Bob Dylan’s music has inspired generations of music lovers. He has now named his own personal inspiration as our favorite Scots poet Robert Burns.
When asked which lyric or verse had the largest impact on his life he chose the 1794 song A Red, Red Rose, which is mostly known as poem, it was originally wrote as a song, penned by the man regarded as Scotland’s national poet.
According to some experts it was based on a song Burns heard a girl singing.
Burns himself, a great pioneer of the Romantic movement, referred to it as a ‘simple old Scots song which I had picked up in the country’.
Dr Gerard Carruthers, director of the Centre for Robert Burns Studies at the University of Glasgow, said: ‘A Red, Red Rose is one of the greatest love songs of all time. It’s a song that resonates down the ages. It’s part of the Burns song canon.
‘It’s one of his most emotive and emotional, perhaps his biggest expression of love.
‘Burns was a hugely committed artist who dealt with everyday emotions and big emotions so in that sense it’s not a surprise he’s influenced Dylan.
‘I imagine Dylan will still be loved in 200 years as much as Burns is.’