I'd say it's much harder to write lyrics that appeal to millions and work musically and thematically than it is to write ambiguous imagery that's mostly meaningless overwrought metaphors.
"Work musically and thematically" to
your standards, I assume? Otherwise, your statement means that 50 Cent is a better lyricist than Bob Dylan, which may or may not be true, but I don't think you'd agree with that. Anyway, appealing to millions and working musically and thematically (as if Dylan's music doesn't do all three of those anyway) seem to be contradictory, here.
"mostly meaningless overwrought metaphors"
Christ. The word "meaningless" is countered in the same sentence there as "metaphor". His political allegory isn't Dadaist word-churning. I don't see how something can be metaphorical (working on a rich level of abstraction) and meaningless (being empty of meaning).
Anyway, enough of that sort of business, since people want to celebrate Dylan's birthday by copy and pasting the lyrics we already know.
My ranking of Dylan's albums are
here.
