The 1965 album that changed Jerry Garcia’s mind about Bob Dylan: “One of the prettiest things I’d ever heard”

Jerry Garcia said Bob Dylan’s 1965 album *Bringing It All Back Home* changed his view of the singer, whose earlier acoustic folk songs had left him cold. The album’s musical sound and poetic writing, especially “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue”, prompted Garcia to want to perform the song and helped shape an artistic connection that later extended to the Grateful Dead’s regular Dylan covers.

Garcia’s own background was in traditional folk and bluegrass, and he was initially uninterested in Dylan’s topical songs and singing voice. He felt the album’s songs spoke to ordinary people’s experiences, while Dylan’s move towards electric music influenced Garcia’s own turn towards electric blues and a rootsier sound. The Grateful Dead and Dylan later toured together in 1987.