Like many songwriters from their generation, The Rolling Stones‘ Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were deeply influenced by Bob Dylan, who became, over the decades, one of the most prolific songwriters of all time, with hundreds of songs written.
His discography has had a huge impact on music and pop culture over the years, and it is hard to pick just one song from his catalog as a favorite. But Mick and Keith already took on that difficult task and once revealed which Bob Dylan songs were their favorites.
Mick Jagger and Keith Richards’ favorite Bob Dylan songs
Keith Richards “Girl From the North Country”
“While the British Invasion was going on, Bob Dylan was the man who really pulled the American point of view back into focus. At the same time, he had been drawing on Anglo-Celtic folk songs, and that’s certainly true of ‘Girl From the North Country’. It’s got all the elements of beautiful folk writing without being pretentious. In the lyrics and the melody, there is an absence of Bob’s later cutting edge. There’s none of that resentment. It’s very hard to write songs like that. He recorded it again later with Johnny Cash, but I just don’t think it’s a duo song. I think Bob got it right the first time. In a way, I see ‘Girl From the North Country, ‘Boots of Spanish Leather’ and ‘To Ramona’ as a trilogy.”
“Is Ramona the girl from the north country? Is she the same chick who sends the boots of Spanish leather? There’s some connection between them. Also, the guitar picking is almost the same lick in ‘Boots of Spanish Leather’ and ‘Girl From the North Country.’ It’s like an extension of the same song. Before he went electric and submitted himself to that relentless discipline of a rhythm section, there was a beautiful flow in Bob’s songs that you can only get with just a voice and a guitar.”
Keith Richards continued:
“He can float across the bar here and there. He’s not restricted by anything; it’s a beautiful form of expression. You let certain notes hang longer, and it doesn’t matter because it all goes with the song. He’s the most prolific writer: I think he’s written more songs than I’ve had hot dinners. So, Bob, just keep ’em coming! He’s an inspiration, really, to us all, beyond even the songwriting, because he’s always trying to go somewhere new. I love the man and I love that he rock & rolls, too!” Keith Richards told Rolling Stone in 2011.
Keith has always admired Dylan and has had the chance to share the stage with him multiple times. Some of the most memorable performances by the American artist with The Stones took place in Brazil and Argentina, when he was their opening act in the 90s. He would often join them on stage to perform “Like a Rolling Stone”.
But their friendship was not always that great, since as Black Crowes vocalist Chris Robison recalled once, he saw Dylan pissed with the Stones and showing his middle finger to them. “They’re playing a Bob Dylan song and Bob is there. The Stones don’t jam, they don’t deviate. So it’s like (Chris imitates Mick Jagger singing ‘Like a Rolling Stone’) and then they go around the chorus and then they come up to Bob’s turn. So the band brings the (imitates the song’s rhythm) and Bob goes to the mic and doesn’t sing it. And you see them looking around and they’re like ‘Okay’, it’s kind like you’ve missed the turn at a roundabout and you got to go all the way around.”
He continued:
“So they go all the way around again and ‘One, two, three’ and he just leans into the mic, turns away. I’m like ‘Oh my god, what the fuck’. It goes on for antoher half a verse. And then Mick’s gonna come over and save the day and then Bob finally goes to and start singing something.”
“They don’t finish and they’re walking off stage and we were standing there. (Bob) walks off before the end of the song and they are like ‘Bob Dylan!’. He turns around and he looks at them (shows his middle finger) saying ‘Fuck you!’ and his give them the finger. And I’m like ‘The best fucking concert I’ve ever seen in my life, it’s incredible’. I can see Keith, he goes ‘Don’t be like that, Bob!’” He told Howard Stern in 2019 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage).
Mick Jagger “Desolation Row”
“Desolation Row’ is so simple musically, just three chords for 11 minutes, with a minimal amount of accompaniment, yet it’s so effective. There’s Dylan, a bassist and a session guitar player, Charlie McCoy, from Nashville, who adds a nice little counterpoint to the melody. Even after many listenings, his playing still sounds sweet; I like the slight Spanish tinge of it. But it doesn’t get in the way of what obviously is the main thing: the vocal and the lyrics. Dylan’s delivery is recitative, almost deadpan, but he engages you.”
“What’s wonderful about the lyrics is all these characters that he inveighs on our imagination. Famous people surrealistically appear, some of them mythical and some of them real. The Phantom of the Opera. Ezra Pound and TS Eliot. Cinderella. Bette Davis. Cain and Abel. One of my favourite parts is the bit about ‘Einstein, disguised as Robin Hood’: ‘You would not think to look at him, but he was famous long ago/For playing the electric violin on Desolation Row.'”
He continued:
“It’s just a great image of Einstein, isn’t it? It’s his hair, all his hair jutting out, and he’s got the violin, which, of course, he used to play. Someone said that ‘Desolation Row’ is Dylan’s version of ‘The Waste Land.’ I’m not sure if that’s true, but it’s a wonderful collection of imagery. A fantasy Bowery that really gets your imagination working,” Mick Jagger told Rolling Stone India in 2011.
Mick has praised the song on other occasions, saying that every time someone hears it, they can find something interesting hidden in the lyrics, as there are so many details and characters. He also praised Dylan’s voice: “I enjoy seeing him perform” and when the interviewer saying he didn’t like his voice, Jagger said: “It’s a funny voice, it’s like a voice that’s never been one of the great tenors of our time but it’s got a timbre, it’s got a projection and it’s got a feeling,” he said in an interview.