The Storied Folk Singer Who Said Bob Dylan Couldn’t “Acquire Anything Except by Stealing It”

The early days of Bob Dylan are among his most notable, yet also some of his most secret. While Dylan’s rise to fame was heavily publicized, his backstory and the behind-the-scenes moments of his rise remained in the dark. Over the years, that has changed drastically; however, to this day, the full story of Dylan in the Greenwich Village folk scene remains somewhat cloudy. However, one book that pulls the veil back on the young Bob Dylan is the book Down The Highway. And the quotes that do so in particular come from Dylan’s elder and contemporary, Dave Van Ronk.

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The relationship between Bob Dylan and Dave Van Ronk is not a perfect one in the slightest. The main incident that seemingly tainted their relationship is when Dylan stole Van Ronk’s musical arrangement of “House Of The Rising Sun” for his debut album. It’s unclear what exactly transpired after that moment, but it’s fair to say that Van Ronk’s perspective of Dylan likely changed after this theft.

Dave Vank Ronk Also Called Bob Dylan “Unteachable”

Now, we don’t know Dylan personally. But it seems the majority of people would likely concur on the perspective that he does things in his own particular way. After all, most great artists do. Well, Dave Van Ronk attested to that in the book Down The Highway, as he recalled how hard it was to teach Bob Dylan how to finger-pick in the traditional sense.

Van Ronk said in the book, “He was unteachable! He had to reinvent the wheel all the time. Any number of people tried to show him finger picking of the guitar, but he just seemed to be impervious. He had to work it out for himself, and he did eventually. He became a reasonably good finger picker. But I can’t claim any credit for it.”

Concerning Dylan’s borderline klepto-streak, Van Ronk added, “You could almost say he could not acquire anything except by stealing it…That is to say that he would watch, and if you tried to explain to him, he would [affect a lack of interest].”

Aside from the comment about Dylan’s thievery, the rest of Van Ronk’s comments make a whole lot of sense. Dylan, as a musician, has never been orthodox. He has consistently sung out of key, changed the rhythm and melody in the middle of a song, and generally, just never followed any of the rules of music theory. Also, didn’t Pablo Picasso once say, “Good artists copy; great artists steal?” Food for thought.

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