Without Joan Baez and the heaps of hype Bob Dylan would have taken, I estimate, about 1 year longer to have achieved much the same level of success that he did achieve. The man was simply unstoppable, and he was stunningly talented (and unique) as both a lyricist and a musical performer...which is exactly what attracted Joan to him in the first place and caused her to give him so much help with his career. She rendered him a great service in so doing, but he would have made it in any case.

Just read Joan's excellent autobiography "A Voice To Sing With" for confirmation of what I have said. She regards Dylan as the finest songwriter of her generation (or any since). She had heard a lot of buzz about him before she met him, and she said that upon searching him out in the New York coffeehouses and seeing him perform she immediately realized that the buzz was more than justified. She said something to this effect (I paraphrase) that "Some people get jealous in the presence of genius. I don't. I get excited."

The clearest indication of how impressed she was is that she has covered more of Dylan's songs in her own discography than of any other writer, and she went so far as to do a double album entirely of his songs.

Thanks, Joan! ;-) It's one of my favourites.