The Beatles: The Dylan's Effect On The Beatles

The 1960s was one of the most progressive eras for music and at the forefront of this movement was the Beatles. However, it can be argued that they may not have achieved such prominence if it weren’t for Bob Dylan. He is possibly the most influential person in the Beatles existence and although the group as a whole only had few encounters with each other, his effect on the Beatles would change their course from a teen pop group to arguably the greatest band of all time. The Beatles first heard Bob Dylan through his album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan while they were touring France in 1964 (Beauchamp & Shepard). The album was significant right off the bat. It was the first time they were introduced to America’s leading folk musician who they took

The first of these songs was “No Reply” which came out in 1964 on Beatles for Sale and was a “complete narrative about jealousy” (Pierzak). This was different from before because of instead of McCartney just writing a song about jealousy and professing this feeling over and over, he narrates what caused him to become jealous. The lyrics start talking about how the speaker tried knocking of the door of the person they love and there was no response at the door but the person peeps out and is seen. The speaker then tries calling but the answer is that the person isn’t home. However, the speaker saw the person he loves walk “hand in hand/With another man in my place”. This is where the jealousy starts. He feels entitled to be with this girl. As you can see this is more involved then just stating an emotion. They continued this trend in later albums. Most notably “Norwegian Wood” in Rubber Soul, “She’s Leaving Home” in Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and “Rocky Raccoon” in the album The Beatles (White Album) among many

It was a new tool to use in their repertoire to give a subtly different sound from using an actual pick as well as allow them to get a different rhythm or more mobility in switching between strumming chords and playing a progression of notes. While it was not unique to Dylan, he sometimes played fingerstyle by mainly using his thumb, index finger, and middle finger when needed. It is apparent that the style caught on for Paul because it features in the song “Yesterday” where he plays bass note with his thumb and strums the rest of the chord with his index and middle finger. One of Paul’s better songs using fingerstyle was much later with “Blackbird” in the release of The Beatles (White Album). However, this was after The Beatles’ trip to India they learned fingerstyle from Donovan. It was after they had seen Dylan, Donavan and many other artists of the time that influenced them to learn. Donovan said, “I didn 't know at the time that I would be showing the three main songwriters in The Beatles – John, Paul and George – fingerstyle.” Paul practiced and honed the skill a lot more and shows it with the more difficult patterns in “Blackbird”. He plucks the chord, then strums on the downswing of his index finger; plucks a note on the upswing and almost simultaneously strums on the upswing with his thumb; and after strums down with his index finger. It’s a complex strumming pattern to do and