“If you take whatever there is to the song away—the beat, the melody—I could still recite it.”

— Bob Dylan

Interview with Paul Robbins (March, 1965)
Context: I find it easy to write songs. I been writing songs for a long time and the words to the songs aren't written out just for the paper; they're written as you can read it, you dig. If you take whatever there is to the song away—the beat, the melody—I could still recite it. I see nothing wrong with songs you can't do that with either—songs that, if you took the beat and the melody away, they wouldn't stand up because they're not supposed to do that, you know. Songs are songs.

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American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist 1941

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