How Bob Dylan Created One of His Best Songs Amid Enormous Scrutiny

Knowing what we all know about Bob Dylan, it’s really not shocking that he would defy his audience’s wishes for his own creative gain. Dylan has long been an artist who followed his own ambition and cared little about trends or expectations. Part of his success with this method of artistry is that he set himself up as an artist with no inhibitions pretty early in his career.

Videos by American Songwriter

Dylan made his first expectation-defying move in 1965. It’s a story we all know well: Dylan hops up on stage at The Newport Folk Festival, plugs in his guitar, and proceeds to break the hearts of every folk fan in attendance. It was an era-defining moment for rock and folk music, forever uniting the two. This move could’ve been a disaster if Dylan hadn’t crafted the perfect song to go along with his transition. Revisit the Dylan classic that he created under a storm of scrutiny below.

[RELATED: The Bob Dylan Song That Was Only Recorded by George Harrison and Ended Up on This Campy ’80s Soundtrack]

Bob Dylan’s Trailblazer Inspirations

For most songwriters, Dylan is it. He’s the metric for every other artist in the craft to measure themselves against. But according to Dylan, he drew inspiration from greener rockers when he decided to make this career-altering move.

“It wasn’t just the songs’ popularity; it was the way they were being played, too,” Dylan once said of how he was transformed by hearing The Beatles. “They were doing things nobody was doing. Their chords were outrageous, just outrageous, and their harmonies made it all valid. You could only do that with other musicians.”

Hearing The Beatles inspired Dylan to try his hand at a bluesier sound. This change in tempo satisfied him for a while, but it wasn’t enough to curb his appetite for a harder sound. His yearning for change ultimately culminated in “Like A Rolling Stone.”

“Like A Rolling Stone”

“Like A Rolling Stone” was the final straw in Dylan jumping ship from folk purist to rock icon. He wrote this song with the intention of making it noticeably different from his past work, keeping his artistry sharply honed and unpredictable.

Once upon a time you dressed so fine / Threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn’t you? / People call say ‘beware doll, you’re bound to fall’ / You thought they were all kidding you, the opening lyrics read. Dylan knew what he was doing when he penned this song. “Like A Rolling Stone” still has all the lyrical genius of a Dylan folk song, but all the energy of a rock hit. It was the perfect transition song, even if naysayers couldn’t see it at the time.

“I didn’t know what was going to happen, but they certainly booed, I’ll tell you that,” Dylan once recalled. “You could hear it all over the place…”

Though it was a tough sell at the time, “going electric” is precisely what Dylan needed to do to set himself up for the legacy he has now. Revisit “Like A Rolling Stone” below.

(Photos by Brad Elterman/FilmMagic)