August 28, 1964

Newch91

To me, that is the day rock music and music, in general, was forever changed by the meeting of The Beatles and Bob Dylan for the first time. Soon after that meeting, Bob Dylan was starting to experiment with folk and rock 'n' roll music, evident on "Bringing It All Back Home". The Beatles were starting to write more introspective lyrics (especially John Lennon), starting on "Beatles for Sale".

tcaporale

Always found this interesting about the Beatles' "Norwegian Wood" and Dylan's "4th Time Around":

"4th Time Around" was commonly speculated to be a response to The Beatles' song "Norwegian Wood" - written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney for the 1965 album Rubber Soul - as the two tracks share a reasonably similar melody and lyrical premise. "Norwegian Wood" was one of the first Beatles tracks where the lyrics are more important than the melody and showed an obvious Dylan-influence. "4th Time Around" has been seen as either a playful homage, or a satirical warning to Lennon about co-opting Dylan's well-known songwriting devices. Lennon expressed a range of opinions on this topic in interviews between 1970 and 1980. He initially felt it to be a somewhat pointed parody of "Norwegian Wood", but later he considered Dylan's effort to be more a playful homage. Still, the last line of "4th Time Around" ("I never asked for your crutch / Now don't ask for mine.") played into Lennon's deep but misplaced paranoia about Dylan in 1966-67, when he interpreted this line as a warning not to use Dylan's songs as a "crutch" for Lennon's songwriting.

Newch91

tcaporale wrote:

Always found this interesting about the Beatles' "Norwegian Wood" and Dylan's "4th Time Around":

"4th Time Around" was commonly speculated to be a response to The Beatles' song "Norwegian Wood" - written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney for the 1965 album Rubber Soul - as the two tracks share a reasonably similar melody and lyrical premise. "Norwegian Wood" was one of the first Beatles tracks where the lyrics are more important than the melody and showed an obvious Dylan-influence. "4th Time Around" has been seen as either a playful homage, or a satirical warning to Lennon about co-opting Dylan's well-known songwriting devices. Lennon expressed a range of opinions on this topic in interviews between 1970 and 1980. He initially felt it to be a somewhat pointed parody of "Norwegian Wood", but later he considered Dylan's effort to be more a playful homage. Still, the last line of "4th Time Around" ("I never asked for your crutch / Now don't ask for mine.") played into Lennon's deep but misplaced paranoia about Dylan in 1966-67, when he interpreted this line as a warning not to use Dylan's songs as a "crutch" for Lennon's songwriting.

Yeah. After I read that, I had to listen to the two songs.

randallanddarcy

Can you supply us with the source of the quote, please?

tcaporale

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4th_Time_Around

The information is taken from this book: http://books.google.com/books?id=6vFnVz ... 22&f=false

Ok

That's an interesting quote - I haven't read the Dylan encyclopedia, but from my experience I connect much more with Dylan's lyrics and style than I ever did with Lennon or the Beatles. Bob is the man. I've been on a Boots of Spanish Leather kick lately, have to listen to it everyday.

randallanddarcy

tcaporale wrote:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4th_Time_Around

The information is taken from this book: http://books.google.com/books?id=6vFnVz ... 22&f=false

Thanks much!