This topic was suggested by my close personal friend Jay, who belongs in the Hall with us more than any friend I know yet resists entering for fear of never leaving. Well, my friend, you’ve been stuck in your own personal Rock (and Film) Town Hall for as long as I’ve known you. You’ve been with us before we existed.
I think most of us are old enough to get the meaning of this Last Man Standing. Entering one artist at a time, let’s see if we can’t exhaust all of the artists who were dubbed by critics and/or publicists as the “next Dylan.” I don’t know if anyone still gets that title or if they simply call the person the “next” someone else, probably a former “next Dylan” himself. Rather than rob anyone the opportunity to provide an answer, I won’t get things started with my own entry. Ready…Set…Go!
Bruce
Dylan
Steve Forbert
I’m gonna beat EPG to the punch and say Tom Petty.
Adam Duritz
Willie Nile
John Prine
Possibly not, technically, since they are near contemporaries, but Donovan.
Again, not technically a New Dylan, but I want to make a special pitch for Dick Campbell.
A friend and fellow Dylanist clued me into this record years ago, Dick Campbell Sings Where It’s At (Mercury, 1966, prod. by Lou Reizner). It is a hoot and a half, believe me. Several of the songs are pretty drippy ballads; but the rest are spectacularly entertaining knock-offs of Dylan’s 1965 style and featuring Mike Bloomfield on guitar, for god’s sake, as well as Paul Butterfield and Sam Lay (who backed Dylan at Newport), to say nothing of Peter Cetera on bass.
I like to imagine an alternate universe in which Campbell actually made this record FIRST and Dylan was actually copping Campbell’s style.
Check it out, and thank me later.
Especially recommended:
Approximately Four Minutes of Feeling Sorry for D.C. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Av-uoYri_n4&feature=related
You’ve Got to Be Kidding http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hodnd1XPoEw&feature=related
Object of Derision http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QEQqwp2zTg&feature=related
Girls Named Misery http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htrdgjuBrjI&feature=related
The Blues Peddlers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTFrcpitnDE&feature=related
The People Planners http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imnZDeSSU24&feature=related
Michael Block, of The Production Block.
E. Pluribus
John Wesley Harding
TB
Townes Van Zandt may qualify because of this quote from Steve Earle:
“Townes van Zandt is the best songwriter in the whole world and I’ll stand on Bob Dylan’s coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that.”
Conor Oberst
Mouse (& the Traps)
Jakob Dylan.
Elvis Costello
Neil Young
TB
Beck
Jeff Tweedy
Sufjan Stevens
Joe Strummer
We must be forgetting a ton of mid-’70s artists who were seriously dubbed The Next Dylan. There’s a guy…I can see him, but I can’t remember his name for the life of me. Damn!
I bet my friend Jay can fill in some of the blanks.
Loudon Wainwright III
LMS!
Phil Ochs
Barry McGuire
I’m at a loss since I read so few articles that would contain a sentence like that. Did they ever say this about Kurt Cobain?
Billy Bragg
P.F. Sloan
Don McLean
Biz Markie
Snap! The group Snap! Wait a minute…They’re the lyical Jesse James…not Bob Dylan. Sorry.
TB
Woody Guthrie?
Sondre Lerche.
Or William Shatner’s Nipples.
Dan Bern.
Last Man Standing!
will.i.am
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdafSHne5wM)
Damien Rice
Ian Hunter
Badly Drawn Boy.
Elliott Murphy.
Shoot, Elliott Murphy is the guy I have not been able to remember since launching this thread! Good one, teek. You are currently LMS!
Ben Kweller.
LMS?
Mark Eitzel
Dylan Le Blanc – he even sounds like him…
David Ackles.
Anybody remember him?
Yes, that’s a good one, jeangray!
Chuck D
Willie Mason
Ian Felice.
Dirk Hamilton
David Bromberg
irving0 is Last Man Standing! Well played, and welcome to the fray!