The John Lennon song Bob Dylan couldn’t relate to: “I can’t imagine that”
Since rock ‘n’ roll originated in the US, the British invasion was really a wave of sonic appreciation. Similarly, after The Beatles shook up the US charts with early hits like ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ and ‘Love Me Do’, they again turned to American artistry to inspire their next move. When examining The Beatles’ embrace of abstract songwriting, the impact of Bob Dylan cannot be understated.
In 1963, The Beatles and Bob Dylan were aware of each other’s success, and although their musical styles were different at this point, there was plenty of mutual admiration. The Beatles first met Dylan in August 1964 after playing a concert at Forest Hills Tennis Stadium in Queens, New York. After hearing that Dylan was staying on the other side of Queens, their management arranged a meeting.
During this seismic first contact between arguably the finest songwriters of a generation, Dylan introduced the Fab Four to cannabis and his knack for inspiring conversation. As an evening of uncontrolled giggling and wild conversation, Paul McCartney remembered getting so stoned that he was convinced he had discovered the meaning of life.
Years later, in a promotional video for Pure McCartney, his 2016 compilation album, McCartney recounted the memorable evening. “I could feel myself climbing a spiral walkway as I was talking to Dylan,” he said. “I felt like I was figuring it all out, the meaning of life… I was going, ‘I’ve got it!’ and wrote down the key to it all on this piece of paper.”
McCartney also told Mal Evans his secret discovery and asked him to write it down on a piece of paper for safekeeping and later reflection. “Mal gave me the piece of paper the next day,” McCartney continued. “And on it was written, ‘There are seven levels.’ Well, there you go, the meaning of life…”
While these iconic musical minds didn’t quite crack the secret to life that night, Dylan certainly left a lasting impression on The Beatles. Throughout 1965, the band began to re-establish itself with more immersive, often abstract and downcast lyrics. Rubber Soul was a particular turning point, even if it did rub Dylan up the wrong way.
After hearing the folk-infused ‘Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)’, Dylan became incensed, believing that Lennon had derived it from his style. “What is this? It’s me, Bob. He’s doing me,” Dylan famously exclaimed upon hearing Rubber Soul in 1965. “Even Sonny & Cher are doing me, but, fucking hell, I invented it.” Dylan responded by swiping Lennon in his song ‘4th Time Around’, which featured the lines, “I never asked for your crutch / Now don’t ask for mine”.
Relations between Dylan and The Beatles improved over time, with Dylan becoming particularly close with George Harrison in the late 1960s. However, he always seemed wary of Lennon as a direct competitor in the realm of post-modernist lyricism. An acrid air still seemed to part the pair following The Beatles’ breakup in 1970.
In his 1970 solo song ‘God’, Lennon listed a load of things that he didn’t believe in. Among the entrants was Dylan himself: “I don’t believe in Zimmerman”. After the arrival of Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, he sat down for an interview with Jann Wenner for a conversation during which he discussed ‘God’. “Dylan is bullshit. Zimmerman is his name,” he said. “You see, I don’t believe in Dylan, and I don’t believe in Tom Jones, either in that way. Zimmerman is his name. My name isn’t John Beatle. It’s John Lennon. Just like that.”
Of course, this wasn’t an all-out attack on Dylan, but an aura of bitterness was palpable. Similarly, Dylan identified dissonance between himself and Lennon in an interview with Scott Cohen. After calling Sigmund Freud a “fraud” who “started a lot of nonsense with psychiatry,” Dylan referred to Lennon’s early single ‘Mother’ while explaining his view on parenthood.
“A lot of people have trouble with their parents up until they’re 50, 60, 70 years old. They can’t get off their parents,” Dylan said. “I never had that kind of problem with my parents.” Instead, the Minnesotan songwriter maintained a somewhat distant relationship with his parents, especially after dropping the family name.
Continuing, he explained that he couldn’t relate to Lennon’s experience. “Like John Lennon, ‘Mother’: ‘Mother, I had you, but you never had me.’ I can’t imagine that. I know a lot of people have. There are a lot of orphans in the world, for sure. But that’s not been my experience.”
It is unclear whether Dylan brought Lennon into the conversation with any ill-feeling. However, Beatle is often criticised for abandoning his first son, Julian, after leaving his first wife, Cynthia. “I have a strong identification with orphans, but I’ve been raised by people who feel that fathers, whether they’re married or not, should be responsible for their children, that all sons should be taught a trade, and that parents should be punished for their children’s crimes,” Dylan added, suggesting that he would have had an issue with Lennon’s actions.