# Assholes Who Don't Like Dylan's Voice **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 31, 2001, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assholes-who-dont-like-dylans-voice/52493 "2001-01-31T02:08:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Arden\_Ranger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b487fb/32.png) [@Arden\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arden_Ranger)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2001, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assholes-who-dont-like-dylans-voice/52493/21 "2001-01-31T03:54:11Z")
Oh, please. Louis Armstrong and Arlo Guthrie (both whom I very much like) and any number of other people don’t have that annoying nasal whine that Dylan does. I am grown the fuck up, thank you. I can appreciate the man’s music without him opening his mouth. When I saw him in concert in 85 it was just him and his guitar and it sucked! He was stoned or drunk or _something_ on top of that. I’d rather listen to my cat howl. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2001, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assholes-who-dont-like-dylans-voice/52493/22 "2001-01-31T03:56:31Z")
Thank god we have Uke Ike to tell us what defines a mature taste. Please, make us a comprehensive list of what we may and may not like in order to be considered an adult in your blessed eyes. Fucking dipshit. I’d rather listen to Fran Drescher doing the entire Barry Manilow catalog while gargling razor blades than one note of Bob Dylan. ---
**Author:** ![CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crankyasanoldman/32/11670_2.png) [@CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrankyAsAnOldMan)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2001, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assholes-who-dont-like-dylans-voice/52493/23 "2001-01-31T04:01:05Z")
_grabs beer bottle (not it’s not a “good” brand), smashes end off on concrete, begins circling Ike with jagged edge brandished_ Kelli, I’m with ya. If squirrels could sing, they’d sound just like Dylan. Squirrels with abnormally big sinuses, that is. _wonders if showing more cleavage would distract Ike long enough to get the advantage in the brawl_ You want grapefruit? I’ll show you grapefruits, asshole… ---
**Author:** ![Crunchy\_Frog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ebca7d/32.png) [@Crunchy\_Frog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crunchy_Frog)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2001, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assholes-who-dont-like-dylans-voice/52493/24 "2001-01-31T04:05:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ukulele Ike \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by Hastur \* > > **He can write very well, but can’t sing for shit.** > > No, you’re wrong, shithead. > \ > Now, fuck off. You’re wrong, and I’m right. \*\* So everyone who doesn’t share in your opinion has childish musical tastes and is wrong? I’m only 27, so maybe that’s not old enough in your opinion for me to have adult musical tastes. But my father has a record collection of about 2000 LPs and 5000 45s. I grew up a child of the 80s listening to the music of the 60s and 70s. I don’t think Dylan is anything more than a great songwriter. He does not have a good voice. But that’s my opinion. And where do you get off telling me my opinion is wrong? You can’t argue opinions with people. If a person doesn’t like the taste of chocolate, no matter how much you tell them the merits and greatness of chocolate, that person STILL won’t like the taste of chocolate. That doesn’t mean they’re wrong, or that they have an uneducated palate. It simply means they don’t like it. Get off your high horse, Ike, and stop telling me what I should think. ---
**Author:** ![Juniper200](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@Juniper200](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Juniper200)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2001, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assholes-who-dont-like-dylans-voice/52493/25 "2001-01-31T04:05:49Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Alessan_ > \*\*Can I like Dylan most of the time? I usually love his voice, but every now and then, his style becomes so exaggerated, it almost seems as though he’s sliding into self parody. \*\* I’m right with you on this one, Alessan. The man’s a songwriting genius, and I don’t have any major quibbles with his voice, but every now and again, it’s like he does his very own Bob Dylan impression. > [@](#): > > _Originally posted by dropzone_ > \*\*Tom Petty is just bad. Bad songs; bad singing. The bad sort of bad. \*\* This is not a discussion you wish to start, man. I will pin your ass to the mat over the coolness that is Petty.\* [sub][sup]\*No challenege is to implied. Note that you would easily be the victor in this “discussion,” seeing as how the only thing I have to back me up is endless repetition of the statement “I dunno, I just like Tom Petty.” Offer void in Alaska, Hawaii, Arizona, and Puerto Rico.[/sub][/sup] ---
**Author:** ![Rasa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rasa/32/3578_2.png) [@Rasa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rasa)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2001, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assholes-who-dont-like-dylans-voice/52493/26 "2001-01-31T04:14:25Z")
I would just like to state for the record that I **love** Bob Dylan. I admit I know nothing about music, other than what I like, but I’ll take Dylan’s “whiney” voice over any prefab rock any day. He’s got heart, soul, and fire. ---
