beatles

The Beatles Meet Bob

As the story goes, sometime in ’64, Dylan was being driven through Colorado when over the radio he heard something that would change his life and influence his music – The Beatles. He immediately ordered the car to be stopped, jumped out and began banging his hands on the bonnet in time to the music like he had lost his mind

“They were doing things that nobody was doing. Their chords were outrageous. You could only do that with other musicians.” He later explained.
However, at the time, Bob didn’t tell anyone of his fascination. In fact he hid his feelings towards the band with a cloud of cynicism. He dismissed them as teenyboppers to his then girlfriend Suze Rotolo, who has fast become a huge fan. The fact that they had become such a phenomenon which millions of Americans going crazy over their music didn’t sit very well with Dylan.
What Dylan didn’t know however was that The Beatles, especially John Lennon, felt the opposite. They wanted to write songs that people would really listen to, and talk about. He was also worried that his image of a clean-cut pop star was against his rebellious nature. However, the Beatles were more open about their love of Dylan’s music.
“We were in Paris at The Olympia Theatre and we got a copy of The Freewheelin’, and we just played it, just wore it out.” Remembers George Harrison.
Lennon was also visibly smitten, even being seen wearing a hat similar to the one Bob wore on the cover of his debut album.
Here you had the classic choice of a musician or band; popularity or credibility. People would greedily devour Dylan’s lyrics and song content. But was he preaching to the converted? The Beatles would sell millions of records but what of their reputation?
This association with the Beatles immediately helped Dylan make a few more headlines and sell a few more concert tickets, especially in the UK. But Dylan was thinking about a bigger step. He was a rock ‘n’ roll fan as a teenager. Was it now time to go back to his roots after he had just found a loyal folk fan-base?
Although, I’m A Loser on Beatles For Sale is usually thought of as the first Beatles ‘Dylanism’, Lennon admitted the influence when writing A Hard Days Night, although “We Beatle-fied it before we recorded it.”
This was just the first Dylan influenced song in the Beatles collection. Soon others such as You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away, and I Am The Walrus were to surface with their obvious link to Dylan. Perhaps no one will find out the true origin of the tune found in both Dylan’s Fourth Time Around, (Blonde On Blonde, 1966) and the Beatles Norwegian Wood. Both parties claim it was the other who was the thief of course, but who do you believe?
It wasn’t just a one-way street however. Dylan songs such as: I Wanna Be Your Lover have a Beatles tinge. Bob has also recorded, (not yet released) a somewhat mocking version of Yesterday in the 70’s.
Al Aronowitz, a mutual friend, arranged the first meeting of the two parties. It came after much delay. Apparently, after Aronowitz suggested that Lennon ought to meet Dylan, Lennon said he wanted to wait until his was Dylan’s ‘ego equal’.
The meeting finally happened on 28th August 1964 in The Beatles suit in the Hotel Delmonico, on Park Avenue. Introductions were a little awkward, “Like Billy The Kid and the Jesse James Gang acting like bashful little girls” recalls Aronowitz.
Dylan requested his favourite tipple, cheap wine, but unfortunately the suite only had Champagne. The Beatles offered pills, but Aronowitz suggested a smoke. Dylan was amazed to find out that the Beatles had never tried marijuana. They were curious, so Dylan if slightly inexpertly rolled a joint.
Dylan handed the joint to Lennon, who passed it to Ringo Starr, “His Royal Taster”. Ringo, having no idea of smoker’s etiquette smoked the whole thing himself. More joints were then produced.
Over the next twelve months the extent of each other’s influence began to surface. The Beatles next two albums, (Beatles For Sale and Help!) had a more Earthy, organic feel.
It took Dylan a little longer to let new, Beatle derived influences permeate his work. By the end of ’64 he had released Another Side Of Bob Dylan, his last acoustic ‘solo voiced’ effort. It did however hint at a change in direction, with less of a protest and more of a whimsical tone.
Over the next few years, the two parties that had shaped the sixties still showed signs of each other’s influence, and Harrison, the ‘quiet on’ forged a strong friendship with Dylan. Some sight this as one of the reasons he wanted to leave the Beatles. He worked with Dylan on a number of tracks where he had more of a say than when he was in the Beatles. In August ’71, Dylan joined Harrison in the Concert For Bangladesh at Madison Square Garden. The two also appeared together in The Travelling Wilbury’s.
As the relationship between Bob and George grew stonger, so Dylan and Lennon slipped apart. In the 70’s Lennon was angry at the way Dylan let himself slip from the limelight and spat “I don’t believe in Zimmerman”, before also renouncing the Beatles. He was also angry at Dylan’s conversion to Christianity in the late Seventies. When Lennon saw Dylan perform Gotta Serve Somebody, (from Slow Train Coming, 1979) on TV he was furious enough to write a song called “you Gotta Serve Yourself” which appeared on The John Lennon Anthology released in ’98.
Dylan and Harrison were friends right up to Harrison’s death. They recorded two Travelling Wilbury’s albums together and regularly visited each other’s houses. Dylan did not comment on his feelings after Harrison’s death.