stellauk
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As a poet Dylan is great, but I'm afraid that for me, as a lyricist Smokey Robinson leaves him standing. No great concepts or messages but when it comes to rhyme, metre, expression and fitting the words of a song to its music I've yet to see someone do it as neatly and consistently as Smokey Robinson.
Let me show you what I mean..
Mary Wells - My Guy
Here's Mary Wells singing a Smokey Robinson number..
I'm sticking to my guy like a stamp to a letter
Like birds of a feather, we stick together
I'm telling you from the start I can't be torn apart
From my guy
The entire song is almost in perfect rhyme and metre.
The Temptations - My Girl
Here's another..
I got sunshine on a cloudy day
When it's cold outside I got the month of May
I guess you'd say
What can make me feel this way
My girl
And this isn't just one song, or a few, this is virtually every single song that Robinson wrote. You want more examples? 'Tracks of my tears', 'I'll second that emotion', 'Tears of a clown', and the exact same thing is reproduced over, and over and over again.
Now think about what every hip hop and rap artist is trying to do. Smokey Robinson is a legend.
At his peak, Bob Dylan could be seen as perhaps the greatest English language poet. This is how I see him, as a poet, and not as a lyricist. Yes he sings, yes there's music to his words, but it's all poetry. Seen in this context, and his tremendous impact on American culture in the 1960's, you could easily form an argument for him being one of the great poets, there alongside Milton, Burns, Sylvia Plaith, Shakespeare (but then again I see Shakespeare as a bard and a playwright, again totally different conventions to poetry).
This is perhaps why he refuses to explain what lies in the meaning of his words. Poetry can mean anything to anyone, it's words in an art form.
I will also vector the opinion that John Lennon was the worst.. To me one of the weakest lyricists had to be Jim Morrison of The Doors.
The Doors - Riders on the Storm
No argument about it, this is great music. But for me I'm sorry, but the lyrics are going nowhere. There's even places where the words are misused and don't collocate.
Now I'm prepared to argue that Paul MacCartney was the creative genius behind the Beatles, but it needed John Lennon to reach the people.
The Beatles - You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
This is John Lennon emulating Bob Dylan, and doing a credible job writing a song about homosexuality in Britain in the 1960's. However Lennon was a lyricist, not a poet. Dylan's influence did reach Britain. Here's another example.
Donovan - Catch The Wind
This is an early number by Scottish singer songwriter Donovan from his successful collaboration with Mickie Most in the 1960's. This is a song which could have easily been written by Bob Dylan.
But Dylan was influenced himself by others almost as much as he himself influenced others, and some of his songs themselves can be quite tactfully described as emulations or borrowings. Some of the melody from 'Blowin' in the wind' came from the slave song 'No more auction block'.
To me measuring someone's greatness as an artist has got nothing to do with the quality of their work, but in how they influence culture and other people. Certainly Bob Dylan was an influence in the 1960's, but so too was Elvis Presley, Ray Charles, jackie DeShannon, Burt Bacharach, Neil Diamond, Del Shannon, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Steve Winwood, Diana Ross, Quincy Jones, the Mamas and Papas, and so many others.
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Usually when you have all the answers for something nobody is interested in listening.
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Dylan bows in China - 
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,lets try this again 
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