Growing up in England, David Gilmour was influenced not only by the incredible music scene, particularly in London, where many great bands were emerging every week, but also by American music, just like most of those groups were. Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Chuck Berry and many others were very important to them, but so was Bob Dylan. Gilmour had the chance to discover his music when he was still young and his admiration for him only grew over the years. He has even revealed some of his favorite songs by the legendary songwriter.
2 Bob Dylan songs David Gilmour mentioned as favorites
“Ballad in Plain D”
“I’ve lived through a lot of his heavy protest stuff. But this was another side I’m very keen on. This sort of love song approach. He is wonderful,” David Gilmour said in an interview with BBC Radio 4, after picking this track as one he would take to a desert island. The song appeared on Bob’s 1964 album “Another Side of Bob Dylan”. At 8 minutes and 18 seconds, it is the longest track on the record and it was Bob himself who recorded everything on the album, including acoustic guitar, piano and harmonica.
Curiously, the legendary American songwriter likes Pink Floyd and has personally praised the group to David Gilmour. “The second time we met was around the time of ‘The Delicate Sound Of Thunder’. He said (adopts perfect Dylan accent) hey, I love your record, ‘The Dogs’, man. I was so thrilled. Not many Pink Floyd fans like this track. But Bob does. So it was OK with me,” Gilmour told Record Collector in 2003. He was referring to the song “Dogs”, part of the 1977 album “Animals”. He had the chance to see Bob Dylan playing in England in the 60s and it was a memorable show.
David Gilmour recalled:
“When I went to the sixth form school, this music teacher give it up doing music lessons by then. He would just sit and say ‘bring me a record, we will play it and we will talk about it.’ So I brought Bob Dylan’s first record. I absolutely loved it, played it, silence… (laughs).”
“I was the only one who liked it (laughs). I went to see him at the Festival Hall, at one point he lost his harmonica (and he said anyone got a harmonica in C?) Half the audience came rushing to to the front (to give him their harmonica),” he said in an interview (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage).
“Like a Rolling Stone”
“We’re gonna be playing a whole bunch of groovy records from all sorts of strange, diverse people,” Gilmour said when he was a guest DJ for a day during a radio special. “This sort of (list) wouldn’t be complete without a Bob Dylan track and here is one. Probably my favorite… maybe not, but probably. This one is ‘Like a Rolling Stone,’” he said when promoting his solo album “About a Face” in 1984.
David first discovered Dylan’s music at the age of 16, in 1962, year his debut album was released. “I got Bob Dylan’s first record for my 16th birthday. They (his parents) sent me from Greenwich Village (New York). Before that they sent me the Peter Seeger’s guitar tutor record, which is my only actual instruction (To play guitar). (It) was with Peter Seeger’s guitar tutor record,” he told BBC Two in 2015 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage).
He always liked Bob Dylan and unlike many people, was actually excited when he “went electric”, adopting the electric guitar. “To me, I was never one of the people who thought Dylan was a monster for going electric. I liked the change. But I must say the power of the young Dylan as the acoustic-playing protest singer- which he’s always denied. But sorry Bob, you were a protest singer. Just to get his guitar and play to a crowd of people and it’s like an arrow. His words come out and the music. People underestimate his actual musical abilities. And the melodies and the words just shoot out like an arrow. I think he was unbelievable. And is,” David Gilmour said in an interview with The Guardian in 2006.