“It’s Not British Music, It’s American Music”

This chapter examines Bob Dylan’s songwriting craft, by tracing the complex influence and genealogies of Dylan’s compositions throughout the 1960s as he crossed the Atlantic in person. It documents the inspiration of Child Ballads and other British folk song on Dylan’s writing and then considers Dylan’s eventual return in 1965 to the American tradition, as redrawn by Woody Guthrie, as he adopted an American provenance. At the same time, the chapter locates Dylan in a literary and poetic tradition.