17 Aug
Dan the List Guy: The New Dylans
The List Guy is Dan Reed, Music Director for WXPN. Three times a week, Dan gives his spin on Top 10 musical moments in pop culture.
You remember this, right? In the 1970’s every time a new singer/songwriter released a pretty good debut album, he was tagged with the dreaded “New Bob Dylan” tag. One of the “new Dylans” – Loudon Wainwright III, wrote a pretty hilarious tune on his 1992 History album about this very phenomenon. Other than Loudon, here’s a few more:
1. Bruce Springsteen
2. Steve Forbert
3. John Prine
4. Donovan (may have actually been the first “New Dylan”!)
5. Garland Jeffreys
6. Don McLean
7. Neil Young
8. Richard Thompson
9. Tim Buckley
10. Leonard Cohen
That phenomenon cotinues to this day. Most recently, I’ve heard Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes) and Glenn Richards (Augie March) referred to as “new Dylans”. I think the music world should have a “New Dylan of the Year” award just to make it official.
August 28th, 2007 at 2:10 pm