Mick Jagger calls Bob Dylan a ‘guru of lyrics’ but calls one hit track ‘nonsense’

High praise for the legendary songwriter Bob Dylan was shared by Mick Jagger, who called him the “guru of lyrics”.

The Rolling Stones frontman was clearly influenced by the Highway 61 Revisited songwriter during the 1960s, as were the likes of The Beatles and Donovan. Elvis Costello and Bruce Springsteen would share their love of Dylan’s work in the years to come, but it is Jagger who said “everyone looked up” to Dylan as a master of contemporary music. In an interview with Jann Wenner, the Gimme Shelter songwriter shared his love for the Nobel Prize-winning writer, who is still touring today. Jagger confirmed it was Dylan’s influence which helped him push further with his writing, crediting Dylan as the reason he, and many other musicians at the time, “lifted your game”.

The 1960s was filled with all-time great acts like Leonard Cohen, The Kinks, and The Beach Boys. The Brian Wilson-fronted group would even cover a Dylan song, The Times They Are A-Changin’, for their album, Beach Boys Party!. Dylan’s influence continued into later decades, with greats like Jeff Buckley and David Bowie crediting the Mr. Tambourine Man songwriter as an influence.

Jagger, too, was impressed with Dylan and says his merit at the time went beyond anyone else in the music industry. He told Rolling Stone Magazine founder Wenner: “The lyricist who was really good at the time was Bob Dylan.

“Everyone looked up to him as being a kind of guru of lyrics. It’s hard to think of the absolute garbage that pop music really was at the time. And even if you lifted your game by a marginal amount, it really was a lot different from most everything else that had gone before in the 10 years previously.”

Though Jagger was full of praise for Dylan as an artist whose impact on The Rolling Stones is clear, he was less complimentary about the songs on reflection. He named hit track Like a Rolling Stone “nonsense” and suggested some songs from Dylan’s discography were simply “not as good as we thought”.

“A lot of it was perhaps not as good as we thought, but at the time, it was fantastic. Gates of Eden and all these Mexican-type songs, even the nonsense ones: Everybody Must Get Stoned and Like a Rolling Stone, Positively 4th Street.”

The Rolling Stones and Dylan would collaborate on stage in a surprising set with a performance of Like a Rolling Stone. Chris Robinson of The Black Crowes recalled the startling moment Dylan allegedly “flipped off” The Rolling Stones after an on-stage appearance.

He said: “We’re behind Keith’s amps and The Stones had Like a Rolling Stone as their single in Europe for that tour, the Voodoo Lounge cycle, so they’re going to have Bob sit in.

“Bob comes walking right beside me and Rich, and he’s wearing the exact same outfit [as Mick Jagger]. He walks out on stage, and The Rolling Stones are The Rolling Stones, they’re the greatest rock band of all time.

“They’re playing a Bob Dylan song, Bob is sitting in. The ‘Stones don’t jam, they don’t deviate. They come up to Bob’s turn, so the band bigs it up, and Bob goes to the microphone, and doesn’t sing anything.”

It caused quite the shock for The Rolling Stones’ consistency on stage, with Dylan already known for changing the tone and style of his songs. His performance in front of 60,000 fans in the French city seems to have left a lasting impression on The Black Crowes’ frontman, who said the performance only devolved from there.