Madonna has said one of the most unlikely of Bob Dylan songs “makes her cry every time” she listens to it.
The 67-year-old will release a sequel to Confessions on a Dance Floor next year, and has made her thoughts on Dylan clear. Madonna says the song would leave her crying “all the time” in an interview, though she suggested it’s not because the song in question is sad. The Like a Virgin hitmaker would say the Nashville Skyline track, Lay Lady Lay, was the song which would leave her in tears. Madonna would share her love for the Dylan track, though said she wasn’t a frequent listener of his music. Dylan, in return, would praise Madonna during a live show and in an interview given during the 1990s, calling her “talented” and praising her “sacrifice” as an artist.
Madonna said: “I used to listen to ‘Lay Lady Lay’ in my brother’s bedroom in the basement of our house. I’d lie on the bed and play that song and cry all the time. I was going through adolescence, I had hormones raging through my body. Don’t ask me why I was crying, it’s not a sad song. But that’s the only record of [Dylan’s] that I really listened to.”
Dylan, in return, would praise the pop sensation for her sacrifice to music. He said: “Madonna’s good, she’s talented, she puts all kinds of stuff together, she’s learned her thing. But it’s the kind of thing which just takes years and years out of your life to be able to do. You gotta sacrifice a whole lot to do that.”
Lay Lady Lay may be a favourite of Madonna’s, but fans are still trying to decide on whether Dylan’s Nashville Skyline can be considered a classic. A post to the r/BobDylan subreddit saw one fan suggest the album was up there with Desire and Blonde on Blonde as one of his best musical achievements.
Fans were split on the take, which saw one user consider it one of the all-time greats in Dylan’s discography. Their post reads: “This is a top three Dylan, change my mind! I personally believe that Nashville Skyline is one of Dylan’s best albums.
“Up there with the likes of Blood on the Tracks, Desire, and Blonde on Blonde. It might even be my favourite. (Desire and Blood on the Tracks are hard to beat, though) I mean, there is not a bad track. Country Pie, Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here with You, and One More Night being my top three. I really don’t know why this album is one of my favourites, but it is!”
Members of the subreddit were unconvinced at Nashville Skyline being up there in the top three, with several albums ahead of the Johnny Cash-featuring release. One fan wrote: “The following albums exist: Blood on the Tracks, Time Out of Mind, Love and Theft, Blonde on Blonde, Highway 61 Revisited, Planet Waves, Bringing It All Back Home, The Times They Are A-Changin’. Perhaps that will shake things up a bit?”
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