**Author:** ![Nacho4Sara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Nacho4Sara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nacho4Sara)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2001, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assholes-who-dont-like-dylans-voice/52493/27 "2001-01-31T04:28:26Z")
I have to agree with Uke here (and not just because I’m terrified of him). I love Bob Dylan, I love his voice and his songwriting and I love him live (okay, I love his live bootlegs). To hear anyone else do one of his songs is like sacrilige, because they don’t have his passion, or his (to steal Rasa’s word) fire. He wrote those songs. They came from his heart. (Any doubters, please read his tribute poem to Woody Guthrie.) His blood, sweat and tears are there on the paper, on the sheet music, but they are also in his voice. And if you don’t like it, well you don’t really have to. I’m not going to go apeshit like Ike, because everyone has different tastes. I admit that it annoys me when people say they love his writing but not his voice. I love Wilco and Billy Bragg’s covers of Woody Guthrie on the “Mermaid Ave Vol 1 & 2” CDs, but they could never compare to the real thing. It’s one thing to create something, another to redo it. I respect the first much more. > [@](#): > > Damn you, Uke, you just made me listen through half of Blonde on Blonde. Maybe “Just Like a Woman”? Dude, you are killing me. That’s my favorite Bob song, ever. You diss it, I’m kicking your ass. Not really, but it’s fun to pretend. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2001, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assholes-who-dont-like-dylans-voice/52493/28 "2001-01-31T04:45:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Nacho4Sara \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > Damn you, Uke, you just made me listen through half of Blonde on Blonde. Maybe “Just Like a Woman”? > > Dude, you are killing me. That’s my favorite Bob song, ever. You diss it, I’m kicking your ass. Not really, but it’s fun to pretend. \*\* Once, when I was 17 years old, I scrawled the entire lyrics of that song on a desktop, after class. The desk, of course, belonged to girl I was madly in love with at the time. She and I never got together, and she never knew that it was I who wrote to her. I had forgotten all about that until just now. For the record, nowadays my favorite Dylan song is “Sara”. ---
**Author:** ![Sylkyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/da6949/32.png) [@Sylkyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sylkyn)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2001, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assholes-who-dont-like-dylans-voice/52493/29 "2001-01-31T04:46:02Z")
I’d rather listen to Fran Drescher doing the entire Barry Manilow catalog while gargling razor blades than one note of Bob Dylan. \*\* [/QUOTE] Hear hear!!! Couldn’t have said it better myself. Dylan is SAD as a singer…completely sad…tone deaf doesn’t begin to describe him. He makes my ass wanna spit tobacco. I know, I know…he’s a poet…he’s a god-send…he’s whatever you want to call him. He still can’t SING. Nothing wrong with that. e. e. cummings couldn’t sing either, but he was a hell of a poet, and I think Dylan is, too. I am damn sure an adult, but Dylan, for all his God-liness, is STILL tone-deaf. Silky “What’s that NOISE?” Threat ---
**Author:** ![monster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@monster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monster)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2001, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assholes-who-dont-like-dylans-voice/52493/30 "2001-01-31T05:11:41Z")
Bob Dylan is a great vocalist. His voice is very unique. (Gosh, I’m not saying this very well) Part of the reason why he is so interesting is the fact that he doesn’t sound like every Backstreet Boy trying to record a song. I like the song that he just won the Golden Globe, “Things Have Changed.” Don’t even get me started on Tom Petty. “American Girl” is one of the best songs ever recorded. Damn, that song rocks! ---
**Author:** ![Silo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ac91a4/32.png) [@Silo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silo)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2001, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assholes-who-dont-like-dylans-voice/52493/31 "2001-01-31T05:15:21Z")
Some of his stuff I dig, more should I say his songwriting ability has some bright moments. I really couldn’t care for his voice tho. I heard a studio track of his once. Lets just say one of the ways he likes to record is to chill in the studio with the tape rolling for hours while he mumbles away and meanders on acoustic guitar. He does this until they have enough stuff to slap together a tune. Personally I thought the moronic acoustic guitar and vocal wanderings could best be described as a _chipmunk from hell._ ::Silo backs away from Ike. . . slowwwwwly:: 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Upham](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Upham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Upham)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2001, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assholes-who-dont-like-dylans-voice/52493/32 "2001-01-31T05:31:58Z")
