriously what other people are thinking, you know that could be your downfall. I mean it’s a weakness. I know I’ve done some important things but in what context, I don’t know, and also for who. It’s hard to relate to fans. I mean I relate to people as people but people as fans, I’m not sure I know what that means and don’t forget John Lennon was murdered by a so-called fan.

Source: Every Mind Polluting Word, assorted Bob Dylan utterances