Inside Bob Dylan and Neil Young’s 50-year-old bromance as Legends albums clash

They wrote songs on top of each other, toured side by side, and together became legendary PAOs.

Bob Dylan and Neil Young’s bromance spans more than five decades – Young even describing himself as a “B student” to his friend Mr Tambourine Man.

But on Friday, the music masters appeared to go head-to-head for the first time – releasing their own much-anticipated albums on the same day.

Yet rock critic Robert Christgau – who has repeatedly met American superstar Bob, 79, and Canadian Neil, 74 – believes that, far from being rivals, the two icons planned it this way. .

“They have paid each other compliments over the years,” he said.

“Neil is a huge admirer of Dylan. It’s a big talking point for them to release albums on the same day. But I’m sure they both thought it was a good idea.

“It will excite the fans. And these guys have crazy fans.

Snapper star Joel Bernstein, 68 – whose photos were used as album covers by the two – knows how deeply they are connected.

“Bob saw Neil perform on the side of the stage a number of times,” he says. “He has the utmost respect for him. It’s a real reward for Bob to watch another artist.

“And Bob is probably the biggest influence on Neil as a singer-songwriter. They have a deep understanding of each other.

So what can these aging buddies bring to the party in these changing times?

Rolling Stone says that Dylan’s Rough and Rowdy Ways “explores ground that no one else has reached – it just keeps moving forward into the future.”

Still, Bob digs into the past throughout the album while also evoking his own mortality – and revealing his love for Shakespeare.

The track Murder Most Foul – a line from Hamlet – focuses on the assassination of John F Kennedy.

There are other nods to the British playwright throughout the album, including references to Richard III, Julius Caesar and Macbeth.

“I love Shakespeare,” Dylan said. He described the bard as a “delusional queen” with a “cosmic amphetamine brain”. The song I Contain Multitudes has the powerful line “I sleep with life and death in the same bed” and contains bizarre references to Anne Frank and Indiana Jones.

And in times of pandemic, he admits that he often thinks of “the death of the human race”.

In his only interview before the album’s release, Dylan – estimated to be worth £ 161million – said: ‘Maybe we are on the verge of destruction. There are many ways to think about this virus. “

Meanwhile, Young’s Homegrown – written in 1975 during a devastating breakup but never released – is deeply introspective.

It focuses on her relationship with Carrie Snodgress, an Oscar nominated actress who was the mother of her first child, Zeke.

He admits to fans that this should have been the sequel to his iconic Harvest album, which featured the classics Heart Of Gold and Old Man. “But I just couldn’t listen to him. I wanted to move on. So I kept it for myself. Sometimes life hurts, ”he said.

Neil wooed Carrie in the early ’70s while she was performing at a local LA theater. She said: “There was a note on my dressing table one day that said, ‘Call Neil Young. “

She didn’t know who he was, but called him anyway. It was the start of an intense relationship and they moved to his California ranch.

When Carrie – who had won an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for her role in the comedy-drama Diary Of A Mad Housewife – fell pregnant, the couple were ecstatic.

“Neil was so happy,” Carrie recalls. But Zeke was born in September 1972 with brain damage that left him partially paralyzed. “Neil took it hard,” Carrie said. “But he hid everything inside.”

Meanwhile, she fought for her son, taking a physiotherapy class at Stanford University, determined for Zeke to speak up.

“You mean hours and days of crying and tantrums,” she once said. “My boy, have we been there?” “

Now Zeke, who lives in LA, is fluent but still has a disability in an arm and a leg.

By 1975, Young had had enough.

“Frankly, I think it was time for him to move on,” said Carrie, who found Hollywood had grown cold towards her in his absence.

In 1978, the star, who is now worth around £ 64million, married singer-songwriter Pegi Young and had two more children, Ben and Amber.

Pegi passed away last year. Carrie was unlucky in love and died while awaiting a liver transplant in 2004. Before her death, she still sadly watched her life with the enigmatic Neil, now married to Kill Bill actor Daryl Hannah, 59 years old.

“It was like heaven on this ranch,” Carrie said. “I don’t know why we broke up. We never fought.

Her Homegrown album feels like a late tribute to the woman who inspired such beautiful songs. On the track Separate Ways, he sings “I’m feel better now / A bit more living, somewhat”, as if trying to convince himself that it is true.

His inner turmoil is seen in beautiful Kansas, in which he wakes up “from a bad dream” next to a woman surrounded by the walls of “my stucco bungalow that fame and success have bought”.

Her boyfriend Dylan has had an equally eventful love life. The star left folk singer Joan Baez to marry Sara Lownds, a former bunny and Playboy model, in 1964 – getting married a year later. They had four children.

In 1973, they moved to California but broke up after arguments over renovating a house. While Young put aside his album of heartbreaking songs in 1975, Dylan released his – Blood On The Tracks – that same year.

He secretly married singer Carolyn Dennis in 1986, six months after the birth of his daughter Desiree. They were never photographed together and divorced after four years. News of their marriage didn’t come to light until 2001.

Ruth Tyrangiel was with Dylan from 1974 to 1991 and was considered his common-law partner.

These days, the elder’s relationship status is as mysterious as his words. But one thing seems certain – Neil Young is still her boyfriend.