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Bob Dylan 'took name' from iconic Welsh poet

Getty Images Bob Dylan, wearing a black hat and a light jacket, is seen performing on stageGetty Images
Bob Dylan has a number of links to Dylan Thomas, said author Jeff Towns

Singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's decision to take his stage name from the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas is "hugely important for Wales", an author has said.

Jeff Towns, who wrote Bob Dylan and Dylan Thomas: The Two Dylans, said the duo "had an awful lot in common".

He said the musician, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, admitted taking his name from Dylan Thomas in his 2001 autobiography, Chronicles.

Speaking to BBC Radio Wales Breakfast as the new Bob Dylan biopic, A Complete Unknown, hits cinemas, Mr Towns said some of the lyrics in Dylan's song When The Ship Comes In, which features in the film, were inspired by Thomas' poem, Fern Hill.

Fern Hill, which depicts the poet's childhood on a farm, ends with the line "Time held me green and dying though I sang in my chains like the sea", while Dylan's song includes the lyrics "for the chains of the sea will have busted in the night".

Dylan was also in New York not long after Thomas's death in the city in 1953, Mr Towns said.

He said that, while "it may be happenstance or synchronicity", the two "had an awful lot in common".

They both had an appreciation for the music of American singer-songwriter Johnnie Ray and Russian composer Igor Stravinsky and were influenced by the work of silent film star, Charlie Chaplin.

Dylan Thomas is seated in front of a BBC microphone in this black and white photo.
The work of Dylan Thomas has inspired artists including The Beatles and Taylor Swift

Timothée Chalamet has been praised by critics for his portrayal of Bob Dylan in the new film.

It has already received three Golden Globe nominations and has been tipped to be among the Oscar nominations.

Mr Towns said he would release a new book on Dylan Thomas in 2026, in which he will be looking at some of the more obscure essays written about the poet.

He said this would not be possible without the continued attention on him brought about through interest in his work from artists like Bob Dylan, Johnny Depp and Taylor Swift's interest in his work.

The Beatles included his image on the album cover of Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Swift namedropped Thomas in her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department.

"You're not Dylan Thomas. I'm not Patti Smith. This ain't the Chelsea Hotel. We're modern idiots," she sings.