Bob Dylan could easily be a standard to reach for any aspiring lyricist or artist since there’s this little fact that many critics and fans have liked to call him ‘the voice of a generation.’ Dylan himself wasn’t as enthusiastic about that compliment, but that simple displeasure didn’t hold back millions from admiring his knack for penning down a few lyrics.
However, things might get a bit complicated when the artist trying to reach Bob’s level is not an aspiring rocker but a rock icon themselves. Robert Plant, after all, has fascinated millions himself through his works with Led Zeppelin and solo career, and I’m sure he needs no introduction to any average rock fan.
Still, selling millions of records, worldwide fame, or having other rockers pick him as their ‘rock god‘ didn’t help his insecurity about not creating as much of an impact as Dylan had. These worries weren’t decades-old either since the rocker had sat down with Rolling Stone only three years ago, during the pandemic, then aged 72.
The interview took place when Robert was planning to release an anthology album, ‘Digging Deep: Subterranea’ in 2020, rediscovering his old songs with Led Zeppelin and from his solo career while also remastering some unreleased tracks. So, as he was discussing the record and jokingly saying the guy who had recorded the album sounded like he didn’t have a social life, he also compared his impact to Bob’s.
Although the singer had confidence in his works and lyrics, he still pointed out the insecurities beneath each melody, stating that none of the songs in the album could reach the standards of Dylan’s single, ‘Masters of War.’ Still, Robert was content about his work either way, relishing that it was casually born in an average studio on the Welsh borders.
Plant’s words on his anthology album:
“When I listen to it, I wonder whether the guy who was singing and writing the lyrics ever had a rest. I mean, did he ever take a vacation? What on earth was going on? And why didn’t he just shut the f*ck up for a while and learn something new, like applied mathematics or astronomy? But yeah, [Digging Deep] just rolls with so much gusto.
It’s pretty confident, except for, really, underneath it all, maybe it was never confident; it was just throwing another spanner into the works to see where the shards would take me. None of these songs are going to match [Bob Dylan’s] ‘Masters of War’ or something like that. They’re songs from the moment that they were born in some rehearsal room on the Welsh borders, I guess.”
It might be to your taste to decide whether Robert did match the impact of Dylan’s, but as for the singer himself, he didn’t think his anthology record would have the influence of a single track from Bob’s career, as he noted the simplicity of their recordings and how it all came into play casually.
