That is incomprehensible to me.
This, absolutely. It disrespects singers who are both naturally gifted and work hard to perfect and maintain their instrament.
I think you can sound “real” with a smooth voice. You can sound real with an unorthodox voice. It’s a quality different from that which I probably can’t explain/describe except “I know it when I hear it”.
I sing like crap and no one would say “Wow, he’s so real”. I even have a couple tracks on my list where the singer is “bad” but the song is still fun to sing. But I think that the well known “bad singer” artists manage to capture some sort of essence that’s made them well-known versus the bajillion failed musical artists who just can’t sing.
Criticizing his voice is nothing new. On “Talking New York” from his first album, he sings that music people say he sounds like a hillbilly.
People level that same criticism against Dwight Yoakum (hillbilly) but I don’t hear those same people complaining his voice.
Yes! And like the aforementioned Kim Carnes. Rough, yes. Raspy, yes. But wonderfully on key.
I’ve never heard it said that a guitarist, saxaphonist, pianist, etc. etc. Who cannot play the insrument in tune, or misses notes, or is off key is “real.” Most would say they need practice, or a new instrument.
Dylan is a good writer with a terrible voice. Like a Rolling Stone makes me want to rip.my ears off.
Weird Al does a spot on imitation.
I had to listen to Dylan a lot before his voice finally clicked with me (the pot and LSD may have helped). I still recognize it as inarguably bad (with Nashville Skyline being almost an exception), but I can overlook it with no problem and enjoy the songs.
I think Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell have fantastic voices. I never realized it wasn’t universally accepted before!
I agree on Baez and Mitchell. I don’t think I could stand to listen to that much Dylan no matter how many or how good the drugs. I admit, though I was always chicken and a light weight where drugs were concerned. Prolly a good thing, I need all the braincells I can hang onto. 
I’ve seen Dylan in person many times, with each time being remarkable in some way. The very first time I saw him I was literally shaking with excitement. The opening act was a gospel group! Horribly disappointing, but what are you going to do? The crowd eventually was booing. Then Dylan came out and only did songs from his religious album with the gospel group as his “band”. I nearly cried.
Saw him in Pittsburgh at a small venue. I mentioned to a friend that he didn’t really enjoy performing, and he’d likely stop right at 10 pm. Sure enough, in the middle of a song he glanced at his watch and stopped singing. “Good night everyone, thanks for coming” and he was gone.
At JazzFest, the year after 9/11 we saw Dylan. Huge crowd, everyone having a great time, except for the two couples in front of us. One woman was reading a paperback, the other a newspaper. One guy was looking around with binoculars, looking everywhere except for the stage. The two men were whispering to each other.
I couldn’t help watching them. I was smoking a huge joint, passing it around to the friends we were with. At one point the binoculars guy turned around and showed me his FBI(?) credentials. BUSTED!! I stood holding my joint aghast, assuming I was going to jail.
It gradually became awkward. They weren’t there to arrest drug users. The joint remained in my hand as my friends realized what was going on. I took another big hit, then ate the roach.
I don’t disagree that Bob Dylan has an “awful” voice.
But sometimes it is absolutely perfect:
I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone saying that his brilliance is or was in the quality of his singing voice, at least by the standards of what’s generally considered a good voice. I think that’s generally acknowledged as being somewhere between passable and terrible.
And I agree with the below:
- I also think that the voice suits some of the songs. They’re not all meant to be pretty.
Yup. Again, they’re not all meant to be pretty.
Dylan has had many different singing voices, some repulsive, others quite charming, in my opinion. Maybe because I like his “wild mercury” period best, his voice on Blonde on Blonde is downright pleasant at times, as in Visions of Johanna, which sounds clear, resonant, and articulate to me with none of the faux-hillbilly twang of his early albums and none of the unlistenable nasality of Nashville Skyline or the mumbling that I found so off-putting on his late live performances. On the last of those, I found myself sitting about 500 yards away from him in a large stadium, unable to hear or to decipher his lyrics (partly because of his mumbling, partly because of the acoustics, partly because he’d rearranged the song with the apparent goal of unrecognizability). That was the last rock concert I attended, once I realized that, apart from the pleasure of saying “I went to the Dylan concert last night” I wasn’t getting anything out of the experience at all. But for a few years there, 1965-67 I’d guess, his singing voice on the middle three albums–BoB, H61, and Bringing it All Back Home–was excellent, in my estimation.
I’ve seen him a couple dozen times. Half the time he’s mind-blowingly great, the other half he phones it in. Good luck!
Heheh, nah, the OP is not alone in their dislike of Dylan’s voice, even though I enjoy it very much.
My mom was in a similar position regarding Hank Williams. She loved anyone else singing his songs, couldn’t really stand to listen to him sing them. Similar to Dylan, I love Williams’ voice, as well.
I’m tone deaf, which may explain why his singing doesn’t bother me.
For a good example of a live performance, try the official bootleg of the 1964 Philharmonic Hall Concert.
I saw him in his gospel period, which was unthrilling, and twice at Shoreline in Mountain View with my daughter, much better. He is not exactly Richard Thompson in audience pleasing. Hearing different takes on songs is a good reason to go.
The first time I went with my daughter when she was in high school there were a bunch of old guys smoking dope and acting juvenile. Best antidrug message ever!