Joan Baez thought he was the finest songwriter of that era. So did Judy Collins. And Phil Ochs. Gordon Lightfoot rates him at that level too. And so does Leonard Cohen. And Neil Young. And how many other professional musicians of the time?

Were they all just being naive?

I think it's an either-or thing that works this way. You either relate to Dylan's particular form of expression...in which case you like it a lot. Or you don't...in which case it's opaque to you, and you can't understand why anyone would rate it that highly.

This doesn't prove anything about the value of Dylan's work one way or another, but it does indicate something about your own tastes...what you relate to...what you don't relate to.

For instance, I don't relate much to jazz. I never did. But I do realize it is high quality music. I just don't like it, that's all. It doesn't do anything for me. This is not to condemn jazz...it just shows something about what I relate to and what I don't relate to.

I also like brunettes...I am usually not much attracted to blondes or redheads. This says nothing about the relative value of being blonde or brunette or redheaded. It says something about how my strange little mind works. Why it works that way is a total mystery.

Dylan admired Joan Baez's musical abilities right from the start, but he basically remained independent of her...and probably felt pressured by her tendency to "mother" him. They both had very strong egos which were bound to clash at some point.

Yeah, he's got some of that Old Testament fire and judgement kind of thing in him for sure. You can see that all through his recorded work.

"Like a Rolling Stone" may have been written mostly about Edie Sedgewick, a poor little rich girl who was taken into the entourage around Andy Warhol, who intended to turn her into his movie star. It didn't turn out that way. She came to a bad end at a very young age. Her life was stunningly tragic. Warhol had figured to get Dylan into the weird circle that hovered around him, because that would be super "cool"...and Andy's whole life was about being incredibly cool... but he did not succeed. If Rolling Stone was about Edie Sedgewick, it was right on the mark. Warhol and his scene was like being plunged into a nightmare of "all style...no meaningful content whatsoever". Dylan was looking for something real, and he figured he'd found it when he married Sarah Lowndes, and retreated into a quiet life of domesticity and raising children.

And it worked very well for them...for about 8 years. The marriage fell apart when he started touring again in '74. I figure if constant touring won't kill your marriage...nothing will.