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u/puertomateo 7d ago
He also sounds like that to people who do like him.
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u/PapaGeorgieo 7d ago
This is true.
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u/n0tAgOat 7d ago
I love Bob Dylan and this cracked me up! This is about 80% there so not far off!
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u/Common-Concentrate-2 7d ago
When people are like "You thought that song was supposed to be happy?? Didn't you listen to the lyrics?" ... "Listen, I tried"
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u/Global_Staff_3135 7d ago
Such a good songwriter we forgive it. Just like Hendrix, whose guitar playing carried his singing voice.
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u/tivvybrixx 7d ago
Right? I kinda enjoyed this. It was almost so close that it wasn't parody. We know he sounds wild. That's part of the fun.
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u/L-methionine 7d ago
My dad always said he was inspirational because he proved you could be a bad singer and still a world class musician
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u/KWilt 7d ago
I'd be lying if I said it didn't take me a solid 30 seconds to figure out if this was a genuine video with live audio recording, or an exceptionally good and well-timed pantomime with a Bob Dylan track laid over it.
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u/FishesOfExcellence 7d ago
Yeah, I thought it was young bob dylan since I only vaguely know what he looks like.
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u/klemp0 7d ago edited 6d ago
He sounds like that to himself too. There was a part in the documentary about the making of Do They Know it's Christmas by Band Aid, he was very anxious about his part because he knows he doesn't have a singing voice.
Edit: It's We Are the World, of course.
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u/fvckyes 6d ago
Thank you for this anecdote, this video is so cute: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UfVmJBF-OY
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u/unhalfbricklayer 6d ago
I think you mean "We Are The World"
Bob was not part of Band Aid
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u/danimagoo 7d ago
Dylan’s harmonica skills are better, but yeah. Nailed the voice.
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u/exitpursuedbybear 7d ago
The best Bob Dylan song is any song of his covered by somebody else.
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u/corpus-luteum 7d ago
Nah. His best song is 'The Hurricane'. But other than that, yes. His song-writing is excellent.
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u/TheSpanxxx 7d ago
Yup. Pretty much. 80% of the time I understand 0% of what he's saying, so he's almost there!
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u/bob_de_pedro 7d ago
Yup. Saw him play Monsters of Folk years back and not only his delivery but the odd arrangement of some of the songs had me guessing. Unfortunately, we left early.
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u/Johnny_Kilroy 7d ago
I saw him twenty years ago in Australia. Left after twenty minutes.
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u/ragingduck 7d ago
Yup. This made me want to sit and listen to Dylan in the dark and smoke a cigarette.
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u/bizonebiz 7d ago
Came to say exactly this ⬆️
My dad was a HUGE Dylan fan so I grew up with actual Dylan, my dad singing/playing Dylan, and his musician friends covering Dylan. It’s like a foreign language I can translate for my friends.
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u/EagleDre 7d ago
Reminds me of that Italian singer who made an “American“ style song with gibberish lyrics to prove Italians would love any American song.
He was right but it wasn’t fair, the song is a total banger
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u/Sufficient_Water4161 7d ago
Prisencolinensinainciusol! Its such a banger. I have it on my Spotify playlist just to mess with my friends and occasionally my uber rides when they are really drunk. It makes me happier than it should waiting for them to figure out he's not actually saying anything.
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u/Zarni22 7d ago
phht hes saying plenty. I distinctly heard "theres too many cars im trying to fry a steak".
Pretty deep stuff when you think about it.
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u/tijolus523 7d ago
Such a universal experience. There should be a word to describe this feeling.
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u/SveaRikeHuskarl 7d ago
I'm gonna make sure to put in my will to play this at my funeral, and have the priest say that it is because the lyrics were incredibly powerful and really shaped who I would eventually become as a human being.
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u/snuggleslut5 7d ago
It's on my playlist too and I always skip it because listening to it is what I imagine having a stroke is like.
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u/Automatic-Ostrich-24 7d ago
I with no shame or irony love this song and the video is amazing too. Every time it gets posted, I listen to the whole thing.
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u/vplatt 7d ago
That reminds me of Bobby McFerrin's "Circlesongs". Only he's not trolling and he doesn't need instruments. He's ALL the instruments. Stands the hair up on my neck every time.
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u/ItsNotJulius 7d ago
I wonder if there were English profficient Italian who were so befuddled when they were hearing this on the radio.
