Neil Young’s opinion on Bob Dylan

Born in Toronto, Canada back in 1945, Neil Young started his musical career in 1963 and three years later formed the band Buffalo Springfield alongside Stephen Stills, Bruce Palmer, Dewey Martin and Richie Furay. They were active for two years but it was enough to show the world the amount of talent they had. Young later was part of Crosby, Stills and Nash and then launched a successful solo career, becoming one of the most influential songwriters artists of all time.

Over the decades he had the chance to see and perform with many incredible artists, including Bob Dylan. But what is the opinion of the Canadian artist on Dylan?

What is Neil Young’s opinion on Bob Dylan

Neil Young and Bob Dylan share mutual respect for each other and besides performing together a few times live, they already cover songs of each other. In an interview with Charlie Rose (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage) back in 2008, Neil Young talked about Dylan.

“I love Bob Dylan, I think he is great. In the very beginning I knew he was great. I was walking on down the street and there is this guy in a Lincoln Navigator or continent. I can’t remember, was one of those black cars. He is in there and he is blasting ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ and singing at the top of his lungs. It’s an afro-american guy sitting there, he is about 30 years-old in a suit, just rocking”.

He continued:

“I heard Bob’s voice and I went ‘This is Bob, you know, this is the essence of his feeling and everything. The moment that he was delivering that song is so powerful, you can’t keep that’. That comes and goes through you. You can’t strive to be that, there is no way you own it.”

“I’ve heard Bob say that he doesn’t know who wrote, he doesn’t know the guy who wrote those songs anymore. I understand what he was saying, the feeling behind it. I look at it and I go ‘Well, I must been in a really different place doing that. But I was, I wrote those words, I sat down and I believe it,” Neil Young said.

Bob Dylan already covered Neil’s solo hit “Old Man”

Bob Dylan is one of the most prolific songwriters of all time and has written more than 600 songs during his career. Although he has a really huge amount of tracks to play in his live concerts, he often includes covers in the setlist. Back in the early 00s, he covered Neil Young’s hit song “Old Man”. That track was originally featured on the album “Harvest” (1972) by the Canadian musician.

Dylan rarely talks to the press but back in 2007, in an interview with Rolling Stone, he talked about Neil Young.

“Neil is very sincere, if nothing else. He’s sincere, and he’s got a God-given talent, with that voice of his, and the melodic strain that runs through absolutely everything he does. He could be at his most thrashy, but it’s still going to be elevated by some melody. Neil’s the only one who does that. There’s nobody in his category,” Bob Dylan said.