From your link: if you find Dylan’s singing incomprehensible, I don’t know how anyone is supposed to take you seriously. Particularly since you’re talking about “Don’t Think Twice . . .” and his folk era, when his enunciation couldn’t have been clearer. I mean, it’s one thing if you don’t like his voice compared to a polished one like Baez’s. But to say his singing on “Masters of War” or “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” is “incomprehensible” is frankly bizarre.

The nasally mumble that Dylan gets mocked for was his voice from Street-Legal through Under the Red Sky. After that it gave out totally and turned into a bit of a croak, but before 1978 it rough-hewn but totally clear. And, for that matter, displayed a fair amount of technical skill that made up for whatever lack of natural range he had.

From reading this thread it sure seems like you don’t really know what you’re talking about. “The only Billy Ray Cyrus song I know is awesome!,” “The only Gram Parsons song I know is terrible and anyone whoever heard of Gram Parsons?,” “Dylan only made one song where you could undertsand his singing!”

I don’t know if I’d go that far. Granted, I know we’re supposed to hold people who actually listen to mainstream country radio since Waylon Jennings quit doing blow in utter contempt, but you ask the average fan of the music who Gram Parsons was and what songs he did, and I’ll give you a nickel if you get anything but a blank stare. Sure, there’s a solid chunk of big-time musicians who were directly influenced by Parsons’ music – Dwight Yoakam, Steve Earle, Hal Ketchum – but by that same token, the massive influence Nick Lowe’s Jesus Of Cool had on country production techniques would make him one of country music’s most influential people. The only mainstream country artist I can think of that covered a Gram Parsons song, besides Emmylou Harris, was Dwight Yoakam. He and k.d. lang covered “Sin City” on Yoakam’s ’89 greatest hits comp Just Lookin’ For A Hit, which also contained an AWESOME version of The Blasters’ “Long White Cadillac”. Buy it.

On the other hand, some four million copies of Some Gave All were sold in 1994, the song itself went Multi-Platinum and spent nearly six weeks at Number One on Billboard’s country charts. As someone who listened to little else but country radio in the early ’90s, believe you me, folks dug that song. I’d argue the hard tune to Dawson’s Creek look-a-likes in mainstream country music was a direct result of Cyrus’ success. This is mainstream country and its fans, mind, not what “No Depression” decides what is and what isn’t country music. These folks like the “crap” coming out of Nashville like Big & Rich and Zac Brown and “Honky Tonk Ba-donk-a-donk”.

And furthermore, Gram Parsons wasn’t country. His music isn’t country, it isn’t arranged as country, and it isn’t played as country. His music’s great and influential and multi-layered and reveals new depths every time one exposes oneself to it, but it ain’t country no more than Doug Sahm or The Band or Wayne Hancock is country. It’s rock music, visionary rock music that serves as a bridge for a whole lot of people who’d never otherwise give a steel guitar a shot, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

Fun fact: Gram Parsons loved Merle Haggard and wanted him to produce Grievous Angel, so record company big-wigs arranged a meeting. The Hag noted Parsons’ writing talent, but considered his “long-haired wild boy” stance a sham, calling him a “goddamn pussy”.