I got a 780 out of 800 on the SAT verbal having done no preparation whatsoever, I like poetry… but I’m indifferent to Dylan’s lyrics. In terms of one-liners he has nothing on Shaun Ryder and Mark E. Smith, Dylan is just cultivated where MES was lower middle-class and Ryder was vulgar. I’ve never paid much attention to the words outside of the ’60s albums (there’s more going on in the later ones!) but I’ll tell you where he has very few peers: his delivery. It’s not just the adrenaline or trying to sound profound like Springsteen or somebody: he just sings his songs really, really well and it’s a lot of why so few covers land. Go listen to “All I Want to Do”, off the top of my head.

tl;dr Shaun Ryder is a better lyricist than Bob Dylan.