I'd agree with that. Anyway, if you listen to his whole catalogue, his harmonica playing varies a great deal. Sometimes it's wild and primitive, sometimes it's gloriously ornate, sometimes it's very clean, sometimes it's joyously bluesy, depends on the song and the occasion.

That goes for his voice too. Through his whole career you hear a lot of different vocal styles from Bob Dylan.

Melodeon Boy - I didn't say that everyone who doesn't like Dylan is envious. I said "I think it's sheer envy or else utter incomprehension that causes most people to slag Dylan."

There's an "or else" right in the middle of that statement. I do gather, yes, that you are not envious of Mr Dylan.

While I think there are some songwriters who are at times as good...or better lyricists than Bob Dylan...I sure don't think his lyrics are mediocre. I think they're exceptional in the case of a good half of his material. Mediocre in some of his songs? Yes. But in other songs he did things lyrically that were utterly revolutionary for the time in which he wrote them, that changed the whole scene in a lasting way, and people were blown away by those songs...specially in the years 1963-66.

Joan Baez has said of Bob Dylan that he wrote "the best songs", and that people either get what Dylan's saying...in which case his stuff goes "way deep" for them...or they don't get it, in which case it makes no impression at all on them.

Sounds to me like that's what you experience when you hear his songs. They don't connect for you. That doesn't mean they're mediocre, but you will probably always think they are, and there's not a thing anyone can do about that.

It's like me and Sinatra. While I do realize he was very good at what he did, I just can't relate to it. He radiates an attitude and a lifestyle that I can't identify with, therefore he simply doesn't move me at all. This doesn't mean Sinatra is mediocre. It just means he doesn't represent anything I can believe in.