>To reiterate: musically, Simon (whether w/S&G or solo) never
>really sounds like Dylan at all, and his lyrical style is
>substantially different from anything Dylan aimed for. They do
>both emerge out of similar contexts and the broader nascent
>counterculture of the early ‘60s, but I think they touched
>on different strains of that culture, they emphasized
>different parts of it, which is in turn reflected in the
>music. It’s worth noting, too, that Simon has several
>decades of post-S&G records but that you’re reducing him to
>a hack job based on his first handful of LPs, records that (in
>retrospect) could be likened to Dylan’s first few records:
>trying to find a voice, a style, that accomplished what he
>wanted to accomplish. After PSRT, their musical and lyrical
>differences are telling enough that it would be impossible to
>confuse the two, and they continue to diverge pretty starkly,
>both musically and lyrically. Pre-Bookends, you *might*
>confuse an S&G lyric or two with Dylan. Post Bookends, it
>ain't gonna happen.

I actually love both Dylan and Simon but I don't think Simon is nearly the Dylan jacker that Austin painted him as. I don't see S&G *sounding* like Dylan at all musically, and like you said, they're very different types of lyricists. Even at fairly early stages in their careers, the direct, earnest lyrics on PSRT - think The Dangling Conversation - are nothing like the sprawling surrealism of Blonde on Blonde from the same year.

Someone would probably have an easier time convincing me that Lennon was biting Dylan on songs like You've Got to Hide Your Love Away and Norwegian Wood than they would that Simon was biting him on Homeward Bound.

Also if we're going to give Dylan credit for relatively traditional fingerpicking guitar style on Bleeker Street (a great song, btw, imo) then we might as well give him credit for coming up with the G chord. (Simon is a much better guitar player than Dylan, btw.)

Overall, FWIW, I'd still rank Dylan higher overall because of the blinding brilliance of his 60s and first-half-of-the-70s period(s).

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