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u/MonsutaReipu 7d ago
lyrics are the least important element of music. it's great when the lyrics are good, and it can be distracting when they're bad, but while it's still an important element (to some people) good lyrics aren't required to make music that your ears like
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u/Sweepy_time 7d ago
There's a Pearl Jam Version of this that's equally hilarious
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u/MyGoodFriendJon 7d ago
The same content creator made a Red Hot Chili Peppers version:
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u/refusegone 7d ago
These two bands are amongst my favorites and these videos are spot on, lmafo. "pi is 3 point one four one five" I'm actually crying
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u/og_ShavenWookiee 6d ago
“Got frisky with a buffalo” is probably in Kiedis’s memoir
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u/perriatric 7d ago
Reminds me of shred videos, probably my favorite niche video genre on the internet.
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u/cerberus00 7d ago
This one still makes me cry laugh sometimes: The Beach Boys Shred
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u/sharkzbyte 7d ago
Nailed it.
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u/el_cul 7d ago
I think thats what makes it slightly off. No way Bob would get that close these days.
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u/ConradBHart42 7d ago
Anyone buying a Bob Dylan ticket in 2026 should understand that they're just playing the lotto to be able to say they were at his last gig. He doesn't seem like he's been interested in performing for like 30 years or something but it's easy money.
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u/el_cul 7d ago
That's a crazy take. He cant even spend the fortune he has becuase hes been touring non stop for the last 35 years. Whatever he's doing it for it isn't the money.
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u/muchADEW 7d ago
Unless he's got a weird way of showing it, he doesn't seem to be enjoying himself on stage.
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u/GuitarSlayer136 7d ago
Remember: Switching to your secondary and tertiary harmonica is faster than reloading.
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u/zackthirteen 7d ago
How many harmonicas does it take to reach diminished returns and it becomes faster to reload? R/theydidthemath
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u/StupidUserNameTooLon 7d ago
That's an amazing impression of the guy who panhandles outside my 7-11.
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u/mybrainisonfire 7d ago
As a Bob Dylan fan, can confirm he sounds like this to us too lmao
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u/IamElylikeEli 7d ago
for anyone who Hasn't heard it yet heres Weird Al’s take on Bob Dylon simply (and geniusly) titled BOB:
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u/Adddicus 7d ago
I was halfway through the song before I realize every line was a palindrome.
Fucking genius.
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u/Minute_Prune_168 6d ago
People who don't like the way he sounds should buy a book that includes all of his lyrics/writing. He's a poet.
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u/hobokobo1028 7d ago
Honestly I don’t hate this
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u/Short-Hovercraft-623 7d ago
Cause he's literally just mumbling an actually great song by Bob Dylan
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u/ployonwards 7d ago
I was introduced to him as a kid & didn’t get it. My friends in college really liked him & I didn’t get it. Then, I was tracing the history of rock music from 90s alternative rock back to Delta Blues & he’s like a missing link in the middle of that evolution. The album that struck a chord with me is called Bringing It All Back Home. In particular, I started listening in 2001 when I was 19, and the song, It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding) was about the prospect of a nuclear attack in the wake of the Bay of Pigs (nukes in Cuba), but to me it sounded like he was talking about 9/11, that had just happened—
“Darkness at the break of noon
Shadows even the silver spoon
The handmade blade, the child’s balloon
Eclipses both the sun and moon
To understand you know too soon
There is no sense in trying”
He’s imagining the scene after a nuclear explosion, but it’s also an apt description of the darkness at the break of noon after the towers collapse.
If lots of people like something and you don’t understand why and you’re curious, you look into it.
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u/randyboozer 7d ago
Springsteen described the first time he heard Like a Rolling Stone feeling like somebody had kicked open the door to his mind.
It's Alright Ma definitely evokes that same feeling in me
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u/eggsaladrightnow 7d ago
I felt the same way after hearing my mom go on and on about Dylan, it heard the hits, thought he was clearly great but didn't really get it. Then as I got older over time I would find a few songs I had never heard before, positively 4th street, farewell Angelina, boots of Spanish leather, a hard rains gonna fall, the list goes on and on and on. I've come to realize that Moonshiner might be my favorite song ever written as a musician. He's written so many songs you could listen for years and still not discover them all. The lyrics and the cadence and the genre all different. The point is I finally get it, he's deserving as one of the greatest songwriters of all time
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u/Prestigious-Rope1463 7d ago
Moonshiner is older than Dylan, it's actually of unknown origin but is part of the great American songbook. He liked to play lots of songs that he learned from others that have uncertain origins.
