I suppose its true the American and English folk revivals were producing quantities of folksong writers before Dylan. Everything from Sydney Carter to Phil Ochs.

The thing that made Dylan different from the rest of the bunch - to me at least, was that flash of surreal imagery that started roundabout the time of A Hard Rains Gonna Fall and still crops up in his work.

It made him a huge influence in the world of popular music. Stuff like A whiter Shade of Pale with all its incoherent yet compelling imagery seemed very Dylan influenced. It seemed like Dylan gave every songwriter a licence to stop making sense. It liberated lyricists to be lyrical rather than prosaic.