Bob Dylan has shared the “magical” song he says he could not write today.
Dylan, speaking of his autobiography Chronicles, confirmed It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding) was one of the songs he could never write again. Blowin’ in the Wind took the songwriter ten minutes to write and came to him “just like that.” Dylan says the “wellspring of creativity” is where the songs came from, but tapping into it is harder than it once was. Asked by interviewer Ed Bradley, Dylan confirmed he “used to” look back on his songs and where they came from, but no longer knows how he “came to write” the early songs.
The songwriter went on to describe his earliest works as “magically written”. He said: “I used to. I don’t do that anymore. I don’t know how I got to write those songs. Those early songs were almost magically written. Darkness at the break of noon / Shadows even the silver spoon / Handmade blade / Child’s balloon, try to sit down and write something like that. There’s a magic to that, and it’s not Siegfried and Roy kind of magic, it’s a different kind of penetrating magic. I did it at one time.”
Dylan was asked if he could do it any more, and interjected “mmh mh”. “Well, you can’t do something forever,” he added. “I did it once. I can do other things now. I can’t do that.” Though Dylan believes he can no longer write like he once did, fans of his work say he is “like any artist” who has peaks and dips in his form.
A post to the r/BobDylan subreddit saw one user summarise the songwriter’s decades-long career. They wrote: “Dylan’s overall writing improved over time, but similar to many artists there are peaks and valleys, gems and shortcomings throughout. And it’s more pronounced with someone like Dylan who’s always experimenting with new twists and different styles.”
Another wrote: “His lyrics do remain by and large consistently excellent. The few poor albums are generally due to production, singing and arrangement issues. I think you’re in for a real treat once you hit the post-1997 stuff and there’s some absolute gems from the 80s like Blind Willie McTell and Every Grain of Sand.”
While Dylan may not write like he once did, recent efforts like Rough and Rowdy Ways were suggested as some of his very best wordplay. One user in the Reddit thread wrote: “I am in the camp that his most recent album may be his best one. He absolutely remains brilliant, and perhaps even gets more brilliant as you go deeper.”
His 60 Minutes interview came three years after the release of Love and Theft, and just two years before Modern Times. Dylan would release a mix of originals and American songbook covers in the decade to come, and returned to original songwriting with Rough and Rowdy Ways.
Another user summarised the Dylan writing experience, adding: “His lyrics do not remain consistently excellent but they do remain interesting. Even he admitted, in his 60 Minutes interview with Ed Bradley, that he can’t write like he used to write.
“In his 80s, he’s still capable of producing brilliant work at the highest level, but nothing will ever compare to the 18-month period in 1965-66 that produced Bringing it All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, and Blonde on Blonde. Those albums are a genius at his absolute peak. Folk was his apprenticeship and then he graduated to pure artistry. But if you’re moving forward through his albums, you’ve got plenty to look forward to. The man is a master.”
It isn’t talent – as in he suffered a dip in form like an athlete… It’s that the Muse blessed him once… He was a conduit for something deep and eternal… Something outside himself… Given by the Gods… Since that period, he’s a fine songwriter… Valuable for that but different to what he was… Which is the magic to which Dylan alluded.