When did Dylan first start getting compared with Shakespeare? I believe that at some point in the 90’s such a comparison was being made, though at the moment I’m not finding it. This reviewer from the Guardian made the comparison explicit when Love and Theft was released. His review was written the day before the Twin Towers were slammed into, published that morning and lost in the rubble. It’s an explicit comparison by a longtime fan named Matthew Tempest. Interesting name, inasmuch as that was Shakespeare’s last play and now the title of Dylan’s last studio album of original songs. The article title is right quite direct: Dylan’s a modern Shakespeare.
While unearthing that I came across this insightful story in a 2010 blog post by David Charles titled Bob Dylan and William Shakespeare: A Reference Guide Part I. Mr. Charles has assembled numerous references to the Bard in Dylan’s lyrics, many of them obvious, such as the famous line, “Shakespeare’s in the alley” which the artist Skye borrowed to title her massive installation that was on display here during Duluth Dylan Fest in May.
The date was removed from this Big Think blog post but it’s a more recent comparison, titled Was Dylan the 20th Century’s Shakespeare?
My own earliest reference comparing the two great literary figures was in 2012 in a blog post titled Shakespeare and Dylan: Birds of a Feather. One common denominator between the two might be to see the extent to which both artist’s sayings have been incorporated into our…
