For listening pleasure I pick Van The Man.....for cultural impact and influence on other musicians I pick Dylan.
There's a good book by Richard Thomas, "Why Dylan Matters". Thomas does a course every four years at a US University on Dylan, and it is always over-subscribed.
Thomas goes right down to the influences on Dylan himself, going back to the Roman poets. He quotes lines from Dylan's "Lonesome Day Blues" which echo lines from Virgil...
I’m gonna spare the defeated—I’m gonna speak to the crowd
I’m gonna spare the defeated, boys, I’m gonna speak to the crowd
I’m goin’ to teach peace to the conquered
I’m gonna tame the proud.
T.S.Eliot once said that immature poets imitate but that good poets steal...
"....bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different. The good poet welds their theft into a whole of feeling which is unique, different from the feeling from which it is torn"
Anyway, whatever, I have well over 20 Dylan albums, some of the volumes.of the official bootlegs. The bootleg of the "Blonde on Blonde" years has what must be (IMHO) the worst alternative version of any song, "Visions of Johanna" - a fast version that to my ears is pure hell on earth!
But, thanks, my knowledge of Van Morrison is very limited. I never knew he had such an output. Every week I do a four hour stint at the local Oxfam Book & Music shop, up with the vinyl and CD's. I'll try to pick out a Van M album and give it a listen. Thanks.