How “Like A Rolling Stone” Prevented Bob Dylan From Throwing in the Towel

Before Bob Dylan released “Like A Rolling Stone” in 1965, he was the golden boy of folk music. He was seemingly pigeonholeed into the genre, and exterior forces consistently prevented him from experimenting outside of the music that made him the biggest cultural figure of 1960s America. However, that all changed in 1965, when Dylan released “Like A Rolling Stone” and performed it with electric instruments at the Newport Folk Festival. However, that nearly never happened, as Dylan once entertained quitting music altogether.

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Bob Dylan toyed with the idea of quitting music because he could not be himself. In other words, the masses wanted him to be a thing he no longer wanted to be. To them, he was to be the folk singing protest singer who stuck up for the little guy and upheld the tradition of American folk music. Well, Dylan has been and always will be a chameleon. Hence, he saw no point in continuing music if he couldn’t change color on his own accord.

Why Bob Dylan’s 1965 Hit Was His Saving Grace

Following the release of “Like A Rolling Stone”, the image of Bob Dylan changed entirely. Consequently, people wanted to know why, and Dylan luckily told Playboy just that in a 1966 interview.

“Everything is changed now from before,” Dylan said in the Playboy interview, via Interferenza. “Last spring. I guess I was going to quit singing. I was very drained, and the way things were going, it was a very draggy situation. Anyway, I was playing a lot of songs I didn’t want to play. I was singing words I didn’t really want to sing.”

“But ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ changed it all,” he continued. “I didn’t care anymore after that about writing books or poems or whatever. I mean, it was something that I myself could dig. It’s very tiring having other people tell you how much they dig you if you yourself don’t dig you.”

Per his comments, not only did the single gift Dylan a newfound liberation, but it also gifted him an artistic perspective. Dylan was no longer going to write the next great American poem, he was no longer interested in that. However, Dylan never divulged in the interview what he was interested in after the fact. But, that’s just the way he rolls… Darkly invulnerable and healthily detached.

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