Bob Dylan’s Argument With God

A conversation with Ron Rosenbaum about what makes Dylan so unique.

Ron Rosenbaum’s latest book, Bob Dylan: Things Have Changed, is not a biography. It is instead a “kind of biography”—which is a distinction with a difference. It is, in keeping with Rosenbaum’s long record of fine-tuned literary analysis mixed with historical and, yes, biographical detail, a study of Dylan’s songwriting and a reckoning with his moral, philosophical, and religious imagery and fixations. “Dylan has remade American speech, American thought, American attitude,” Rosenbaum writes. Bob Dylan: Things Have Changed is an examination of how he remade those things, with a particular emphasis on “theodicy” and what Rosenbaum calls Dylan’s “argument with god.” Steering clear of the usual cloud of hagiography that hovers above most writing about Dylan, it’s a book that instead focuses on what makes him unique. During our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, Rosenbaum and I discussed Dylan’s lyrics, voice, and music; the moral and philosophical content of his songs; and our own fandom. 

I wanted to start by talking about one of the most controversial—maybe the most controversial—things about Bob Dylan: his voice. It is one of the most derided and mocked singing voices of all time, but I was really heartened reading your book to find that you are also a fierce defender of Dylan’s singing. 

There are still people in the comments section on YouTube who say, “This guy can’t sing! He has no voice!” I describe it as an “iron ore bucket voice.” It’s a rasp, but it’s a really human rasp. There’s no other voice like it. I’ve found that, strangely enough, there’s a region in what is now Russia—it was once Poland—where violinists like Jascha Heifetz came [from]. The only violinists in the world who could make their instruments talk like a human voice come from this region. And I have a feeling that far back in the past there was a Dylan [ancestor]. On the other hand, there are some really cruel things that are said about Dylan’s voice that just don’t understand that melodious bluebirds singing is not what he’s after. 

I sometimes joke that there are only really three covers of Dylan songs that are as good as the originals and only one that really surpasses it—Jimi Hendrix’s version of “All Along the Watchtower.” But it’s always struck me that more talented singers approach Dylan’s songs differently than he does. 

Before I heard Dylan sing a song, I heard Joan Baez’s cover of “Boots of Spanish Leather.” What a beautiful song—talk about remorse and regret. It’s funny, there were a lot of lefties who left the city and started giving me Weavers albums, things like that. Joan was not really particularly a leftie, but she came along with that. So I heard a lot of Dylan before I heard Dylan. That song in particular struck me dead. 

But what makes Dylan Dylan, he doesn’t go for these big brass cymbal-crashing anthems—he sings to another person, not to the whole wide USA. 

And the voice to me is utterly sincere, even if the persona also isn’t. 

He does have this........

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