5. Bob DylanDear Landlord
When that girl across the road had the first Dylan and Beatles albums, I went on a Dylan journey. This is off an album called John Wesley Harding, which is when all the hippies were doing Woodstock and the flower people, he came out with this album, which was kind of a back to the roots, spiritual thing. Having written ‘Rolling Stone’ and ‘Mr. Tambourine’, all this kind of stuff, he changed folk music.
Dylan inspired everybody. We’d all have all the albums, and then he went away for a while and came back with this album, John Wesley Harding in the middle of the flower power [movement]. People couldn’t understand it, but it was Dylan’s way of saying I’m not going to be a spokesman for a generation. You couldn’t nail him down to any mast. The thing I like in ‘Dear Landlord’ is he’s obviously showing a god up there and I like the lines ‘if you don’t underestimate me, I won’t underestimate you, and now he’s still with me’. I thought if you say that to god that’s pretty cool. Those two lines stuck with me.
It’s an exchange in beliefs. I’ll believe in you if you believe in me kind of thing. I think you can adapt that to regular life as well with people. Don’t underestimate me and I won’t underestimate you, it’s a fair exchange. It’s a very down and dour song. It’s a miserable song to most people but it’s lovely when you get a miserable song and you want to be on your own.
