4 Big Hit Singles From Other Artists That Mention Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan has inspired countless musicians and songwriters. The idea that you could imbue songs with something more than trite observations about love came from Dylan, and it’s an idea that opened up the world to tunesmiths.

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It’s only fitting that many writers have mentioned Dylan in their own songs. In fact, these four songs, which all became big hits, directly name-dropped the man.

“We Didn’t Start The Fire” by Billy Joel

Billy Joel wrote “We Didn’t Start The Fire” as a kind of self-appointed challenge. He’d been called out by a younger man visiting the studio one day, one who claimed that Joel’s generation hadn’t been through the same kind of misery as his own. Joel knew better. He began compiling lists of the turmoil-causing national and world events he’d witnessed in his life. Along the way, he decided he’d also include inspirational, unforgettable characters from pop culture history. How could he possibly exclude Bob Dylan once he made that decision? Bob pops up in Joel’s chronological list in the line, “Dylan, Berin, Bay of Pigs Invasion.” Pretty nifty soft rhyming by Billy of wildly disparate references.

“Right Here Right Now” by Jesus Jones

The late 80s witnessed some seismic events that shook up the very makeup of the world. Mike Edwards, lead songwriter of the British band Jesus Jones, had his antennae up and was taking it all in as he composed his 1991 single “Right Here Right Now” for the band’s second album. Edwards doesn’t take long to reference Bob Dylan in the song. In the third line, not long after mentioning “revolution,” Edwards sings, “Bob Dylan didn’t have this to sing about.” The point seems to be that the events that Edwards had witnessed in the past few years before writing the song went beyond those that Dylan referenced in classic songs like “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” and “Blowin’ In The Wind”.

“Mr. Jones” by Counting Crows

In his pre-fame days, Adam Duritz, who’d eventually go on to become the frontman for Counting Crows, went out for a night on the town with a buddy named Marty Jones. They saw some live music, and Duritz noted how he might one day have a better in with girls if he were a professional musician. From those origins sprang “Mr. Jones”, which Duritz later admitted was much more a reflection of his own feelings than his friend’s. The song became the breakthrough hit for Counting Crows off their debut album, August And Everything After. And it includes this memorable couplet: “I wanna be Bob Dylan/Mr. Jones wishes he was someone just a little more funky.”

“Only Wanna Be With You” by Hootie & The Blowfish

In this case, the mention of Dylan was followed up by a direct quote from one of his songs. Which, in turn, cost Hootie & The Blowfish a pretty penny. Darius Rucker starts a verse by singing the line, “Put on a little Dylan sitting on a fence.” That would have been fine, but Bob and his team weren’t thrilled by Rucker then singing a few lines from Dylan’s classic “Idiot Wind” word-for-word. (Rucker also mentions the song “Tangled Up In Blue” shortly after.) The story goes that Dylan’s camp only objected when the song caught fire (it hit No. 6 in 1994). Dylan allegedly settled out of court and didn’t take any of the song’s publishing. Meaning he made far less than the “million bucks” mentioned in the quoted section.

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