Bob Dylan is as divisive as he is influential, causing love-hate reactions with his listeners due to his prolific, poignant songwriting, innovative arrangements, and, shall we say, distinct singing voice. Despite being a de facto figurehead for the 1960s folk revival and subsequent folk-rock iterations, not even Dylan’s peers could always agree on whether the songwriter was actually any good.
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One such moment of cognitive dissonance happened when Dylan was visiting some fellow folk-rockers at the St. Paul Hilton in July 1974. The songwriter was just about to head into the studio to record Blood on the Tracks, which he released on January 20, 1975. So, as most musicians on the cusp of studio time are wont to do, Dylan decided to share the tracks he was about to record with his colleagues.
Three of those colleagues were Graham Nash, Stephen Stills, and Tim Drummond. Stills and Drummond brought Dylan into their room and shut the door, eager for a private sitdown with one of music’s greatest, most mysterious legends. Nash, meanwhile, had to listen through the door in the hallway. Ironically—and perhaps because of the forgiving acoustics of drywall and insulation—Nash was more impressed than the people sitting in the room, listening to Dylan up close.
Stephen Stills Had a Spicy Take After Hearing Bob Dylan Preview ‘Blood on the Tracks’
No one at the St. Paul Hilton would have had any way of knowing the cultural and professional significance Blood on the Tracks would hold for Bob Dylan. Songs like “Tangled Up in Blue” and “Simple Twist of Fate” (tracks No. 1 and 2, respectively) helped cement this album as a fan favorite for most Dylan fans. But Stephen Stills wasn’t exactly convinced when he was listening to Dylan preview the tracks with just his voice and an acoustic guitar to accompany him.
As Graham Nash would later recall in A Simple Twist of Fate: Bob Dylan and the Making of ‘Blood on the Tracks’, “I’m listening to these songs through the door. I’m f***ing dying.” However, Nash said that after Dylan left and it was just him, Stephen Stills, and Tim Drummond, “Stephen looks at me—and this is a direct quote—he said, ‘He’s no musician.’ I said, ‘What?’ ‘He’s a good songwriter,’ [Stills continued.] ‘But he’s no musician.’” A hot take? Maybe. But not necessarily a surprising one, when one considers how melodic a musician Stills is and how, well, a-melodic Dylan is in comparison.
Musician or not, Stills’ opinion, if shared by others, obviously wasn’t enough to sway the general public. Bob Dylan’s 1975 album, Blood on the Tracks, topped the Billboard 200, hit No. 1 in Canada and New Zealand, and peaked at No. 4 in the U.K. Blood on the Tracks remains on countless “best albums of all time” lists to this day.
Photo by Vince Maggiora/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images
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