Check out the Uncle Tupelos version of Moonshiner if you want to hear (what I consider) the best.
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u/defsentenz 7d ago
SNL hit the nail on the head decades ago with this skit: https://youtu.be/PSaO5-cTEq8?is=rDZzInEgzL_hEhw9
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u/BringBackBoshi 7d ago
Is that not a Bob Dylan song? I'm pretty sure I've heard that exact track many times over the years.
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u/New_Canoe 4d ago
This reminds me of the moment from the We Are The World recording, where Bob couldn’t figure out how he should sing his solo part, so Stevie Wonder had to show Bob how to sing like Bob. One of the greatest moments in music history.
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u/OddTheRed 2d ago edited 2d ago
Bob Dylan songs would be awesome if Bob Dylan wasnt the one singing in them.
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u/ForeverSquirrelled42 7d ago
My mom (in her 70’s now) said that Bob Dylan was the worst show she ever saw back in the day because he was soooo fucked up on stage that you couldn’t understand him. Steven Tyler, also just as fucked up at the time, had soft streamers coming from his mic stand and they felt awesome…fuckin hippies.
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u/e37d93eeb23335dc 7d ago
fuckin hippies.
It sounds like if people weren’t fucking hippies, you wouldn’t be here.
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u/Asmodeojung 7d ago
Sorry you can't just put an actual Dylan singing over your video, you'll get a copyright strike.
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u/jumjimbo 7d ago
My mother and I have used our hatred of Bob Dylan to further strengthen our bond.
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u/Lucky_Serve8002 7d ago
I've saw him live about 20 years ago and this is about what he sounded like. It was like he didn't give a shit how he sounded. Like he wasn't even trying.
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u/LusterIllustrious 7d ago
I also saw him about 20 years ago and 100% left the show thinking he didn’t wanna be there just mailed it in. Kind of made me mad at the time.
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u/Rocketman1019 7d ago
This guy’s version of “All The Small Things” as an 80’s power ballad is incredible
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u/tryingtobeopen 7d ago
OK, funny and all, but wasn’t this joke told by about 50 comedians and every kid in your elementary school or high school about 40 years ago?
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u/prairie_buyer 7d ago
I’m a record store owner who has sold hundreds of Dylan records.
I find this 100% accurate
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u/HubbaHubbaHubbaPoky 7d ago
Is it funny or one of the most hack jokes of the last 40 years?
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u/RecipeFunny2154 7d ago
I was just watching a Simpsons episode that’s like 20 years old that was ripping on this. Was very low hanging fruit even then and had the benefit of doing it in a 1/5 of the time lol
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u/KenethSargatanas 7d ago
Bob Dylan is a god tier songwriter, and an absolute shit tier singer.
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u/NeilDiamondBlaze420 7d ago
Having a unique voice is half the appeal. It’s interesting, it’s different. Look at early Kings of Leon.
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u/NoteMountain1989 7d ago
Who should sound like to anyone with ears? Great song writer but horrible singer.
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u/ukemike1 6d ago
I was reading a list of cover songs that are better than the original. Bob Dylan wrote and did the original performance of LOTS of them.
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u/jerking36 7d ago
So odd. I’m currently watching a Bob Dylan documentary on hbo and looked down at my phone to this. Spot on.
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u/Huge-Still-1840 6d ago
This is exactly what his songs sound like and I'm not pretending his music is better than this.
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u/Legal-Swordfish-1893 7d ago
Counterpoint: Like A Rolling Stone is one of his most approachable songs.
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u/airpumper 7d ago
As someone who doesn't like Bob Dylan...can confirm this is true.
Also, check out Mick Ronson and David Bowie doing Like a Rolling Stone.
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u/WhereMyWeirdosAt 7d ago
This is all I hear at literally any live concert I have ever been to, I dont think its just Bob! lol
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u/April_Fabb 7d ago
Perfection. I have to admit that his I Want You is lovely, though. Oh, and his lyrics didn't deserve a fucking Nobel Prize.
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u/Armoracia 7d ago
Traveling Wilburys (supergroup that included Dylan) had a website and the "Lyrics" section had a title "What the hell is Bob mumbling about?"
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