2 guitarists Bob Dylan considers to be among the best of all time

Although Bob Dylan is mainly regarded as one of the greatest singers and songwriters of all time, he is also a really good guitar player. Of course, he is not in the same league as the greatest guitarists in history, but he had the opportunity to meet and even work with some of the most influential players during his career.

They were fundamental in helping him find the right chords and arrangements for some of his most influential recordings. Over the decades, he has spoken about many incredible guitarists and praised as some of the greatest of all time.

2 guitarists Bob Dylan considers to be among the best of all time

Mike Bloomfield

“Well, Mike Bloomfield, I always thought he should have stayed with me instead of going to Paul Butterfield. That was his point, that was his life to lead, you know. I first heard him when I went to a club in Chicago, (a club called) ‘The Bear’. He came and introduced himself, told me who he was and he said he heard my first record (laughs) and said he wanted to show me how the Blues were played (laughs).”

“(He said) listen to this, listen to that and I didn’t feel much competitive with him. I mean, he could outplay anybody even at that point. When it was time to bring in a guitar player (to play) on my record, I couldn’t think of anybody but him. I mean, he was just the best guitar player I ever heard on any level. He could flat pick, he could fingerpick, he looked like he was just born to play guitar, you know. He came into the session carrying his guitar in his paper bag,” Bob Dylan said in an interview with Jeff Rosen in 2000 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage).

A couple of years later, when asked if as a bandleader he had ever played with the perfect guitarist he once again mentioned Bloomfield. “The guy that I always miss, and I think he’d still be around if he stayed with me, actually, was Mike Bloomfield. He could just flat-out play, he had so much soul. (Mike) knew all the styles and he could play them so incredibly well.”

Bob Dylan continued:

“He was an expert player and a real prodigy too, (he) started playing early. But again a lot of good guitarists have played with me. Freddy Tackett, Steve Ripley – Mick Taylor played with me for a minute,” Bob Dylan told Rolling Stone in 2009. One of the most talented guitarists of his generation, Mike Bloomfield sadly had a short career compared with his peers. He was a professional musician from 1959 until his death in 1981, at the age of 37, from an accidental overdose.

He played electric guitar player on Dylan’s “Highway 61 Revisited”, which had classics like the title-track, “Like a Rolling Stone”, “Desolation Row” and “Ballad of a Thin Man”. Bloomfield released many solo records and was part of The Paul Butterfield Blues Band and The Electric Flag. He also collaborated with several other artists like Peter, Paul and Mary, Moby Grape, Muddy Waters, Janis Joplin and Chuck Berry.

George Harrison

Another guitarist Bob Dylan admired was George Harrison, who was also his bandmate for a time, since they were both members of the supergroup Traveling Wilburys. One of the things that impressed the American songwriter the most about the Beatle was his ability to play unusual chord sequences and find great melodies. Dylan also believed that, he hadn’t been part of the Fab Four, Harrison could have been as big as other major acts of that era.

“George got stuck with being the Beatle that had to fight to get songs on records because of Lennon and McCartney. Well, who wouldn’t get stuck? If George had had his own group and was writing his own songs back then, he’d have been probably just as big as anybody. George had an uncanny ability to just play chords that didn’t seem to be connected in any kind of way and come up with a melody and a song.”

“I don’t know anybody else who could do that, either. What can I tell you? He was from that old line of playing where every note was a note to be counted. We’d known each other since the old days, really. I knew the Beatles really early on, all of them,” Bob told Rolling Stone in 2007. Dylan often said that he loved the way Harrison played the guitar, which he described as “restrained and good.” The British musician was a huge fan of Bob, and according to Tom Petty, even used to make his own Dylan bootlegs. “George quoted Bob like people quote Scripture. Bob really adored George, too.

He continued:

“George used to hang over the balcony videoing Bob while Bob wasn’t aware of it. Bob would be sitting at the piano playing, and George would tape it and listen to it all night. Yeah (he had his own Dylan bootlegs). One day George was hiding in the hedge at the house where we were recording. As everybody flew off, George would rise up out of the bushes with his video going. And he did that with Bob. I think George frightened Bob. When the Wilburys started, George was so reverent of Bob. At the end of the first say, he said, ‘We know that you’re Bob Dylan and everything. But we’re going to just treat you and talk to you like we would anybody else.’ Bob went, ‘Well great. Believe it or not. I’m in awe of you guys. It’s the same for me.’”

“I said to George, ‘That is really amazing. How you said that to Bob.’ George goes, ‘I can say those sort of things. But you can’t.’ (laughs) George adored Bob Dylan, like ‘Dylan makes Shakespeare look like Billy Joel.’ George absolutely adored the Wilburys. That was his baby from the beginning. He went at it with such great enthusiasm. The rest of his life, he considered himself a Wilbury,” Petty told Rolling Stone in 2002. George Harrison passed away in 2001 at the age of 57. One year later, as a tribute, Bob Dylan covered “Something” during a concert in New York.