Dylan and Waits

My mother's favourite singer has always been Bob Dylan. I guess growing up and hearing his records in our home, I never questioned that he didn't sound like other singers. I just always accepted the fact that everyone sang differently. I remember my father would always say that Dylan "sure could put a song across". The singer I most adore is Tom Waits and I think both he and Dylan tend to get a lot of flak for their voices. Unwarranted flak, in my opinion. Today I read the transcript of Bob Dylan's acceptance speech for the 2015 MusiCares Person of the Year and this part stood out the clearest:

Sam Cooke said this when told he had a beautiful voice: He said, "Well that's very kind of you, but voices ought not to be measured by how pretty they are. Instead they matter only if they convince you that they are telling the truth." 

Leave it to the genius of Sam Cooke to say something so gracious and true. Leave it to Bob Dylan to bring it to my ears and make me admire him all the more.

(thanks to latimes for the transcript!)