Bob Dylan and Neil Young have been great friends for a long time. In their first duet in the mid-70s, the duo used to cover other songs and have a lot of fun on stage. It has been a friendship built with mutual respect and skill, with both defending a folk-rock style that has seen them stand out as the voices of their generations. But there is a song by Neil Young that Dylan has always hated.
Bob Dylan is undoubtedly one of the most influential musicians in history. The liberal troubadour innovated with his folk style and narrative composition and quickly gained fame, fortune and widespread notoriety. He ended up playing it all when he ‘got electric’. The problem with finding a successful path for yourself is that, most of the time, using your projects, many will find a similar path to the Holy Grail. Sure, there were singers and songwriters before Dylan, but none caught the eye like Mr. Zimmerman, and that encouraged many others to put themselves in the center of the stage as well.
This meant that a sudden influx of folk rock artists was being snapped up by record labels across the country, providing Dylan with ample competition for his folk rock crown. Overall, the singer won, but soon became impatient with what he considered a deliberate copy of his work and style. During the 1960s, many people followed Dylan’s script for success, not only in his style, but also in his compositions, with the Beatles being the most famous adopters of his personal narrative structure for songs – something the band was happy about. to recognize.
As the seventies erupted and Dylan’s initial impact became buried in the collective consciousness, Dylan became a little more impatient with his influence, not being as widely recognized as he should be. One song in particular pushed Dylan to the limit, “The only time it bothered me that someone sounded like me was when I was living in Phoenix, Arizona, around 72 and the great song of the time was ‘Heart of Gold’, ”The singer told SPIN.
The song is one of Young’s biggest hits, reaching number one on the Billboard 100 and making Neil Young the first Canadian to do so. But for Dylan, the track’s proximity to its own style, now a little less desired than before, was very similar: “I used to hate it when I played on the radio. I always liked Neil Young, but it bothered me every time I heard ‘Heart of Gold’. I think it was in first place for a long time, and I would say: ‘Shit, it’s me. If it sounds like me, it should be me ‘”, he added.
Vocally, of course, Young’s tone is a far cry from Dylan’s changeable departure, but the similarities in style are there for everyone to see and hear. This may have something to do with the conception of music because, it seems, Young was never really a fan of music – despite his success or perhaps because of it. “This song put me in the middle of the road,” wrote Young in the booklet for Decades. Referring to the ‘trench trilogy’ of albums that followed, he said: “Traveling there soon became a bore, so I went to the trench. A more difficult ride, but I saw more interesting people there. ”
‘Heart of Gold’ has a habit of dividing Neil Young fans in half. It is either a song built on a deeply rich feeling and the simplicity of its metaphor (mining for a heart of gold) or a buzzword commercially similar to a Hallmark card. Whichever side you choose, know that not only does Bob Dylan hate the greatest song of Young’s career, but Neil Young too.