Wow. You people really just don’t get it. That’s a shame. ---
**Author:** ![magdalene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df788c/32.png) [@magdalene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magdalene)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2001, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assholes-who-dont-like-dylans-voice/52493/33 "2001-01-31T05:42:57Z")
For the record, I might have to be officially in love with Alessan now, after that amazing story. Sometimes the man doesn’t sound so good, but you’ve got to love him. He has the most honest, intimate voice. Damn, people, what’s wrong with you? ---
**Author:** ![Rasa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rasa/32/3578_2.png) [@Rasa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rasa)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2001, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assholes-who-dont-like-dylans-voice/52493/34 "2001-01-31T05:43:43Z")
I get it, Upham. It’s ok. More Dylan for us. 😉 And I officially have to give mad props to Nacho4Sara because she mentioned Billy Bragg in her post. ---
**Author:** ![Flymaster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c4cdca/32.png) [@Flymaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flymaster)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2001, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assholes-who-dont-like-dylans-voice/52493/35 "2001-01-31T05:48:02Z")
Bob Dylan is, quite possibly, the greatest song writer of all time. He has had an influence on music unmatched by pretty much anyone, and has lasted longer than damn near everyone. He can’t fucking sing. There is only one famous musician out there, IMHO, who’s a worse singer, the man who was billed as “a young Bob Dylan.” Bruce Springsteen. But come on, Ike. You want a voice, you listen to Janet, Zeppelin…pretty damned near anyone else. If you want lyrics, if you want feeling, if you want songwriting, you listen to Bob. He’s a wonderful musician. But he couldn’t sing a song to save his pot smoking, harmonica blowing, words that don’t even come close to rhyming rhyming ass. ---
**Author:** ![Crunchy\_Frog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ebca7d/32.png) [@Crunchy\_Frog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crunchy_Frog)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2001, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assholes-who-dont-like-dylans-voice/52493/36 "2001-01-31T05:59:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by magdalene \* > \*\*Damn, people, what’s wrong with you? \*\* Let me reiterate: If a person doesn’t like the taste of chocolate, no matter how much you tell them the merits and greatness of chocolate, that person STILL won’t like the taste of chocolate. That doesn’t mean they’re wrong, or that they have an uneducated palate. It simply means they don’t like it. Just because I don’t think Dylan has a good voice doesn’t mean something is wrong with me. I just have a differing opinion involving personal taste. Since when is that frowned upon? ---
**Author:** ![Lux\_Fiat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bc79bd/32.png) [@Lux\_Fiat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lux_Fiat)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2001, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assholes-who-dont-like-dylans-voice/52493/37 "2001-01-31T07:28:35Z")
Pearls before swine, Ike. These philistines confuse technique with art. Next someone’s going to try to argue that Christina’s better than Britney 'cause she has a stronger voice. Unclench, y’all. Breathe. That’s it. ---
**Author:** ![Amazing\_Tiki\_God](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/779978/32.png) [@Amazing\_Tiki\_God](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amazing_Tiki_God)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2001, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assholes-who-dont-like-dylans-voice/52493/38 "2001-01-31T08:31:47Z")
But Christina _is_ better than Britney! Actually I could give a crap less about either one of them. Although I’ll have to say that I think Dylan’s voice does suck a big one. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2001, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assholes-who-dont-like-dylans-voice/52493/39 "2001-01-31T08:55:45Z")
Dylan sounded good in the sixties and into the early seventies. Then he just stopped trying. Christ, he slurs his words together like he’s in a full-on herion nod. Maybe he’s got a drinking problem? ---
**Author:** ![Tansu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/67e7ee/32.png) [@Tansu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tansu)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2001, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assholes-who-dont-like-dylans-voice/52493/40 "2001-01-31T09:54:30Z")
Jesus Fuck. I knew this would happen. I just happen not to like Bob Dylan. It’s not that I think he’s a bad singer and I’m only able to like good singers. He’s just a singer I don’t like. It’s a difference of opinion. I like Diamanda Galas for fuck’s sake, not Mariah pissing Carey. I know plenty of people would say that Diamanda Galas’ voice sounds terrible, but what does their opinion matter to me? Oops, got to go - it’s time for my milk and cookies. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assholes-who-dont-like-dylans-voice/52493.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assholes-who-dont-like-dylans-voice/52493.md?page=3)